Journeys

nick posted this 3rd July 2009 9:56am

Today I cycle out of Wales and up through to Liverpool and aiming towards the lakes.

I’ve been thinking a lot about journeys. I think they are all about discovery, finding out about ourselves mostly, but also learning new stuff everywhere you look. There is no doubt that you miss so much flying along roads in a car. On a bike you can stop pretty much anywhere, you drift though landscapes and miss very little (ok the hills are a bit tricky).

Some people are travelers and I suppose do this kind of thing all the time. But, as Andrea from Brooks saddles says, I’m your average bloke on the street, and I reckon we get the chance to do a big journey once or twice in a lifetime. So I’m still pretty much at the beginning of my trip around the coast of Britain, but I can see it’s a special thing to do, and I would say that anyone who sees an opportunity to take on a journey should grab it. You don’t know if it might come around again.

These baby swallows were in the shed where I kept my bike when I stayed with David and Clare in Cardigan a few days ago. My journey seems like a big deal, but they will travel back and forward to Africa several times in their lifetime and think nothing of it.
swallows

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Posted in bike, by the way, cardigan hq, life, places, sport / 5 Comments

 

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  1. Will Kennedy Says:
    July 3rd, 2009 at 11:39 am

    Good on you for doing this Nick, I think it is fascinating.

    I completely agree with what you say about journeys. The majority of people only focus on the start and end point of a trip and try to block out the journey in between, but for me this is the most interesting part of travelling. The people you meet, complete strangers but sharing the same common goal, the places you see that people normally just ignore and the taste of the cold beer at the end.

    Loving your blog and photo’s, keep it up its inspiring!

  2. peter walsh Says:
    July 3rd, 2009 at 2:13 pm

    Like Cormac said, there’s no joy in the tavern as on the road thereto.

    Which inspired my first, only and failed teepay submission – NO PINT TASTES AS SWEET AS THE RIDE TO THE PUB. (My mate with photoshop could never get the site to upload the design).

    Good luck on the road. Bike speed is the right speed.

  3. Luke Says:
    July 3rd, 2009 at 2:20 pm

    “It’s by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”

    Ernest Hemingway

    My friend and I are cycling from London to the South of France on a tandem in the summer. It’ll be an amazing way to discover what a country is really like.

    ben (carnaby) Replied:
    July 4th, 2009 at 10:16 am

    Hi Luke – That sounds amazing and potentially hilarious. When you get through we would love it if you stopped by the London store and told us/show us how it went!

    Cheers,

    Ben

  4. Nick Says:
    July 5th, 2009 at 9:30 am

    Thanks for the comments. I am aiming to be in London on August 25th (to see Wilco) so will try and pop into the store then. Am in Southport and off to Blackpool. Nice and flat here, so zipping along in big gears (makes a change).
    cheers
    Nick