Cycle panniers and computer

A quick shopping trip to Lidl in Germany yesterday resulted in my acquisition of a pair of panniers and a cycle computer. The panniers seem pretty good - I wouldn't plan to use them for an end-to-end cycle tour of Africa, but as I'm only planning on local cycling at the moment they should be fine. It only cost €10 for the pair so I really couldn't resist. I can't take them in my backpack to Prague next week, so I'll have to wait till the end of the summer to get them as then my brother can bring them in his empty suitcases. 

The computer was only €3.99 and apparently does lots of whizzy things like tell me how far I've gone, my average speed and how many calories I've burnt. So it should be fun to play around with. And it's small and light so I can take it with me when I leave here.

Stonehenge and Greenland

Womad falls at the wrong part of summer. I'd much rather it was at the beginning of the summer holidays and then I could head south for the festival and then go up to Scotland for the rest of the summer. As it is I'm going to have nine days of holiday time before the festival. I'd spend the first few days at home anyway as I always have lots to do and sort out before I can go away. But nine days! I'll feel like I'm wasting my precious time off. So I'm going to head down to the Wiltshire / Somerset area and have a few days wandering around before Womad starts.

I'd been wondering what to do for these few days, but not doing any actual research as I've got other trips to plans first. I've just watched a documentary on iplayer about some new archaelogical excavations on Orkney and the programme was linking what was being found there with the later stone age 'buildings' of Stonehenge and Avebury and so on. I like this kind of stuff so I started thinking about doing some kind of walk linking the various neolithic remains together. Then just as I was flicking through my 'Walk' magazine (it's the magazine issued by the Ramblers) I came across an article about a proposed Great Stones Way which does exactly that. It links Avebury to Old Sarum via Stonehenge, Silbury Hill, Salisbury Plain, the Kennet and Avon Canal, Woodhenge and Durrington Walls. It all seems quite easy to do on existing paths except for for the slight problem of the MOD firing range on Salisbury Plain. The route is about 38 miles and so three easy days would do it, though it should also be possible to walk it in two if need be.

Feeling happy as I always do when a plan starts to formulate in my mind, I turned the page. An article on Greenland. More specifically an article on walking the Arctic Circle Trail which seems to be a cheap way to see Greenland. I've been looking at ways of getting to Greenland for a few years and haven't yet managed to come up with a cheap way of doing it. I'd have to fly from Copenhagen and all in all flights would be about £1000. But once there the walking is free, I can wild camp or stay in free huts and even the canoe I would need to paddle across one of the lakes is free. I'd take my own lightweight dried food and so would only need to buy fuel for my stove. The trail is 165km long and to divide it into a hut-to-hut traverse would mean taking nine days. With a few days spent at either end that would give me about a fortnight in Greenland. I could then spend the rest of the summer cycling and camping in Denmark. I'm already feeling quite excited about this. I won't be able to do it this summer, but I don't have anything on my calendar for next year yet!

Cycling website

I've been googling cycling and Japan and I've come across this website

http://www.cyclingaroundtheworld.nl/japan/ie_japan.htm

It's an English language site run by a Dutch couple who have cycled all over the world. As well as lots of details on cycling in the different countries they've been to, they also have a lot general info on cycling. I'm looking forward to having the time to explore the site properly, as I'm sure it's going to be really useful and inspiring.

Josie Dew and Japan

I've started reading Josie Dew's book 'A Ride in the Neon Sun'. As I'm toying with the idea of doing a cycle tour of Japan at some point in the future I thought it would be good for research. As none of the areas she mentions sound even remotely familiar to me (well, apart from Tokyo, that is), I've dug out my 1991 Lonely Planet on Japan, so I can look at the maps and do a bit of reading around. So far, both books have confirmed my fears that Japan is:

• Extremely expensive
• Extremely overcrowded
• Extremely built up
• Extremely difficult to navigate due to the incomprehensible alphabet
• Extremely hard to have a varied and nutritionally sufficient diet whilst retaining vegetarian ideals.

They have also given me some new fears, such as:

• Lots of horrible, long, dark, heavily polluted tunnels to cycle through whilst being covered in oily, dirty spray and risking being squashed by lorries
• Dirty, polluted beaches
• Very few campsites
• Long, hot baths (I'm much more of a shower person).

All this and I've only just started reading the books. I'm going to have to do a LOT of preparation before I seriously think about embarking on this trip!

Other blogs and websites

There are a few websites and blogs that I monitor frequently. One is Alastair Humphreys' website. He pushes the whole motivation thing a bit heavily at times, but he is quite inspirational and I've picked up a few ideas from him. When I checked out his site today he had a link to a website belonging to a Swiss couple who spent eight years cycling round the world, more than a year of which was in Japan. This section of their website seemed quite interesting as cycling in Japan is an idea that's starting to ferment at the back of my mind. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of detail, but they do have some amazing photos. 


