team

My other riding partner this year is Angelique.

She is Canadian, living in California and has also done big bike rides of a different sort. Washington DC to Costa Rica on a BMW 750 for starters (no pedals). No motorbikes on this one though!

Angelique has always been into road and mountain biking and flirting with the idea of touring but like Dave, has never done it, so she’s ‘way psyched’ as they say in the San Fran vernacular. She’s on an endless prep schedule, antagonising bike shops all over the Bay Area, to help her convert her mountain bike’s to a touring bike. Good luck!

Angelique has several other great outdoor passions. Earlier this year, she went climbing in Thailand and kitting in the Philippines. She’s a big fan of remote, exercised filled adventures like canoeing down the Zambezi. I feel like a lightweight in comparison as I did the Zambezi in an eight man dingy back in 1994.

We’ll both be hauling Canon 5DII’s as she’s also a very keen photographer. She’ll be bringing along her 17-40 for the ride. I’ll post some of her images as well, if she lets me.

Finally, Angelique just took ownership of her first dog, Ziggy, an 8 week old German Shepherd, who she will be abandoning to come on this trip. That’s how great it’s going to be 🙂

Total mileage: 62
Terrain: Hills – very challenging

We got back onto the canal in the morning to ride northwards. Unfortunately, the pathway was not asphalt and with our steel bikes loaded down with all our gear, we soon had enough of bumping over the uneven ground.

We crossed under the M5 and over towards Glastonbury. From our uncomfortable lunch spot on the recently harvested hillside, we could see the tower in Glastonbury and the looming Mendips in the distance.

We stopped for some sugary energy just shy of an enormous hill, which turned out to be a good thing as the ride up was intense. It took well over 30 minutes of hard climbing to get over the hill. On the other side, we managed to get lost, always a pain when you are tired.

Mary had called ahead and organised for us to stay with Andrew, a family friend based in Yatton. Andrew was a true gent and looked after us well. I am pretty sure we stank when we rolled up as he mentioned that we should launder our cycle gear almost instantly.

This has to be one of the biggest hassles about cycling and camping. Although we wanted to wild camp, you really need a shower at the end of the day, especially if the weather is as warm as it was. You also have to wash your clothes to avoid crutch rot. So, the luxury of being able to both wash and dry our clothes was a real bonus. Otherwise, we were constantly cycling with all our wet clothes tied to the bike bags, looking like a mobile Chinese laundry.