As suggested by my host in Alembon the day before, 8:00am I was downstairs for breakfast. Got to taste all the home made compote she does and home baked cake as well.
After breakfast I started packing. I confess, this is one of my weak points and something I definitely need to get better at. The Camino de Santiago has taught me a few lessons last year, which I seemed to have forgotten, but the Via Francigena is being quick at reminding me of them.
Before I left home I packed everything according to item type, e.g. clothes and footwear all in one pannier, electronics in another, 1st aid kit and items of personal hygiene in another and so on…
The thing is, when you are on the move and need something you don’t want to be opening several different panniers to get items you may need. The lesson I learned on the Camino was to pack a pannier with the most likely things you are going to need during the day (in the case of the Camino I packed it in a rucksack, as I had only 2 panniers then, where I now have 4), so you’ll only need to open one bag during the day, unless something out of the ordinary happens, which is not uncommon. I am, therefore, attempting to change the packing accordingly and moved several items around the panniers.
When I finished packing everything (took me about 25 min… yes, I am slow) brought everything downstairs, where the bike was, and started to load them in the bike. About 15 min later, when all panniers and the camping bag were loaded and fastened, I realised I was missing my Cateye cycling computer, which I thought I had placed in the handlebar bag together with the Garmin Edge 810. It wasn’t there. Went back to the room and searched everywhere as I knew I had it the day before… couldn’t find it. There was only one option left: Search in the panniers, which, as I mentioned before, were already loaded in the bike. I’ll give you one chance to guess if it was in the 1st pannier or in the last. Did you guess? Of course it was in the last. It must have fallen in the pannier as I was rearranging the packing. Altogether, I literally spend 1h looking for the damn thing. That meant I left the B&B only around 11:30am. For a pilgrim this is almost time of arrival, not time of departure. Anyway… need to give no excuses to anyone as I am alone, but it was a bit stressful. My own fault.
From Alembon I rode to Licques, where I managed to get a stamp from a water park there, as everything else was closed. Then to Tournehem-sur-la-Hem, where there was also nothing open. Not to say nothing, the church was open, but there was no one in it. From Tournehem my next destination was Thérouanne, where, according to my host the day before, there was a pilgrim’s hostel, but… everything was closed. I wasn’t planning to stay there anyway, as I wanted to ride more, so I rode further to Amettes where there is another hostel with special rates for pilgrims (€13/night). Guess what? Closed!
In all the villages I rode through everything was closed. Even the petrol stations were closed. if I wanted to setup camp somewhere I would have to go hungry as I couldn’t find anything open to buy food. I also couldn’t get any stamps on my Pilgrim’s credential which, upon arrival in Rome, is the document you have to show.
So I decided to continue riding to Bruay-la-Buissière as I knew it was a bigger town and there was bound to be something open. As I got there I asked several people about “auberges” or hotels but I couldn’t find any near, so I turned to Google which offered me a few, with one of the cheapest being the Ibis Style in the outskirts of town. Had to ride another 4 or 5 Km to get there and the daily rate wasn’t the €53 Google suggested, but €69 with Breakfast. By that point it was late and I was too tired to go searching for something cheaper, so that is where I stayed. The room was great and the hotel was near several restaurants. Had a really good meal at the 3 Les 3 Brasseurs.
When I left Alembon in the morning, the day was a bit unsettled and that made me forget to pass on the sunscreen on my skin. I live in the UK, so this is something we use very little there 🙂
The sunscreen was on the bottom of one of my panniers, which I really didn’t want to take off the bike again. The result was a really bad sun burn and fever at night which made for an uncomfortable night. I should have stopped to get the sunscreen… lesson number… ? (who’s counting anyway).
Well, that was it. I’m attaching a few pictures to this “post by email” which I hope will be self-explanatory. If you have any questions, just drop me a comment.
Before I close the post, have you made your donation to Mind UK, which is the charity I am sponsoring during this ride? Common, 20 quid will not be much at the end of the month and it’s all for a good cause.
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Yes? Then skip to the next paragraph as I don’t need to preach to the choir.
No? OK, then 1-0-1 on being a pilgrim… expect the unexpected!
Every thing was going according to plan this morning. I woke up quite early (around 6:30am), even though I had the alarm set for 7:00am. After the “body necessities” and the shower, I was number 2 in line for breakfast which in the Canterbury Youth Hostel (YHA) starts being served at 7:30am.
All going according to plan so far.
After finishing my wonderful breakfast, I brought 3 of the 6 bags I am carrying downstairs and asked for the bike shed key. Most, if not all, YHAs have a bike shed, hence the reason I like staying with them.
Btw, let me do a little detour before I continue with the account of the morning… Met a German cyclist there, who is currently living in Paris. He told me he had to travel to New Castle for work and decided to bring his bicycle on the train with him and then go back to Paris by bike. He was staying in the same room as me and was heading to Newhaven to get the ferry to Dieppe, which I have also done already.
Back to my account of the morning… The key to the bike shed. Reception told me they had given the key to a lady hours before and she had not returned it. Now, where is this lady, you may ask? No one knows, of course. Eventually they found her, but that had introduced a 45 min delay in my schedule and I was late already because of the packing. Those that had traveled with me before, know I am slow on these things. Long story short, didn’t leave the YHA until 9:45am, when I wanted to be at the Cathedral by 9:00am.
Went to the Cathedral anyway, got my stamp, took pictures of me, the cathedral (inside and out), did a prayer asking for God to bless and protect me in this journey and by the time I started to ride it was almost 10:30am. Remember my post from a few weeks back in which I rode from Canterbury to Dover on the National Cycle Route 16? That took us almost 3h, but I didn’t have 3h until the ferry was due to depart.
So I took the decision to ride to Dover on the A2. I normally avoid busy roads or highways like this, but today shortness of time forced me to do it. The A2 is an almost straight line from Canterbury to Dover and very few hills. Would be a great ride if it wasn’t for the intense traffic, especially that of big articulated trucks going to the Dover docks and then into Europe. The Eastern European truck drivers are the worst of all. A truck from Romania drove literally a few inches by me, at a speed I would estimate at 70 miles/h (120 Km/h). The air dislocation almost brought me under the truck. Why do so many drivers have so little value for human life when they sit behind the steering wheel of their vehicles? Other people, especially cyclists, become just an obstacle, like road side debris which are worth the risk of hitting for the sake of saving their vehicles momentum and not having to slow down for a moment.
My thoughts while cycling to Dover were focused on how stupid the system we created is. The A2 is a very smooth and direct route that cyclists are encouraged not to use because of their it’s traffic (it’s not illegal to cycle in an A road, just in a motorway, as far as I know) so they become an exclusivity for the people protected by the metal frame of their cars, sitting down in their air conditioned cockpits, listening music in their in-car entertainment system. They are so self-absorbed in their own life and importance that they make a huge deal of having to slow down or ever take a different route that could potentially delay them just a few minutes, while the cyclists, as vulnerable as they are, not only to the road conditions be all weather as well, have to take poorly surfaced cycling lanes or minor roads full of potholes. Don’t tell me we are a civilized society, because that is NOT true. A society whose individuals are totally focused on wild consumption and the protection of exclusive use of resources paid by all. Why do we accept that cycling routes can be of any less quality than those cars use? Why those who choose to travel in low environmental impact styles are penalized by poor infrastructure. Shouldn’t they be rewarded for not damaging the environment? Makes me mad to be human…
Rant over!
