Day 5: Emberton to Gt Comberton 83.42 miles

Emberton turned out to be the campsite from hell.   Was placed directly opposite a huge party of children with accompanying raucous women, all of whom seemed incapable of talking to each other in anything less than a shout. They're only kids, I thought grimly. They'll go to bed soon. They didn't. But when they did, the adults sat up to continue the party. One woman in particular had a very loud laugh and seemed to find a great deal to amuse her. At about 2:10 am I asked them ( more politely than I felt) to keep the noise down. At 3am they settled down.
So after about 5 hours of broken sleep I was not a happy person in the morning. Packed up ( noisily I'm afraid) and set off at 6:45, determined to shake the dust off my wheels.
Dull and cloudy again but saw a hot air balloon first thing which took as good sign, since they hate the wind more than I do.
Through Olney and Salcey Forest to Stoke Bruerne and up to Blisworth. This is a bit of road that I should do again at the end of the trek only turning east for home then instead of west.
Through the stone built villages of South Northants until saw some ' stop HS2' signs and I was in my third county of the day at Wormleighton in Warwickshire.
Country getting very hilly now. Got over 30 mph on four different hills today, so you can just imagine the climbs up the other side.
Stopped off at Burton Dussett country park as was in hope of coffee and large slab of cake. Alas no cafe,  but loos, and interesting view. Was a quarry site, now somewhere to picnic, cycle and walk. Nice.
Had crossed M1 earlier, now crossed M40 towards Wellesbourne. A farmer I worked for once kept his dry ( Jersey) cows there, and my memories of the place were Dylan Thomas like; hay meadows, golden light, green lanes, heck probably even a swallow thronged loft or two. But Wellesbourne is a suburban little town with traffic hurrying through to Stratford, though Im sure my lane and that meadow are there, somewhere.
Went to Stratford via Loxeley to avoid the busy B road. Nice to see Stratford again. Feel I'm getting somewhere now. Had a brie and cranberry baguette with coffee and did a little shopping; one of my gas canisters was playing up this morning so got a spare, and also a  bottle opener.
Was due to camp here but far too early, so started on tomorrow's route through Bidford- on- Avon and Harrington to Wyre Piddle and footpath to Pershore. Now in Worcestershire, fourth county of the day. Also on third river, having left the Ouse for the Nene and now the Avon.
Prrshore looks worthy of a longer visit but all I could fit in was the library ( to find campsite) and shop for food. Can't believe I can't get a bottle of Wyre Piddle ale though!
Excellent campsite at Great Comberton golf course. Whole field to myself - ah the peace! And campsite fee refunded to Cynthia Spencer charity ( thank you!) also got another donation in the clubhouse bar and promise of a third. You could say it's all going very well.

Day 4: Littleport to Emberton - 72 miles

Cloudy again. At least tent was dry to pack. Some sunshine in the morning which made going pleasant. Less wind too.
Little Downham very pleasant. Strange how different the villages are here, to those very austere and lonely places just a few miles north. There is an Anglican- Methodist church here; interesting that they seem to have kept both sites!
Bank holiday over, farm work being done, mostly cultivation but still some harvest to be got in. So on one side is ripe wheat and on the other, next year's crop greening through.
Had a bit of deja vu at Coveney ( went through there on day one). Back through Sutton to Earith and alongside the Hundred Foot Drain, another terribly long straight road. Found this was Huntingdon shire, and have to think it rather dull...
Crossed A1M at 37 miles, doing good time, but went astray at Alconbury ( too many of them ) so had to go through Woolley and Barham. Some rolling countryside more; managed 36mph on downhill to Spaldwick. Crossed A14 and went on to Kimbolton for lunch. Stopped at Olivers and had the most appreciated jacket spud ever and a nice long break with book and coffee.
Came out to unlock bike, only to find I couldn't. Fiddled with it for ages before admitting I was going to need help with this challenge. Went back to Olivers to the shop area and asked to borrow a Yellow Pages. After a minute the girl asked what was up. Explained problem and she immediately nominated her boss to fix it. He could not have been more helpful or more kind. He didn't have any tools but managed to get hold of some bolt cutters and after a few mins, my bike was free. Couldn't thank him enough! Bought new lock from hardware shop and off I went, chuffed by the kindness of strangers.
Through Pertenhall to Swineshead and Riseley. Passed the kennels at Sharnbrook - Rushden just 5 miles up the road. Hello Mum and Dad.
Day got more and more grey, quite depressing; also think I'm tired.  Through Odell, Harrold, Carlton et al to Emberton. Got a pitch at the country park which takes the biscuit for the most ludicrously over priced pitch fee ever at £21. But too tired to find an alternative. Short day tomorrow to Stratford.

