Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
All My Yesterday's
I have done many things over the years, crossed the Sahara by accident, written a book in Indonesian that led to my traveling the archipeligo, survived Mogidishu, had a ship pirated off Beirut, sailed the confluence of the Blue Nile & White Nile, watched in utter amazement as the entire crew of the vessel I was commissioning threw themselves into the sea and swam away, escaped the Libyan Secret Service Lock-Up etc. However, the last few days took me to the edge of exhaustion that the likes of the coldest Tough Guy event didn't manage! Because I got it wrong, doing too many miles a day whilst overloaded with kit on extrordinary trails hurts and exhausts after some nine hours in the saddle.
On a cycle tour you plan to cover a certain number of miles, when mountain biking you plan your route in hours and this adventure was more akin to mountain biking! So I needed to do it as light as possible, carry the minimum not 150 litres of luggage, wear the same clothes with only a few essential dry items stowed away and perhaps just the military survival blanket instead of the two panniers of survival gear I took!
So, having planned safe I had overloaded the bike for the trail I found myself doing and the planned daily mileage. Yet, having all the gear for surviving the mountain conditions gave me the confidence to ride solo, ride into the night and to do a nine hour day in the saddle. Wrong or right, the last three days in Snowdonia and the Cambrian Mountains exhausted me.
Last night Daffy joined me in Brecon and we plan to cycle todays leg to Pontypridd with a couple of friends, then celebrate New Year! To save my bikes wheels I intend to send two panniers on ahead with a friend who is driving down.
I would love to do those last three days again on a mountain bike with friends over some four days...
On a cycle tour you plan to cover a certain number of miles, when mountain biking you plan your route in hours and this adventure was more akin to mountain biking! So I needed to do it as light as possible, carry the minimum not 150 litres of luggage, wear the same clothes with only a few essential dry items stowed away and perhaps just the military survival blanket instead of the two panniers of survival gear I took!
So, having planned safe I had overloaded the bike for the trail I found myself doing and the planned daily mileage. Yet, having all the gear for surviving the mountain conditions gave me the confidence to ride solo, ride into the night and to do a nine hour day in the saddle. Wrong or right, the last three days in Snowdonia and the Cambrian Mountains exhausted me.
Last night Daffy joined me in Brecon and we plan to cycle todays leg to Pontypridd with a couple of friends, then celebrate New Year! To save my bikes wheels I intend to send two panniers on ahead with a friend who is driving down.
I would love to do those last three days again on a mountain bike with friends over some four days...
Monday, 29 December 2008
The Dragon Rocks......
I have got it so wrong and yet? BadBoy, I have used you so badly! In the Summer you were the ultimate 'no suss' mountain bike with balls, now there is my weight plus a full set of panniers fore-n-aft with chunky legs putting rear wheel skewing torque on to climb near vertical mountain slopes. I tightened up four loose spokes after breakfast, then BadBoy fully loaded climbed some four hundred metres above Dolgellau on country lanes and tracks, through and past amazing scenery to have five spokes tightened to true it's rear wheel again!
So now no time to visit Machynlleth's Centre for Alternative Technology, yet I did stop at their Cafe in town for thick hot veggie soup and pizza. To ensure power enough to take BadBoy's cluttered and overloaded frame up and over the 510 metre high Rhiw Fawr pass besides Foel Fadian as the Sun set red over Snowdonia.
I had decided to commit myself to the climb, the Steppes Easterly channeled by valleys to a Force 10, the miles of ridge high freezing cold riding, the water flows fording and painting the tracks a thick Ice White or a shiny Black!
A gamble that said: " I will have enough energy left to make the long high cold ride into Llanidloes; That BadBoy's rear wheel will not collapse; the bike lamps charge will last the journey; The descent will not chill extremities and dull my mind to danger!" and that I was confident of making a warm sheltered bivi near the Summit should it prove necessary whilst the clothes I was wearing would help maintain body and mind in the worst of conditions
Saved by a The Old Phone Box Changing Room Trick on the descent, the knowledge that walking and pushing warms the body and bits, that a gel energy tube with cafiene will get you thinking again when cold and exhausted.
So now no time to visit Machynlleth's Centre for Alternative Technology, yet I did stop at their Cafe in town for thick hot veggie soup and pizza. To ensure power enough to take BadBoy's cluttered and overloaded frame up and over the 510 metre high Rhiw Fawr pass besides Foel Fadian as the Sun set red over Snowdonia.
I had decided to commit myself to the climb, the Steppes Easterly channeled by valleys to a Force 10, the miles of ridge high freezing cold riding, the water flows fording and painting the tracks a thick Ice White or a shiny Black!
A gamble that said: " I will have enough energy left to make the long high cold ride into Llanidloes; That BadBoy's rear wheel will not collapse; the bike lamps charge will last the journey; The descent will not chill extremities and dull my mind to danger!" and that I was confident of making a warm sheltered bivi near the Summit should it prove necessary whilst the clothes I was wearing would help maintain body and mind in the worst of conditions
Saved by a The Old Phone Box Changing Room Trick on the descent, the knowledge that walking and pushing warms the body and bits, that a gel energy tube with cafiene will get you thinking again when cold and exhausted.
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