Welcome back.
How's you? It has been awhile, a very long while. Nearly 54 months to be roughly exact and so, so much has happened in those many months. None of which I will bore you with as a lot of the stories don't involve a bicycle. So what has changed since we last met? Not the bike, my trusty bike from NZ came back to the UK. A few replacement parts here and there, that $400 Kiwi beast is still going strong, even after being my commuter bike in the traffic clogged streets of Manila and the single tracked roads of the Isle of Mull. Who needs to spend a fortune on a high end bike? Although my poor speedometer didn't make it back, hence the total ignorance of miles covered...BUT STRAVA I hear you techno minded lot shout. Pffft is all I can say to that. Pffft.
The plan.
I had some time off from work, so what better way to spend it than to have a mini cycle adventure, just like them old NZ days. The plan, do a circular loop from Hook via Winchester, over the South Downs Way to Brighton, mash it up before heading up the Downs Link via Guildford before heading to Woking and along the Basingstoke Canal back to Hook. Simple as fuck.
Preparations.
I like to think that I have learnt from previous misadventures so I took the precaution of sorting out my battered bike with some shiny new parts and went on a big ride across Watership Down. Yep...that Watership Down made famous when a bunch of animated rabbits got murdered in a variety of fun filled ways. After cycling over the corpses of animated bunnies, my spangly new chain, on it's maiden voyage snaps. Not a metaphorical snap but literally the literal meaning of snapping. My chain snapped. That's what I'm getting at. A snapped chain, told with a gratuitous heaping of unnecessary words. The first of many omens that indicate the plan may not exactly go as an organised series of events that follow each other in a per-determined pattern. No worries, I can just go to a bike shop in the morning. A simple task...if you didn't live in the countryside and providing that someone doesn't kill themselves on the train line...
How's you? It has been awhile, a very long while. Nearly 54 months to be roughly exact and so, so much has happened in those many months. None of which I will bore you with as a lot of the stories don't involve a bicycle. So what has changed since we last met? Not the bike, my trusty bike from NZ came back to the UK. A few replacement parts here and there, that $400 Kiwi beast is still going strong, even after being my commuter bike in the traffic clogged streets of Manila and the single tracked roads of the Isle of Mull. Who needs to spend a fortune on a high end bike? Although my poor speedometer didn't make it back, hence the total ignorance of miles covered...BUT STRAVA I hear you techno minded lot shout. Pffft is all I can say to that. Pffft.
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| It is a very well traveled bike |
The plan.
I had some time off from work, so what better way to spend it than to have a mini cycle adventure, just like them old NZ days. The plan, do a circular loop from Hook via Winchester, over the South Downs Way to Brighton, mash it up before heading up the Downs Link via Guildford before heading to Woking and along the Basingstoke Canal back to Hook. Simple as fuck.
Preparations.
I like to think that I have learnt from previous misadventures so I took the precaution of sorting out my battered bike with some shiny new parts and went on a big ride across Watership Down. Yep...that Watership Down made famous when a bunch of animated rabbits got murdered in a variety of fun filled ways. After cycling over the corpses of animated bunnies, my spangly new chain, on it's maiden voyage snaps. Not a metaphorical snap but literally the literal meaning of snapping. My chain snapped. That's what I'm getting at. A snapped chain, told with a gratuitous heaping of unnecessary words. The first of many omens that indicate the plan may not exactly go as an organised series of events that follow each other in a per-determined pattern. No worries, I can just go to a bike shop in the morning. A simple task...if you didn't live in the countryside and providing that someone doesn't kill themselves on the train line...
So I have not headed off yet and if I was a superstitious person, I would be seriously questioning whether to continue with the journey...a snapped chain and now a death. These things come in threes you know.
I acquire a travel buddy in the form of my good mate Rob. In the same day, I get my chain fixed for free (thanks Halfords), get my essential supplies for the road (rum), look up the route, take a few picture of it, all packed and boom. Ready for sleepy time as in the morning the adventure starts...
Watch this space as more details of the adventure will appear. This will happen soon. Honest. In the meantime, check out the previous entries on how a night of drinking ended with me spending 4 months cycling across New Zealand. Until next time, enjoy.
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| What more could you want from a map? |
I acquire a travel buddy in the form of my good mate Rob. In the same day, I get my chain fixed for free (thanks Halfords), get my essential supplies for the road (rum), look up the route, take a few picture of it, all packed and boom. Ready for sleepy time as in the morning the adventure starts...
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| Yo ho ho a can of stag and a bottle of rum! |
Watch this space as more details of the adventure will appear. This will happen soon. Honest. In the meantime, check out the previous entries on how a night of drinking ended with me spending 4 months cycling across New Zealand. Until next time, enjoy.