Anyway, if you are cycling from Canterbury to Dover, don’t do what I did. Stick on the Cycle routes, they are longer, hilly, poorly paved, but safer…
Change of subject… Weather wasn’t good all day with some scattered light showers along the way, but some 5 Km before arriving in Dover, weather turned really nasty and started to rain quite heavily. I got completely soaked. As I arrived in the ferry terminal I was surprised to find a huge party of young cyclists in front of me, mostly teenagers. They appeared to be part of a scout group heading into Europe. There must have been at least 50 of them.
Also met a couple that was on a weekend cycling trip to Calais. The ferry was packed with passengers today. Lots of buses with Asian (Chinese?) tourists.
Once we disembarked I headed into Calais’ town centre following the signs, looked for the Tourist Information office and after I got a stamp in my pilgrim’s credentials (3 stamps already on the 1st day) I went to a shop to buy a French SIM card. At the tourist information office they highlighted a few places who, according to them, offered discount rates to Via Francigena pilgrims. Among them was this family run farm B&B in Alembon, which was a bit further than what I wanted to ride, but for some reason I was attracted to it. I was expecting to get here and just have a discount, but when I got here the only room the lady had available was her daughter’s who wasn’t here today. To my surprise when I asked how much the room was for the night, the lady said, “as much as you want to pay”. I said are 10 Euros OK? She answered “sure!”. Good to know there are still people not entirely driven by financial gain in this world, although I think she would only do that for pilgrims.
Not only I am sleeping in a comfortable bed tonight, but she has also fed me some very simple but wonderful food. She even asked me if I wanted beer or wine, but I declined. Just water today. A tomato salad wonderfully prepared, 3 different types of cheeses, ham, bread and butter. For desert I had, what I think was the best plum I ate in my entire life. There was a bowl full of them at the other end of a long table and I could smell them sitting from where I was.
They have a large, simple and unsophisticated, but wonderful fire place and on some tables at the wall she sells their home made compotes, which I would definitely buy, if I wasn’t riding a bicycle.
This is it for the day… almost 60 Km today not counting the time spent waiting to board the ferry and the channel crossing. I am really happy to have found this place in Alembon after a somewhat stressful start and all the heavy rain. Tomorrow is another day of full of the wonderful and unexpected I am sure. I also managed to hand-wash the clothes I was wearing today, so if they dry overnight, I might be able to wear the same clothes again, keeping the spare ones I brought clean in the panniers. If this repeats itself too often, I think I may have brought too much with me… time will tell.
If you read the entire text, I hope some of the pictures below are self-explanatory.
To finish today’s post, have you already made your contribution to Mind UK? You are reading this right? Common, open your wallet… it’s for a good cause.
God bless you all and thank you for your contribution.
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As I write these lines, I am sitting in the Youth Hostel’s lounge area enjoying their WiFi after a 3h drive on a congested M25 motorway. To be fair it wasn’t as bad as it can be for a Friday evening.
After checking-in my friend, my son and I had a walk around town and some wonderful juicy burgers… hey, I can afford it! I’ll be burning about 2500 CAL a day for the next 40 days.
We had quite a bit of rain on the way here, but weather is supposed to be OK tomorrow.
So, tomorrow the plan is to wake up around 7am for breakfast which is served from 7:30am onwards. Then pack everything in the bike and ride to the Cathedral, which is just over a mile or 2 Km from here.
Quick stop at the cathedral for a prayer and some photos then off to Dover. My ferry leaves at 12:55pm, but I need to be there at least 45 min before for the check-in procedures. Since I never crossed from Dover to Calais on a bicycle that will be new experience for me. It’s not the 1st time I crossed the channel on a ferry with a bicycle though, as I rode to Paris in 2014 and did the crossing from Newhaven to Dieppe with a bicycle.
The crossing should take 1.5h so that means I’ll arrive in Calais at around 3:30pm local time… say 30 min to disembark, we are looking at 4:00pm before I start riding in French soil.
My plan it to ride for 1.5h to the town of Guines and then find a place to stay for the night. So let’s see how it goes. If the place I am staying tomorrow has free WiFi then I’ll tell you about it.
For now, there are some of the pictures I took today as we were departing from my home and during our short walk in Canterbury’s town centre.
Hope you all have a wonderful evening and stayed tuned!
… and if you have not had the chance to make your donation yet for Mind UK through my Virgin Money Giving page, please don’t let me stop you… 🙂
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Browsing through WordPress the other day I discovered it is possible to configure it to post by email, in other words, I write an email, send it to the blog and WordPress publishes it as a blog post. I believe that would be ideal for when I am on the road, so decided to give it a try and this is my 1st “post by email” blog post. If it doesn’t look good, don’t blame me… 🙂
Last Sunday I did my first fully loaded test ride to Windsor. Packed in the panniers and rack everything I think I need to take with me and rode to Windsor and back, an approx. 42 Km round trip. The way to Windsor took 1h and 11 min which wasn’t bad, but the route to Windsor is quite flat. Will be a very different type of ride when crossing the Alps.
I used a bathroom scale to measure myself and the loaded bike and the weight of the bike + cargo is just over 50 Kg. The bike itself weighs about 15 Kg, so 35 Kg is load, which is probably too much. As usual, I “think” I am taking with me everything I “think” I am going to use along the ride, incl. all camping equipment and gear plus a small kitchen, clothing for 2 seasons (it can be rather cold in the Alps at the evening, even in summer), bike tools, etc.
I’ll try to reduce the weight by 10 to 15% before I leave.
I have also setup camp in my own back garden to test the new Alpkit Ordos 2 tent I bought especially for this occasion. I must confess I am way too used to the comfort of my bed and it wasn’t a good night sleep, but I am hoping that after a long day of cycling, sleeping at night won’t be an issue.
I am not exactly sure how pictures are displayed in a post, when the post is generated by an email, but I’ll attach some pictures in the hope they will look more or less self-explaining.
Just 3 days from my departure, there is still lots to be done. I have contacted several Warmshowers and Couchsurfing hosts, but the time of the year means a lot of people are themselves not home as they are traveling on holidays.
Well, as this is just a test to determine how this “WordPress Post by Email” feature works, I think that is it. If it works well, I may use it to post more often from the road as it looks like a really convenient method to post.
Stay tuned and if you can, please donate to my charity of choice, Mind UK, which link you can find in my previous blog post.
Thank you!