Day 3: Gisleham to Littleport - 87 miles

Long hard day. Everything hurts. Sore face, stiff neck and shoulders, backache, knee ache and just lets say that I'm sitting on the most padded chair in the pub.

The main reason for all this discomfort is due to the strong head wind that I had to battle against all day. Perhaps the only reason for the excellent progress in days 1 and 2 was because the wind was behind me and I never realised!

Gisleham ( pronounced Gizlam) was basic but good campsite. Got chatting to my tent neighbour this morning and found that she really was my neighbour - she lives a few streets away from me in Kettering!
Left at 7 am with the sun behind me. Found I had to be a bit more careful with route finding with GPS screen problem but it is still usable. Main problem is that if you manually toggle - necessary now - it ceases to follow automatically. I like to think that the unit gets in a huff that I'm trying to take over.
Went wrong a couple of times, mostly a case of taking the wrong turning. Worst case was at Harleston  where went up a 12% hill ( well walking is a good chance to graze on blackberries) only to find myself on wrong road, but in right direction. Kept going as thought I could rejoin my route ahead ... Only to look down and see the B road passing under the road whereat I was... One illegal left turn later ( well it was onto a bike route so I'm sure ' no left turn‘ didn't mean me) a bit of skirting round and I was back.
But it was hard. Managed 11 miles in the first hour,  but it dropped off after that to less than ten. The wind was constant and strong; this wasn't a gentle breeze. This was tough and unrelenting.
Used some ' quiet lanes' one of which brought me to the ruined church of Tivertshall St Mary, said to have been founded before the Conquest.
At  Banham passed turn off for the zoo and stocked up on snacks in the Post Office, including a cream cake. Rejoined yesterday's route at Qidenham and for first time noticed signpost to the Carmelite Monastery ( used to be the Hall).  Back past the pigs ( now awake), the Peddars at Witsend Farm, the MOD base. Passed a cyclist on a break; Team Astana gear, Bianchi bike. He caught me up of course: said he'd just cycled the Alpe d'Heuz in training for a long sportive. We were suitably impressed with each other's challenges, but I couldn't keep up for long and off he went.
The distillery was open and I was tempted to pull into the cafe, but the clouds were black and heavy, so decided to keep trying to out run the rain ( managed too).
Bike route into the forest and actually stopped for a long lunch break. Next bit was harder as cycle track was actually sand, almost impossible to stay upright - so walked, not much easier. Long road through the forest.
Cycled out to Hockwold and on to Feltwell, and then the latest challenge. The GPS route just stopped. I knew I'd planned it to the end, but it must have been too big to handle. So it cut the end off. Still I could use it to find the next village - and this showed how amorphous the border is here, between Cambs, Norfolk and Suffolk.  Signposted to Southery along what has to be the longest drove road in England and the most dull - and into that incessant head wind. Seemed never ending but finally made it there and to Ten Mile Bank. There, the River Great Ouse ( picture) is far higher than the surrounding countryside, and the bank keeps it there. Another long stretch to Littleport, and luxury, campsite with endless hot water and best of all, not moving. Dinner at the Swan, just up the road.

Day 2 Brandon to Gisleham - 71.17 miles

Another day of good progress. 71.17 miles, 6 hours 12 cycling time. Left campsite at 7:20 when the only other living thing I saw was a munctjac running through the beer garden. Clear morning ( and wet tent).
First stage was through Thetford Forest which was just lovely. Sun dappled trees, birdsong, no traffic - marvellous. Through Santon Downham, a long village with houses dotted along the forest road. Nice houses that blended in with the landscape. Houses in Fenland seem to favour function over form and are as square as if built from lego, plonked at the edges of the vast empty fields. Houses here use a lot of flint. Churches too.
Through East Wretham, its military camp and many danger areas ( firing ranges). No wild camping here!
Larling then Harling which has a whisky distillery - St Georges. Seem to remember an item on the news a while back about English whisky, must be that, so its quite new.
Went through lots of tiny villages, often just a farm and a few houses. A long way to go for your shopping, in any direction, but a beautiful and peaceful place. Saw herds of outdoor pigs dozing, and crossed the Peddars Way, which walked a few years ago. Managed 11 miles in each hour for first four hours, which is incredibly good for me. Stopped for something to eat at 40 miles - not yet 11 am. Chatted to a dog walker on the bridle way.
Beccles was the biggest place; managed to take the wrong road out and had to turn round.
Stopped at St Andrews church in Mutford as a sign said it was open, which is rare. Lovely inside, white and simple and peaceful.  Turned to go and saw a kettle with coffee and polystyrene cups, and an invitation to make a drink. I was getting tired, so a coffee was just there thing. How kind of them. Signed visitors book and a lady came in - seen bike outside. I admired the font and she pointed out the chisel marks where Cromwell's men had cut off the decorative features. Some of the supporting lions had also been literally de- faced.
Felt better for the stop and was soon at outskirts of Lowestoft. Saw bike route and took it - can't believe I missed it, planning. Wide, well signposted and off the A road. 10/10. Soon saw the famous wind turbine and wandered through town to Ness Point.
Propped bike up for photo. Stepped back. Wind gusted, over went bike. And the GPS took the brunt of it.
Could be worse. Have lost about a quarter of the visible screen.  Still also have printed maps and directions. Will see how things go over next day or so. Accidents happen!
Had fish and chips for late lunch and headed out to campsite, finishing day at 4pm. Could get used to these early finishes! Heading to Littleport, north of Ely, tomorrow.
Pics of Ness Point and sculpture in town.

