Just catching up with some people who have been in contact with me and who I have contacted over the past few months…. George Jemmott continues his journey to Calais and you can read his blog here. It will be interesting to see his GPS data when he […]
From probikekit.com, a company that still talks imperial! This is the 21st Century boys…. These are the panniers that Mark Beaumont uses; From Oslo to Cape Town, ORTLIEB Back and Front-Rollers have long since been classics among waterproof bike panniers. Outdoor specialists swear by the functional and strong […]
Some frightening moments in the 2nd of Mark Beaumont’s documentaries. I have only just finished watching this episode as 10.30pm on a Tuesday night is just far too late for a school teacher! On leaving Mexico and entering Guatemala, Mark was joined by a cameraman from the BBC. […]
I think I’ve finally been won over by Reggie’s handlebars. The new ones have just passed a 16 km test; they are comfortable, in a better position (the old ones were too far away from me!), have much more room for hands on the horizontal bar and enable me […]
Well so far, my aim to make Good Friday “Bloody Marvelous Friday” is going to plan. I’ve picked up the bike from AW Cycles and they have, as promised, changed the handlebars for a set that are much wider and have far more space to place my hands […]
It’s been a few weeks since anyone new has been in contact with me who is in some way interested in the cycling to Italy project so I am delighted to have been emailed by a guy called Neil Shirley who is planning on cycling from Oxford to […]
Start the fitness regime (PPP) Join the gym Cycle to Bath along the Kennet & Avon Canal Finalise the detailed route from Reading to Brindisi Escape to London at least once Do enough school work to make being absent from home during the summer inconsequential Mark GCSE coursework […]
If I wrote this blog for a living, I’d be worried… What’s happened?
Nearly there. Just one more day until the second biggest reason to be a teacher starts; the Easter holidays. I know that sounds a bit cynical so apologies to those educational purists who want us all to be teachers because it is our “calling”, but we all have […]
The downside of British Summer Time. That said, it was a mild and swift ride to work. Why is it that when I cycle in damp conditions it is a far smoother ride? Perhaps the water “oils” the bike….
On the 18th March I blogged about it being four months exactly until the day that I set off on my little cycling adventure. Actually, although I was correct, the most important period of time in terms of preparation is going to be from the 1st April to […]
Just had a very interesting Skype conversation with Michael in Vancouver; a keen cyclist who is planning to cycle in Italy later in the summer. It’s so nice to have a face-to-face conversation with someone about cycling plans! Thanks Michael. We promised to catch up again soon. You […]
In around twice the amount of time that I am planning on cycling from the UK to Puglia, this guy – Alan Bate is his name – is planning to cycle “around the World”. In the words of his own press release: On the 31/03/10, British professional racing […]
I have to say that when I picked up the Ridgeback Panorama and rode it back home from AW Cycles in Caversham last Tuesday, I was a bit disappointed, even a little bit worried. It was very unsteady, I wasn’t used to the new riding position and the […]
Quick jaunt down the Thames. Very happy with performance. Already getting used to the different riding position. And now the sun is coming out!
