kenmyhre

Northern Queensland

Posted on March 23, 2015 by kenmyhre

Mar 18-23, Cairns and N. Queensland

It is a three hour flight from Sydney to Cairns, but you gain an hour and so we arrived at 9:30 pm, and had our van by 11:00. Plenty of time to head for the countryside, given our five days of city life in Sydney, but cyclone warnings kept us in town for two nights. At the caravan park we were told that we could be asked to leave at a moments notice and would be directed to high ground where we might need to wait out the storm.

We walked the esplanade in search of birds, continued that effort in the Botanical Gardens and shopped for our caravan days ahead, Cairns (I hear Can from the locals) is a sleepy sea front town whose primary purpose seems to be to get people out to the Great Barrier Reef and to deliver caravans to visitors. We ate and hung out in the large covered cook shelter at our caravan park. It has a half dozen picnic tables, 4 or 5 propane “barbies”, sinks, stoves and hot water on demand. The park is heavily treed and there are always birds flitting about and squawking.

On the evening the storm was to hit (at 2:00 am) we strapped everything in and were prepared to head off, but 2:00 came and went with nary a whisper.

In the morning we headed off to the Atherton Tablelands to give the north coast a few days to stabilize. The tablelands are about 900 m above sea level and the road switch baked up through the rainforest to somewhat cooler temperatures. We stopped for walk-abouts at Kuranda and Mareeba before choosing Granite Gorge to spend the night. We now began to see birds: Tawny Frog Mouths, a Kookaburra, and a fleeting look at a blue parrot with a yellow head. But the prime attraction here is the little Wallabies that eat out of your hand and you almost trip over in the dark.

In the morning we had a nice drive heading north now on quiet roads. Our first stop was at the Kingfisher lodge and Park, unfortunately closed for another month or so. Still ,the owner directed us to some birding paths and help identify some of the birds we saw. This would be a great spot to stay. The Buff breasted Paradise Kingfisher, Australian Fig Bird and Sea Eagle among a few others. We tried another off-road venture that we were directed to but turned back.

Great Billed Heron Our prime destination for the north of Queensland was The Daintree River. We checked into a Caravan Park at Daintree Village and booked a two hour river birding outing with “Sauce” for the morning. A drive brought a few more new birds including a lovely Forest Kingfisher. When we stepped into Sauce’s flat bottom river boat at 6:30 in the morning, his only customers,he told us his nickname came from his last name; Worcester. The Daintree is a wide lazy river on the edge of Daintree National Park. It is heavily forested and has some 400 species of birds. We were able to see about 40 in our two hour outing with Sauce. Like other good guides we have had he was able to spot birds we would never see, and was able to flesh out our experience with rich background on the habitat and local colour. Among the highlights for us were three small kingfishers; the sacred, the little, the azure. The later two the only “true” Australian Kingfishers in that they feed by diving. The Great Billed Heron, a Sea Eagle and a Jabiru or Black Necked Swan are large birds and the day was topped by a Papuan F Cassowary rog Mouth plastered against the branch that would have camouflaged him from any but the most experienced birder.

We headed on from Daintree Village, continuing north across the river by ferry and up to Cape Tribulation, which will likely by our furthest east and north points in Australia. On a walk in the forest we stumbled on a Southern Cassowary. We have a couple more spots where there is a chance we could see one of these rare creatures that look like they would be more at home with the dinosaurs, but we were not really expecting to see one. This was a very find birding day.

We spent the night in Mosman, and then drove into Cairns in part to get help with our car window. The people we picked the car up from couldn’t help, but on the phone we were directed to push a square button that fixed our problem. We felt pretty stupid, but the man next to us in the caravan park made two trips back to his dealer to help with a similar vehicle.

Our birding will be put on hold for a day as we have booked for an all day cruise out onto the Barrier Reef tomorrow.

Posted in Australia, Birds and Animals, Queensland | 1 Comment

Sydney

Posted on March 16, 2015 by kenmyhre

Monday Mar 9, 8:30 am – At Home

(The phone rang- it’s Rich) “Hello Ken. How about if I go with you?”

“Pardon”. He had just arrived home last night after a month away. Can he’ know what he is saying?

“We’ll rent a 4×4, like in Southern Africa, drive to the parks and camp. No bikes”

“You know I leave tonight. Does Mavis know?” She must be just as jet-lagged as is. “What would a ticket cost at this late date?”

“Well if you are up for it I will see what I can do”.

“Am I up for it? Certainly. Some of my ladies are a bit worried about me biking around Australia with Vertigo. Even if you came a few days later we could work it out”

A few hours later he called and confirmed that he had tickets on the same flights as me – not paying much more than I did a couple of months ago. Owen took us to the airport for the 9:15 pm flight to Vancouver. We left Calgary an hour late, circled above fog-bound Vancouver for an hour and then returned home, stumbling into bed at 3:00 am.

What with suffering a bout of what the doctor called BPPV the day before I was to leave, the attendant apprehension about leaving for two months with something I knew nothing about, Rich opting in, which changed the trip from cycle to car-camping, and now air connection problems, this trip had begun to take on inauspicious signs. On top of that, each of my last two spring trips were compromised or cancelled due to other health issues. Am I getting old? – Yep. Is this a sign of some sort? Well I have never believed in this sort of thing before, but…

We did make it out Wednesday, connecting right through to Sydney without issue. Now in Sydney, we will have to put together the trip we will make. Usually a lot of arrangements would have been made before leaving home. Rich will spend a couple of nights with an old friend, I walked about quite a bit, bought a new cell phone and tried to find some car rental places.

