Sunday 29 June 2014

This is perfect Fred!

There aren't many times when this is what I would describe as prefect, but for an hour and a half today, it was just that.

The time to find out what works and what doesn't is not when you're already half way across the continent, so I figured that I might as well enjoy this for what it was worth.

There were a number of unanswered questions I wanted to look at.

How well would the new waterproof jacket hold up? Did I really need to prove that my old walking trousers were completely shot? How cold do you get when it's chucking it down? What's the correct level of underclothing?

Bearing in mind that temperatures fall by 3 degrees /1000 feet under standard conditions, it can still be darn cold at the top of a mountain in the middle of the summer and if you're wet, this can soon turn nasty, nasty.


Set against this, is the whole issue of weight. Do you carry less and get wet, do you carry less and dive for cover when it's really hoofing it down? I only have the bags shown in this picture and apart from some food storage space in the back of my shirt, I don't plan to add to it.

The over-trousers lasted about 5 minutes. The barrier between the rain and my skin though was significantly better than nothing. I will replace them because of their proximity to marginally better than useless and because the combination of wind and rain could cool my legs rapidly at lower temperatures and I can't afford to start pulling muscles.

The waterproof overshoes fared slightly better, but since the zip has gone on the back of one, they were only marginally better. My feet did not get soaked or cold though. Damp would be a better description.

The jacket did well. No jacket will wick your perspiration away fast enough to stop you getting damp when you're working hard, but I was certainly not wet through. Big tick for the jacket.

I wore a pair of surgical gloves under my fingerless mitts and they again kept the edge off cold fingers and were really comfortable. They also allowed me to assist another rider who had a puncture without getting my hands covered in oil. A very light weight add-on to the tool kit.

The strangest benefit to this ride, was discovering that when it rains really hard, the drops hitting the touch screen of the GPS, change the page and therefore have the potential, unlikely but catastrophically possible, to delete all my route maps!!!!!

I am going to fashion a little plastic cover for it as a consequence. I wasn't expecting to be doing that.


Friday 20 June 2014

Kit List

I started last night to list everything that I feel that I should take. Inevitably it would possible to increase or reduce this list. For the hardened traveler, you will say that this is far too much. For my wife, it will never be enough, but that's ok, since there's only room for one in my bivi-bag.

I will amend this regularly, so for the moment please view this as version 1. A very rough brain dump for the moment.

Likely     Maybe

Bivi-bag - Sleeping bag liner - Inflatable light weight therma rest.

Waterproof jacket - shoe rain covers - waterproof trousers (cut off to shorts)

Shoes - Helmet - Cycling shorts x 1 - thermal long sleeved under shirt - cycling top - socks x 1 - fluorescent bib - gloves - silk under gloves - Sunglasses - suntan cream - chamois cream/Vaseline - tooth brush

Water bottles 1 Ltr x 2 - purifying tablets - electrolyte replacement tablets - food bag.

Multi-tool - spare chain links - puncture repair kit - spare tyre - pump - wire tool for dynamo etc
Pen torch - AAA batteries for SPOT and pen torch - 1st Aid kit - bike lock - tyre levers - spare inner tubes x 2

Paperwork to inc Turkish visa - ferry ticket - Insurance tag - E111

Squeezing it all in.

In more ways than one I am trying to squeeze it all in. Essentially today's posting is about my kit list and trying to decide what's in and what's out, but it is also about the bigger picture.

Having just bought a house that is being renovated,
working during the evenings and weekends, looking after the children during the day during the week and training, not surprisingly a few things are in danger of falling off the plot. Sleep is one of them and the other has been fund-raising and this blog.


If there is anyone out there who would like to help with the find-raising side of things please, please get in touch. I have posters and am in the process of producing some credit card size business cards with our logo, blog address and fund-raising site address. It certainly isn't too late. Indeed with 6 weeks to go, it is probably as good a time as any to get going with some pre-race advertising and serious fund-raising. To date we have cleared £600 without trying too hard.

Dementia awareness and the tip of the iceberg is becoming an increasingly hot topic. There was a discussion on Radio 5 Live with Nicky Campbell yesterday that I called in to, but was probably a bit late to get a call back. worth a try though.

I had a visit from Steve, my erstwhile adversary ( Race number 008,) yesterday. It should be interesting for you to follow our duel, not least since we have chosen quite different routes, especially after we leave the summit of Mount Lovcen.


 We have both opted for a 'big decision' point somewhere in northern Italy, at which point we will decide whether to go east coast of the Adriatic to Bari or west coast through Croatia. We acknowledge individually that we will not know how this will pan out until we see how we are faring after the first 650 miles.

 So, to the kit list.

Tuesday 10 June 2014

Don't waste a day. Life is truly short.