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Please read the blog post below and if you feel inclined to do so, donate generously to my charity of choice through the Virgin Money Giving link below:
If you have been following my blog or Facebook page, you will know that I am soon going to be undertaking my biggest bike ride yet, a 2,000 Km long (approx.) bike ride from Canterbury in UK to Rome in Italy, on an ancient pilgrimage route known as Via Francigena.
Via Francigena Route
My motivations for doing this bike ride are many, some of which are quite obvious and some are not. On the obvious side, you may have followed my series of blog posts about the Camino de Santiago last year. The Via Francigena is a natural step up from that as it is 2x as long and not as well structured as the Camino (what I mean is that there aren’t as many pilgrims’ accommodations along the way and the route is not well sign posted, especially in France).
As for the non-obvious reasons, I feel strong enough now to share at least one with you all. Since the very unfriendly break-up of my marriage, some 15 months ago, I’ve been battling on and off with depression. I took antidepressants for a few months and gone through therapies.
Depression is an odd kind of illness… Due to sheer ignorance, like many I had a very stigmatized view of it. To be honest, of any type of mental illnesses, actually.
I truly thought it was sort of a rich people’s sickness. An illness that affected only those people who had too much free time on their hands. Life has a funny way of teaching you things sometimes.
So, imagine my surprise when I started to notice very physical symptoms caused by anxiety and my general mental state. Among others where teeth-grinding (also known as Bruxism), sleeplessness, difficulty to breath and more. Life hadn’t stopped, of course, and there were still bills to be paid and things to be done, which at times, associated with loneliness gave me the real feeling I wouldn’t be able to coupe anymore.
Went to the GP several times and he confirmed the diagnosis of clinical depression. It was somewhat interesting to understand how your mental state can have such a powerful impact on your physical condition and I am not talking here about normal day to day worries most people have with their children, their financial affairs, their jobs, etc. This is not a learning experience I wish anyone to go through, but it is generally hard to choose not to be depressed when you’re affected by certain life circumstances, which can vary of importance from person to person, especially when there is so much negative going on in the world these days. Depression is usually a package.
In extreme cases, for some the easy way out appears to become the only solution (even though it is clearly not) and it may surprise you to know that suicide remains the leading cause of death for men between 20 and 34 in England and Wales, representing 24% of all deaths in 2013, and for men aged 35-49, at 13% of deaths (source: The Guardian).
Thankfully the ultimate act was never an option for me… not that I didn’t occasionally think about it, but I’ve always considered it a very unlikely outcome for me in particular. I value my life and the life of others way too much and I personally don’t think ending your physical existence ends the mental problems you might be facing (I believe in “life” after death).
Needless to say this condition had an impact not only on my personal life, but on my professional one too. I don’t subscribe to the idea that a person can fully compartmentalized his personal and professional lives. An unbalance in one, will have repercussions in the other.
The drug I was taking didn’t appear to be making much of a change, although it did help me sleep at night (helped even a bit too much at times as it made it a lot harder to jump out of bed in the morning as well), and when my GP suggested the prescription of a more powerful drug I took the decision upon myself to try to beat this thing without chemicals (or artificial ones, at least).
Cycling has been “my thing” for quite a few years now and it was only natural for me to turn to cycling as a means to combat my depression. Convincing my bosses to give me a 42 days holiday was a tough sell, but I manage to do it and here I am, just a few weeks from starting my cycling pilgrimage.
I am no expert, but I believe that for most there can be a drug-free way to find balance in life again. Some may find it through meditation, others through physical exercise, others by drastically changing their life-styles and so on. I do believe in drug-free treatments are not always possible and that the ultimate word has to remain with the medical or psychological experts treating each case, but I personally don’t think emotions are just a chemical unbalance that can be corrected through drugs. If that was true it would be possible to “correct” love and hate the same way. But even if drugs are the answer, I still believe there are ways for our bodies to produce some of these chemicals naturally such as Serotonin, a neurotransmitter, regarded by some researchers as a chemical that is responsible for maintaining mood balance, and that often link a deficit of serotonin to depression. No doubt, you can take drugs that will aid to increase Serotonin levels in the brain, but according to the Psychology Today Blog, “In numerous studies exercise has been shown to increase both serotonin production and release. In particular, aerobic exercises, like running and biking, are the most likely to boost serotonin.”
So, what I am trying to prove to you, in case you don’t already know, is that, if you know someone who suffers from a mental illness (or if you experience or have experienced it yourself) a drug-free treatment through physical activity can be a powerful boost to your well-being, not to mention a big reduction of the cost to businesses and society overall, given that antidepressant use has doubled in England over the past 10 years (source NewScientist). Most concerning is that the number of children prescribed with antidepressants have increased by 50% in 7 years (source: The Independent).
A US study has estimated that about 300 million work days are lost to sickness every year with 56% of employees reporting depression and anxiety as a cause. Not even the most cold-hearted business person can ignore these stats.
That is why I converted my solo bike ride to Rome into a charity event and have partnered with Mind UK, one of the UK’s leading Mental Health charities, on this enterprise and am here asking for you to donate some of your hard earned cash to this cause. I know how hard it is to try to get out of a bad situation alone and sometimes you need someone that can provide you with an independent perspective about your situation.
Every pound (or dollar, or Euro… whatever) you donate makes a difference. For example:
£8.70 gives a lifeline to someone in desperate need of support
£30 helps Mind work with the government to promote mental health needs and improve services
£150 could fund a local support group
£250 could fund equipment for an art therapy group
£500 can keep Mind’s legal advice service open for a day helping people understand their rights and receive practical legal advice on mental health issues.
What Mind has achieved in 2015. Click on the image to read MInd’s annual review document for 2014-2015 (PDF reader required).
I believe the best thing to combat depression is to try to live life to the fullest. What that means changes from person to person. To live life to it’s full potential will likely be related to finding a job or work that is fulfilling, having a loving family relation, good friends, include hobbies and physical activities and help those you can, through volunteering or other social efforts in benefit of those in need.
During a recent well-being course, I was shown how to graphically represent life as a boat. If you divide your boat only between work and family chances are that if one of them isn’t going well your boat will have more trouble to stay afloat than if you are able to divide your life’s boat in more compartments.
Which one do you think is more likely to stay afloat?
Cycling has been one of these compartments for me… it’s a low impact form of exercise providing an increased cardiovascular fitness as well as a good muscle workout, as it uses all the major muscle groups as you pedal. It is excellent in reducing obesity and controlling weight and while you are on your bike your stress levels seem to fall dramatically even when you are thinking about your problems which automatically leads to a reduction in anxiety and depression. But if cycling is not your thing, just pick something else… There is plenty to choose from.
The important thing is that you don’t give up.
If you allow me to suggest a strategy, rather than choosing something cheap and easy just to “try it out first, to see how it goes”, go the full mile. Choose something you think you will like (inform yourself) and go buy the gear for it.
Do not buy the cheapest!
If you can afford to buy expensive things, buy, for example, the best running shoes you can afford, if you decide to run, or the best bicycle, if you decide to cycle, or the best tennis or water sports gear if you go for those… that way you are making not only a personal commitment, but a financial investment also and this has 2 advantages:
Generally speaking people don’t like to waste money.