Mar 14 – Sydney

My first bird photo was of a Sacred Ibis. Cockatoos, Rainbow Lorikeets were among those that followed as I ambled from Hyde Park to the Domain to the Botanical Gardens, always in search of birds but also with some good scenics as the high-rises rose above the tree filled parks. I reached Sydney Harbour, with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge as backdrops. This is a spectacular city. I continued my birding walk around the Opera House to Circular Quay, where I caught the noon ferry to Mosman Bay with more Opera House photo ops. I wonder how many photos each tourist takes of this iconic structure?

I was met at the Mosman Bay dock by Rich, Bob Riches and Dan Crickmay. Bob and Dan were two of the group who came here with Rich over fifty years ago. These two ended up staying, creating their families and building careers here. We walked from the ferry to Bob’s condo that tumbles down though the rain forest, almost to water’s edge. We sat with Annette and Althea, Bob and Dan’s wives and had drinks and food with the lorikeets, kookaburras and other feathered friends flittering about.

There was lots of reminiscing to do, but we also got some good tips about our trip. Most importantly now we need to find a vehicle and Bob had helped Rich run down some good online sources, which we will hope to be fruitful tomorrow even though it will be Sunday.

Dan and Althea left for home, and Bob and Annette took us on a walk along the bay until we rounded a point where we sat and had a beer and watched the sun settle behind the city. They have a hard life here in Sydney. Not a bad first day in Aussie.

Mar 17 – Sydney

Sunday was a no business day, as the travel van places were not open, but Rich did move into the hostel and we saw a St. Pats day parade and walked the parks again. Monday had us at the travel van places where we struck what looks like a great deal. We will fly to Cairns on Wednesday morning, pick up a fully camperized high-boy van and spend 48 days returning it to Sydney. The incentives included free flights to Cairns, two up-grades on the van and six free days. We are paying $45/day including insurance for our 48 days.

We spent the rest of the day at the Australian Museum, basically a natural history museum specializing in geology, fauna and Aboriginal matters, all of which were extremely well done. The ten little robins, compared to our one; models of the ten most poisonous snakes in the world; the mock-ups of the biggest gold nuggets found here, the biggest in the world; the specifics of aboriginal treatment, not dissimilar to what Canadians have done are some of the areas that attracted me.

It is Tuesday and we will basically do a bit more touristing and get read to fly to Cairns to begin our proper trip.

Posted in Australia, Sydney | 1 Comment

Australia

Posted on March 4, 2015 by kenmyhre

G’dye,

I’m off to Australia on Monday. I have put off going for some years now, mostly because I could see no possibility of doing everything I wanted to do in one trip. So, finally, I just decided to go for two months, do what I get to and then decide if or when I will go back to do more.

My only commitments, besides arrival and departure, are four nights in Sydney when I arrive. Tentatively I will cycle south along the East coast from Sydney, ultimately finding my way down to Melbourne and possibly up to Adelaide. I am taking full bike camping and a ton of camera gear (actually 6-7 kg, depending upon my final choice of lenses) I am planning on spending more time stopping in Parks to camp and shoot pictures of the wildlife than I usually do on my cycle trips. Mosquitoes and flies might have something to say about how much camping I do.

At some point, I am expecting to switch to motor travel so that I can make some bigger jumps, possibly to Alice Springs and or northern Queensland. I will not likely get to the West coast, Tasmania or the North, all places I would like to go.

I have enjoyed reading both non-fiction and fiction about Australia over the last few months and am again intrigued by how much more pertinent the books become when you are planning on actually going.

Until my next post,

Ken

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Web Site Changes

Posted on March 4, 2015 by kenmyhre

I have added a few more features to my website, that readers may be interested in. You can access them from the menu underneath the banner.

Trip List: is simply a list of the activity trips I have made since retiring.

Galleries: I have added some more photo galleries, and will continue to do so as I get demand to include some of my photos. The recent additions are from Southern Africa.

Old Trips: At times I will go back into my electronic archives and bring back some stuff from old trips. I have added a bit from my trip to Tibet and the Chinese Silk Road in 2010 at this time.

I will continue to blog about current trips, and the most recent trips are still found under the Blog heading.

Ken

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Oxford, London and Home

Posted on November 6, 2014 by kenmyhre

Oct 22-25 Oxford

Four days in this beautiful old city that has attracted knowledge seekers into one of the 38 colleges that make up Oxford University since sometime around 1250. It has spawned countless of the world’s great thinkers and leaders and has been the breeding ground for many of the world’s great ideas. It is quite a luxury for me and the way I travel to have a longish stop in a place like this. Four nights where my things are in one place and I sleep in one bed. Four days where I can walk or ride my bike, when the mood hits, on streets where writers and academics who formed many of my values have wandered before me. I have four days and nights with very little need to do anything, but savour the atmosphere. Still, I will be out early every day. Highest on my interest list here are the Bodleian Library, the Ashmolean Museum and one or two of the colleges.

The Bodleian, some 600 years old has suffered some agonies in its long life. Very few books were around 600 years ago and they were hard to come by. But it had a good start with an early donation from a wealthy patron, only to have most of its books burned during the religious fervour of the protestant reformation of King Edward VI. Another patron, Thomas Bodley who donated 2000 books in 1602, got it on track once more. Now, it is one of three British copyright libraries. A copy of all things published in Britain, some 4000 items per week, are sent and stored on the 117 miles of shelving that must be growing continually. There are now 11 million books and other published items at the Bodleian. The buildings are high on the tourist list of things to see because of the intricate carved Cotswold sandstone and the gorgeous old books still occupying the shelves of the earliest parts of the library. The claim is that some 40 Nobel Prize winners, 25 British Prime Ministers, countless authors and possibly most importantly Harry Potter and his fellow students have all passed through the Bodleian.

