Anna Cycling for Maisha Mapya Education Centre

The good news...and the bad news.

2008-10-10T20:54:00.003+01:00

As the bad news is a result of the good - I'll start with the good!

The good news: I'm on the reserve list to receive a Fulbright scholarship to study in the States. The workshop I attended in London, and had to interrupt my cycling trip for, was incredibly useful, but here comes the bad news...applying to US universities and studying for the entrance (GRE) exam is going to involve a lot of work. It all needs doing in the next few weeks before I leave to go to Canada.

So after lots of tossing and turning, scribbling on my calender, counting days and mapping out different options, I've made the decision not to complete the trip right now.

Ironically it's my own education that has got in the way of my trip in aid of the Maisha Mapya Education Centre!

Although I'm disappointed that I won't be finishing it now, the trip between Land's End and Edinburgh was an amazing, varied (and mostly sunny!) 1000 kilometres. It was one of the best things I've ever done and I'm so excited that everyone's donated so generously to raise a total of more than £1000 for Maisha Mapya.

So, who wants to join me for the last leg sometime next spring/summer??

I'll be posting up a diary and pictures of the trip in the next few days.

Home sweet home!

2008-10-01T22:32:00.002+01:00

I made it from Carlisle to Edinburgh today. The sign from the outskirts of Carlisle said '90 miles' to Edinburgh - so make that at least 100 'as the cycle...uhm...rides?' So incredibly tired now.

Left the guest house in Carlisle at 7.40 a.m. and arrived at 8.40 pm. 11 hours, with a total of probably 1 hour break (lunch at Scotlands own Tibetan buddhist centre - a hot chocolate about half-way through, and then a much needed ice-cream at about 4pm). It was dark and pouring with rain as I approached Edinburgh on the A7. Absolutely miserable, especially with my rain jacket which is becoming really useless. At the Cameron Toll roundabout, only a 10 minute ride from home I realised my vision was going funny and my knees were shaking. I hadn't eaten enough in the last few hours as I felt I couldn't afford to stop. I was racing against the sun going down and stopping when wet means getting very cold!
I can only imagine what any onlookers must have thought at the Cameron Toll roundabout - as I stopped, ripped open my panniers and found the nearest source of sugar I could find - gummy bears. Grabbed a handfull and stuffed them all in my mouth in one go. Once the sugar kicked in, and I'd called Emile to let him know I was nearly there and hadn't fainted just yet - I set off home. As I turned the corner towards the flat I swear I could feel my knees go weak with the thought of warmth, food, my bed - and of course seeing Emile again.

As I need to go down to London for a Fulbright info day about studying in the US - the last leg of the trip (Edinburgh - John O'Groats) will be continued in a week's time.

I'll get some pictures up soon - first about 12 hours of sleep are needed!

Chester on a rest day

2008-09-27T10:33:00.002+01:00

Thanks to everyone's donations we're now more than half-way to the target! Which works out pretty perfectly as I'm slightly less than half-way through the trip. 450 miles so far, after 8 days of cycling.

Eek- I've got 5 minutes left on this internet terminal in the cafe I'm in! No pressure!

I've never enjoyed walking as much as this morning. I woke up with a smile on my face at the prospect of resting my legs and doing a different range of motion for a change. Doing 8 to 10 hours of cycling a day has many strange effects on the body and mind - the one new one I've found is that I dreamt I was navigating towards sleep. I could see 'sleep' on the map, and was trying to find the best route towards it. After staring at the map on my handlebar bag for hours every day, it's not suprising!

Oh, time is up. Inge and Tabby are coming to visit in Chester today, so it'll be a day of rest and fun.

First internet access!