Generally speaking, you get what you paid for. Buying good quality gear will enhance your experience and help you transition into it more easily, with less efforts and pain.
Of course, this is not for everyone, but keep in mind managing limited resources are very much a question of priorities. If you are ill, getting healthy should be one. As Mr Spock would say, it is illogical to want to remain sick!
To contribute to this cause, please click on the Virgin Money Giving page below (just in case, nothing of your contribution is given to me).
If you have contributed, but still feel generous, you could also consider to pay me a coffee to help me keep up with the Blog costs and as an incentive for me to keep doing this sort of thing and blogging about it…
(suggested amount = £2.00 or USD $3.00 or 2.50€).
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Start of the RED Mountain Bike Trail, Swinley Forest, Bracknell
Hello EyeCycled friends!
Life has been busy and somewhat complicated especially now that I am so close to leave on my 2,000 Km pilgrimage to Rome on the 30th of June.
Yet, as part of my training I’ve been trying to ride my bike as much as my free time allows and this week I rode all the way from Bracknell to Camberley through the Swinley Forest. On my way back, the weather was so nice I decided to ride the entire length of the RED trail as this was the one I did not record when I posted my first Swinley Forest MTB Trails post back in August 2015. I’ve been wanting to record this trail since then, which is much more technically challenging than the BLUE one.
First time with a GoPRO Chest Strap… Feeling a bit like a fool.
I have also tried something new… a GoPRO chest strap mount. I’ve seen quite a few riders using it and always wanted to give it a try. I don’t think it is something I will be using often as I found it to be a bit uncomfortable, but it is always an option. I found that is does help reducing the shakiness of the picture, however, the RED trail was not a good place to test it properly as the trail is really bumpy.
Anyway, I’ve got 2 options for you:
A 59 min long full length video of the entire trail with my voice commentary only i.e. no music, no video acceleration where you can, hopefully, see the entire trail in detail.
A 10min 51sec, accelerated video (6x normal speed) with some nice music, but quite difficult to watch at places because there is only so much shaking that video stabilization can deal with. If you don’t have time (or patience) to watch the full length video, this may be an option. You may also want to watch the shorter, accelerated version first and then focus only on the parts you find more interesting on the full length video (tip: if you are watching the accelerated video at 3 min and want to see that part in greater detail, just multiple by 6 and jump to the full length video at around 18 min).
Always good to have options, isn’t it?
But before I give you the videos, here goes the stats of the RED trail as recorded by my Garmin Edge 810 and according to a 51 years old amateur rider 🙂
Length / Distance: 11 Km or 6.83 miles (In the information totem pole, the length given is 13 Km / 8 miles, but there were several diversions in place).
Time: According to my Garmin, 59 min in total or 53 min of moving time.
Average Speed: 11.1 Kph (Km/h)
Max Speed: 33.8 Kph (Km/h)
Elevation Gain / Loss: 202m / 206m
Max / Min Elevation: 3m / -43m
Average Heart Rate: 169 bpm
Max. Heart Rate: 192 bpm
Calories: 746 CAL
RED MTB Trail: Full length Video (59 min)
RED MTB Trail compressed / accelerated video (10 min 51s)
Thank you for your time.
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Most pilgrims arrive in Santiago de Compostelaand end their pilgrimage there, but a substantial number walk or cycle further to Fisterra, as known in Galician, or Finisterre, in Spanish. Fisterra is the nearest town to Cape Fisterra or Cape Finisterre, which In Roman times was believed to be the end of the known world, hence its name.
If you read the last post about our arrival in Santiago you will know that the next day we spent just getting to know the city and that on the 9th of June 2015, I decided to cycle further from Santiago to Fisterra. This was the 16th day overall and I did this stage of 94.45 Km or 58.7 miles from Santiago de Compostela to Fisterra in 8h 43 min, of which 5h 53 min were of actual moving time.
In this post I will write not only about the ride to Fisterra that day, but also what happened the day after, the 10th of July 2015, upon returning to Santiago and spending one more day there before leaving Spain and driving back to the UK on the 11th and 12th of July 2015.
As I was going away for just a day, I packed on one of my panniers just the essentials for the day’s ride and the night in Fisterra. That included the sleeping bag, a change of clothes, the sandals, items of personal hygiene as well as the electronic gear to record the video and take the pictures. Having the big locker at the Albergue Fin del Camino was very handy and since Fernando had decided to stay he did keep an eye on the few things that didn’t fit in the locker.
If you decide to cycle further to Fisterra this is a good option. If you are walking it will probably take you 3 days to reach Fisterra, so I am not sure leaving your belongings unattended at the hostel for such an extended period of time is wise and you will likely need everything you have anyway as you’ll be spending more time under way.
I left the hostel just after 8:00am and crossed the centre of Santiago to capture the image of the Cathedral one last time. Got a bit lost as the day before wasn’t enough to familiarized myself with all the small streets and roads in the centre of Santiago. Sometimes they look very similar to each other.
I, once again, used Google Maps to find my way out of Town and, as I mentioned many times before, this technology can be a bit of hit and miss, especially as in Spain cycling routes didn’t seem to be available in Google Maps, so I used the walking route as a guide. I didn’t want to use the car routes in fear that Google could guide me to some motorway or major roads.
Finding the way out of town wasn’t too difficult. Just before entering the AC-453, which was the major road out of town, I stopped at a little café for some breakfast as I hadn’t eaten anything before leaving the hostel. I then rode on the AC-453 for about 4 Km until a roundabout about 1 Km after Roxos, where I turned right in the direction to Portela de Villestro and Ventosa. Strangely enough, as I look at the map right now, although the road splits at the roundabout, both sections are called AC-453. I don’t understand the Spanish road naming system very well.
If you take the same route as me, some 2 Km after passing Ventosa, get ready for some hills that on a fully loaded bike may be quite challenging. As I was considerably lighter, I managed to pedal up, albeit very slowly.
River TambreView of the river Tambre from the bridge
After Augapesada you’ll cross through some nice patches of forest. Google Maps doesn’t even show a name for these small roads, but although a bit narrow their tarmac is good. The next small town on this route is Negreira and on your way there you’ll cross many tiny villages like Castiñeiro do Lobo, Carballo and also cross the river Tambre on an old stone bridge which will give you the opportunity for some nice photoshoots. Just before crossing the river there was a nice restaurant which I would have considered stopping for a few minutes, but it appeared to be closed. As you cross the river you go through a village called Barca before you reach Negreira.
I only stopped in Negreira for a few minutes to get directions and had a talk with a group of Portuguese cyclists who were also riding to Fisterra. The town appears to have a good infrastructure and it’s probably a good place to stop if you are walking and can reach it in a day (24 Km from the hostel in Santiago).