The Ashmolean is the oldest public museum in Britain, and second only to the British Museum in London in importance. It is a large multi-faceted museum, but I continued my approach to museums here by restricting my time to the British and European parts. I feel it is too much to try to see all of a museum of this stature. Considered the most important item in the Ashmolean is a small 9^th century gold and enamelled broach inscribed “Alfred ordered me to be made”. Curious. On my few visits to museums on this trip I have been trying to connect the various stages of British history though Roman, Viking, Saxon, Norman times, but I think I have got the most new understandings about the more modern history, from the Industrial Revolution on.

The one college that I got into and toured was Christ Church Cathedral; strange name for an academic college, unless you remember that all colleges and universities at one time were associated with the church. The old Cotswold sandstone buildings are incredibly beautiful; I particular enjoy some of the intricate little caricatures carved into the hidden nooks and Crannies. Of particular interest in all colleges are the “quads”, rectangles of grass enclosed by the building and laced with pathways. One would think that students would be congregated in these quads but I only saw the odd person walking across. I had a much better tour of Durham University, in the castle where the university students lived. I never did get much of a feeling here for Oxford student life. At Christ Church however I did get to see the Dining Hall with its numerous paintings of Deans back over the centuries. Also represented on these walls is mathematics professor, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Caroll), and his famous creation Alice (as in Wonderland). More recent history is the co-opting of this Dining Hall by Hogwarths, to feed its budding magicians.

More enjoyable to me, than visiting these and other famous landmarks, was just walking or cycling the streets. There are many people on the streets. I am sure a large percentages are tourists like me, but I assume many are also students and professors or dons. A very high percentage of people here travel on bikes, which further endears the city to me. In my wanderings I stopped into quite a few coffee shops, pubs and most importantly bookstores. Some feel that Blackwells, may be the best bookstore in the world. It has both new and used books on every conceivable topic, but I think a bit higher proportion than normal bookstores might serve the academic needs of the colleges. This relaxing stay in Oxford was for me a perfect way to wind down my trip.

Oct 26-29 London

But I still had to get through London one more time before I lift off. I took the train into London so that I would not have to fight what I imagined to be 100 kms of city streets. No doubt many find ways of making a nice bike ride of this jaunt, but I never found such a route described in any of my researches. The train dropped me off in Paddington Station, about a 10 minute ride from my hotel, where I was now going to stay for the third time, this time for three nights.

On the night I arrived I took the metro to visit Farah’s niece Jaira and her husband Paul. They are a nice young couple newly arrived from Australia to try London for a while. Owen, Farah and Tatiana visited them at the end of their trip, leaving my Bike Friday suitcase. We had a nice dinner together and I pulled the empty suitcase back to my hotel. It was nice to get help from everyone on this bike problem that I had. Bill who packed Friday, Owen and family who brought it to Edinburgh and then took the empty suitcase to London where Jaira and Paul looked after it for the weeks it took me to get there.

In London I could not resist cycling around for a day, but I never left the bike for long at any point. Getting a second bike nicked would be quite devastating. I had a nice visit at Tate Britain, where I saw many Henry Moores, possibly my favourite sculptor. And I visited a number of… yes you guessed it, bookstores. The best travel book store I have seen is called Daunt Books and the main Waterstone store is purportedly the largest in Britain with a quarter of a million books. I whiled away a lot of enjoyable time in these two stores working on ideas for my next trip, among other things.

This fascination with British bookstores was not something I anticipated. Although I guess it could be predicted, given that I am drawn to bookstores wherever I go. And you might guess, given its position as the source of the English language and the incredible number of authors over the years that their bookstores would be exceptional. I certainly found it so. I didn’t buy a lot of books, given my luggage restrictions, but I certainly did a lot of looking and now that I am home there are many books that I wish I had found space to bring.

I guess I should submit a final report on one area that was of interest, top of mind, while I was preparing to go on this trip. The Pubs. My objective was to see if the pubs were still a mainstay of the British culture. I think that I can categorically say …“Yes”. There are still pubs everywhere, they are very attractive, many are very lively, and the beer and food are good, sometimes exceptional. The British attend pubs in large numbers almost everywhere I went. Someone in every pub will have a dog on the seat beside him or under his table drinking water from a bowl provided by the pub. There will be families with small children. These are just two of the factors that make British Pubs more a part of everyday life than those in my country. Most enjoyable to me were the pubs in the countryside, often a part of the Inn where I was staying. But the city pubs would be great if it’s evening entertainment you are looking for, or if you are after a business lunch or watching some game on TV with other fans. I set out with the goal of visiting 50 pubs. I think I hit 70, some more than once. Yes the pubs are great.

I am now home, attempting to get over my jet lag, building on the travel research I began in Britain and planning my next trip.

Posted in Britain | 1 Comment

Cycling the Midlands

Posted on October 22, 2014 by kenmyhre

Oct 14, Ironbridge

I left my Inn in Nantwitch into a drizzly morning. It took a bit of street navigation before I stumbled on the road out of town. I was headed for a YHA in Ironbridge, south of Telford and so that was my rough direction. But at the same latitude as Telford, Shrewsbury was also of interest to me, and I thought it would not be too much further to have a visit there before heading onto the hostel. I left the A road for some back road wandering and to get away from the traffic and as it would happen I ended up on a road that would lead into Shrewsbury. I got there around noon and locked up my bike and wandered around the central part for an hour. I didn’t get too much out of it, but took another hour in a busy pub for a light lunch and a half-pint thinking the hostel would be an easy ride down the Severn. Shewsbury and Ironbridge are both on the Severn River.