2008-09-23T21:57:00.002+01:00

Feels so good to be in touch with the world again briefly - I'm at the YHA in Bristol, a funky renovated dock house (so funky that there's a very loud TV on in the background...grrr). Arrived here at about 7pm with only one thing on my mind - feeding. I then proceeded to slurp down a panini for starters, a felafel for seconds and I'm feeling those pangs come on again...but in all seriousness - I think eating enough (and healthily enough) is going to be one of the biggest challenges. I think my stomach isn't yet stretched out enough to consume the quantities my body needs right now.
So - in brief: Day one was Penzance to Portreath, day two Portreath to Tintagel (stayed in the most amazing B&B here, run by two teachers, one of whom is an artist - I got to see his studio! and he let me look at all his books on Goldsworthy-esque artists. The view from The Bluff Centre was amazing; the breakfast room had huge bay windows looking straight down onto the sea. I enjoyed the most amazing sunset in the evening.)
Day three - Tintagel to Great Torrington. Day Four Great Torrington - Street. That was yesterday and that was a frigging crazy day. I decided I needed to budget and stay in a youth hostel and the nearest on the route was Street (near Glastonbury)...it turns out that was 130km away. Set off at 8.30 and arrived at 7pm with very little stopping inbetween...It meant that today was the first day I felt any hint of miserableness; it rained a bit, I got a bit lost thanks to the guidebook I was using for the first time, I ached and must not have had enough to eat because everything felt sluggish and heavy. I still managed a respectable 90km though. Some dramatic scenes coming over the Avon Bridge - and a dramatic dropping of my spirits as I realised the other end of the Avon bridge was not Bristol city centre...that was another 7 miles to go. At the end of a day's cycling it's not that great to see the big sign saying 7 miles to go.

All in all - I'm loving it. I'm fitter than I expected, it's going a little faster than expected and people are incredibly, incredibly open, friendly and helpful. Every day so far I've met at least one person who's had a great story to tell, helped me out in some way or had a kind word.

And...madness has crept in just a little bit - on my marathon ride yesterday I named my bike - she's called Cyclecycle and I named my favourite cycle shorts Pink Ass Pants (because the pants are pink, just to clarify). Apparently this 'naming your gear' behaviour is normal when undertaking strenuous exercise on your own for long periods of time (well, I know at least one other person who does it!).

That's my time almost up!
xx

1st update

2008-09-21T14:21:00.004+01:00

As Anna has not had internet access since she left, she's asked me to update the blog briefly. That said, I can only really relay the weather and the locations.
Today Anna is cycling out of cornwall and into devon, intending to stay in or near great Torrington, having stayed near Tintagel the night before.
The weather has been good and I believe Anna has had something of a sunburn, despite numerous applications of factor 30. this will undoubtedly not be a problem for long as she nears scotland.
The bike also seems to be going fine, except one pannier clip was damaged earlier on, but some quick improvisation remedied that soon enough.
I'm afraid I dont know much more than that as mobile reception has been hit and miss...though I hear there's some excellent pictures to look forward to...

And...that's it - I'm off in a few hours!

2008-09-18T01:34:00.003+01:00

Just a last quick post before I go sleep. Panniers are packed - bike is all fixed up and ready to go - sandwiches are made for the train ride...now I just need to sleep!

Eek - getting near!

2008-09-16T15:40:00.001+01:00

I can't believe it's already almost Thursday, and I'm already almost on my bike...I'm getting butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.

I am so, so glad that the Pedal Scotland race on Sunday went well. That was the real test, to see whether I can actually do the distance I'm planning to do every day for three weeks. There was not a single drop of rain all day and the route was a really interesting one, through bits of Glasgow and Edinburgh (and all the space between) I'd never seen before. I stuffed some extra unnecessary gear into my panniers to make it as similar to my trip load as possible - donned my Lycra padded shorts and synthetic shirt and the hiking boots I'm going to wear on the trip - and all was well.

'The only one small worry' (this has become my catch-phrase;which is especially funny as I NEVER just have 'one' worry, let alone any 'small' ones!) is the saddle that came with the bike. I'll spare you all the details here - but suffice to say, it wasn't exactly brilliantly comfy. I had bought a second-hand Specialized saddle at the Bike Station for £2...but it was water-logged, so I peeled of the outer, dried it and glued it back on, but I'm just not convinced it's the right thing. It's a man's saddle too.

Anyway - enough about saddles. I bought a handle-bar bag today as all searching for a second-hand one were unsuccessful. Also attached my 'horns' onto the handlebars - so I just need to get my drinks holders sorted and clean out the bearings on the back wheel.