Alzheimer's SocietyAfter a brief hiatus caused by my stupidly over torquing the seat-post clamp and having to wait a few days for the new one to arrive from Germany, I finally got back on my bike and headed off to see my Dad.

This has nothing to do with bikes and everything to do with life the universe and all that.

My father is much less active than he has been. He is more difficult to rouse and falls asleep again much more readily than he has even as recently as two weeks ago. Thankfully though the recognition appears to take a little longer, the smile is still there.

I sat with him at first trying to communicate and then, -since he indicated that he would like to sit in the sun,- to move him to a wheelchair so that I could take him outside. I resorted in the end to opening both his doors to the patio outside and moving his chair into the doorway so that we could sit together and enjoy the warmth of the early morning sun. The wheelchair was too much.

I had got up at 05:00, set off just after 6 and after a brief visit at home, got to him by about 9. It was already hotting up and plenty comfortable enough for him to not get cold.

I remember sailing with him on the River Orwell in a mirror dinghy and then a leader. We did tolerably well and he was an honourable enough skipper to hand over the race winnings to his crew, which to a young teenager felt like a decent amount of money. It typified everything he did. As a sailor he was good. The mirror, that he built in the garage was perfect and beautiful.

He spent hours with us bird-watching up and down the east coast of Suffolk and Norfolk and embedded in us a love of wildlife and the outdoors that colours most of what we do even now.
 our interests changed, so did his. He took photographs that he developed in a blacked out bathroom, and that he entered into competitions and did well in. He carved and gardened and played the organ. We would take any chance to marvel at the ability to play with all four limbs at once. If you've never watched an organist, do it.

As I looked at him on this morning, (which is like looking in a mirror anyway,) I felt guilty for having to leave him and vowed to find longer just to sit with him. He will sleep for most of that time, but I do not want for him to be alone.

Life and your journey can feel like a lonely place at times, but it should not be. Whether you understand it or not and believe in something after or not, don't spend too much of it feeling angry or resentful or bitter or sad, nor lonely. When you look at the last chapter in the flesh, it is worth seeing that life is short.

Live with as much energy as you can muster and enjoy every second for what it can give you.

I shall sit with my father as often and for as long as I am able and I will race these 2200 miles for him and everything he gave me.

www.justgiving.com/john-bakewell Alzheimer's Society

Wednesday 4 June 2014

It's a beautiful thing! (What a geek!)

After a long wait for bits to arrive, I can finally show off my latest addition. to a backdrop of screaming dinosaurs and completely nonplussed kids I am sat in my kitchen drooling over this...


Andy at Specialised Cycles in Norwich has built me a new wheel around the Supernova Hub Dynamo that I showed you some weeks back and this evening I shall connect up the lights and power supply unit for the GPS and phone.



The Canyon Inflite isn't built to take the wiring through the steerer or forks, so this will have to be routed around the forks externally and the USB port located in the little crossbar mounted bag bought for the purpose.


Alzheimer's Society

A Little Taster



Since I was just writing about the Stelvio Pass, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures, both to wet my appetite and yours.

OMG springs to mind. Wish me luck.


























Or this:-
Alzheimer's Society

Hey, hey, which way?

From the distant past, (and some would say that, that is a long way away,) I remember a game that we used to play as kids called, 'Hey, hey, which way?' Haven't got the foggiest what it was about. probably a variation on 'Ludo', 'Uckers', 'Sorry' and all those other board games that basically revolved around circling the board faster than anyone else, to get your pieces to home. Come to think of it, that's what most board games are about, but I digress!

Anyway, it seemed an appropriate title to this entry, not least since it must feel to regular readers that I appear to have lost my way, but more importantly, because I have been engrossed in route planning and specifically in giving myself two options.

The second check point atop the Stevio Pass in the eastern Alps is a watershed. There flows from this high point in the race two choices. To head south and down the east coast of Italy..


Or down the Dalmatian Coast and through Croatia...


They are approximately the same distance over the ground, though one is considerably lumpier than the other.

The Italian option has the added bonus of a 9 hour ferry journey across the Adriatic when I could catch up with some well earned sleep, or look out from the quarter deck looking for Great White Sharks and dreaming of days gone by, when the Adriatic was my home aboard HMS Ark Royal back in the early to mid 90s.

Then there is the competitive side of my nature that sits here in the comfort of my sitting room watching all those that go west eating up the miles while I'm languishing in the sun with my Pimms and Lemonade, falling further behind in THE RACE! Don't forget, it's a race!

So, by planning both options in my GPS, I can wait see. By the time I reach the top of the Dello Stelvio Pass, I will have a much better perspective of how my body is holding up. How tired I am and realistically, whether I am to hold onto the ultimately goal, which is to finish the distance. Then and only then will I decide whether to turn left or right.

Watch this space.

I note by the way, that snow is forecast for the Stelvio today! That could be interesting!