Another website I check regularly is that of the Walking Englishman. He really inspires me to create my own website though I know I'll never be in his league. At the moment he's a few weeks in to an 80 day, 1000 mile walk through Scotland and England. Most days he's updating a blog about it. The update I read today was about the small part of the Great Glen Way he's walking, including Neptune's Steps and the route into Fort William. If I walk the GGW in the summer I'll be doing it the other way round to this, but it's still more information for me that will help me to prepare. 


I do like it when the blogs and websites I look at link in to what I'm doing at the moment. 


http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/
http://veraluc.com/velo_le_voyage.php?lang=eng
http://www.walkingenglishman.com/
http://www.1000milewalk.co.uk/2011/06/09/accomplishment/ 

Cycling Japan

I've wanted to go to Japan for years. I have Japanese friends who returned to live there a few years ago and visiting them gives me even more of a reason to go to Japan. Why haven't I gone already?

• When I've had time to go on holiday I've been busy visiting other places instead
• I'd like to go for long(ish) time and so haven't had long enough holidays off work
• It's very expensive
• It's difficult to get around and really do anything without knowing the language and a lot about the culture.

So, if I'm going to get around to ticking this one off my list I have to get over these four main issues.

The first one isn't so major. I'll make time for it at some point. I have plenty of time to get to all the main places I want to visit before I'm 60 and still have time to visit others as well.

Now I'm a teacher I have 6 weeks holiday in the summer. Spring and autumn are meant to be the nicest times to go as I'd get to see either the blossoms or the autumn leaves. But I could cope with missing out on those as long as I got to see the country. I'm not sure if even 6 weeks would be long enough, but I may get even more time in the future if my hostel and freelancing life plans work out. So issue no.2 is fast disappearing. 

The expense is a problem I still have to really deal with. Some people say it's not as expensive as I think especially if I'm not staying in luxury hotels. Which I definitely wouldn't be. I recently read an article in a travel magazine about cycling round part of Japan. Now that would be a really cheap way to get about. I could camp (hopefully - I don't know much about the camping situtation in Japan), carry lots of packets of instant noodles, and get to out of the way places without it costing me anything.

The problem with the cycling solution is I've never ridden really long distances before and never carried all my gear on a bike. I would like to do this though, which is why doing a long distance cycle tour is also on my list of things to do. By doing my cycle tour in Japan I could tick off 2 challenges in one go. So now, I need to think about practising and training. I bought a cycle rack for my car at Christmas so I can take my bike out to the Peak District and cycle some of the converted railway track trails. I do want to cover these as they are very scenic, but they make for boring walking. They will make a good start for my cycle training though. As I'm too busy to even get out walking or go to the gym at the moment I don't know when this will happen, but hopefully before the summer.

The fourth issue with my going to Japan is the culture and language. I have a friend who is a Japanophile (is there a proper word for that?) and has studied the language for years. Even she had lots of difficulties when she visited. The language is written in a mix of Japanese, Western and Chinese characters. Although she knew the Japanese and Western characters, all the Chinese characters made things very hard to read. Also there are so many rules for every little thing you do. Because foreigners don't know the etiquette it makes it very difficult to achieve even half of what a Japanese person can in the time, and there are many things you miss out on completely.

Starting my visit by staying with my Japanese friends may be a good move as I can learn a lot from them. Akiko is pretty adventurous and not your typical Japanese woman so she may even be persuaded to do a bit of travelling with me. I'll need to learn a bit of the language, though I have no plans for that just now. I'm studying a couple of other things at the moment and need to get them out of the way before I take anything else on. I can make a start on the culture though. I'm not starting from zero as I already know quite a bit (not nearly enough, but more than your average British person). I've just bought The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture which is a bit out of date but still a good place to start according to the reviews on Amazon. I must also read my Josie Dew books about her cycle tours of Japan. I like her books but I've never got round to reading these two even though I've owned them for years.

And still on the cycling theme - I've just come back from the Netherlands which is the world's most cycle friendly country. As I go there most years, I could do a bit cycle tour training there. There are plenty of places it would be great to cycle round for a few days and I could carry all my gear to practice. I've done some cycling there in the past (including this visit) so I know how easy it is. A great place to start.

So these are my Japan visiting and cycle touring plans so far. When I start writing them down like this I feel like I'm actually getting somewhere. When they are just ideas swimming around in my head it doesn't feel like I'm actually doing anything towards my goals. But actually, they are all ticking over all the time in the back of my mind.