I left the busy centre of Shrewsbury looking for the B road that would lead to Ironbridge. I found it somewhat away from the Severn which made at least three significant loops while in Shrewsury. I headed along my selected road for about 45 minutes and then hit a busy A road that didn’t belong there. I had passed through a couple of small towns that did not ring a bell for me, but that is not really unusual. I stood, with my map trying to figure out where I was and then, a bit late, used my compass, which is on my watch and so always very handy. Finally I determined that the towns I had passed through were the wrong direction. The grey drizzly day and the many twists as I went through Shrewsbury had completely turned me around, and when I hit the B road I was looking for I turned the wrong direction. I now had to turn around and head back to Shrewsbury to try to find my proper way through and on to Ironbridge. This was an hour and a half, 30 km error.

The easy ride down the Severn also proved to be not so easy, nor as short as I had hoped. The river kept meandering with many ox-bows on its path. So, the road made no effort to follow it and instead many steep climbs up the hills to pick up the towns along the way. What should have been about a 60 km day turned into a 100 km day, made worse by self-directed anger at my stupidity. What I saw of Shewsbury was not worth this added effort. If I had gone throughTelford instead I would not have had this incredible mistake. Oh Well!

As I finally saw the Ironbridge hostel, well into the steep Severn gorge still occupied by an enormous coal fired power plant, I also saw a pub, The Shakespeare, which got me into the hostel a little less upset. By the way this is the third Shakespeare pub I have visited. I was somewhat disappointed when I was told that I could not stay two nights at the hostel. Ironbridge is a world heritage site and has numerous museums and points of interest. It is thought of as the place where The Industrial Revolution began, and I wanted to spend the day learning about its history and relaxing a bit after five straight cycling days.

It was now becoming apparent that I would need to make some reservations in order to make the best of my remaining time in Britain. I spent part of the evening on the internet looking for reservations but was only partly successful.

Oct 15,16 Clun

After a breakfast too big for comfort, I had a short ride along the river to the Iron bridge, which I used to cross the Severn. I took a few pictures and then headed on. I had two nights reservation at Clun YHA, a small hostel up against the Welsh border. I could not find any other place to stay in Ironbridge and so I had to move on. I pushed my bike most of he way up the steep minor road out of the gorge and onto some quiet back roads., heading south and west. I hoped that I would not make any navigation mistakes as I knew the quiet roads would be very winding and steep. I know also that I am getting a bit tired, maybe as much mentally as physically. It turned out to be a very nice, if tiring, ride through the Shropshire hills. I made no major mistakes and had a nice early lunch when I was within striking distance of the hostel, arriving there at about 1:00 pm. This is a low service hostel (no food or internet) and so no one would be there to let me in until 5:00. I left my bike against a shed, put on a dry top and walked into town to the nearest pub, to use the internet, still trying to make advance reservations. Luckily they also had some beer to help in my searches.

This would be my practice over the next day and a half of my delightful stay in Clun. The volunteer hosts were a retired couple from Yorkshire who drive Citroen 2CVs. They have had many and the one they are now driving is red and about 35 years old. They have driven them to India and are contemplating Africa. They did everything to make me welcome and comfortable. I also became good friends with another of the guests and we ate together in the pub, also joined once by a couple of similarly aged women. The people staying at this type of hostel are quite different than those in the bigger more popular places.

I know the people I have met, mostly in pubs and hostels, in Britain are not necessarily indicative of the people as a whole, but I have such a positive feeling about them. I guess I will leave with that impression and not worry about whether there are other groups less enjoyable to be with. I think about the people Paul Theroux writes about in his observations about the British and think that there must be another Britain somewhere else.

My day off, I walked quite a bit, but most productively I made reservations for all of my remaining nights in Britain. This is important because it also sets my riding route. The big difficulty has been connecting with and finding reservations at YHAs. Some are closed and many are filled , mostly with school groups. Along with the much needed rest after six fairly tough cycling days the mental relief I have, now that the plans have been made, is significant. I was not able to get to all of the places I might have gone, but am very happy with what I have arranged. On this day off we had possibly the worst rain that I have experienced, so it was nice not to be out in that.

Oct 17, 18 Riding the Welsh Border

On a warm somewhat clear day I headed off from Clun feeling much renewed. Today I was heading to Hay-on-Wye, and it would be mostly a very minor road excursion. In part I picked out the actual roads for the next two days from a Lonely Planet bike book. It meant that I would be stopping very often to consult my atlas and that the roads would be steep and winding; this theme will persist. There is no possibility of predicting riding distance or times on this kind of route, so I just keep chunking on. The little towns and road segments get ticked off as the day progresses and as the weather is pretty good I enjoy it immensely, even though I question my sanity, while pushing my fully loaded bike up yet another 15% hill. The route I have chosen for my remaining time here is all in the hills. I will leave Britain not knowing what it is like in flat land.

My lunch stop, again in striking distance of Hay-on-Wye, is in a little Inn advertising 30,000 used books. I spend my time waiting for lunch perusing their shelves. After a funny little toll bridge over the River Wye (10p), I rode into Hay-on-Wye and found my night’s stop, Kilverts Inn. I had a shower and a beer and headed out to look at books at about 2:00. Hay-on-Wye is a used book town. There are purportedly 30 used book stores in a town with not many more people. I think both might be exaggerations, but I did visit about 10 used book stores, at least 4 of which had enormous stocks, all well organized. There are also specialty stores; Children’s, Poetry, Mystery for example. I am only spending one night here but my three hour peruse was probably enough. I did not come to seriously find books, I was mostly curious about a world that is so enthused by books that it would create a town like this. I do have a number of types of books I look for and would buy, if one of special interest popped out, but I didn’t find anything here. Having left Calgary with no paper books, I am now carrying seven, and so It would really have to be special for me to add more, when I still have 1000 hills left to climb. It is a delightful town, with many interesting antique type shops, eateries and of course a big castle which every Welsh border town seems to have.

