Sunday, March 25, 2007

Photos 1

March 25th - Near Spain France Border

no time to write


Photos on www.whereonearthisjeff.com

The Bike - Costa Brava

The Bike,

The bike is probably a story that will take longer than I´ve got to write, and that you´ve got time to read.

I went on a ride in Novemeber, starting with a train trip to Wangaratta and going up the Ovens Valley, then across Hotham & down the Tambo Valley finishing in Bairnsdale - well that´s the way it ended up. After getting blisters that I wont elaborate on, I caught a train from Bairnsdale to Melbourne, and spent the next few days house painting - instead of riding the Grand Ridge Road as planned.

That trip was enough to convince me that the riding position of that bike was not at all good






I had previously been to Kennedy Cycle Fit in Black Rock & John Kennedy had made a number of changes to try & get the seating position right for me. It was better but still not right & there was no more he could do with the geometry of that frame.

I decided on that trip that for the OS tour I´d go for a new bike. Custom built (as are nearly all touring bikes). I got the frame built up through John Kennedy, and got most of the rest of the components from Cecil Walker´s.

The new bike has been the source of many a headache since then & I´m still not happy with it. It has a tendancy to go into a death wobble - particularly down hill & loaded (and yes I´m always loaded). John K had put three sets of forks on it (all customised) in the last couple of days before I left, but the problems remain. We´ve sorted out a problem of excessive flex (fore-aft) that the first set had, but the tendancy to go into a self sustaining wobble still exists. It remains to be seen how it goes on unmade roads, or cobble stones through the rest of Europe.


My brother in law Grant was joking about how many bikes I´ll go through. Maybe it should be how many frames & forks.
They´ll be some photos of the trip shortly.


The trip so far....

I stayed in Barcelona two nights, at a Hostal near La Rambla - That´s right in the middle for all those unfamiliar. From there I headed up the coast to Blanes (Blha-nez) a distance of about 78km, many of which in the morning at least were along bike paths at the edge of the beach. Picture riding the Bay trail in Melbourne or beyond Oriental Bay in Wellington and you wont be too far off. The coast at this point is flat beachey area nice but not compared to what was to come the next day.


From Blanes north again, just 50km to Platja d´Aro (North of Sant Feliu & South of Palamós - depending what is on your map).
This coast line is rugged very steep slopes and the road weaves in & out the bays up & down every time too. There are endless resorts with all that you´d expect from places like Ibiza etc. Fortunately they aren´t in season at the moment, but there is frantic work happening with tradesmen everywhere putting in all the new & restoring the old for the summer onslaught to come.


I was staggered by the number of cyclists on this road, all road bikes with small peletons in training. It seems the place to train, I noticed on place had a sign up ¨cycling holidays¨. They were nearly all going the opposite direction to me so that at least I didn´t feel left behind.


Then yesterday....

Ah yesterday...

The weather was different yesterday, all previous days started Blue & Sunny, then in the afternoon turned overcast & cold. Yesterday started overcast & cold and in the afternoon got worse. I sheltered in the shadow of a brick wall for lunch and managed to avoid the hail/sleet. But there was no avoiding the afternoon winds. 5km/hr winds. That´s me doing the 5km/hr not the winds. When it was head on the 5km/hr was all progress, if it was side on the 5km/hr included the sideways component, another thing that the steering on this bike is good at accentuating.

Not knowing whether this wind coming off the Pyrenees was going to be a common thing and waiting a day was pointless, or whether the next day would see a new weather pattern I eventually decided that I could go no further than between two rows of an Apple Orchard. A suitable windbreak for a secluded camp.


This morning greeted me with much better weather, not sunny but at least no $%&!?¿ wind.
Next France...


JJ

Thursday, March 22, 2007

The Inspiration - Barcelona Spain

March 22nd 2007 - Barcelona Spain

Not sure where it all started, though on my first walk with the Tararua Tramping Club (http://www.ttc.org.nz/) in NZ I was walking with a girl who´d just returned after riding to Europe. In those days Afganistan & the surrounds were not a real problem. I thought it´d be great to do it then, but figured that my dicky knees would never allow it.

Since then I´ve contemplated bicycle tours of Europe, but ruled them out due to dicky knees, figuring that if you get stuck somewhere waiting a week for the knees to get better then you´ve just written off a substantial part of your annual leave. Hence the idea of not taking leave, and doing it open ended. Fortunately when I mentioned that I was going to leave, Haliplex ( http://www.haliplex.com/) suggested that I might take time off with no pay.

So here I am - currently in Barcelona, arrived into town at 2am this morning local time after delays at Heathrow, it´s now 05:45 Friday Melbourne time and the only sleep I´ve had since Monday morning is a couple of hours Tuesday morning (Melb Time) between Melbourne & Hong Kong and then 6 hours once I arrived at my Hostel (midday Thursday Melb time). Fortunately I´ve always been good at surviving periods on little or no sleep with reasonable alertness & sanity.

Today I´ve been looking around town, buying food & supplies. I´ve managed to find an outdoor shop that sells MSR whisperlight stoves the same as mine - but as yet to locate anywhere that sells fuel - even they dont know where to get fuels for the stoves they sell! Looks like I might need to use the multi-fuel option earlier that I was expecting. (and yes I have found that site on the web that list all the local names for the various stove fuels for countries all over the world.)

It was a very pretty Barcelona this morning around the old town with it´s old alley ways, the sun shining and beatiful blue skies. Eating breakfast down by the port looking out over the boat harbour was very picturesque. It was most enjoyable riding around soaking it all in. But this afternoon once the wind picked up, the clouds rolled in and the temperature sunk it just didn´t have the same appeal.

Times about to run out on my net access gotta go.

Jeff

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Counting Down

Well, it's two sleeps to go now, and my bike has had three pairs of forks in the past two days. How they are now is how they are staying, as I have other things to do (and more important than writing this... but...)

The house has been empty since last weekend, except one small table, a PC, scanner, printer & Net connection. It's just minute preparations to go, scanning Language sections from books, packing the bike into a box & trying to get all the heavy items into one bag as hand luggage.

The next time I'm doing this - writing - I'll be in Barcelona, and Australia will be many pedal turns away

Wish me luck... Jeff