Tag Archives: cycling

Hadrian’s Wall Ride – Day 1

Cycling Adventures, Travel, ,

I suspect on these pages I’ve written about Hadrian’s Wall before but it’s still topical, not least because it’s a wonderful and intriguing piece of our British history and the fact that it offers a wonderful route across the north of England with delightful scenery and antiquity. 

I first got interested in the area in 2020 when Anna and I took a short break up at Hexham and ventured onto the wall for a bit of a walk. Anna remembers it will as she slipped on the mud, that comprised the path, and sat in her coat in a soggy puddle! It was touch and go as to whether I would allow her into the car.

Later that year I ventured back up in the Morgan to investigate the Vindolanda Fort, the site of a world class museum that was one of the first locations in the UK where archaeology discovered the written word. Frankly, I was blown away by this Fort and the stories and histories it divulged. If you’ve not been then what’s wrong with you?

From here my visits were about taking holidaymakers there as a guide, whether walking or cycling. One of the delights that never failed to draw literal sighs of pleasure was Sycamore Gap. Here where the wall dips down between two cliffs a glorious and iconic tree stood. Sadly we know that the tree was felled for no good reason by two vandals who will find out their sentence in July. Let’s hope it reflects this awful act.

My image taken in May 2022

Stretching back nearly as long ago as the building of this 84 mile long barrier was my friendship with John. Fortunately John, judging by the look of him, has fared better than the Wall over the 60 years we have known each other. We met at Ashville College, Harrogate in 1966. We were both very young boarders at Ashville’s preparatory school, New College. John moved south at 16 and stayed down that way (poor soul, I know.) Our contact has been intermittent but includes the honour of being his Best Man at his marriage to Pip.

I’ve hardly changed since 1988.

So when John contacted me about his own idea to cycle Hadrian’s Wall I invited myself onto the ride! He never objected. Using my knowledge of the ride, the sightseeing and possible accommodation solutions we agreed a date and I got down to booking hotels and trains. John’s worries weren’t about my itinerary but how much fitter I’d be cycling after my well documented adventures. As it turned out John did quite a bit of training in the hilly areas of Hampshire and turned up fit. He actually turned out to be quite an athlete and got round well with no hitches or stress. So leaving the house we cycled to York Railway station and embarked on the straightforward trundle to Carlisle.

The only problem arose in arriving in Newcastle and finding the platform for the Carlisle train that was so tight for time that a coffee couldn’t be procured. However in Carlisle we girded our loins to cycle west to the ‘start’. This was at Bowness-on-Solway. Here the Wall was originally earth and timber and had disappeared several centuries ago. However before that we popped into Carlisle Cathedral. This magnificent building has quite a history with lots of graphics as well as impressive vistas.

Around the church we found a custard cream.

These little metal biscuits have QR codes with them that if scanned open up web pages giving you the history of the monument, building, sight or whatever they’re sited next to. Why a custard cream I hear you all ask? Well, McVitie’s and Carr are located in the centre of the town where one of their iconic products is this biscuit. Did you know 65 million are made here per year?

Frankly, yet unsurprisingly, I got a little excited by this because this biscuit is made even more supreme by covering it in thick milk chocolate. I felt compelled to share this vital information with strangers. So I did to a very kind elderly lady volunteer in the Cathedral who heard me out. She no doubt thought that this idiot, in hi viz cycling lycra, would shortly be gone and so adopted Plan A: smile sweetly. I felt that after this revelation we should pop back to M&S Food where these treasures appeared from and buy her a packet. The look on her face, on receipt, said ‘idiot, but with biscuits’.

Anyway after all this there was the small matter of turning the pedals to get to the start in Bowness. It was flat all the way and keeping the estuary to our left we ate up the 13 miles to find the formal start.

Forgot to breath in

Catriona took the photo. She was a middle aged hiker with a slightly furrowed brow who was walking alone and planned to start the Wall tomorrow. It did strike me as we chatted that this may be something of a retreat for her as she strode off heading east the next day; no doubt seeking exercise, history and possibly inspiration. The walk is a lot more ‘true’ to the old Wall location than the cycle route where we dodge around it on local roads but we would meet walkers from time to time. Anyway it was a sandwich in Bowness and then back to Carlisle. Also we additionally fuelled for our journey with another chocolate coated custard cream. They’re addictive.

Solway estuary behind us

Texas Odyssey 2025 – Bob – Part 6

Cycling Adventures, Travel, , ,

I think about my 2014 bicycle ride across America one way or another every day. It was an amazing nine weeks of adventure, phenomenal effort, awesome scenery and some new friendships. I’d call it the adventure of a lifetime as well as an item ticked off my bucket list. It was 3,900 miles of scary freedom across nine States not knowing when the next Kentucky dog would chase you or where you could fill up an empty water bottle in the sometimes 40°C heat. The cycle route was laid down on maps and either millennials, wondering what to do with their lives after graduation, or physically fit retirees, with time on their hands and still a head full of dreams. Cyclists would appear coming the other way and you’d stop and engage in a sort of 5 minute speed date before waving goodbye with one heading east and the other heading west. On July 25 2014 I met a guy as I cycled through Virginia. This was Bob Sanders. He was nearing the end; I was passing through my first State. We talked about the route, lodgings and he volunteered a calling card with his personal details on it. I pocketed it. He said that this wasn’t his first long distance ride, he was 75 and was looking forward to reaching the coast where after meeting up with his wife he had some respects to pay for some fallen comrades. He was a Vietnam War veteran. We shook hands, parted and cycled on.

