An Odd Week for us Cyclists

 

Budapest was cool. We left at 06:15 on a (shh don’t tell anyone) train to Zagreb. We we’re expecting to feel guilty as hell about not cycling but actually it felt quite luxurious and we had a pleasant 6 hours snoozing and chatting to Johnathan, our compartment mate. Our purpose for this abrupt change of direction was to go and pick up a new recruit- Rhiannon. She has been working as a Artist Liason Manager at Outlook and Dimensions festivals in Pula and will join us for the next leg to Turkey.

We then spent a very pleasant 5 hours in Zagreb cycling around, sipping coffee in a trendy cafe and eating Burek in the central park. Burek is a cheap curly pastry with meat or cheese being the common fillings. Delicious if you like cheap, greasy filling food- we do.

We then took another train to Rijeka.

After worrying about the hassle of travelling with heavily loaded bikes it was surprsingly easy, but I think this was due to the fact that are boarding and alighting stations were that end of the line, giving us more time to lift everything on and off. The whole journey cost about £45 each.

The following day the main street was filled with people. It was some sort of Olympic sports day for kids. Rose spent 2 hours watching the gymnastics while I did some shopping for maps and food.

 

After 2 days of cycling down the main coastal road, pretty busy and hilly but with lovely views, we arrived in Pula and went in search of the festival site and Rhiannon ‘the bike’ Davies. We didn’t expect to find a honed athlete but even by her standards her current state of fitness has set a new low.

Rhiannon was nursing a 14 day hangover and clearly hadn’t slept for some time. She was also sneezing and coughing a lot. Each time she coughs she yelps like a dog whose tail has been stepped on,  as she fractured a rib jumping off a homemade 10 metre diving board a few parties earlier.

Her bike (‘The doctor’) wasn’t much better either. 2 flat tyres, filthy drive train, no front brake and broken pedal straps. However with a bit of work and a lot of swearing the Doctor has been nursed back to health. Rhiannon we fear may take a little longer.

We slept in Rhiannons posh Shikar tent for free for a couple of nights but when they took all the others down and changed the code for the toilets, we knew we had to leave. So here we are in a cheap apartment (£9 each) on the edge of Pula waiting for the Saturday morning ferry to take us to Zadar where we will ride down the coast and across some of the larger southern islands towards Montenegro, Albania and Greece.

So it’s been a funny week with not much cycling. I think the rest is doing us some good but we are looking forward to getting back on the bike. It is difficult to sit still when you are used to moving every day and feels a little bit like we are under house arrest.

 

The Truth! (My days at fat camp)

When we planned this trip I was promised beautiful views, camping in the wild, city hopping and meeting lots of lovely people. And yes all this has happened so far, we have met some amazing people already been to lots of cities and seen some glorious sights along the way…what I didn’t expect was the grueling ten day stint at fat camp!

I never did join a gym or go on a silly diet to try and lose the pounds, no I decided to quit my job, sell my belongings and cycle 100KM+ a day to try and lose the pounds, and that I did (I don’t do things by half).

So who would have thought that eating great hearty meals, a block of cheese, bar of chocolate a day, carbs galore and tasting all the delights of beer that Germany has to offer would actually help me to lose weight in such a short space of time!This cycling malarky is much better than any gym.

We now have our own beer compendium of all the German beers we have tasted and have been assured that the czech beer is even better.

The cycling is not the hard part although it is tiring when the sun is beating down ( we have now invested in sun hats, although Jimi thinks hes a teenager again in his and forgets its for a purpose) I will also be investing in a second pair of cycling shorts as saddle sore is a slight problem. (Sudocrem is a godsend.)

Since the 1000M dash we have now chilled out and the day after we only cycled 30km and relaxed by the lake. This is now more like I imagined, camping, cooking dinner, reading lots of books and enjoying the scenery and wildlife. The next map after Prague however has many hills, so my next blog may be a different story!

We are now in Dresden and have stayed two nights with a lovely young couple from Warm Showers who have just returned from a year on their bikes around Australia. They welcomed us into their home like we were old friends and we have had a wonderful few days and a well needed rest.

We did the obligatory tourist sightseeing things, the military history museum was very interesting, then we had a bbq in the 40 degree heat! We are now busy planning our next few weeks as we will be crossing into the Czech republic today, where we will be able to wild camp along the river Elber cycle route as much as we like as it is more acceptable. We don’t have Wifi very often so when we do we will blog and keep you all up to date with our trip. More photos in the photo gallery.

 

Cycling and Kebabs!

So my holiday in Turkey taught me a lot about cycling and actually living in Turkey as a cyclist. (Me and Jimi will live in Turkey for 6 months from November.)

The first thing I noticed about cycling through the city of Antalya, when your cycling along the road is that people in cars don’t go slower, they don’t wait patiently for you to pass; they beep long and loud until I eventually had to pull in on the pavement and wait for them to pass!!

There are no cycle lanes and as a cyclist you have to decide wether to cycle on the pavement and avoid pedestrians, or dodge through beeping traffic.

