North

As the start of the 1000  mile Dover to Cape Wrath cycle approaches on the 21 May the appeal of the Channel to Med cycle I did last year is becoming more apparent. Last year we started in cold and dismal Northern latitudes and cycled through horrible weather in the first week, but the prospect of sun and warmth in the South of France was realistic and always on the horizon albeit a bum numbing number of miles away. Now we are starting North of last years starting point and riding to the far north of Scotland which my rusty O Level geography means we are riding away from the warmer climes and and edging closer to the North Pole. So the most practical reasonable expectation is of ever cooler wetter weather with a few glimpses of the Northern Lights and crossing paths with returning BBC 2 natural history camera crews driven back south by the dreadful conditions oop North. No chance of meeting Saint David Attenborough, as he does all his voice overs from a care home in Margate these days.


So there you have it a 1000 miles in the wrong direction. I am trying desperately to think of who to blame for this signing up to this madness, Was it Rosie who was so keen on me doing this, explaining how lucky I am being married to someone who encourages me to spend extended periods of time away from home. Or was it the European Union as that is getting a right kicking at the moment, so why not blame that. Ultimately I have to face the fact the the blame lies squarely with someone else who I have yet to identify.

On the bright or possible crazy side I have received a new folding bike for the ride, its an Airnimal Rhino Road or My Little Rhino as I am forthwith naming it. As you can see from the picture below it does not resemble a typical type of bike a sane person might attempt to ride 60-90 miles a day on for two weeks, its more like a Coko the Clown cast off! Nor does the person standing by it resemble the type of person who should even be thinking of doing this type of thing.  So I have to figure out who is responsible for making that decision to put me on a bike like that.

So there you have it, another year another really silly thing to be doing and a real mystery about who is to blame.