I have been out for some days now, I’ve reached Northern Ireland and am waiting for Christopher, who will arrive by plane tomorrow. I have seen some absolutely fantastic scenery, both running and riding. I don’t really feel inspired to write at this point so I’ll settle for sharing pictures.
Llama spotting on my evening run in the CotswoldsIt is sunny, green and lovely but unfortunately no trotting deer to be seen anywhereI found a campsite next to a river, I thought I better stop before the rain so I could pitch my tent and go running. It didn’t rain at all though. Very nice!Riding in Snowdonia – as adventurous as I get, so far at leastMy favourite dinner, I’d been saving myself for this. This was not only a delicious meal, it was also the first time in a very long time I could listen to a bar full of people speaking and I could not understand a single word. Welsh is an interesting language indeed.Running along the waterfront and over the peace bridge in Derry
So, that is a summary in pictures from the last days, I’ll get back about the Horizons Unlimited event – I need to dwell upon it a bit longer before writing. Now I’m off to bed with my new book, “In Search of Greener Grass” which I “had” to buy since my kindle ran out of charge.
I felt a bit blasé this morning and felt like staying in bed reading about Nathan and his postbike. But that won’t do! Life is for living and to challenge myself I programmed the GPS to plan a bicycle route. That gave interesting road suggestions and I left London on the back streets, it took one and a half hours 🙂 Now I’m eating crisps somewhere in the Cotswolds and life is good. There might even be time for reading later, when the sun has set.
I’m home washing clothes and repacking after a fantastic weekend at the Overland Event. The weekend was packed with inspiring talks, people who had ridden across the world on motorbikes, scooters, post bikes… you name it. Your imagination is your limit when it comes to ways to explore the world. Needless to say, my journey to Ireland feels rather tame after meeting all these people. But one day, that will be me… just need to practise a bit of gravel riding and rough camping and I will be good to go 😉
Christopher proudly presents our tiny tent where he slept like a babyThe campsite in sunshine… we did have some rain, but not enough to discourage usTyre work shop – I’m quite confident I could do this… if I had tubed tyres… perhaps my next bike will have such…This bike has been around the world
This bike belongs to Jacqui Furneaux, who rode it around the world, a journey that lasted 7 years. Her talk was one of the many inspirational talks that we listened to, the title was “Plan? What plan? How to have fun whilst going with the flow”. At the moment she is writing a book about her travels, keep an eye out for it!
Another talk was “Africa with Autism”. Melanie Cowpland was sharing her plans for a future journey, taking her daughter with her in an Ural with sidecar, travelling from England to South Africa. I will, for sure, follow their progress. Search on Facebook for Africa with Autism if you want to know more.
John is packed and ready to go, around the world, estimated travel time 2-3 years!
Another amazing person I met was John, who built his bike with what he could find and it will take him around the world, a journey he is doing in memory of his late wife. He has an extensive website with lots of information, about the bike, his plans and his progress: Townie v the World
The Overland Event sponsored MoR, Motorcycle Outreach, who have projects going in Tanzania and Indonesia, supplying bikes, training riders and mechanics so that nurses and doctors can reach remote villages with medical aid. The organisation was founded by Simon Milward, who travelled around the world and sadly died in an accident not being able to complete his journey. His story is told in “The Road to Mali” which was launched at the event. I look forward to read it.
Another cool thing was that there was possibilities to test ride a few bikes, there was three different Triumph’s and the CCM. I was keen to test ride the CCM, which is a UK manufactured bike, witch seems to have a lot of potential for traveling and fun riding on and of road but it was fully booked for the whole weekend when I finally got hold of the coordinator. I did however get to take the Triumph 800 out for a ride, it is very smooth, hardly any vibrations in the foot pegs which is my Achilles heal, but rather top heavy which I don’t like at all. If nothing else, it makes me look good.
This is just scratching the surface of what we experienced during this weekend. Now it’s time to end the day with a movie and some wine, tomorrow I set off, Going West.