My Welsh Border ride continued the next day as I was riding to Welsh Bicknor, where I am booked into the YHA for two nights. Again it was similar to the day before with many stops to check my location and choose a turn from my atlas. And again I was on no end of roads that I hoped would actually turn out to get somewhere and not end up in a farmers field. If I meet any vehicles on these roads they are usually a big tractor or other farm implement, where one of us has to stop to allow the other to pass. I am still riding strongly after my day off in Clun and possibly I am finally getting some riding shape.

At about noon, at Goodrich, I saw a YHA 1 ½ miles sign, next to a big country castle like Inn, so I went in and had a long lunch, killing some time as I knew the hostel would not be open for registration until close to 5:00. My muscles had cooled off and quit working, or possibly it was the pint I had, so I had to push my bike up the first part of the ride, The Dead End sign on the road meant that I would be coming back out this same way. And this began to bother me when the road turned very bad and began to drop, and drop steeply down to the Wye. The road was so bad and steep that at one time I was close to flipping over. The final bit to the hostel was mud.

The hostel is a big 150 yr old manor house sitting on the Wye, next to a lovely old deserted church. There are no other buildings anywhere. Some of those staying at the hostel are doing some or all of the long distance hike along the Wye River. They come clumping in quite covered with mud as the trail has suffered greatly from the heavy rains.

My day off at Bicknor was spent walking. I checked out the muddy path along the river to a foot bridge that crossed over to a road on the other side of the Wye from the hostel that would take me on down the way. I could push my bike along and out this way, rather than using the steep road I came in on. But it was very muddy. I then walked back up the road and onto a trail going to the top of Coppett Hill. It was a nice forest walk and gave many nice views of the Welsh Border hills. Then it was down the hill into Goodrich for a visit to its castle and lunch. It was a pretty nice day and the easy walk did me a lot of good.

Oct 20, 21 The Cotswolds, Stow-on-the-Wold

I decided to push my bike up the hill from the hostel at Welsh Bicknor, rather than avoiding the hill by crossing the river on the muddy path. The push went quickly and soon I was riding through the forest, where I was delighted by two little deer for a ways, the male drawing me down the road away from the female. I then had to drop right down again in order to cross the Wye for the last time. And then back up to get over the last range of hills on the Welsh border.

I had an hour and a bit of relatively flat fast riding, some of it on lovely roads. One road, called Upleadon was particularly fun, as I had a bit of tail wind. I had lunch in Bishop’s Cleeve and then had trouble finding my way out of town onto the right little road. Finally, after pushing my bike up a very steep road, I hit the road I was after. I was entering the Cotswold Hills now. Soon, now on my target road, I plunged right back down, then flat for about half an hour until a long easy climb got me up onto the Cotswolds proper. I had a second snack as this was turning into a longish day. My guest house is a mile away from Stow, which is a bit awkward as the walk into get some food is along a fairly busy road which I had to return on from dinner in the dark. Tomorrow I will do something different. I was in Stow for two nights.

The next day, a day off, it was clear cold and incredibly windy. The vestiges of an Atlantic hurricane was sweeping Britain causing all sorts of mayhem. I had planned a short ride around to some of the little towns, but I only did about 15 km in the horrendous winds. I did have a nice chat with a used book store owner, and I did add one more book to my stack.

Oct 22 Oxford

This day was still cold, but clear and much less wind than yesterday. I lucked out not having to move on in yesterday’s wind. This is my last full day of cycling. From Oxford, where I will spend four nights, I will take the train to London. The ride went well, still with a few steep hills but less than on almost any other day. I was less impressed with the Cotswolds than with the other hill regions I have been. They are not as severe, which would be fine by me, but I do not think they are quite as picturesque. The towns, however, are quite sophisticated, as they have been kind of taken over by the wealthy. By the way, I read in the hostel at Welsh Bicknor that the word picturesque was coined in use to describe the Wye Valley.

At any rate, my selected route into Oxford was great in that I missed any heavy traffic and I got here at noon, and am now settled into the Oxford YHA, planning my visit to Oxford.

This marks the end of my bike ride in Britain, pretty modest compared to many of my bike trips, just a little over 1000 km, but still very enjoyable. I was tremendously lucky to avoid the rain in the last three weeks. I got hit badly only once, with a number of drizzly days while actually riding. The heavy rain always seemed to hit when I was off the bike.

All for now…

Oxford

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Yorkshire

Posted on October 16, 2014 by kenmyhre

Oct 7-9 York

The weather was clear when I left my hotel in Durham for the ride into the train station. I never am really sure when I make the decision to get away from the riding conditions that have been ailing me, in this case mostly wind and some rain. The hour train ride to York took me into rainy conditions again, but I am booked here for three nights to have a good look at this historic town and to give the weather a chance to clear a bit. It is all a gamble.

My first night is in a B&B, close to down town, and they let me leave my bags and bike while I walked back into the centre. After a pub lunch (The Shakespeare), I bought my ticket into York Minster. The ticket is good for a year and I would use it three times during my time here. I first went up the tower. It is sold as a separate activity, but I always buy in. I guess I always like to do a climb, but the views, even on this drizzly day are good for me. Looking down on the slate roofs and twisty streets, the scurrying tourist activity is replaced by a geometric pattern that is calming. I always think there must be a formula. In the Minster, over the next days I went on a tour with an elderly volunteer who tried to point out some of the stained glass panels that interested him. He probably talked about 10 out of the 1000s. I say tried because the panel of interest was often so high above ground level that it was hard to pick out and see the detail. His knowledge and enthusiasm were certainly infectious. There were many things of interest to me here, including a significant media supported display of the old Roman structure upon which the Cathedral, in all of its evolutions, was built. By the way, a cathedral is a place of worship, but a minister is also a place of teaching. (I am not sure of when the extra ‘i’ is used).

