New Blog

I shall start a new blog. This one will be pictures only. It will be Dan Dispain Takes Selfies of Himself Whilst Riding Around the World.

Rant

Garmin tourer GPS devices are rubbish. If you want a GPS device that navigates then this is not the one. Put any ride in that is reasonable in length (say 100kms) it pauses, and the essentially says "No, no no. That is far too far for me to work out, would you put a shorter ride in? Say from here to the corner just ahead of you?"

Another little function it has is if you put a ride in, from say here to B, it ask you first for your current location (as I guess GPS's do not know their current location) and then asks if you would like to go to.... your current location. I suspect I already know the way to my curent location as I am already here. But there we are.

Another delight this gorgeous peice of kit does is after a ride is put in is spend about 20 minutes trying to work out the ride, and then if one gets impatient and starts to ride, it then says "Movement detected!"and then freezes.

Sometimes it likes to give information. Not information like TURN LEFT! or STRAIGHT AHEAD! but a particular favourite of it is to inform me that I am currently "Riding on Trail". Now I am not so sure about the general populous, but I can generally tell that I am riding on a trail by looking down, beyond my front wheel and seeing the surface in front of me.I have yet to be surprised by what I find.

Day 5. Rest days are boring, part 2

Washed clothes. Went to library. Wrote this. Will have ice cream. Very big one. Tomorrow I hit the road Jack.

Day 4. Netherlands.

Rest days are boring. I arrived very early, the ferry trip was shorter than expected as I hadn't calculated the hour lost over the water. So after about 4 hours sleep I wearily pushed my bike down the exit ramp and into Eurasia. I got to laugh as two people with stupid clicky shoes were riding along and crashed into each other as they were too busy looking at their stupid clicky shoes and not where they were going. I, however, was cream crackered. So as Scheveningen is just up the coast I decided to have two nights here. It is nice, big beach and lots of sun. I have been here before so knew what to expect. I also had my first mechanical. Gear cable was worn through and looked like it would snap. My gears were not changing properly for a while. The position of my handle bar bag was interfearing with the cable and changing. All fixed now. I did not expect to feel so restless so soon. Which is good, very good. Rest days are boring.

Day 3 (Have I Failed already?)

Today was exhausting. It started well, bombing through London as far as Greenwich and then my sat nav decided not to nav anymore. So I got lost, very lost. After waisting 2 hours going round and around I realised that the compass was still working on the sat nav and headed off on a vaguely north/north east direction, as Harwich was my destination. I found Barking, and lots of horrible busy roads, I found Chigwell, and lots of horrible busy roads, I found Epping, and lots of horrible busy roads and finally found Chelmsford. I ate, rested and re-found the cycle route I planned to follow. So I followed it. But I was late, and the ferry has a scheduled departure. So I bombed to Colchester by about half 9 and waived a white flag and jumped on the train. Good lord trains are ace. All you do is sit there and then they take you to your destination! Utter luxury. And utter relief as I made my ferry, and felt like as I pushed my bike on board!

Day 2

Staines on Thames is loverly. Don't let the Ali G character fool you. Well the bit by the Thames is anyway. The rest of the town may be a dump but I have no idea, as I followed the river. But it is lined with gorgeous house and gorgeous house. I suspect only the very wealthy can live in Staines upon Thames. Perhaps this is due to the success of Ali G?!

I got as far as Kensington and Chelsea, after stopping at the gates of Hampton Court Palace. I didn't see Lucy Worsley, so left dissapointed. The Palace is beautiful anyway.

Day 1, England.

Left very late, about 5ish. I was rather hungover from 3 days of partying and leaving do's. Thank you all for coming, they were fab. I had always envisioned that my first day would be in the wet. And it was. I got as far as Reading at about half 8 and called it a day.

Will I do it?

Dunno, but I'll sure as hell give it a go. May be I get as far as Didcot, fall off, graze my knees, cry and want to go home. I suspect not tho. Will I complete it? Bloody no idea. But I'm not here to set records. Or prove a point. I'm just some bloke who likes riding bikes and likes travelling. And I have never been around the world on anything.

Route.

I shall split the trip into two very approximate parts. Firstly I shall leave Oxford and follow Eurovelo 2 (http://www.eurovelo.com/en/eurovelos/eurovelo-2) as far as Warsaw. Then north, pick up Eurovelo 11 (http://www.eurovelo.com/en/eurovelos/eurovelo-11) to the Latvian border with Russia. Then east to Moscow, south east to Kazakhstan. After Kazakhstan I will cross into Kyrgyzstan, ride around Issyk Kul and cross the Irkeshtam Pass to China. Then I will ride either the North Silk Road, the South Silk Road or through Tibet and on to the Border with Laos. This, however is where things become vague as it depends on what visa and for how long I receive for China. I suspect I may only get 30 days which will result in the very real possibility of me having to get a train at some point. If so I will cross to Vietnam. I then plan to winter in South East Asia, hopefully taking my bike into Burma, before deciding where to fly from in East Asia and where to in North America. Somewhere on the west coast for sure, but money and time of year will dictate. The earlier the year, the more southern the destination. And this is the very vague part two of the trip. If it is early in the year then I hope to cross the southern states of the US and head up to New York for a flight back to Europe. If it is later in the year then a flight to Vancouver will be the plan, before heading across Canada, into the US and again flying from New York. But this is all very vague, and very, very distant. I will see.

Not left yet.

Does what it says on the tin really. Still got lots to do, but I'll do that later. Off next Monday, leave England next Wednesday, and then onwards!