So with Jimi still not able to ride a bike due to a silly car door; I decided to do a little bit of riding in Turkey. (Not the two day mountain ride we had planned.)
I thought I’d cycle to the beach, have a swim and then cycle home. So in between dodging the tram, ignoring the angry beeping car drivers and on occasion dodging pedestrian walking in the middle of the road I made it to the beach.

Another difference of Turkey which I cannot decide is a good thing or not; kebabs are eaten any time of day, not just at 11pm after frequenting the bar!

So after a ride to beach, sweating in the heat, hungrily I tucked into a Turkish kebab at 1pm in the afternoon! This can never be a normal food of choice for my lunch but in Turkey this is standard.

I am looking forward to my Turksih experience, not necessarily the beeping swerving cars but definately the kebabs at midday and the amazing scenery that Turkey has to offer.

Lycian Way- ‘Like’

We have been in Turkey for a week, so here’s a little story about what we got up to.

We come here a lot to visit my (Jim) Mum, she’s lived here with Terry in Antalya for 7 years. Mum writes a column in a English language national newspaper and is a Primary school teacher too. Terry is a travel writer and Archaeological Tour Guide.

A few years ago Terry was part of a team that way marked and wrote a book about the Lycian way, a 509 km way-marked footpath around the coast of Lycia in southern Turkey, from Fethiye to Antalya. We have been meaning to walk a stretch ever since and as I still can’t cycle since I killed a car door with my chest we couldn’t complete the cycle tour in Turkey we had planned.

So we took a bus from Antalya and after a couple of changes were in Olympos, an ancient city that once housed Romans, pirates and Greeks. There are also some rather more recent dwellings, treehouses, which are home to a new generation of travellers- the backpackers! It is now a well established destination on the ‘packers circuit of Turkey. We chose to stay at Bayrams on my sisters recommendation and guess what? She was right as usual, a lovely little place that had a fire in the evening that everyone gathered round and enjoyed dinner and cold beers together, it’s 35tl each including breakfast and dinner!

But back to the Lycian Way, we did the leg that starts in the Ruins of Olympos and heads west up a steep valley. It is clearly marked with red and white stripes. We hiked for a couple of hours until we reached some more ruins where we sat and downed our water. We were drenched in sweat, I can see why they don’t recommend you do it in summer, a cloudy spring morning is hot enough. The four bottles of Efes the night before had not helped our hydration levels.

We ‘liked’ the Lycian Way and if you like walking you will too. Especially if you, like us, enjoy hiking away from the crowds of the Alps and such places. We didn’t see anyone all day but we’re sure we heard something big in the woods. Although we had just watched the Liam Neeson film about wolves 2 nights before.

Oh I almost forgot, there is a beach to read (sleep) on and a sea to swim in!

The bike is dead, long live the bike…

… but on the plus side I’m still here!

Sad news on the bike front though. Potentially “the bike” was fatally wounded in a collision with a car door last week. You will be pleased to know that the car door did not make it either, the Horizon gave as good as she got.

I was on the way home from work last Friday in the bike lane when with no time to react the passenger door was swung into my chest. Now although this still sounds bad when I write it a week later I must point out that I was very lucky. If the impact of the corner of the door was any higher then it would have been throat, teeth, eyes and it would have been much more serious. Also there was a conveniently placed wall that I landed on, as opposed to the floor which likely would have meant wrists or collarbones. As it happened I escaped with a dent in my chest, whiplash and the usual cuts and bruises.

I was well pleased with the emergency services response. Within 10 minutes there was 3 paramedics (2 vehicles), a passing doctor, 3 fireman and later in A&E another doctor and a policeman; all of whom were very good with me. To be fair to the people in the car responsible they seemed really nice and were of course incredibly apologetic. They also made sure I got their details, something I was incapable of thinking about and then they reported it to the police too.

All this has of course given me the excuse to take up one of my favorite hobbies legitimately- surfing the net for “bike porn” as Rose calls it. I’m thinking (dreaming) of a Surly Long Haul Trucker.

A (little) bit more training

With just 6 months until we embark on this sometimes daunting but mostly double mega exciting bike ride we have begun to train a little bit more each week. I’m playing sports at work (I teach Sport in a college) with colleagues and students and in my spare time with friends, I’m also throwing in some core strengthening sessions too. Rose is doing circuit training regularly and begins her hula hoop sessions again next week, and of course we are both cycling to and from work every day. At the weekends we like to try and get out of the city to do some longer rides or walks together.

Being our nearest hills, the Peak District is our favourite weekend getaway, whether by bike, train or our friend Pete’s borrowed Minibus. So with Pete playing the crucial roles of driver, personal trainer and story teller we struck out for a few hours in the snow. Our only aim was to have a nice Sunday out and it developed into a fartlek training session, a continuous fast walk with distances of jogging and sprints up the hills. Pete seemed to find great amusement it watching us slip and slide around the dales whilst becoming increasingly more like a hyper excited Chris Akubusi.