Bob Sanders in 2014
Photo by Bob of you know who

Subsequently we’ve corresponded over the years and both of us continued on our two wheel adventures. Mine are well documented here on the web site. When Bob recently dropped into an email that he was going to ride across the USA for the fifth time and nail the Guinness World Record by being the oldest person, at 85, to do this I was literally blown away. Riding across the country with the wind, the sun, the variable quality lodgings and food, the potential bike issues, the endless minutiae of the logistics and all those long hills, day after day, was not an easy undertaking irrespective of your age, fitness, experience and mindset. It’s also an expensive project if you think of getting to the start, home from the finish, the hotels, the food and incidentals etc.

However, adding to the above was satisfying the Guinness World Record rules. The route has to be submitted in advance and be a minimum agreed distance, your own credentials needed confirming and then the verification process on the journey included obtaining witness statements repeatedly daily as well as completing a daily video record. It’s one thing to actually do this as well as the small matter of riding, maybe, 80 miles daily including 3,000 feet of climbing. All this needs collecting and documenting. What a determination and energy on and off the bike!

So whilst I’m sat in wintery York admiring Bob’s plan Anna had booked two weeks in Texas. She knew nothing of Bob’s record attempt. I’d not had sight of Bob’s itinerary and hadn’t worked out that maybe our paths could cross. Slowly but surely I woke from my metaphorical slumber and calculated that if Bob met his daily schedule there was a good chance by our driving west on our second to last day we could rendezvous. If you’ve read my other blogs you’ll know that Anna and I had a busy schedule all around the southern part of Texas and so this meeting would be a bolt on if Bob did the miles.

Stay tuned.

Goodbye 2024

Journal, , , ,

Here’s my year through letters of the alphabet although dreaming up a skirmish with a zebra for the ‘Z’ did prove elusive! As always it’s been a good year, but ‘A” does begin the alphabet with a fall…

Austria certainly changed the year. On a forest mountain path, near Hinterglemm, Anna stepped onto a tree root and broke her ankle in two places. From here mountain rescue retrieved her and we eventually got to York District Hospital five days later, at 4am, to start the proper treatment.  Anna has worked hard, recovered really well and is making great progress. This journey was blogged – click the link.

Books. I’ve read Slow Horses (Fiction – M Herron), A Bit Of A Stretch (Prisoner journal – C Atkins), Abroad In Japan (Living in Japan – C Broad), We Need to talk About Xi (China Politics – M Dillon), Decline & Fall: Diaries 2005 – 2010 (Politics – C Mullin), Hundred Year Marathon (China Politics – M Pillsbury), Why Can’t We All Just Get Along (Social musing – I Dale), Politics On The Edge (Politics – R Stewart) and Becoming (Biography – M Obama.)

Cousins meet up. Anna has been enthusiastic about genealogy and researched both sides of our family in. On my side an illegitimate child and a criminal have come to light but more pleasing but maybe less exotic some cousins have been found. My mother was one of six and the youngest. Anna found two cousins from my Uncle Jack who I had known albeit I think I last saw and spoke to them fifty years ago. From my Uncle Bert, a man I have no recollection of having met (and if he met me then I was a baby/toddler) came Bernice. Our meet ups have been nostalgic, educational and informative. Here’s to more relatives!

Departed. This year has been light on deaths but I recollect a call to a friend (Lyndon) in London, when beside the road on my bike leaving Mildura in Victoria, Australia at 5am, to learn the chap who introduced me to publishing album reviews had died. His website and podcast were The Americana Music Show. Calvin was 58 and lived in North Carolina. The other news came via a Facebook post. Duncan Warwick, the owner, editor and main contributor at Country Music People also succumbed to cancer after a very short illness. This is the magazine I write for. He was 63 years old. I knew he had health challenges but didn’t anticipate this.

Expedition. I loved another long bike ride from Sydney to Canberra and then onto Adelaide. This was through the Australia I liked: working folks, big distances, big skies, great campsites and unbelievable memories.  My February and March 1,100 miles are much covered elsewhere on this website. Click the link there are several blog from beginning to end.

Flight. A memorable visit was to the Duxford Air Museum. Apart from many exhibits of aircraft from bi-planes, military vehicles to Concorde there was a Spitfire and Hurricane taking off and landing on the runway. The vastness and breadth of the exhibits was engrossing. Having driven past it so many times on the M11 it was about time we popped in. Fabulous.

Gigs. There were plenty and even a couple in the USA. The list included Molly Tuttle, Tommy Emmanuel, The Average White Band, Julie Roberts (in Nashville), Lionel Richie (In Memphis), Kiki Dee, Guy Davis, Blackberry Smoke, Crowded House, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit.  Which was best? I enjoyed them all bar The Pretenders but Nathanial Rateliff and the Night Sweats bordered on astonishing.

