Bikus interruptus

Hi,

well a number of you told me so. I have now reached Manchester or rather 3 miles south of Knutsford 421 miles in 6 days and I am cream crackered with a sore ear throat and lips. Sheila says why not take a break and resume the trip on sunday from Peebles and then do the Knutsford to Peebles trip over a long weekend soon. Sounds like a good idea to me.

So what went wrong or rather not as right as it might?
1) 70 miles a day took me longer than anticipated from my training trips. This left not enough time to recover, take stops, make mistakes.
2) Each day following the CTC route I got lost at least once adding a few miles to the trip.
3) There were some brutal hills especially in the route I was following which slowed me down
4) And yes I needed a lighter bike for those damm hills.

But assuming I rest up successfully these next few days I am up for continuing so watch this space!

Now for the better news. People were amazing, stranger gave me £5, £5, £5, £3, £3, £2 - sometimes they came up to me and talked someetimes they gave me money out of car windows occasionally on the move! Many more urged me on with shouts and car horns and a group of bikers performed stunts to entertain me as they passed me by! This all helped.

I did 73, 72, 71 74, 60, 72 miles on the six days and eat lots of mostly delicious Cornish pasties and got sick of Enlgish breakfasts, ate lost of chewy oat, nuts, and dried fruit and 5 bottles of water a day. The weather was fantastic if sometimes a little too hot.

I went into 'Unicorn' mode some of the time - you know allowing ideas and thoughts to turn up to be looked at and I sorted out a few problems I had. I have a few people to speak to and few letters to write as a result. Quite a bit of the time I was mindless just empty and physical but time flowed by. I was never bored. It was a pilgrimage I think. I suffered quite a bit. It is a pure physical slog after all. Maybe I was demonstrating suffering with - compassion - and maybe that produced people positive reactions. It was like having a sign around my neck or rather I had one attached to the bike telling people what I was doing and why - photos to follow.

There were some stunning views of Dartmoor, the Quantocks, the Wrekin, Wenlock Edge, the view from the Severn Bridge, Tintagel in the mist, Tintern Abbey breathtaking. Plenty of places I would have wished to have spent time in and must re-visit on another kind of pilgrimage.

I got lonely when my back up team left me at Ross on Wye I thought then that it was a mad thing I was doing taking me away from them. I still think it is a bit mad but it not that long a time as it happens.

I feel proud to have covered 420 miles so far and look forward to completion. I'll write more in a while.

Best to all,

Bill on bike