I went to Yorvik, a presentation on the Viking occupation of York. It was created to appeal to young and so I greatly enjoyed it. I am finding that many of the significant tourist attractions in Britain have added a lot of entertainment features, some of which I find appealing. I went to a play, by Harold Pinter and enjoyed the cultural feeling. So much of my travel time is spent trying to avoid cities and so it is nice periodically to appreciate the good things that cities offer.

Mostly I walked or rode my bike around town. The river Ouse running through town, and down to the sea, and which allowed the Vikings to get there, is well appointed with walking and bike trails. But possibly the intricate streets and old building are what sets York apart from many towns. I can’t shop much but I can appreciate the buildings and the pubs are plentiful.

As I was checking into the hostel in York I said hello to a young boy, about 6, with what looked like his grandfather. I got the most delightful response and long description of the wonderful things they were doing. Each morning we had a similar discussion and I ran into him in Yorvik, and it was like meeting an old friend. I guess now we were old friends. My other talking companion in the hostel was a tall erudite expert on cathedrals, and he filled me with other stops that I must make.

Oct 10-13 TheYorkshire Dales

I managed to get a country pub/hotel and two YHA bookings for the dales, largely with help from a YHA York staff member. This gave me four days to ride in the Dales (valleys), my route determined by the places to stay. I left York YHA on the bike trail along the Ouse. The trail lasted for about 10 km and then I was on quiet country roads. The riding in the morning, for the first time, was relatively flat and I was going back North so the wind, if there had been any would have been with me. But it was finally a quiet sunny day and I was almost sad when I got to my hotel. It was still just after noon and so I left my stuff and rode another 5 km into Thirsk, the place where James Herriot (Alf Wight) lived, worked as a vet and wrote his “all creatures great and small” books. These books talk about the Yorkshire Dales and no doubt form part of the literature that has made them famous.

My second day, I left in a deep mist and immediately began to climb. I found cycling here to be quite up and down while in the dales themselves and dramatically up and down when crossing between dales. The roads are all basic non-engineered roads and can be very steep. As I was riding around I noticed 15%, 17% and 25% gradient signs on the road. I had to push my bike in many places and usually had my brakes tightly on when coming down. It is far more pastoral than the Lake District, with grass and sheep going right over top of the hills. But the stone buildings and fences set up the fields and tree patches dramatically. Again, like in the Lakes, you could stop any place to take pictures.

But this is cycling nirvana, especially if lightly loaded. At the hostel in Grinton that I stayed in there was a group of about ten parents and an equal number of teens, roughly 12-16 years old. They were on a two day bike trip, completely un-supported., meaning they carried their own things. I was impressed. I was on the Tour de France route for possibly 75 km of my time there. There were hundreds of cyclists in the dales during the lovely Saturday and Sunday I was there. Probably as many cycles as cars, both exceeded only by motorcycles. My favourite dale was Swaledale, but my best ride was through Middale, the day I was leaving. On a cloudy gloomy looking day, the wind was behind me, I never had to push my bike up a hill and I rarely touched my brakes, as I touched speeds in the 50s (kph)

I loved my brief but satisfying four days in the dales. My gamble with the weather really paid off. I came out at Lancaster, finishing with an 8 mile bike trail that took me into the centre of town right to the train station. I bought another hour long train trip that took me to Crewe, I hopped past the big cities in the middle of England. I had no good idea of what I would do from here. The weather was punk again, and I holed up in an expensive hotel about 5 km from the train station. I would begin cycling into the Midlands in the morning. Yorkshire had been wonderful.

A side note: I visited my 50^thPub in the Dales.

Midlands

Posted in Britain, Yorkshire | 2 Comments

Cycling to Durham

Posted on October 7, 2014 by kenmyhre

Sept 30, Oct 1 New Lanarks

I was out of the Edinburgh Hostel and on the road by about 8:30. I had a little bike set-up remaining, but it was still cold and brisk as I joined the commuters. It took me about twenty minutes on a fairly direct ride to connect with the #75 bike route, which ran all the way to Glasgow. The route ran along the Union canal, a still active canal linking the two coasts and big cities of Scotland. I was headed to New Lanark, a place I knew little about but that was close to Glasgow, about the right distance away with a Youth Hostel.

Initially the bike route was a fairly wide paved bike path with many bike commuters, at this time of the day mostly coming towards me and going fairly fast. At points where the trail narrowed, under roads for example, it got down to not much more than a metre wide and I was a bit shaky, particularly since I was on the canal side as I passed those I met. As I began to leave Edinburgh the trail turned to cinder, got narrower and the traffic got less. In the countryside the route left the canals and followed the River Almond, still going up. In a large city I left the bike route behind because I was going to have to find my way onto roads that would go south to New Lanark. I had some troubles at this point; the wind now getting serious and the network of roads quite confusing, even though I have a very good road atlas. I did a short stint on the M (super highways) system to the accompaniment of the odd horn reminding me I did not belong. But this got me onto roads where I knew where I was going. Knowing where I was didn’t help much as I was now heading into the eye of the wind and it was brutal, particularly as I was now climbing steeply for about 10 km. I stopped a few times just to have a respite from the wind. My bike gears were also giving me fits.