Negreira City Wall
After Negreira there appears to be much less density and the villages appear to be further apart, but that may just have been my impression. Google guided me to the DP-5603 in the direction to Zas. After 10 Km on the DP-5603, about 3 Km after the village of A Pena, Google Maps instructed me to leave the main road and take some really minor roads, which although quite narrow where tarmac paved. I must admit I was a bit skeptical this was the right way, but I followed Google’s instructions nevertheless, only to find myself without a mobile phone signal a few Km up the road. Thankfully Google had cached enough of the map on my phone to provide me with some idea where to go next, but looking at the map right now, as I write this post, there appears to be a shorter way to get to Pesadoira through the village of Vilaserío than the one I took, which was quite hilly and had a lot of turns.
The letters are living plants (grass, I think)
Just before Pesadoira I got some directions from local farmers and then followed to Cuíña, San Fins de Eirón and Corveira, before entering again a major road, the AC-400. Just about 1 Km on the AC-400, Google was directing me to leave the main road again. Luckily I got some instructions from another friendly farmer on his tractor that stopped what he was doing, switched off the engine, got off his tractor and came to talk to me. It was a nice chat, proving that most Spanish people are really friendly towards strangers. His advice was not to follow the route Google was suggesting and I take local advise over Google most of the time. Continuing on the AC-400 until Pino do Val was much longer than Google’s suggestion was, but from what the farmer told me I think it was the fastest, the easiest and the right option as it went around some very steep hills. On Pino do Val I turned right in the direction to A Picota and Mazaricos on the DP-3404 which I followed until short after the village of Hospital.Before getting there, however, I stopped for about 20 min in the village of Olveiroa for a rest, to eat a banana and drink some freshly squeezed orange juice. Olveiroa has a nice hostel which appears to be a good place to stay if you are walking.
After Hospital I turned left on the DP-2302 which took me all the way “down” to the town of Cee and through some interesting villages along the way (there are quite a few places to stop along the road as well, like restaurants, etc.).
Town of Cee. Encounter with the sea.
Cee is the next big town and is where you meet the sea for the 1st time. It’s pretty much glued to Corcubión and I don’t really know where one town ends and the next begins.
Nice sea views along the way.
After Corcubión get ready for 3 Km of hills until you reach the next beach in Sardiñeiro de Abaixo. Just before Sardiñeiro de Abaixo there is a nice camping place which can be an option to stay, if you like to setup camp, and its right in front of the Estorde beach where you’ll also find restaurant facilities.After Sardiñeiro you pretty much follow the coastal line which offers some great photoshoot opportunities.
Arrival in Fisterra
Google Maps shows that just before there is a village called Escaselas, but it all appeared connected to me so as I got there I thought I had arrived in the suburbs of Fisterra.
As I arrived in Fisterra I did a quick ride around the harbour area of the town. The street you’ll likely be on as you arrive in Fisterra ends right in front of the municipal hostel of the town, but I somehow failed to see the signs. Upon asking for some directions I found the hostel, checked-in and got my certificate of completion for having arrived on the so called Death Coast and at the end of the “Camino Jacobeo” (Jacob’s way).
Municipal Hostel in Fisterra
Like many others before it, the hostel in Fisterra is basic, but sufficient. There was no WiFi connection in the room I was in, on the top floor of the building, which had, I think, 5 or 6 bunk beds. The municipal hostel cost €6 and has 36 beds. There are kitchen laundry facilities available.
Small beach in the town of Fisterra. San Carlos castle at the, today a “fishing museum”.
After a shower I went out on foot to find a place to eat. Had a walk around town and returned to the hostel. It is tradition for pilgrims to walk (or cycle) to the Lighthouse at the Cape Fisterra / Finisterre, some 3 Km away, but I was honestly tired and I think the variations of “dry & rainy” + “hot & fresh” weather in that day had taken a toll on me. Many pilgrims go to the cape to burn something (a piece of clothing or something they brought from their origin) to symbolize leaving old worries behind and the start of the new life.
This completes the account of this day’s ride to Fisterra. I was in bed early as I had decided to take an early bus (around 8:00am) back to Santiago so I could have time during the next day to get to know Santiago a bit better and perhaps experience the Botafumeiro mass.
I managed to take the bus as planned back to Santiago and I managed to fit my bike in the bus’s luggage compartment without having to disassemble it, although I later saw that people just threw their luggage on top of my bike, which wasn’t cool, but then, I was taking a lot of space anyway (there was no damage to the bike).
Nope, they are not real…
As I got the more direct bus (there is one that stops more often) and it took me just under 2 h to get back. Because I arrived in Santiago before 10:00am I rode a little around some areas of the city I had seen from a distance 2 days earlier, such as the Alameda Park in the city centre, which gave me some new photoshoot opportunities.
Given the Albergue Fin del Camino opens only 11:00am, I timed my ride around town to coincide getting to the hostel as it was about to open. I had a shower, a change of clothes and set off to the city centre again to attend the mass.
The famous Botafumeiro mass in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
Fernando wasn’t around as he had made some friends in the hostel and decided to take the bus to Muxia with them.
As I got to the Cathedral the mass had already started, but I got there still on time to experience the Botafumeiro.
After the mass I walked around the city centre for another 3 hours before returning to the hostel, where I met Fernando in the evening. The next day I had to wake up early to go to the airport and get the rental car I had reserved from England, so by 10:00pm I was already in bed. There was little cycling this day, but some significant walking so I was pretty tired.
Next day I got up around 7:00h so I could be at the airport by 9:00h to get the rental car at Hertz rental. There is a bus stop on the main road, the N-634 (the one by the big shopping centre nearby) right in front the San Lazaro church (just 2 blocks away from the hostel) and there is a direct bus connection to the Airport. The bus ride takes about 25 min. Even for those leaving Santiago by plane, this is a good tip.
As I arrived at the airport there was a little queue at the Hertz counter, but I was happy to get a free upgrade to a bigger car (a Renault Megane), which meant it was easier to load the bikes and we had a bit more leg room in front. I am aware that many pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago have to return to Saint Jean, like we did. Renting a car is not the cheapest option if you are alone, but if you are in a group of 2 or more the cost of car renting starts to break even when compared to trains and buses.
Before we left England, my online research showed that returning to Pamplona by train would have a cost of at least £30 or €40 each (or £60 / €80 for both of us) not taking into consideration any possible bicycle carriage fees in the train. It’s apparently a 9h journey by train. We would then have to take the bus from Pamplona to Saint Jean the next day at a cost of approx. €20 / £15 each (not accounting for any bicycle fees). I calculated the total estimated cost of returning by train / bus to be of between £90 to £100 for both of us (approx. €130). We paid £80 for the car rental with another €45 for fuel, a total of £115 or €150. The comfort of the car rental was worth the extra £15 in my personal opinion and the drive back to Saint Jean and Pamplona through the north was wonderful.
Tall bridges along the way.
As I returned to the hostel, we loaded the car and stopped at a nearby café for breakfast before driving off to Saint Jean. We decided to take the north route back to Saint Jean and drove on the AP-9 motorway in the direction to A Coruña (also known as Autopista del Atlántico) and then further north to O Ferrol following the coastal path of main roads and motorways in the region (which change names) through Oviedo, Santander and Bilbao.
