Day 53 - Liverpool - ride total 3,804 k, 24,350 m

 Britain continues to educate me. 


In 2017 this Kiwi was promptly shown on day one of his 5, 000 km ride, that, a) Britain has hills - like ones that make a touring cyclist on day one get off and push, and b) Britain does experience heat waves of plus 30 degrees, and c) it just so happens that both those lessons were learnt at the on same day ! 

This time round She has taught me that everything I wrote in an earlier blog about how easy it is to book accommodation for the next night, tonight, simply, does not apply here in Britain! 

My casual thoughts of a week ago of taking in the Lakes District disappeared when I couldn't find suitable accommodation. No worries just switch where I'm going. Let's make it Wales then. 

Well, I almost managed it having spent last night in Hereford close to the England/Wales border with thoughts of riding into Wales today. However, after much searching and not happy about paying hundreds of pounds for a bed for one I changed the process as clearly the process that served me so well for the first 3,500 km's of this ride is now failing going forward. 

The new process works like this - 

1. search for some accommodation - (this part of these countries is all new to me so I'm happy to go to places I've not been before). 

2. Once having found accommodation then work out how to get there. If it's within 100 km's, great design the bike route and get riding when I like. If it's beyond that, then look at transport options being train or a combination of bike and train. Bear in mind what I have previously written about the induced stress from using public transport with your bike, so it is never the favoured option. 

So, all this leads to where I am sitting right now Platform one, Hereford Railway Station, with a ticket to get me and the bike to Liverpool (I believe that's where the Beatles originated). So now I'm off to do some exploring in Liverpool with the knowledge that I have a bed for the night. 

The bridges I've seen so far on the journey do not look very comfortable places to sleep under and not wanting to resort to using one as an overnight option when I arrived in Liverpool I went shopping for a lightweight one person tent of which I am now the proud owner. The tent will be my insurance fallback option if all else fails. 

My ride to "Go Outdoors" which is my go to outdoor shop here took me right through the heart of downtown Liverpool and what a busy place it is - wall to wall pedestrians making it difficult to get through on the bike. The ride along the waterfront went past the cruise liners and the industrial and apartment complexes that have been developed within the redundant waterfront warehouses the like. It was quite revealing to see existing waterfront industry beside, derelict unused waterfront warehouses beside  buildings in the process of redevelopment through to smart new apartments within the old buildings. My guess is that before too long there will not be any of the derelict buildings left as it becomes economic due developers to taken them on and turn them into apartments. 









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Travel Day 1

Image
 An early start at 2:45 a.m. to head to the airport at 3:30 and I'm super fortunate to have Mike my neighbour take me to the airport in his van which is just ideal for a bike box. And yes, that is correct my neighbour took me to the airport! How lucky am I to have neighbour's like this. Arrived in Melbourne at 8:00 and have had a seven hour wait for our flight to Abu Dhabi. Peter met up with airside and we'll travel the next two legs of the journey through to Rome together. Note to self and others: take an old tea towel as cabin luggage. That way when you have a long wait in transit you've got something better than three chux cloths to dry yourself off after having a shower. A shave, a fresh set of undies and tee shirt and you feel fresh again. Then it's off to the duty free store to "freshen up" a little (I now smell like a cologne cocktail"... Why the tea towel? That is something that can go in the bin along with the across Tasman undies, sox and te
Read more

Travel Day 5

Image
We headed out of Rome today on the 52 km ride I'd mapped out for us, it took us past the Pantheon and then up to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. They would be nice to see if it weren't for the hoards of us tourists! Crowds like that I don't "do" and as for waiting in a queue in order to shuffle through the place shoulder to shoulder is not my thing. Fortunately what is my thing is hopping on the bike and getting away from all this crowds so of of town we headed. Par for the course meant that our route took us out in to the c ountryside - yes I can find countryside close to most see European cities. We past a goat herder looking after his herd, a moon of sheep sheltering from the heat under a bridge that didn't really want to move aside for us and paddocks of barley. I managed to find some single track that took us along a river stop bank for about 7 km's before getting back on a sealed bike path. Unfortunately the single track took us through som
Read more

Day 52 - Little Malvern to Hereford - Ride total 3,780 k, 24,250 m

Image
After spending the last three days with Steve and Sarah they were kind enough to drive me and the bike across to Little Malvern where I began my ride to Hereford with a climb up onto the Malvern Hills and along the ridge to get a 360 degree view of the countryside all around - a huge expanse of rolling hills and plains stretched out below on both sides of the ridge (the pics do not do justice to the view in real time). Never say to me "you must come and stay" - unless you mean it, coz I do! In 2017 when I met Steve when we were both doing LeJog (Lands End to John O'Groats) and along with Peter became riding buddies along the way. Steve like me was staying on in Scotalnd and holidaying in the Outer Hebredies with Sarah where I met up with them again for a meal as I was out there as well. Somewhere they must hace said to me"if you are ever in the Cotswolds come and visit". The beautiful Cotswolds are the whole reason for me getting into these journies by bike as w
Read more