I cycled into Lanark, a small attractive city, and got directions for the hostel in New Lanark. The road switch-backed steeply down into the forests of the Clyde River, and soon I saw a dozen large institutional like stone buildings. New Lanark is a restored 1800s Cotton mill that at its zenith housed 2500 people. Today the buildings house museum buildings, a large hotel, some highly sought residential apartments and a Scottish Youth Hostel. The attractive setting, the steep drop that I knew I would have to cycle back out of, and the state of my exhaustion caused me to ask for two nights when I registered in the hostel.

I had beer is the hotel pub, dinner and discussion in the hostel and a good sleep, knowing the next day I would not be moving on.

The next day I had a soothing two hour walk up the Clyde River past a series of water falls through deep forest. The drop in the river at this point turned water wheels that powered the cotton mill. There is still a power station here, and the cotton made is by machine and for demonstration purposes only. I spent an enjoyable three hours learning about the hardships experienced by the workers. Britain produced the lions share of the worlds cotton in the 1800s and that in turn drove much of the demand for cotton that lead to the slave plantations in North America.

Possibly what made New Lanark different was an early owner-manager, Robert Owen. He was an idealist who felt that even the lowest worker should have reasonable working and living conditions. He instituted compulsory education and would not let children work until they were 10, and then only 10 hours a day, six days a week. He also created a health system and a cooperative food store, in New Lanark. He became an early advocate of unions among other things.

I also got my bike tuned up, and with the day off and the edifying knowledge gained I was ready to go again.

Oct 2-4 Once Brewed – Hadrian’s Wall

I had booked myself into a hostel in England at a place called Once Brewed near Hadrian’s Wall, but it would take me two days to get there. I had a steep climb out of New Lanark on a bitter cold, but sunny morning. Getting out of Lanark meant starting on an A highway, not as wide or busy as the Ms, but I still took the first opportunity to get off onto a non-named road from my atlas that showed promise. B are the next quieter roads after the As, but the best are the undesignated tracks, and I followed these for about an enjoyable hour and a half, particularly since Friday was now running well. My atlas doesn’t show them all and so I don’t always know where I am, but the peaceful hilly roads worked this morning, bringing me out to bike route #74, which I followed for the rest of the day. It followed a B road which in turn followed a M road. It was moderately busy, but usually had a marked bike shoulder.

For the night I checked into the Ecclefechan Hotel, and with the wind and struggles of the day. I rewarded myself with a pint of bitter before I even lugged my panniers upstairs. A lovely old hotel with attractive pub, good food and a modernized bed room.

The next day was more wandering, as I had to leave bike route 74. I had one 4 km mistake as the day became drizzly. As I got to the beginning of my contact with Hadrian’s Wall I stopped for a bite and then the rain really hit and it penetrated right to the core. As the rain abated, I misinterpreted directions about getting onto the Hadrian’s cycle pathway; so I had another 4 km out and back on a extremely steep road that ended in a farmers yard. I was now in Northumberland and it is extremely hilly with roads simply going straight up and down. I walked a number of times on this day but finally reached my hostel.

Once Brewed is a hotel and an information centre, and their only neighbour is the Inn next door called Twice Brewed. I drank Twice Brewed bitter, during my two days here.

Again, I have given myself two days here, and so the next day I had a leisurely 4 hour walk. In a light drizzle I first walked about two km to the Vindolanda Roman Fort and Museum. In its day it would have housed 3-400 people, mostly Roman soldiers, but also service people. This is a major archaeological site, and excavations continue to reveal new finds; one being written tablets that are beginning to reveal possibly the most detailed information about life at that time 2000-1600 years ago.

I then returned past Once Brewed and up onto this section of Hadrian’s Wall, that I followed for a km or so. The weather is still very wild, but I escaped the rain, if not the wind. The food and beer in the Inn are great, but the visiting in the hostel possibly better. I had long visits with two couples from Nottingham and two cyclists from London. The cyclists came into the hostel by taxi, having left their bikes in a town down the road, carrying two flat tubes. They had spare tubes, but not enough and no patching kit. I fixed the tubes for them; they would catch a ride back in the morning.

Oct 5,6 Durham

I followed bike route #72 on some more undesignated roads on a clear but cold day again. It seems the rain happens every other day, with cold wind on alternate sunny days. I soon had to leave# 72 as I was now headed towards Durham, which is supposed to be am attractive University City. Still in Northumberland and still on very steep hilly roads, taxing my old body.. After lunch I switched back to an A road, which while busy got me to Durham much faster than meandering around on the un-designated roads. I rode past where I knew my hotel would be hoping to get a reasonable look at the cathedral and castle, but it was now late and it was obvious that I would need a second day here. My hotel is quite far out in the suburbs and so I headed off and managed to find it by only asking for help twice.

The morning was again windy and rainy and so I took the bus into town. I visited both the Cathedral and the Castle. In the summer I would have stayed in the castle as it acts as a hostel when the university students are not in residence. The castle is in fact the university residence, that reminds me a lot of the Harry Potter world. How would you like to live in a 1000 year old castle during your university days? Durham is considered the third most desirable university in England, after Oxford and Cambridge. The weather is really looking crumby for the next while, and so I bought a better rain anorak and booked the train to York for tomorrow. Two solutions to one problem, hopefully they will help me deal with the weather and the complicated busy road system around here. I will visit York and hopefully the weather will get a little better.