Holidays. As retired folk then this is always on our mind and you’ll see the 2024 ones listed here. 2025 has already got Texas and France booked. France will be in the Morgan via the ferry, thanks to one of P&O’s promotions.

Isabella Isla. Our granddaughter continued to delight and she clocked up 12 months on Planet Earth in early December. A beautiful child with a lovely temperament being brilliantly brought up by her hard working parents. Her smile can melt away a number of problems although as she now becomes mobile she’s generating a few! Next year will be another interesting year.

Journey. Cycling keeps me fit, lets me see the world and provides great pleasure. Inevitably I get a number of injuries to keep the local physios busy; the main worry I always have is whether I can get back on my bike asap! Since 1994 I’ve cycled over 103,000 miles. In 2024 it was 4,200 miles.

Kangaroos. On February 23rd I truly lived the dream. It was an 84 miles ride between Temora and Narrandera in NSW, Australia and it was all through flat farm land with nothing to see. I pedalled for 8 hours listening to podcasts or music wandering what the town ahead offered? As I’m deep in my own world having not seen a car or person for what seemed like hours I spied in my peripheral vision two kangaroos bounding past me silently in a parallel field. (They can move at speed!) After they got past me they crossed the road and disappeared into a wood. That’s why I do it.

Last Guide Tour. I enjoyed my time as a tour guide. It got the adrenalin flowing and I’ve seen much of Yorkshire, Northumberland and The Cotswolds. Most of the guests were interesting and fun to be with. The company I worked for veered between supportive and kind to disorganised and deceptive. This is why I ended the work, however, I learned a lot and have some great memories.

Madeira. We were there for a few nights in April. What a lovely island. I’d thought it may be very similar to the Canary Islands but it was quite different with more to see. A super break. Highly recommended.

Narrandera. This small town in New South Wales was a stopover  as I headed from Sydney to Adelaide. With the use of the Talksport App I was able to listen to Leeds United vs Leicester City as I cycled the next morning. I listened to live commentary of an evening match. We won this table top clash but from here our season drifted into disappointment. If there was one addiction I could kick then supporting this damn team would be the one!

Peeved. So many of these entries are significant events but one thing that stuck with me from the year was a testy conversation with a bar owner in Rome. With Neil and Paul I entered a bar close to our accommodation and ordered drinks. The barmaid who took the order didn’t pour our drinks but, behind the bar, washed glasses, moved things around and then disappeared! After some time I got frustrated and suggested we leave. So we ambled down a narrow street home when a short woman appeared asking why we’d left the bar after ordering the drinks? Here was a small woman facing up to three men in the dark; it seemed unusually brave. We told her clearly about the lousy service and she countered that it was being sorted but in an adjacent room! I was impressed by her ‘front’ if not their service and so we wandered back to have a drink.

Older. As I clocked up 69 years in March I was now older than both my father and paternal grandfather when they died. It seemed profound. Let’s hope I can stretch the gap!

Qatar Airways. The bastards stopped me boarding a flight to Doha, and then onto Sydney. The reason was the condition of my passport. Anna had washed it in Queensland but despite being a little weary it’d since got me in and out of New Zealand, through Australia and in and out of Spain and Portugal since it’s ‘wash’. To find that you’re bounced at Check In was devastating. I had to reschedule and rebook at considerable cost.

Records. I never threw away my vinyl records when from the 1980s they went out of fashion. Viva the CD! However, they’re back and riffling through racks in second hand stores is a joy whether in Yorkshire, Australia or the USA. This year I acquired a further 47 discs. I think I will do a blog on this next year.

Sightseeing. A trip in October to Rome with Paul and Neil was to see the Vatican, Colosseum, Pantheon, Tiber etc. As very old friends we’d started meeting up in London for a meal and then progressed to a few nights in Malaga. This year it was Rome. See the blog on the website – click the link.

Tennessee – In late May Anna and I flew to Nashville. Here we saw the sights and heard a little music before driving to Memphis to do the same. I was last here in 2015. Later we flew out to Georgia to see my niece and family before driving back to Nashville via the Smoky Mountains. It was good to get my regular dose of America. This is written up elsewhere on the website – click this link.

Victoria. Amongst my annual highlights was to ride a bike in Savannah, Georgia and then back in Yorkshire later in the year with my niece. The first time. The USA ride was on the flat at pace on a titanium framed bike her husband, Ben, provided. The UK trip was around our house. Such a memory. Oh yes, she’s a lot better than me!

Writing. My monthly album reviews keep me sharp and working to deadlines. I write at least three reviews a month. Most of the artists I’ve, frankly, never heard of before which means lots of research to knock out c350 words per record. All this is for Country Music People. It’s part of my life.

X Factor. A surprising but complete delight was a visit to Leeds Playhouse to see Opera North’s My Fair Lady. Lerner and Loewe’s adaptation of a George Bernard Shaw play hit Broadway in 1956 and was one of the golden age of musicals. This cast did a wonderful job and re-ignited my enthusiasm for live theatre.

Bring on 2025.