If you love driving, I truly recommend this drive back to Saint Jean. Its many tall bridges over valleys and tunnels make it an attraction in itself. There are a few tollgates along the way (can remember at least one at a tunnel near Bilbao), but the fee is nowhere near as high as the ridiculous prices practiced in France (something like €1.30 – €2). I was looking forward to drive in that part of Spain since we left England and I was not disappointed.
It took us about 8h to drive to Saint Jean and when we got there my car was exactly as we had left it 3 weeks before. We transferred the bikes and everything else from the rental car to my car and while I drove the rental car, Fernando drove my car back to Pamplona where we had to return the rental car at the Hertz office in Pamplona’s Airport.
Roncevaux Pass (Ibañeta) at 1057m. 6h by bike, 20 min by car.
The drive from Saint Jean to Pamplona was an interesting experience, as we took practically the same route we did with our bikes 3 weeks earlier. Along the way I kept remembering the hard climb with fully loaded bikes from Saint Jean to Roncesvalles and thinking how easy it is to be corrupted by the comforts of modern life. It took us only a few minutes to get from Saint Jean to the Roncevaux Pass (Ibañeta) at 1057m that we had reached by bike, after 6h of pedalling, 3 weeks earlier.
Because I programmed my TomTom SatNav to guide us to the Airport in Pamplona, it took us through some rather minor roads after Roncesvalles, which I believe now wasn’t the best route. Believe it or not, I only had to fuel the rental car some 15 Km before Pamplona, so it managed to do more than 900 Km on just 1 tank, which I thought was very good.
We arrived at Pamplona’s airport around 20:00h and there was no one at the Hertz counter, so I dropped the car keys in the box and we left the airport to find the place we were going to stay for the night. We had already reserved a room with breakfast. Finding it wasn’t too difficult.
Walls of the Citadel, Pamplona (mobile phone picture).
I don’t know if it was the excitement of the day’s drive, but contrary to Fernando I was very awake and full of energy. Had a shower and left to go find something to eat and walk around the city. I didn’t see much of Pamplona that evening, but from what I saw, I loved the city. It’s a city that, in my opinion, managed very well to mix it’s old heritage, with its Roman beginnings at 75–74 BC, through the ages in which it was a fortress-city, in which the Citadel is the biggest landmark, and to its modernization. I absolutely loved its wide avenues and many green places along the paths I walked to reach the city centre. It’s a place I would definitely like to spend more time if I ever have the opportunity again.
This day wasn’t as exciting as the day before. It was in fact quite boring to be honest, so I am not going to add much about this day to this account. We attempted to circumvent the motorways in order not to have to pay the expensive toll fees, but that was delaying us so much that we feared we would not get to Calais in time to get the Eurotunnel train back to England. After driving for many hours and covering only about 20% of the distance we gave up and went back the motorway and to the toll fees. They designed it so that it leaves you an alternative, but the alternative is so bad (single lane roads, lots of traffic) you end preferring to pay the motorway toll fees.
French country side is beautiful, but we were just too tired of all the driving.
There was some nice French country side scenery along the way too, but I think at that point we had enough and just wanted to get back home.
We got lucky as we arrived in Calais and were allowed to take the next train through the tunnel (our reservation was for a train leaving 3 h later). That meant that by 23:00h we were back again on British soil and guess what? Some 20 min later, it started to rain torrentially. A rather typical welcome back to the UK.
By midnight we had arrived at my house. Fernando only transferred some of his gear to his car, which was parked there, left his bike with me and drove home.
This now completes our entire series on the Camino de Santiago, from the very beginning where we left Bracknell to the moment we got back.
I am thinking of extending the series a bit more with an extra post to summarize the experience and perhaps add some “interviews” with people I have met along the way or that have done the pilgrimage before and after I did. Don’t count on it as my time is very limited nowadays, but I’ll do my best.
Thank you for following me and coming on this journey with us. I am looking forward to the next adventure on the “Via Francigena” pilgrimage, starting on the 30th of July 2016.
If you have never done a pilgrimage before, what are you waiting for? If you are about to do yours, here goes a statement you are going to hear a lot during your pilgrimage: “Buen Camino!”
Front and back side of the Via Francigena Pilgrim’s credential (picture shows 2 credentials, I got 3, just in case)
If you have been following my Blog, you will already know I am currently preparing myself for a 2,200 Km (approx.) bike ride, starting from the Canterbury Cathedral on the 30th of July 2016 and finishing in Rome, Italy, on the 1st week of September.
This is a pilgrimage known as Via Francigena or Via Romea Francigena. In the EuroVelo project this route is the biggest portion of route number 5, which actually starts in London and ends in Brindisi, Italy.
The 1st stamp of many more to come
So, although I am still several weeks away from the start of the Pilgrimage, a friend and I decided to drive to Canterbury last weekend, to do some initial reconnaissance, as I had never been there before. That has also enabled me to get my pilgrim’s credentials (also known as pilgrim’s passport for Camino de Santiago pilgrims) and ride to the Dover Ferry Terminal as I have a per-determined time to arrive there on the 30th of July to catch the ferry to Calais in France.
The video below is the time-lapse of the entire bike ride between Canterbury and Dover, recorded by a GoPro 4 Silver mounted on a handlebar T-Mount (I need to do something to reduce the shaking in that mount).
They say Kent (the region where Canterbury is located) is the garden of England, and it is certainly a beautiful part of the country.
We followed the National Cycle Route 16, which proved not to be the most direct route to Dover and had some challenging hills to climb. Nothing too hard on a bike without any load other than the rider, but considering I’ll be carrying with me about 20 Kg in 4 panniers and on the rack, I had to make sure I know when to leave in order to arrive in Dover on time to catch the ferry,
I will not to an extensive written description of the route as you have the map and the video, but if you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch through the contact form.
I’ve also created a Flickr album to store all the pictures I’ve taken along the way. Feel free to browse the pictures below or click on them to see them in higher resolution in Flickr.
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Flickr Album with pictures of the day.
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This is the 1st post of 3 about the Devon Coast to Coast bike ride that I did during Easter 2016 with two good friends: Fernando and Eduardo. For the most part I stayed on the National Cycle Route 27, but in these 3 days I can say I experienced what I can closely call, the best and the worst of British Weather. Although I would understand if people say that was nowhere near as bad as the weather can get here in the UK, the 2nd day of the ride was bad enough for me, but let me focus on the 1st day.
If you don’t like reading, please watch this bike Vlog where I give a good verbal account of these 3 days of bike riding:
On this day, Friday the 25th of March, I rode from Ilfracombe on the north coast of Devon to the town of Okehampton. According to the data collected by my Garmin 810, I rode 86.43 Km or just under 54 miles in 6 h and 16 min, but the total time elapsed from start to finish was 9 h and 22 min. We had to make long stops this day due to problems on Fernando’s bike.