There is a certain irony that my previous post – Banned at Last! – appears to be having some problems getting published on this site. It doesn’t appear unless you are logged in, which means that only I can see it! Very strange. Let’s hope the censors at […]
My cousin David has emailed in response to the email that I sent out myself informing friends and family that the blog had moved from Blogger to WordPress; 2 months since you sent me this and I wasn’t allowed to do the link at work – you’re censored! […]
Click on the picture to watch the first episode of Mark Beaumont’s American cycle. From the BBC i-Player site: Mark Beaumont, who broke the record for pedalling around the world is back on the road. This time the adventure promises to be more exhilarating and agonising – Mark’s […]
If you have been reading the comments to the previous post, here is the picture than Jim Rawnsley has found of himself on Google Street View. Apart from being a valued contributor to this blog, Jim is also the brother of my sister-in-law! Why have they blurred out […]
Collected him / her from AW Cycles after work tonight. As I was walking up to the shop in Caversham, cycle gear on and helmet in hand, some wag on a folding bike commented “there’s something missing…”. But not for long. Quick explanation of how to fit the […]
This is a brilliant chart. It shows how the length of the day changes over the second half of March in and around London – more or less the same latitude as Reading and only a few degrees to the east. Every detail is fascinating and has a direct […]
Only one week to go before the horological shift that puts us into British Summer Time. I can’t wait! Today has been a very Spring-like day (it should be ; yesterday was the Spring Equinox – just after half past five in the afternoon apparently!). No arguing, it […]
He might have a better chance of not falling off his bilke if he weren’t holding a camera at the same time but I suppose that is what you have to do for the sake of gripping television… Looking forward to Mark Beaumont’s documentary starting on Tuesday 23rd […]
In the great camping v hostel debate that will no doubt kick in at some point on this website over the next few months (as it did last year when the hostel option won), this site – Hostelling International – may be useful. It has a very good […]
Middle of the night catch-up. The ticket for the Mark Beaumont lecture arrived – see left. No information from AW Cycles as to which bike they have ordered for me; the 52 cm or the 54 cm frame (I’ll call in after work later today if nothing is […]
This bicycle odyssey never ceases to amaze. And today it amazed me more than it usually does. Voucher in hand (see yesterday’s post), I arrived at AW Cycles for my “fitting”. I was a little apprehensive as I got the impression from speaking to them yesterday that it […]
Click on the image to see the trailer to Mark Beaumont’s new three-part series about his cycle from Alaska to Argentina via two very big mountains; Mount McKinley in North America and Mount Aconcagua in South America (no, I’d never heard of that one either). Some stunning images […]
It was a good news morning all round. Shortly before receiving the voucher you can see here (suitably “redacted”) I also received a clean bill of health from my doctor; she told me I had a 1% chance of having a heart attack in the next five years and had […]
This is a comical tale from the late 1930s, but the more you think about it, the more sensible it is. As the following article from the BBC website explains, in the days before satellites, it was actually not a bad idea: Summer 1937. What could be more fitting […]
The sun streaming through the window of my study, window open to keep the tempearture down. I went out earlier and could have left the gloves and probably the coat at home. Please don’t get cold again!
I posted this back in August 2009 but it is worth re-posting. I just watched the whole thing again after visiting Youtube to see the new Lady Gaga video (who hasn’t?). It reminds me of the joys of cycling in the summer (my video not Lady Gaga’s). There […]
Quoted from the BBC website: Mark Beaumont, the record-breaking cyclist, today had a final spin on the bike that he pedaled 13,000 miles down the Americas. Mark, 27, from Perthshire, was back on the bike outside the BBC Scotland headquarters, where the finishing touches are being added to a three-part […]
They are very supportive – two fellow languages teachers – but they are sceptical as to whether I will be able to cycle from Reading to Puglia. I shall prove them wrong of course…
When I posted the previous message, I did worry that it was a bit boring and administrative; it was simply a letter from my employer confirming that I would be able to purchase my bike through the “cycle to work” scheme. It is bizarre then that such a […]
This may look like one of those letters that was published at the height of the parliamentary expenses scandal, but it isn’t. The first line explains all: I am writing to advise you of the amendment to your contract of employment following your recent Cycle-Plus application…. I can […]
I think this is the southern side of the Gotthard Pass so I will be cycling down it rather than up!
Google Earth does give interesting perspectives on the Eurovelo 5 route. By clicking on this link and then selecting “View in Google Earth” you too can have a middle-of-the-night play, just like I’m doing now….