With a light glazing of snow, Goyt Valley could have easily graced any post card today. Apart from the red faced walleys running around in their new Oxfam T-shirts, it was a picture of serenity. I confidently recommend this part of the world to those who haven’t yet been.

Speaking of the world, we have been thinking of our summer amble though Europe towards Turkey. Has anybody out there done any cycling in Eastern Europe or rode the Eurovelo 11, what is it like? Or have you got somewhere in particular you could recommend we visit, we would really appreciate any advice.

Charity Poker night

Our first fundraising event took place last month in the form of a poker night.

So off to the wholesalers I go to purchase food and beers, with the plan to sell the refreshments at a small mark up and the profits going to the Oxfam fund. The invitations went out, we did have one guest arrive 4 weeks early due to idiocy, but everyone turned up on the night including guests from as far a field as London, Shrewsbury and New Zealand.

So me being the only girl among a room full of men ready to play poker, I do admit to feeling a little intimidated by the talent (or what I though was talent) in the room.

After a couple of hours I was still in with a chance with a nice pile of chips. I wasn’t even the first or second, or third out of the game which I was very proud of and at least I wasn’t as bad as Jimi “Fold” Davies!

The next day with a few empty beer bottles and dirty pizza plates, the poker money tin had £82 in it and a good start for our fundraising.

Our only regret was inviting “The Andy’s”, a couple of well known poker sharks just back from the World Series, they went home with (small) handfuls of cash. (Gritted teeth) “Well done lads”.

Watch this space for more events; were planning a gig, a sports tournament, a huge raffle, charity bike wash, a race night with pies an peas …. also open to ideas.

After the christmas period of food, drink, friends, family and a spot of illness we will get into training for the trip and get our fundraising heads into gear.

Thanks all and hope to see you at the next one.

From South Korea to the Dales (full version)

I never thought I’d be a member of a website called Warmshowers and I certainly never thought I’d be telling people! However, its kinky sounding name belies it’s more innocent function: it’s couch-surfing for cycle-tourists.

I joined for a ride to Holland last year and stayed with some lovely students in the Hague who set the hosting bar very high. Six months later I received an email entitled “Could I Stay Your Place?”. After reassuring my girlfriend to let two South Korean strangers into our home I was given the go-ahead to welcome them in.

They were quite a sight: tanned, sweaty, weathered and laden but most striking of all was their attitude – they were “full of beans” as we say up north. We spent a great weekend in Manchester cooking for each other, them: traditional Korean food and me: less than traditional “Spancunian”. We saw the sights (Old Trafford), soaked up the culture (down my local) and had a game of kickabout in the park.

They learnt that I had just become unemployed and therefore saw no reason why I shouldn’t go with them to Edinburgh. Unable to provide them with any valid excuses, I got my permission slip and bought myself a pannier rack. Thanks to the hard-work and diligence of Manchester’s bike thief community I had recently been relieved of 1.6 bikes. So with a mixture of trepidation and padded lycra I set off with Joo and Soo on my (less-than-suitable) single-speed bike.

We spent an amazing week cycling through the breathtaking countryside of the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park. We wild -camped, cooked big meals, played cards and stayed up talking every night, becoming firm friends along the way. We had a few hairy moments too: I’ll never forget settling down in my tent to go to sleep by a stream in Yorkshire and beginning to dream about gunfire. I then realised I wasn’t asleep. “Strange”, I thought, too tired to put the pieces together. “Jimi, sounds like gunfire”, says Joo’s tent. I agreed with him. “It is gunfire”, confirmed Soo’s tent, who’d just finished his military service. All of our tents agreed that we were too tired to move the camp so there we slept for eight hours to the soothing sounds of the British Army out on night time manoeuvres.

My recomendation to readers is that cycle touring is something anyone can do; it’s not a race and you just go at whatever pace feels right for you, it’s a holiday. I used opencyclemap.org to find cycle routes including the Route 68, known as the Pennine Cycleway. I learnt some important things that week; that traveling the world by bike is my dream and South Koreans have an unhealthy appetite for pork scratchings. I also know I’ve got some where to stay in Busan if I ever find myself cycling through South Korea, or at least somewhere for a warm shower.

An almost award winning travel writer

I’m sure you all read it, although just in case you missed it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/nov/11/travel-writing-competition-uk-farming#JUMP-TEXT

In the runners up section, under my writing pseudonym “James”.

The oringinal article was a little bit longer but obvously they’re saving the rest for another issue, possibly it’s own issue, who knows?

No cycling for us this weekend but we have been working on our fitness with some frisbee and sprints in the park.

Oh and we have made two decisions this weekend;

1) We are going to leave at the end of July after our friends Ben and Kats wedding.

2) We are thinking of heading to Scandinavia first, possibly on a ferry from Harwich to Esbjerg and then to ride a loop through Norway and Sweden.

Has anyone been to Scandinavia? We would really love some tips on where to go, what to see and do.

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