Tag: Travels on a bike 2

Yesterday was spent carrying out a couple of chores at home, annoying the locals down the pub and a couple of appointments that I had to attend! Which was the only reason for coming home in the first place! So seeing as the forecast is pretty good for the weekend I’ve decided to come away again before we get too far into Autumn and all the campsites close! But once again I’ve got to be home on Monday so I’ve only come the shortish distance down to the New Forest and Brockenhurst. I was originally intending to go over to the Isle of Wight but when I was in Southampton on Wednesday I saw that Bestival was on over there (Bestivals a concert) so I thought that the island would be pretty full and best to avoid the place! It’s been a very leisurely ride down to the New Forest and has taken me most of the day! I’ve been stopping off at the slightest excuse, mainly because of that blister on my bum it’s still killing me and is really painful to sit on my saddle! I did or rather I got Julie to buy me some sanitary towels to use as padding! But they don’t seem to have made any difference! I arrived at the campsite at about 5pm and checked in (no chance of a free night here!) then preceded onto the campsite to find my normal pitch, disaster! Somebody was in the spot that I always camp in,  what was I going to do now? I can’t pitch somewhere else it’s not right I always pitch there, the same as I always use the same shower cubicle! After wandering around dazed and in shock wondering what I was going to do I eventually found somewhere else to pitch my tent and my world soon turned back to normal when I was able to use my normal shower cubicle! Such a creature of habit! Not too sure what I’m going to do tomorrow, I might move on somewhere else or stay here I’ll see in the morning! Entertaining evening, firstly I went down the local pub and had a bite to eat, a few pints and annoy a few locals! Then when I came back to the campsite I sat watching all the late arrivals trying to pitch their tents in the dark, not being able to do it and then the whole thing ending in an argument! Such fun and entertainment for me to watch!

I didn’t say but yesterday I was in a really bad mood! Firstly after paying near £300 for a service I was left with a squeaky front brake which was so annoying, it was ok the day I picked it up it just appeared yesterday morning when I was loaded up and on my way home! I should have gone straight back to the shop but it was an 16 mile detour and I would have had to have waited around for them to open and me being me and being Mr impatient I just wanted to get going but with hindsight I definitely should have gone back because I got more and more wound up about it as the day went on! It’s fixed now it just needed the brake blocks adjusting but for the money I paid I shouldn’t have had to do it! Another reason for being in a bad mood was my back was killing me, which must have been from the walking around in Bridgwater the day before and I also seemed to have developed a blister or something on my bum! Which is also really painful! I think it’s down to the new shorts I’ve got the seams are in the wrong place! So all in all yesterday’s ride was not good at all every single bump I hit hurt and every time I braked I had that annoying squeak! Today however is a good day, my back feels better, my bum still hurts on every bump I hit, but hopefully that will ease! Camping last night was also good as I managed to get a free nights camping! Nobody came to collect the money last night (possible because I wasn’t there I was down the pub!) and there’s no office so I just left! My brakes were also good today, no squeaking! The only downside today was a strong headwind which by the time I’d reached Southampton I’d had enough of and jumped on a train! Cycling the last bit from Southampton doesn’t do anything for me as i’ve done it so many times in the past and I couldn’t see any point in struggling against the wind! I met a lovely old character called Roy, in New Milton today he’s 83! He was waiting at a bus stop for his wife and called out to me as I cycled past. Turned out that he’s cycled over the Alps three times on separate occasions back in the fifties and that was on a 4 speed bike! He said he’d trained his first wife to be a speed rider and she was ranked 3rd in the country, but she ran off with one of the other trainers! He went on to say that he’d just had an operation to remove a cancerous lump and had also just undergone radiotherapy, which has hopefully killed of all the cancer! He says he gets his results in a week, which hopefully will give him the all clear. I wished him well for the future and carried on my way!

Decided to use the gps on the phone today just to see how I got on. It is really good if you like using back roads and not knowing where you are! Personally I like to know where I am or at least roughly and I prefer to go the most direct route! With the gps I didn’t have a clue where I was for most of the time and it felt as though I was going miles out of my way, I was totally in it’s control! Needless to say I did turn it off in the end and used the map but not until about 20 miles from my finish. The other problem with using the gps on the phone is that it drains the battery so quickly! I left the campsite with a fully charged phone but two hours later I was down to 50%! Even when I plugged it in to my dynamo on the bike I was struggling to keep it charged, it just drains the battery so much! But it’s good to try these things, I think I’ll just use it in an emergency or when I’m lost in a city as I have been doing I just thought I’d give it a try on a long trip!

Only 16 miles today as I spent most of it hanging around Bridgwater waiting for my bike to be serviced which was the only reason for coming away in the first place. Can’t say that Bridgwater is a pretty place it seemed a bit run down to me with plenty of closed and boarded up shops. The old part near the church seemed ok with some old houses. But that was about it. After spending the morning meandering around the town and sitting down to rest a lot I gave in and went for a pint, after all it was midday! I was only in the pub for an hour when I got a phone call to say that my bike was ready. After picking my bike up I came back to the campsite and found I had some neighbours, funny couple both in their fifties they didn’t even acknowledge me they just avoided all eye contact completely even though they were only 10 yards away! I did hear him on the phone, he must have phoned everybody he knew telling them that they were here and that they were ok, I think it must have been their first time camping as he sounded like an excited school boy every time he spoke to somebody!