Author: Garry

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in the UK on Thursday, 14th-February-2019. Sandown to Swanage. 56 miles. Another day and another puncture! Although I don’t think I was quite as useless today! Probably because of my practice run yesterday! And when I think back, that was probably the first puncture that I’ve had to fix since I was in Nepal in 2016!

Maybe I should think about getting a new tyre!

As I was fixing my puncture in a layby on the island, the coastguard turned up, then the council, then a marine biologist!

Apparently there was a dead dolphin washed up on the beach, poor thing, made me feel a bit sad!

But apart from the puncture and the dolphin it’s still been a good day.

The weather’s been gorgeous, with lovely warm sun all day, it’s felt really spring like!

Old Friend

Had a good ride along the south coast of the Isle of Wight, saw my mate Gordon the alpaca, as I rode past Grange Farm campsite.

Didn’t stop to speak to him though he was too far away, and anyways he probably wouldn’t remember me!

After cycling across the Isle of Wight, I caught the ferry to Lymington.

I couldn’t believe how busy the roads were! I don’t remember them being that busy last year, but maybe I was too drugged up on pain relief then!

I’ve decided that I’m not fully over this sepsis thing after all! My legs are constantly aching and everything I do is like a major effort!

Which is my reason for not camping tonight! The cold doesn’t worry me, it’s just all the effort involved in putting a tent up, walking possibly a mile to have a shower, crawling around in a tent, and then in the morning having to pack it all away!

No I think I’ll give camping a miss for a little while yet! Although saying that, I’ve still got it in my head that I’m going to camp tomorrow!

So instead of camping, I’m staying in a youth hostel tonight!

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Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in England on Wednesday, 13th-February-2019. Bognor Regis to Sandown IOW. 50 miles. Well, that was another day that didn’t go according to plan! I was heading for Swanage and was doing fairly well!

If you look at a map, the best and quickest way to Swanage from Bognor, is via the Isle of Wight, on a bike that is! So I cycled to Portsmouth, caught the ferry, got to the island and got a puncture!

Well me being my normal useless self, that I seem to be these days, it took me well over an hour to fix! And it was early afternoon by the time I was back on the road!

Half a mile up the road I stopped again for some reason, I can’t really remember why, I might have been trying to see ferry times, I don’t know! Anyway while I was parked up in a bus stop, an old lady came past walking her dog. Well he was a lively little thing jumping up at me and wagging his tail, which I didn’t mind at all, he was lovely!

Well the long and short of it is, she could talk for England! And I think I must have been there for more than half an hour! Which to be honest, I really didn’t mind, she was quite pleasant! Once I’d finished talking, or rather listening to her, I continued on.

After passing through Newport it dawned on me, that I wasn’t going to get to Swanage until really late, so I decided to stay on the island. Now that I’d decided to stay on the island, I thought I’d give youth hostelling a go, but after phoning them I learnt that they were all shut!

Now What

My next plan was to head back across the island towards Sandown, as I new there was a lot of campsites around there and it was an easy ride along the Red Squirrel Trail.

That turned into a nightmare! Well maybe not a nightmare, but a bloody pain! They’d closed part of it off, but failed to put any signs up notifying anybody! So one and a half miles down one part of it I had to turn around, go back and find another route!

I reached Sandown but unfortunately couldn’t find any campsites that were open, so once again I’m having to stay in a hotel! I will get to camp one day!

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Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2  bike ride to Bognor Regis, Sunday, 3rd-February-2019. Christchurch to Bognor Regis. 90 miles. That was a long hard day, eleven hours in the saddle! I think I may have got my stamina back. I’m not too sure about my cycling legs, though! They were aching before I even started this morning! But I’ve still had an enjoyable day, despite being completely knackered now. After yesterday’s ride, I was pretty tired and kept nodding off while eating supper. In fact, at one point, I nearly did a faceplant on my plate! It was at that point I decided to retire to bed!

One of the main reasons for such a long day today, apart from me being useless! Is I was pratting around in the New Forest, I kept going off on tangents! I was also dithering as to what I was going to do! Should I stay out another night? And if I do, should I camp or find a hotel? Or maybe I should just go home. Decisions decisions! In the end, I decided to head to the Isle of Wight as I knew of a campsite that was open.

I arrived in Lymington to catch the ferry to the Isle of Wight, but I’d just missed it. And it was another hour before there was another one. So as per normal, Mr impatient couldn’t be bothered to hang around and wait. So I decided to continue to Southampton and get the ferry there.

After bimbling around the New Forest for a few hours, I arrived in Southampton. This time it was only a 45-minute wait for the ferry. Now I had another decision to make! Do I wait or not? After getting a bite to eat and milling it over, I finally decided to come home, mainly because the weather forecast for tomorrow was heavy rain! I know I want to go camping, but I’m not that desperate. There’s no joy whatsoever in cycling in the rain, especially in the winter!

I continued dithering about all the way home and kept changing my mind about which way to go! But as I said earlier, I’ve enjoyed the past two days, despite it being a struggle! And if I don’t try, I’ll never get my cycling legs back! And besides, before I know where I am, I’ll be back in the hospital having this hip replaced again!

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