The Project

2 Wheels and a Walking Stick head for the Med:

There are more reasons not to do this than to do it, but the reasons for doing it are better! 

 

November 2010 was when my back condition became so debilitating that I had to seek help.

18 months on and a succession of Physio’s, GP’s, Consultants and injections have done little to improve my situation.

Put simply, I can’t walk, or rather walking even 20 metres is sufficiently unpleasant to make me not want to do it again. It’s a cruel irony that somebody who’s main passion was Hillwalking should succumb to such an affliction, not to mention that after 30 years in Engineering I had committed to a career change and launched my guided walking business, Sierra Trekking.

“Why me?”  I spent too much time with this thought, I would see everybody else walking around normally and ask this question.  It’s a fundamental and essential human function to walk, why couldn’t I?

Pain and disability play as much with the mind as the body and I have succumbed to the mind games played by these foes.  If it were ever possible to be ‘more’ of a pain in the arse to live with than I always was, then I have!  The first 8 months of being largely housebound were the worst, then I had a Eureka moment!

I’d tried in the early weeks to maintain some form of exercise  by way of using a cross-trainer machine in the garage but this soon became too painful to continue.  To someone used to the ‘Freedom of the Hills’ the confinement was stifling.  After 8 months I had an idea and it was a good one, with advancing years and dwindling brain cells good ideas are like erections, rare and to be acted upon.

I remembered my rusty old ‘Turbo Trainer’ (roller contraption to allow cycling in the garage).  I removed the worst of the cobwebs from my road bike and setup up the bike on the Turbo-trainer.  I tried 5 minutes of gentle spinning, it was fine.  The next day I did 10 minutes and the following day 15, all was well.

Over the following days and weeks, after making my old mountain and road bikes serviceable I ventured out on to the local roads and cycle tracks.  My excursions became longer and faster and despite a few punctures, a broken chain and an exploded tyre (thank you Claire for the rescues) things were progressing well.  Then I fell off.  I fell off my mountain bike, over-zealous braking on a steep and slippery descent required a third rescue, this time I was transported to the local hospital rather than home.

The pain from damaged ribs and shoulder/collar injuries wasn’t going to deter me from my new found escape for long, I was back on the bikes within 4 weeks and continuing my transformation from walker into cyclist.

I was enjoying my bike rides hugely and even joined a local road cycling club.  I found the ‘B’ rides with Bolton Clarion challenging but doable and I could feel my fitness improving week by week.  I’m not entirely sure when the option of ‘Cycle Touring’ first occurred to me but I found myself realising that travel and adventure were once again a possibility, not on foot, but on 2 wheels.

The cost of a new or even a decent second hand Touring bike was prohibitive so I decided to convert my old GT Pantera mountain bike.  I seemed to have been spending money I can ill-afford ever since on bits and pieces for the bike and for bike-camping.

Before:

After:

                  

                                                                                                                    

 
The changes:-

New tyres/tubes, new back hub/wheel, 7 speed cassette replaced with 9 speed, new chain rings/chain, front and rear pannier racks, 4 Ortlieb Roller panniers, Altura rack pack, Avenir bar bag, bar-ends fitted, new larger bottle cage, bungees fitted to bars for ‘Hand brakes’, new Brookes leather touring saddle and by far the most important change, the addition of a ‘Walking Stick’ to the top tube, this doubles as a bike stand.

The ‘All important’ walking stick. So, the bike is ready.  I’ve done a couple of short ‘tours’ – a 1 nighter from York to Whitby and a 2 nighter on the Trans Pennine Trail.  Hardly sufficient preparation for ‘The Project’ but it will have to do. As happens with these things the project is almost upon me, departure is 2 weeks from today.  So, about the project which has occupied my thoughts in recent months.  Well, I plan to cycle to see my brother and sister who live within a few miles of each other, in southern Spain. I’ll take a train on Sat 5th May from Manchester to Torquay and cycle from there via a camp somewhere en-route to Plymouth.  I have a ferry to Santander booked for Sunday and from Santander I’ll take a short ferry hop across the estuary to the east for an overnight stay in Somo. From Somo I plan to cycle along the coast to Bilbao camping 1 night on the way. I have 2 nights accommodation booked in Bilbao so I hope to get to see the Guggenheim.  From Bilbao I’ll point my compass to the south and with the help of a few pages torn from a road atlas I’ll head for the Med, nothing else is fixed. Of course I may well be be home within days having found that the obstacles are too great, that’s a risk I’ll take.  Like all the best adventures, the outcome of this one is far from certain? Now, where was I, oh yes – back to my list………