York

Posted in Britain, The North | Leave a comment

Travels with Owen – Scotland

Posted on September 29, 2014 by kenmyhre

Sept 19-29 – Travels with Owen

Not really being sure when Owen, Farah and Tatiana were arriving, while walking about Edinburgh, I was pleased to get an email from Owen indicating they were checking into their hotel. I went around and met them in their lovely suite in the Sheraton. I was very pleased to see Bike Friday among their suitcases. The next day they did a short walk about and a visit to the Castle. They were as impressed with Edinburgh as I was. O and I had multiple steam bathes in the hotel spa. In the evening we walked about the old town looking for a place we could eat. Most places were packed with long waiting lines, but finally we found a nice pub and had a good pub dinner.

Sept 21-24 On the road

We took a cab to the airport to pick up the rent a car and we were off. I left Bike Friday packed away for the driving part of our trip, and so with all the luggage we needed a pretty big car, which caused some stress on the narrow roads. Owen was still suffering jet lag and so, after he had it a go for a while, I took over the driving duties. There is such a tendency to be too far left when driving on the left.

The first night we got to Oban, once a fishing village, now a busy tourist town. We had time to walk along the shore line for a while and then into town to see a few of the port facilities. I was able save a bit by staying at the Scottish YHA in town.

The next day we drove back across to the East side of the island, much along Loch Ness, visiting Urkhart (sp?) Castle along the way. We also saw some highland cattle which is a real treat. In Inverness, from our hotel we walked along the Ness River to some islands with a network of walkways.

The third day we drove south, possibly our longest day on the road, to St Andrews, where the game of golf began. What made the day long was a visit to the Dewar Whiskey distillery, where we had an hour long tour and presentation on how whiskey is made. St Andrews is all about golf . Fanatics from around the world are on one of the six or seven courses or walking the streets, with a glazed look in their eyes. We stayed in a high end hotel overlooking the “Old Course”. On the fourth and final day of our tour around Scotland, Owen and I played the “New Course” (It is only about 100 years old), with an old timer as a caddy. From there we drove to Gleneagles and registered into a county hotel and timeshare for six nights.

Sept 24-29 Ryder Cup

Our hotel was very close to Ryder cup facilities, and it is good because the access is restricted for probably 30 km all around the venue. We had an assigned parking lot and from there we walked to the entry point, which we shared with those coming by trains from Edinburgh and Glasgow, where many of the spectators would be staying. Thursday was the final practice day, but there was still a need for tight security and ticket checking. The four of us were pulled aside and before long we were facing some policemen. Owen had purchased tickets for the Thursday practice session and for the Saturday play. We were late in deciding to go so all the normal tickets had been sold out. He used his privileged position with RBC Visa to purchase (at no small price) tickets for us. The problem was that the tickets they gave him were counterfeit. We had a bunch of paper work to do; the police knew about these tickets and so Owen had to help them by providing information on who was involved in getting him our tickets. They did let us into the practice day, but we knew they would not let us in on Saturday. So Owen burned up lots of cell phone time in getting to his RBC contacts.

The next day we watched the beginning of the play on TV for a while and then headed into Perth to look around a bit. While there, at about 5:00 pm, Owen finally got word that the RBC had purchased two replacement tickets for $1500 each and were having a driver bring them to us from London. Initially we were told they would be in our hands before bed time. But they did not get there until about 8:30 the next morning. Owen and I were a bit late getting to the play, but were there for a good ten hours and saw all we needed to see. In the morning we followed Rose/Stenson vs Watson/Kucher for their game, which many felt may be the greatest match in Ryder Cup history. There were 21 birdies in 16 holes between the two teams, with the Europeans winning by birdying the last ten holes. At day’s end it was Europe leading10-6, which is almost unbeatable, as Owen had predicted, which was why he bought tickets for Saturday but not Sunday play.

Sunday’s final, which we watched on TV, was about even so Europe won handily. We met many interesting people during the event, mostly at our hotel which was packed with people from all over. We had out best conversations with a delightful couple from Glasgow. To drive the TV blahs away Owen and I did a short bike ride, which really got me looking forward to the next phase of my trip.

On Monday were drove into Edinburgh. Owen dropped me at the SYHA and we met for a final dinner at a lovely restaurant near the castle. After that they left me to return the car and to fly to London where they will spend five nights. This has been an incredible trip. It has been about 12 years since I have done a longish trip with Owen, and so that was the main thing for me. It is not cheap, going to an event like the Ryder Cup, or golfing at St Andrews, but I got to do it with Owen, so all is good. Still I have to be allowed to shudder a bit at the costs even though the Lion’s share is borne so willingly by Owen.

I am now, after a month here, ready to head out tomorrow morning on my British bike ride. I probably have time to go up to John O’Groats to do the end to end ride, but have decided instead to zig-zag sourth, hitting the four or five areas that I want to cycle through. I cant do both anymore. Again I am so thankful to Bill for putting together my bike and for Owen and family for bringing it here. They are even going to try to get my suitcase to London to help get my bike back home. All for now….

South from Edinburgh

Posted in Britain, Scotland | 1 Comment

Update from Edinburgh

Posted on September 20, 2014 by kenmyhre

Hello all,

You might note I posted some pictures from the Lake District. I have another three hundred or so; it is so photogenic. Since leaving there, I returned by train to London, dropped my hiking stuff for my biking stuff and then hopped on another train to Edinburgh and then the next day Owen, Farah and Tatiana arrived with my bike Friday in the suitcase that Bill Baake had packed for me. Last night Owen and I booked a four day, three night drive out through the Highlands which will end as we check into our hotel for five nights to attend the Ryder cup festivities. After that, I hope to have about four weeks of biking. The weather here in Edinburgh is not very promising. After twelve days of great weather in the Lakes, it is now grey, drizzly and cold. To top it off I got a cold sitting on the air conditioned train.

Ryder Cup