Browsed by
Tag: Touring

A Stranger To Danger

A Stranger To Danger

Comments 2 comments

Blog 3 photo and quote v1

This is a public service announcement, this is not a test.

These are the top 15 dangers of cycle touring from conversations I’ve been having over the past few weeks.

  1. Dogs
  2. Bears
  3. Wolves
  4. Acts of God
  5. Potholes
  6. Trucks
  7. SUVs
  8. Getting lost
  9. Geezas from Horror Films
  10. Strangers
  11. Gluten
  12. The weather
  13. Human predators
  14. Night time
  15. Day time

From reading the blogs of people who have traversed this route, I’m actually rating Dogs at the top of my personal “danger” list.

Long story short, I read a first-hand account of a person being chased down a lane and ripped off his bike by a pack of German Shepherds and mauled (on the same route as the one I’m going on!?). Luckily his friend was there to use his own bicycle as a weapon to battle the dogs. After being dragged around like a carcass this bloke escaped with gaping wounds in his shoulder and thighs and required “911”.

Now that petrified me, so I had to immediately research what to do WHEN I land myself in this situation.

The following list is advice I gathered online, so if you’re in a scary dog related situation remember the following: …

Read More Read More

First Confession Already…

First Confession Already…

Comments 2 comments

UK vs USA

Perhaps you noticed around the site where I mentioned a 3,400-mile journey (now updated), well the maps just arrived from the States and the journey is in fact 4,300 miles. I know what you’re thinking and my excuse is that I must have misread it the first time around, but what’s 900 miles between friends?

Interesting Fact:

The longest part of the UK (Land’s End to John O’Groats) is approximately 600 miles. So, distance wise I was out by about 1.5 x the length of the United Kingdom. I’m such a sausage.

Anyway, that’s sorted now, I’m just going to up my daily mileage a little bit to make sure I make it to the Pacific Ocean within my 90-day visa.

On the subject of distance, I came across the image at the beginning of this post and at first sight it put a small brown onion in my cycling shorts…

This is the little baby UK (obvs the Republic of Ireland is missing) inside the gigantic USA. I didn’t really understand the scale of this jolly and from seeing how massive the US is I am honestly a bit nervous. But its just like eating an Elephant ain’t it, one bite at a time.

Next on my agenda is reviewing the maps that came in the post today. These are going to be my most valued possessions over the summer, so I want to spend some time alone with them and make sure I can in fact read a map. I will let you know how I get on!

Yours in cycling,

Dan