In a comment to the previous post about the St. Gotthard Pass, William, chair of the Confraternity of Pilgrims to Rome points out diplomatically “You know that is a picture of the Great St Bernard Pass of course”. Well, in all honesty, I think I got distracted by […]
Yesterday’s practical pilgrimage day got me thinking about crossing the Alps again. The Via Francigena crosses the mountains at the Great St. Bernard Pass. The Eurovelo 5 crosses at via the Saint Gotthard Pass. I have just found a useful website all about cycling in the Alps. Its […]
Meeting my niece in London after the meeting yesterday was the thin end of the wedge. Several beers later I arrived home in Reading and then tackled a bottle of wine so, as I write, I have a little bit of a hangover. What follows is a more […]
Interesting afternoon. There were a variety of people to listen to. None had actually cycled to Rome although cycling was referenced quite a lot, as was camping which of course is relevant. My main thoughts however are about why I am following the Eurovelo 5 from Calais to Switzerland […]
Ann Milner discusses her walk from Canterbury to Rome along the Via Francigena.
From the confraternity’s website is the programme for Saturday; 12.00 Basic review of the route, its history, the way-marking and maps and guide-books by Joe Patterson 12.20 Question and answer session. What do you want to know? Clothing and footwear, terrain, accommodation, tents, climate, time of the year, […]
I wanted a motivating, happy picture because I don’t have anything to write about today so typed “europe” and “cycle” into Flickr. This came up; great image – it sums up the freedom of cycling at its best. Click on the photo itself to see it in situ on […]
I did warn you about the seasonal obsession with tents… Jim, my brother’s brother-in-law (or my sister-in-law’s brother), has found the list of the left on the website Cheap Tents (dot com of course; someone, at the inception of the Internet could have, and probably did, make a […]
On 1st August 2007 I caught a train from Reading to London at 9.42am, wearing something white in celebration of it being Yorkshire Day. The sky was blue and the moon nearly full. I was going to Paris with a friend on the start of a round Europe […]
Isn’t it wonderful that, despite being competitors in the social networking world, WordPress, Twitter and Facebook all allow cross posting resulting in a spidery lattice of information to span the ether (they could call it the World Wide Web, no? It will never catch on…); there is no […]
Long-time followers of this blog will remember a period last summer when I seemed a little obsessed by tents. Clearly I needed to get out more at the time and the topic stopped when I decided that I would use hostels instead. It proved to be a wise […]
Michael Musto is a regular contributor to this blog via the “comments” buttons after each post. He has just commented upon my previous post about all things Alpine and I think his words deserve a promotion from the Championship that is the comments section to the Premiership of […]
Do you ever want to scream? Today is one of those days. I live in a flat where I pay a communal charge and it has just been increased by 500% from around £90 to just under £430. Now this is clearly an error but it annoys me […]
Apologies to everyone who is Welsh. “Hwyl” is not some alternative name for “Paul”. It means (control your laughter) “cheers” and so when Paul from Sanoodi emailed me last week, he was simply being friendly and not trying to confuse me with an alternative spelling of his first […]
I need to get back to blogging about cycling but I couldn’t resist pointing this out. Moving to WordPress has certainly drawn in the punters! 20,000 by the summer? Watch this (cyber)space. 🙂
This is a wonderful sight; my work email box is empty! It is not often like this but I have just eradicated my very last email (from the headteacher of all people). I fear that tomorrow there will be a deluge of messages as I return to school […]
Now, I pride myself on being a linguist but I’m struggling here. It’s a website forum that has kindly linked to this website. I’m guessing Turkish so let’s see if I can prove it….. It is! “Bisikletliler Derneği” translates rather prosaically to “Cyclist Association” See right for the proof. Visit their […]
Michael Musto, dragging himself away from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, has contacted me with some questions about maps: Have you seen examples of the Michelin maps? Yes, I’ve bought the full set that I need to get from my home town all the way to Brindisi. The […]
With a name like Hewitt, Paul Hewitt Cycles could only be located in the north. And it is. In Leyland, Lancashire. It is recommended by Jim Rawnsley who happens to live in Cumbria so not too far away. That said, it does look like a very good shop. […]
He made it! Read Mark Beaumont’s valedictory message by clicking here.
