I had planned to ride round all the Cycle Quest points on the Island but a friend wanted some advice about constructing a concrete ramp up to his industrial unit for a forklift so I went past his instead and missed out the first two locations. I stopped to answer my phone and whist doing so it started to rain, so I also put my waterproof on so of course as soon as I started riding again it stopped raining
why does that happen? I used to assume it would stop so didn't bother putting the waterproof on and would then be soaked to the skin by the time I conceded it wasn't stopping. It was a good excuse to take a picture of the bike which was still relatively clean having been washed specially for the trip.
Having stopped off for tea at the unit it was on to Cowes for the first of the Cycle Quest questions, this picture wont help you as the info you need is on the side of the pillar
I didn't know it at the time but in the background on the mainland would be 1000s of DFLs (down from London) waiting to escape to their second homes for Christmas to get out of Tier 4.... perhaps we should follow the Welsh example from the 80s to show them how welcome they are
It was on westwards into a stiff headwind (it is 90% of the time going west) to the next point. Better than last years winter bivi where I rode into a stiff headwind for 100 miles the first day albeit helped by Andy for the second half once we met up. No photo of his one as that would give the answer away. It was then back towards home, passing two more points on the way, so that's 4/6 done, I'll save the other 2 for another day.
I stopped at my house on the way by and somehow when I left I was in clean and dry riding kit rather than the soggy muddy stuff I arrived in? Don't know how that happened
It was then only a mile to my Mum's for the bivi. Collecting the ale I'd left at hers previously and topping up my water I fought my way through the undergrowth to a clear-ish spot in the woods. Tarp up I cleared a bit of ground for the stove, Finding dry wood was an issue as it had been raining on and off all day. I managed to find some dead bits hung up in branches where they fell off and got caught but I still had to scrape the wet off the outside with my knife.
I managed to collect enough for dinner but I still needed to find some for pudding. Widening my search I stumbled upon an old abandoned wood-store which had some old pallets in it plus a handy billhook for splitting them down, what a lucky find
This provided plenty for pudding plus a stack ready for breakfast. I had treated myself to an Extreme Food rice pudding for the occasion... it really wasn't worth the effort of cutting the wood, despite using the correct amount of water it was mainly liquid and a straw would have been more use than a spoon, I think they forgot to put the rice in?Luckily my chocolate caramel biscuit porter made up for it. With that drunk it was an early night. I hadn't paid too much attention when putting the tarp up as being in the woods I thought any rain would be falling straight down, however, when it chucked it down in the night quite a lot seemed to be coming in under the tarp, luckily I had brought the fully waterproof bivi so I just hunkered down inside. As I had permission to bivi in the woods (Mum said I could
) I was in no rush to get up the next morning so it was light, so a better picture than normal months.
A leisurely breakfast and coffee followed by putting all the wet kit back on the bike. It was only when I went to leave I noticed my back tyre was flat, fortunately it's under a mile to my house so I made it home after pumping it up, although the last hill down to mine was ridden standing up with as much weight on the bars as I could to keep the rim off the floor
Fixing that can be a job for another day.That's 10/12 for me and 9/12 for Ralph as we stared late. I'll probably start from scratch in Jan as I've completed 2 years previously, I think Ralph will keep going with this streak as he's not done 12 in a row before.
How sad that must be for the locals...