Ilfracombe Harbour
We left the Royal Britannia hotel in Ilfracombe just after 7:00 am, had breakfast at a nice, family run, café near the hotel, the Adeles café, and then went to get all the bikes out of the car, which we left parked at the Ilfracombe Harbour (at £10 per day).
With all the bikes out of the car, the next stop was the Ilfracombe Promenade where the video starts.
View from the Ilfracombe Promenade with the Landmark Seaview Theater to the left
Now, before you go watch the video, let me make a few remarks, so you don’t get too disappointed at the start and give up on it:
I usually use time-lapse photography to compress the time and the GoPro is usually mounted on the handlebar. This time, however, I had forgotten the camera handlebar mount at home and was forced to use the mount on my helmet, which for time-lapse is not ideal. There is a lot of head movement, especially in urban areas as I had to be aware of my surroundings. There is a limit for how much image stabilization can reduce the shakiness. It does get better on rural areas.
In a few places the camera seemed to have moved out of position and recorded mostly the sky 🙁 Sorry for that!
On the last 3 minutes of the video, as night fell (and added to the fact the time-lapse video was taken from my moving head) made the video unwatchable, but I decided to keep it anyway as a complete record of the day. Up to you if you have the eyes to watch it.
This video is a different approach from previous ones, not only because of the problems above, but because I decided not to worry about the length of the video (it’s 33 min long). I know most people watch only 3 to 5 min of video in YouTube and then give up, but I am assuming that if you are watching it is because you probably intend to ride this route also, so the more detail, the better.
Right at the start prepared to be challenged by some steep hills as you cross the town to get to the start of the route 27 cycle path. The path is very nice though, with some beautiful views of the valley below and the water reservoirs. You’ll cycle about 7 Km on cycle paths and then take right on Georgeham Road. From that point you’ll cycle on minor narrow roads (sometimes barely wide enough for a car) practically all the way to Braunton. Along the way, you’ll see some nice sea views on the distance.
Sheeps and Sea
We had to stop in Braunton because Fernando’s bike developed a rather serious disc brake issue, practically resulting in the loss of all brakes. Luckily the Southfork bike shop in Braunton was opened for business, despite being a bank holiday in the UK, and the entire hydraulic disc brake set was replaced.
View of Barnstaple from Long Bridge
It took about 1.5 h for them to complete the work which gave us enough time for some very tasty fish and chips at Squires, which I totally recommend. After the brake fault and the repair, we re-joined route 27 towards Barnstaple, one of the region’s biggest towns and the place we would come back to by train on Sunday. The ride alongside the river Taw is great and the path is smooth. Once you get to cross to the other side over the “Long Bridge”, you’ll continue to ride alongside the River Taw for several kilometres still.
Bideford Station, Tarka Trail.
The next town / village along the way is Instow, were you’ll pass by a 130 years old railway signal box on your way to Bideford. I found that after the old Bideford Station the Tarka Trail is really beautiful, with lots of old railway bridges over the river Torridge, such as the one where you can see the old Beam Aqueduct, which used to carry the Rolle Canal over the river Torrington, but is now a road bridge, and the Landcross tunnel, which I think is the longest tunnel along route 27 (in the video above I recorded these in normal video, not as time-lapse).
Landcross Tunnel
You’ll then follow the cycle path to the old Victorian railway station of Torrington which has now become the Puffing Billy Trading Co. Restaurant, really worth a rest stop (even though I didn’t).
Puffing Billy Trading Co. Restaurant
The stretch that follows after Torrington is really beautiful and I would recommend that, even if you don’t want to watch the entire 33 minutes video above, jump to about 21 min into the video and take a look at the surroundings. The cycle path follows the curvy path of little rivers and creeks with some simple, but interesting surprises along the way. If it was nice during spring time, I suppose in summer must be even nicer.
She looks so sad… Watch the video to find out why.
After that comes a long stretch of unpaved, but nicely compacted, of the Tarka trail through patches of forest. The ascent is small (perhaps 5 to 8%), but is very long. At times it gives the impression you will never stop going uphill. If you are fit and not carrying a lot of load on your bike, it will not be a challenge at all, but after 60 Km and with some 15 Kg on the bike it may not be as easy as it sounds. Looking at my Garmin stats I still managed to maintain an average speed of about 15 Km/h, peaking 22-25 Km/h at times, so it wasn’t so bad. There are some interesting sculptures along the way, which appeared to may have been created by school kids.
After that portion of the Tarka Trail ends you are back on the road, the A386 and traffic can be intense. If you’re riding with children I would advise extreme caution or find alternative routes as in some patches of the A386 there is barely any space for a bike and no hard shoulders (in some places you have a stone wall right beside the road on an incline).
As I was using Google Maps to guide me and wanted to follow the path of route 27, just before Hatherleigh the app guided me away from the A386 through some back roads of Hatherleigh. I did ask for directions, but decided to stick to Google Maps instead (it is not always advantageous to do so, listen to my Bike Vlog).
Google Maps guided me through some minor single lane farm roads and that was likely the reason why I did 4 Km more than my riding partners that day, as they stuck to the A386. All the time Google Maps was telling me I was on route 27, though, and I saw the many sign posts confirming that, so I believe I kept true to route 27’s intended path.
If it was summer time I would have arrived in Okehampton still in daylight, but as it was early spring the sun went down at around 6:30 pm and it became quite a dark night that day as stormy weather was being predicted to the next day (the arrival of storm Katie over the next 2 days).
So for about 40 min I had to use my headlight and, as mentioned before, the video became just a mess of shaky moving lights.
Okehampton Youth Hostel
As you arrive in Okehampton, in case you decide to stay in the Youth Hostel as well and having done more than 80 Km, be prepared for a long ascent as the Youth Hostel is located in the old train station in the highest part of town. So you’ll have about 2 Km uphill to go, with inclines that can reach about 10% at places. Not ashamed to say I pushed my bike on the last Km or so and that is why the video was so long at that final part. I got the Youth Hostel at around 7:30 pm in the evening and after doing the check-in, safely storing my bike in their bike shed, having a little rest and a shower I had missed dinner time, but I wasn’t hungry anyway.
To finish the account of my 1st day I’d like to thank the staff at the Okehampton Youth Hostel who went out of their way to help us and stayed until late so that when my riding partners arrived just before 10:00 pm that evening they could store their bikes too.
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The London Bike Show was the place to be for Cyclists in London last weekend (11th to 14th of February 2016). It was for me a new experience since I had not been to one before. It was a bit of a Marathon to get to the ExCel, with trains, the underground and the DLR, but it was worth it. Since I was covering the show for the Brazilian Cycling Magazine “Revista Bicicleta” I manage to get a press pass to the show.
Now, with the show over, the stats I found on their website indicates that they had over 50.000 visitors and more than 300 different brands in categories such as Clothing, Bicycles, Electronics, Innovation, Performance, Charity, Components, Nutrition, Tourism, Retail, Accessories and others.