Day 1: Home to Brandon - 81.48 miles

Summary: 81.48 miles, 6 hours 56 mins cycling time, 8 3/4 hours actual time, max speed 34 mph, finishing average speed 12 mph (not the average over the whole day but a good guide as to progress).

Had just five hours sleep due to lots of last minute stuff including storing music on the i-pod, which took far too long. More last minute jobs in morning then Andy and Alfie came round to see me off, hence getting a picture with me in it.


Left at 7am. Two miles up the road had to replace GPS batteries. Also experienced my first hill, which was testing. Forgot just how heavy a fully laden bike is and all roads out of Kettering are uphill.
Weather not bad; grey and cloudy but dry.
So through Warkton to Slipton and took track through the Drayton estate ( no cycling - had to walk).

Past the elaborately crenellated House (picture left) to Lowick and its church with many steeples. Thorpe Waterville and track to Clopton, Thurning, Luddington. First wrong turn at Clopton. Making good time though, nearly 20 miles by 9am. Lots of red kites about, hunting over the stubbles.
On towards Gt Gidding and Cambs. Lots of very large fields. Crossed the A1M at Holme and saw a light aircraft, later a sign to Peterborough business airport.

Ramsey, small and pretty. My route notes say this at sea level; can well believe it as making very good time. Stopped at level crossing for train to pass and on other side suddenly was in Fenland. Thought a farm track had been tarred; it was a ploughed headland, the soil black peat, black as treacle. Amazing the sudden change.
Roads long and dead straight, and everywhere pancake flat. On drove roads now. Long Drove earns its name!

Ramsey St Marys. Town! Shops! People! Has a ruined Abbey, now National Trust owned. From what's left can see it was beautiful once. (picture left).

Farm tracks across Gaunt Fen and Pickle Fen. Very rough, had to walk, but sun out and very pleasant. Felt I was slodging for first time. Fen slodgers describe people that lived here when it was all still flooded. Feel it is a verb we should resurrect. I slodge, thou slodgest, he slodges, we slodge...

Bike and self covered in black peat, hit road to Ferry Hill and Sutton. Very warm now, then spot of rain; put jacket on and sun came back out. Picture of Delph river nr Sutton.

The route plan mentioned a place called Jerusalem but didn't see it. Shame, as hoping to go to Bethlehem ( in Wales). At Coveney saw sign for Ely, just 4.5 miles and even more amazing, could see the cathedral on the horizon from there. It's that flat. Got into Ely at 1pm, incredibly did nearly 60 miles in just 6 hours. Couldn't believe good rate of progress.
Went to Cathedral for a pic, attached. Went round it about a year ago, took nearly all day. Today a wedding party was having photos on the green.

There was a European market in town, lovely atmosphere. Found outside cafe for luch. Nice to just sit and watch world go by.
More level crossings, to Prickwillow, and then a sign announcing Burnt Feb, Suffolk. And suddenly the scenery changed again. Fields were smaller. Different crops - Fenland is wheat, potatoes, onions; here was kale and maize for silage. And lots more trees. You don't appreciate trees until you haven't seen any for miles.

Lakenheath, pretty village. Woodland fenced off. MOD?
Brandon a large town. Found the Ram Hotel which does camping (£4) and the local ale, Rusty Bucket. Can't believe did 80 miles before 4pm. I like flat countryside.

Thanks...

To all my colleagues at Hewitsons for the support and encouragement, which is much appreciated. See you in two weeks!
This is also a practice run for blogging from the phone, so I attach a picture of the gear I've got to pack ( and carry).