Jim, my kind-of relation in Cumbria writes and adds to the bike and GPS tracking debates; Hello again Andrew Been a while since I last visited your site and you seem to have been very busy! Couple of things. The Ridgeback Panorama. I have had the model down […]
The Internet is sometimes a confusing thing. It’s not helped by the fact we all make it complicated by people like me signing up to a myriad of different ways of communicating. So when I send a message via a website (in this case http://www.sanoodi.com by filling in a form […]
I woke up this morning to find that someone from Ushuaia had visited the blog. This mythical place (the French even have an ecological television programme named after the town) is of course the destination of Mark Beaumont on his top to bottom trek of the Americas. The information above […]
It’s cool (which that word no longer is) when you get a Facebook friend request from the author of the book you are currently reading; introducing my new Facebook friend, Mr Bernie Friend! Thanks Bernie. If Bernie can do it, the rest of you can – just click on […]
George Jemmott adds some useful comments to the GPS tracking and mapping strand of thought; Re: sanoodi, I prefer bikely.com at the moment. It’s more bike-centric, and doesn’t have such a focus on GPS-enabled phone/computers (of which I don’t have one) …and then goes on to explain his […]
Reading is 1° west, 51° north. Brindisi is 18° east, 41° north. That is an easterly shift of 19° and a southerly shift of 10°. Pythagoras tells me that (assuming the Earth is flat, which it clearly isn’t unless you adhere to what these guys say – great quote: ““Deprogramming […]
My first rough attempt at a route for the Eurovelo 5 is now on my Sanoodi profile – click here to see it. I’d like to refine this is the months to come but the basic profile of my journey is here. Can you spot the Alps?
It appears that it is not possible to embed Sanoodi maps in WordPress. This is a real, real, real shame 🙁 Why? (Non-technical answers please – I have read the technical reasons on the Internet.)
I’ve been having an email conversation with Bernie Friend, writer of the book Cycling Back to Happiness. He certainly got there if this picture was taken after he finished his trip (I am on page 79 by the way). Here are the interesting bits. He is in blue, I’m in […]
Remember I asked George Jemmott (him of GPS fame) about the photo at the top of his new Eurovelo 5 website? Well here is the answer: It just so happens that the only picture I have of my bicycle and trailer together is there in front of that American […]
This is a truly amazing piece of software. It’s the kind of thing that makes you wonder how people occupied their time before the invention of the Internet, GPS, GPRS etc… Just what did people do? I have spent the last two hours delighting in having mapped my first […]
I’ve mentioned Sanoodi Mapping before – read the previous post here. I’ve just revisited the site, created my own page and produced the map and profile that you can see in the picture for my commute to work. It’s impressive stuff! Click here to visit the webpage itself. The profile […]
I went to WH Smith to see if the latest edition of The Bicycle Buyer had any reviews of touring bikes… but it didn’t. So when I got home I dug out a copy of the magazine that I had bought earlier in 2009 to see if they got […]
I haven’t made an error in the title. It is the final final piece of the map jigsaw. I wrote here about having bought the final map which covered the heel of Italy. I glossed over the fact that I was ignoring the journey from Reading to Dover by […]
I believe in competition; it gives people an opportunity to benchmark what they do and try and make improvements. It sometimes gets bad press when it encroaches on things like health care or education, but I am generally very supportive to the whole concept of the chase. It’s just […]
I have started reading everything here… but have yet to finish any of them. Let’s see how much I can get read while on holiday this week.