The Pedal for Scotland trip left me with some good lessons about my gear and anatomy (!), but it left me with some disturbing images too. We witnessed four accidents; one where an ambulance was already at the scene, another where a young guy did a jump on his bmx and flopped on the ground in a twisted heap, another where a woman had smashed into the windscreen of an oncoming car and another where a girl flipped over her handlebars just a few metres ahead of me. Seeing her go over like that has really stuck with me. I almost saw it in slow motion. What I didn't see at the time was how it happened; apparently she had reached for her phone, dropped it and looked round to see where it was, yanking the handlebars round with her = recipe for disaster and...pretty silly. Had Maria, Pete and I been cycling any closer to her we would have ended up in a big pile-up.

On to happier thoughts - I'll add some pictures from the Pedal Scotland trip.

Work done and first full training day tomorrow!

2008-09-13T23:09:00.000+01:00

Phew - it's been a crazy last few days with little sleep and lots of work trying to finish everything off for my carbon footprinting placement.

And now...it's time for hard-core training. It's a bit late to do real training, but tomorrow is at least going to offer a good test for my bike, my gear...and me. Emile, Pete, Maria and Lynn and some of her friends are going to join the hundreds...thousands cycling the 50 miles between Glasgow and Edinburgh in the Pedal Scotland event.

Off to bed I go - it's a 7 a.m. meet-up! Let's hope I don't collapse from lack of sleep before I even get to Land's End. ;-)

Coveting a Cannondale

2008-09-11T18:39:00.000+01:00

On the homeward commute in the train from my carbon footprinting job in Livingston I sat down next to my bike in the bike carriage and saw, what in my bike-focused eyes, was a beautiful vision. It was a sleek, well-built silver Cannondale touring bike. The owner was sitting right opposite me, so I tried not to make it too obvious...but really I was checking that bike out the entire ride. The drop- handlebars, the hard leather saddle, the sturdy carrier on the back...wowee.

Someday I'm going to have to cycle a serious distance on one of those.

Last day of work tomorrow and then it's full on tour-planning time!

Yay! A bike is born!

2008-09-10T20:46:00.000+01:00

Thanks to everyone who sponsored so far - it gave me a big rush and a huge smile every time an email popped up with 'someone has donated to your charity'. People are so generous!

In other good news - I have a 'new' bike for the trip. The Bike Station called yesterday to say they'd found me a replacement. It's another Edinburgh Bicycle Co-Op, this time a slightly newer version with v-brakes, an extra-low gear for very steep hills and...a slightly funny rattling noise when I cycle. It's pretty dirty at the moment and I think the bearings in the back wheel need a clean too, but with a little TLC I'm sure it'll do the job!

No bike just yet....

2008-09-07T19:33:00.002+01:00

I went past the Bike Station yesterday and they dug out my poor twisted green recycled-bike, and showed how it was beyond repair. Unfortunately they still don't have a suitable replacement bike in...will I need to get a brand-spanking new bike from Edinburgh Bike Co-op anyway? I'll wait till the end of this week and if nothing suitable has been donated to them by Saturday there's really nothing left to do but head over to the Co-op, shut my eyes and reach for my credit card.

Flooding around the country is causing some worry too. I'll need to check my route carefully. Speaking of routes - it'll be interesting to see whether the old GPS my dad brings up will suit for the trip.

Fundraising site up...but problems on the bike front!

2008-09-05T21:14:00.000+01:00

I'm very excited that it looks like the fund-raising for Maisha Mapya through the TDT will work out. It's giving me that drive back - to want to just get on that bike and go. The real problem at the moment is just that; the bike. I thought I had a perfect solution; 'recycle to cycle' - buy a recycled bike from the Bike Station just around the corner...you know...cycling that doesn't cost the earth, proving that you don't need to have 'brand new' everything in order to do a trip like this. It all seemed perfect until that plan literally ground to a skidding halt. I was cycling to work on Monday this week and pedaling hard uphill towards the Royal Mile, when I changed gears and suddenly the back wheel jammed up and I found myself struggling to stay upright, hurtling towards the traffic lights. When I finally skidded to a halt and my feet touched tarmac again, I couldn't stop my knees shaking. The dérailleur had somehow managed to wedge itself into the back wheel, shearing a part of the frame and crunching up the mud-guard. The Bike Station is going to fix me up a new bike, but they hadn't found anything suitable yet by yesterday and were meant to call today.

Eek. What if I don't have a suitable bike for the trip??

I'll keep you posted!

Starting the cycling blog

2008-08-14T02:19:00.000+01:00