Nearly ready for the off

It seems that work didn't want me to go without having a picture taken first - sorry it's so posey...
The caption on the T-shirt reads 'Yes I bike like a Girl. Try to keep up'.

Bike work takes longer than you think

Funny how some jobs that should take ages don't, yet a potentially quick job such as sorting the baggage for the bike managed to take all evening. At least what needs to be attached to the bike is attached and what isn't is goiing to get left.

The food shopping is done (not that it took long; I don't want to carry too much). Much of it comprises the staples of pepperami, individual portions of cheese, fun size chocolate bars and Lucozade. I was also glad to find the batteries I wanted, though aghast at the price. Lithium AAs don't come cheap but are worth it for the gps unit. Normal batteries struggle to last out one day; a set of these will last for about three days. And at £2 per battery (yes that's right) it's as well I don't need too many of them.

Piles of stuff are starting to gather around tbe house; spare clothes in one corner, camping gear in another; a pile of electronics on a table, food in the kitchen. i was a bit concerned that I had no idea where my camera was and indeed couldn't recall even having seeing it for several months, but managed to locate it amongst my triathlon gear (swimming drawer). There might be some logic there but I'm too tired to think what.

Back to the final stage of mapping tomorrow and packing on Friday. It's all going very well. At this rate I might even manage to leave on time.

To Do List

Finish mapping and add up projected mileage - done

Print daily route guides with campsite details to put with maps - done

Cut up paper maps and laminate - done

Find camera, batteries, charger and charge batteries done

Fit kickstand, panniers, front bag etc to bike and try to sort gears out (not quite done on the bike service...) - done

Get camping gear & clothes together; pack done

Check bike toolkit done

Do food shopping for camping food/snacks done

Sort Latitude app to show location done

Get some playlists and podcasts on i-pod

Wasted evening

So, came home determined to plan two days in one evening, sat down and planned a route along bike route 4 (through Milford Haven to Carmarthen) and then decided it was too out of the way, with too many large towns and too much coast road (which means a lot of ups and downs).

At any rate, I've a day's cycle route that I don't think I want to use this time round though it looks a very interesting route with lots of castles and other antiquities to see. But steep.

So back to square one. The re-planned route goes over the Black Mountains, but I've tried to avoid roads with more than one chevron in any direction (I might get through my new brack blocks). I've now made it as far as Offa's Dyke on planning, with three more days to plan to get me home - which I think should be possible (though I hope the offer of car rescue is still there if I do get stuck!) Given that it takes about 5 hours to plan each stage, it's not going to be done very soon, but it's getting there.

A tribute

The death of someone you have known is always a shock and on Saturday, I came into such sad news.

Ron Espin was a leader with the Boys Brigade at my home church in Rushden, including at the Girls and Boys Brigades' summer camp (I'll never forget his rendition of 'eating people is wrong') and also more importantly from the point of view of this blog, with the Duke of Edinburgh's Award - Expedition section. Ron was part of the team of leaders that got me and my friends through, booking the campsites, driving us up and down the country, being there at checkpoints and generally chivvying us along, usually with a liberal dose of very dry humour.

These past couple of days, when I have sat down to planning, to drawing maps and putting together kit lists and food plans, I've been thinking back to the first time I did all this, over 20 years ago, for my Bronze, Silver and Gold awards, all completed successfully - thanks to the leaders such as him that put the time and effort into helping us all.

Thanks Ron.

Big country

The initial mapping is now about 2/3rds complete; from home to the start to the end point and starting on the return journey.

Started sticking the road maps together to get the big picture; it's a long bit of paper. Looked at it from the reasonably flat bits of home to the emptiness of the fens, the close-packed villages of Suffolk and Lowestoft with its yellow stripe of sand; back again, squeezing between the ugly blobs of cities (in particular the sprawling mass of Birmingham)to the green patches that are the mountains and National Parks of Wales, to flatter country again and less densely populated areas, and another yellow bit of sand at St David's.

Feels a bit hubristic actually. Well, see how it goes.

Lowestoft Ness

I believe I could spend longer poring over maps and routes than actually cycling it. Perhaps that's half the fun! The bit that exercised the route planning muscles most was getting into Lowestoft and avoiding busy A-roads. I was delighted to see (using Google aerial maps) that two of the largest roundabouts have cycle route cut-throughs and one a cycle lane alongside it. It's so good when planners get it right.