I first mentioned Silvia Nilsen (“Sil” to her friends!) in a post way back in April last year. She is a keen blogger and walker and she runs a whole host of mainly pilgrimage walking blogs including this one about her experiences of walking the Via Francigena (see the full […]
I mentioned in a post earlier today that, quite a few months ago, Mark Beaumont had been in touch and he had passed on some advice about tents. I remember telling him at the time that I had just finished reading his book about cycling around the world […]
This route almost takes in my daily commute to work from Reading to Henley. It launches on the 18th June 2010 and is described as follows: “This new 170 mile (274 km) circular route in the Chilterns, links attractions, market towns and places of interest. The route is on-road, […]
I wish the people who moan about the council not having invested in sufficient snow clearing equipment (see any newspaper letters page a few weeks ago) could see this. Some chump – you can ring them if you want – presumably bought some snow chains for their car […]
I honestly don’t write this blog for anyone apart from myself and to begin with that was fortunate as no-one else read it. However, as Google began to pick me up and as links began to appear elsewhere on the Internet directing people to this blog, I have […]
When I first posted this picture, the title was “Bad cycle storage design” but actually there is nothing wrong with the design. There is everything wrong with the placement of the bike sheds; at the back of a brand new prestigious development in Reading town centre (soon to be the […]
I sometimes wonder how many people have cycled in the past or are planning to cycle in the future from the UK to at least northern Italy. It doesn’t take long to find other blogs. Here is another: Oli Robbins, who cycled a fairly direct route from Essex to Venice […]
41/4 miles this morning with three short breaks….47 minutes worth of running. I’m not going to break any records here. Slight extension to my route – along the Thames from Reading Bridge to Caversham Bridge and back.
Abbey Wood Campsites Federation Road, London, London, SE2 0LS
Here it is; Cycling Day Date (w/e) From To Time Kms Cum. 1 18/7 Reading London 4h35 65 65 2 19/7 London Canterbury 6h41 94 159 3 20/7 Canterbury Dover 1h54 27 186 3 20/7 Calais Saint Omer 3h08 44 230 4 21/7 Saint Omer Lille 4h40 65 […]
…but it’s a beautiful morning in Reading. This is the view looking down the canal towards the town centre. I live in the block of flats behind the camera. Which you can’t see. And actually it’s a phone. I’ll shut up.
This organisation have their annual meeting in London at the start of March. I wonder if it would be worth going along? I don’t consider myself a pilgrim due to my complete lack of any religious belief, but could be interesting. It describes the meeting on their website: “The Practical […]
Following on from the previous post which refers to academic research in the USA, I have just received this interesting email from Todd Rygh in Washington State along the same lines. Most people who contact me via this blog have questions about the route or the bike or the equipment […]
This refers to the children rather than the teachers – see the extract from the CTC weekly email – but after another week of winter commuting to work, I am aching for the Spring to arrive with its lighter mornings and evenings and slightly warmer temperatures. Whether I am still […]
What a great web page – so colourful!
I asked my boss today if I could have three days (unpaid) leave at the end of the academic year – Monday 19th to Wednesday 21st July. She said yes! So the date of departure is fixed: Sunday 18th July 2010. This gives me a full six weeks […]
This is a great blog (not mine, the one in the title, although mine is OK too…): blog.ch3.gr . Georgios writes: “In August 2009, after being in the Uk for 7 years, I decided it was time to move back to Greece. My ambitious plan was to cycle […]
A photographer, Patrick Taylor, appears to be a fan of the Ridgeback Panorama. Have a look on his website. Here is one of his pictures:
Iain Harper has contacted me via the Bike Radar forum I mentioned yesterday. There is some really useful practical advice in his email and it is worth the read. As the list of “tags” at the end shows, he manages to pack in a whole host of different […]
The light dusting of crisp, dry, white snow was actually quite fun to cycle on. Not really very icy at all. And across the Oxfordshire countryside, the nearly full moon was reflected off the white layer on the ground to make the morning feel, ironically, almost spring-like.
Here’s an interesting twist on cycling to Rome, or in this case cycling from Rome. Lawrence Dallaglio, the former international rugby player is on his bike for charity. This is from his website (click on the picture to visit it): “OK, so there are easier ways to take […]