There where over 50 different bicycle brands or manufacturers exposing the best of what is available in cycling today. Among them some brands I personally had never heard of (doesn’t mean they are unknown) such as Radon, from Germany and Wilier from Italy. Of course, most of the big names were there too in the likes of Specialized, Cannondale, Cube, Giant, Scott, Boardman, Surly, Orange and many others and they have taken a lot of the space of the show. I felt, however, that there were names missing there also. For instance I don’t recall having seen booths for Fuji and Bianchi in the show, but then I could have missed them, even though I was there for 7 hours (and they are not in the list of brands I got either).
Stealth Bike
My impression was that electric and hybrid bikes were big on this year’s show, but then I didn’t go to last year´s show to make a proper comparison. Every brand in the show had at least 1 electric or hybrid option available and there were those brands that all they do is electric bikes such as Oxigen from the UK and Stealth from Australia.
There was really a bit of everything in the show and sometimes it felt like there was too much of something as well, enough to get a bike loving person somewhat dazzled by what it was on offer, especially those with big pockets. It wasn’t hard to find bikes with £7,000 to £9,000 price tags in them.
The show also brought to stage cycling celebrities like Sir Chris Hoy, the most decorated Olympic cyclist of all time, with six gold medals in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics and 11 times track world champion. Other celebrities included Greg LeMond, 3 times Tour de France winner, and Steve Peat, a downhill MTB legend.
During the show over 40 of the best freestyle bikers competed for a € 10,000.00 price on an event called “Air to the Throne“. They competed on a purpose built course with some huge ramps that allowed the riders to showcase some mind-blowing tricks for the crowds. It was nice to watch their domain of the bike.
The ticket to the bike show gave also access to 3 more events taking place in the same area: The Triathlon Show, sponsored by Honda, the Outdoor Adventure & Travel Show, sponsored by the Telegraph (a British Newspaper), with lots to see for nature loving camping people and the London International Dive Show, that enabled visitors to actually try the equipment in the big swimming pools built on site.
Although those were nice to see, the bike show was the main event, at least for me. Given that my current interest is in bike touring and long distance cycling, that is where I tried to focus my attention to.
I did look around in the outdoor and adventure area to check the options for tents and other camping equipment which I intend to use in my next long distance trip. Here the highlight goes to the Terra Nova Laser Ultra 1 tent with a total weight of less than 0.5 Kg (1.1 lb). I bought myself an all-in-one stove and cooking pot that I thought was on offer for a good price in the show (that was actually the only thing I bought during the show).
The number of items in the show were in fact so varied that a visitor that didn’t have in mind something specific to look for, could easily be visually overwhelmed by all the information available and by what was on offer.
The show had a large circular test track on one side which enabled the visitor to “test-ride” many of the bikes on display. Of the 7 hours I was there I only tested 3 bikes: 2 electric and an urban one. I didn’t find many touring bike options during the show and that was for me a bit disappointing, but I found interesting innovations in areas such as lighting and efficient use of space and weight, which for those who intend to travel long distances by bike are worth checking.
I was impressed by how far dynamo technology has come since the old days of the mechanical bottle dynamos. Exposure lights had an electromagnetic dynamo + lights kit, the “Revo Dynamo” on show and I was amazed by how little drag the dynamo produced on the wheel to keep the 800 Lumens light on full power. On the same booth they had their battery operated LED lights on display. The strongest one, the “Six Pack MK6“, with a massive 4,000 lumens of power and a battery to keep it going for 4h at full power or 31h at low power (which is actually quite strong). I liked the small OLED displays on the back to indicate their status and remaining power left in the battery. Needless to say all of these don’t come cheap, with the Dynamo kit costing around £300 and the big 4,000 lumens light at around £400. There were several other brands showing their innovations in this area.
AQUAir from NEOS
Topeak brought to their booth some very interesting bicycle bags. From frame and tool bags to a variety of panniers. Things that captured my attention were the a combined water bottle cage with a small tool bag underneath and the air pump designed to fit into the seat post, part of their Ninja series. Another interesting product I’ve seen in this area was a behind the saddle support made by NEOS called AQUAir which allows you to have 2 water bottles, as well as 2 CO2 cartridges, an inflation tube and an extra inner tube all neatly stored behind and under your saddle.
For those that like gadgets, Kodak was showing their latest 360º, 4K action camera. In this area, I missed the presence of players such as GoPRO and Sony, which I believe are market leaders in this segment.
Another area I though was under-represented was the one for special bikes, like Recumbents and Tricycles. Yes, there were a few brands showing their products, but in relation to more conventional types of bikes (Road, MTB, etc) their presence was almost insignificant. In this area one bike that made me turn heads was a rather strange looking tandem from Circe Cycles named Morpheus Aurora. The rear cyclist seats in a conventional saddle and pilots the bike, while the front cyclist seats and pedals in a reclined (recumbent) position and holds a fake handlebar for support. A very interesting concept to say the least.
In terms of accessories I must confess this was an area I didn’t particularly focus on, but I did visit the booths of Continental and Schwalbe on the look for the ideal tyres for my future bike travel plans to Rome. I also found some interesting devices such as LiteLok’s Boa Green lock which, according to them was awarded the highest ever Secure Gold standard by Sold Secure, a British testing agency for security products.
Also worth mentioning is the Overade folding bicycle helmet, which due to its folded size might be an interesting product for those short on space on long bike journeys.
Those of us living in cold winters might also have also been interested in the Virtual Reality Cycling Simulation
game brought by Tacx to be used with their Turbo Trainers (rollers). The online game connects to servers on the internet and allows the rider to compete with other riders (that obviously have the same system) anywhere in the world.
The simulation has several types of tracks available and the resistance in the roller is controlled in accordance to the terrain displayed on the high resolution simulation in the screen in front. I do believe that depending on the size of the screen the simulation has the potential to be very immersive and it is an excellent exercise, as I could myself experience in the 2 times I had a go at it (it was fun).
In conclusion, those owners of Basic Lamborghinis will now be happy to know that they can carry their precious bikes on the roof of their vehicles through a support with special suction cups and but if they end up scratching the red paint of the car, please don’t come complaining to me.
Click on the image above to go to the Flickr Album with pictures of the show.
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and according to a 51 years old amateur rider 🙂
tent with a total weight of less than 0.5 Kg (1.1 lb). I bought myself an all-in-one stove and cooking pot that I thought was on offer for a good price in the show (that was actually the only thing I bought during the show).
” on show and I was amazed by how little drag the dynamo produced on the wheel to keep the 800 Lumens light on full power. On the same booth they had their battery operated LED lights on display. The strongest one, the “
“, with a massive 4,000 lumens of power and a battery to keep it going for 4h at full power or 31h at low power (which is actually quite strong). I liked the small OLED displays on the back to indicate their status and remaining power left in the battery. Needless to say all of these don’t come cheap, with the Dynamo kit costing around £300 and the big 4,000 lumens light at around £400. There were several other brands showing their innovations in this area.
, which due to its folded size might be an interesting product for those short on space on long bike journeys.