I thought they went in for some dead straight roads in Scotland (they do!) but you can't beat the twin B-roads that run from Pakefield right into Lowestoft and deviate neither to the right nor to the left. The Romans would have been proud of them. Fortunately, Google maps showed that I need neither of them. A road runs down to the promenade which runs for miles along the wide sandy beach, all the way up to Lowestoft town. That will do nicely (wind permitting).

Once in Lowestoft, it's a case of negotiating some pretty industrial looking areas (it's a working port) to get to the Ness, which is sandwiched between a gas storage tank and 'Gulliver' the largest wind turbine in the UK (and the only commercial turbine in Suffolk!) Ness Point has its own website - http://www.ness-point.co.uk/
and seems to be attempting to make something of tourism, but hasn't yet. Nevertheless, it's the official start point for me.

Planning

The planning continues, albeit with a few hiccups. I've struggled to get gpx files out of bikeroutetoaster.com before, so didn't even go there this time. I was recommended wheresthepath.com but unfortunately every time I logged in the site had exceeded the allowed daily downloads of map tiles (it's restricted by the OS - for copyright reasons I imagine). A bit of searching turned up a site that was vaguely familiar; maptogps.com, and finally, this worked. I plotted the route for day 1 from home to the first campsite, a distance of about 78 miles and then managed to download the route to my Garmin gps unit. And it seems to work! That's the good news. The bad news is that I seem to have lost the route from my pc - it's not saved anywhere that I can find - so I can't edit it or even check it to draw on my paper map. But that's a minor niggle; I've got the main towns and villages noted and it *should* be logical. For the next ones I'll plot the route as I go to avoid the risk of losing them too.

As for the hardware, I took the Dawes to Halfords for a service the other day; walking out holding my bike helmet was rather like going into the vets with a dog and coming out with just the lead. I didn't want to have to hand my bike over but simply don't have time to do it. And let's face it, it's done over 7,000 miles from new and no doubt deserves a bit of TLC.

It was a revelation cycling to work and back on my road bike; downhill wasn't any faster, which was interesting but the uphills were a breeze; how wonderful to waft up hills with so little effort.

The other problem with turning in the Dawes is what's in it; I found the Garmin unit with no problems but it needs two AA batteries - and where are my spare batteries? In my panniers of course, spares for the bike lights... Luckily found a pair with a bit of life left in them, which will do to get the route onto the Garmin. I've only ten days left to finalise the planning and packing and of the two weekend days left, I've a wedding to attend on Saturday (which am looking forward to very much). Time is, as ever, tight.

The packing will hopefully not take too long and the charging pack for phone and ipod is done already; the Portapow (a USB recharging pack) arrived in the post and has already charged up the phone successfully. This time I've packed the relevant leads as I managed to forget to pack a very important USB lead on my last trip, necessitating an unplanned detour to a local PC World.

Planning progress

With just two weeks to go, some frantic map planning has been going on - some of it extremely detailed, some very rough. Strangely I found the first three or four days the most tricky. Heading from home to the start and back west again, I wanted to go out and come back a different way, and ended up going either too far north (Swaffham) or too far south, and settled in the end for a 'third way' with slightly different roads but still taking in Ely.

Kettering really is in the centre of the fat bit of the country, and I found with a slight degree of horror that one planned route would take me along roads that are on my daily commute to Northampton, something I'm very keen to avoid on holiday. So I planned a southerly-ish route from Ely to Olney, avoiding well-known (one might say worn-out) routes and instead heading quickly to Bedfordshire and roads that I first cycled as a youngster, probably on my first Dawes bicycle. There is a campsite at Emberton and then it's into some scenic countryside heading to Stratford for the end of day 5. From there across the Malverns (the scenery starts getting more and more lumpy from now on) into Wales and the Brecons, hopefully arriving at St David's on day 9.

I've seen St David's (it's very nice) so don't see much reason to hang around particularly as I seem to get there after just 30-odd miles of that day's cycling, so the plan is to start heading back straight away. Coming slightly south I can get to Monmouth and come up through Oxfordshire to get home on day 14. The total estimated distance is 840 miles.

This is a very rough back-of-the-envelope distance but I did just want to see if it might be possible to go from home to home, and it looks as if the idea is a goer. I've also found most campsites to aim for (often the limiting factor of a day's ride). Now to start cutting up the road atlases and drawing the route on them, and setting up the Garmin gps. For some reason I can't seem to get routes to gpx on bikeroutetoaster.com, which is my favourite planning website, so will try another that has been recommended - wheresthepath.com. I think this site is better as it uses OS maps, but unfortunately there's a limit on the maps that can be downloaded per day and at night I've sometimes been unable to access it.

It shouldn't be too hard though, should it? Going east-west, the sun is either in your eyes, or it isn't. Simples.