The Tour starts!

Finally the day arrived, all the (lack of) planning has come together and my world tour was to start. The actual start was to be in Leicester , England which is about 150 miles north of London at there annual Spokefest cycling festival. Squeezing my machine onto the train, having not mentioned what type of bicycle it was when booking my ticket, I soon found myself lost on the streets of Leicester. After a few short questions and directions I rode over to Abby park for the start of the ride. Before the off myself and another 130 Penny Farthing riders had to break a world record. The Penny Farthing stack consists of as many riders as you can possibly muster, all sitting upon their machines holding each other up, for a least three minutes.

 

A world record!
We all happily accomplished this feat without incident and the record was ours!

 

Can you spot me!
Off I set to a cheer from my fellow wheelmen and the journey was on.

 

The start of a long ride......

 

Still to much kit I think?
Out of town I rode, on the first leg to London, spending my first night sleeping in an old collapsing barn. I am on a very tight budget, £5 a day so free camping is to be the order of the day. Down through Bedford and Luton I wheeled, my machine feeling extremely heavy, although I do only have two small front panniers mounted on the rear, and a backpack for carrying my kit. Sleeping in fields for a couple of nights gave me a pleasant coating of mud to contend with after the rain had paid a visit, but now I was feeling more energized after a few days on the road.

 

You cant beat free camping.
I arrived in Finchley on Wednesday afternoon to pay a visit to a rather important person, Thomas Stevens. He cycled around the world on his Penny Farthing between 1884-87 and visiting his grave to show my respect was a most important thing for me to do. As it was then getting quite late, I hid myself away in the corner of the graveyard and had a pleasant nights sleep. In the morning my machine and I wheeled into London, visiting Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, and the Houses of Parliament, then on to Streatham to stay over the weekend at my girlfriends house before I'm off again next week.

 

Thomas Stevens grave.

 

Trafalgar Square.

 

Buckingham Palace, and no I wasn't invited in!

Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament.
I'm now somewhere to the west of Paris and having a splendid time. Have been free camping all the way so far without problem, but I am taking it slowly as my knee is playing up a little. More reports soon when I can find a cheaper internet cafe!

 

The views at the top of the valleys were lovely.

 

A view down the Grand Canal.

Have now rolled up in Versailles and have found a great campsite for only 5euro a night at the gates of the Chateau. I'm going to stay here a week to let the pain in my knee go away, and Danielle my girlfriend is coming over so it should be a very pleasant rest!

 

They are rather laid back these French!

The Paris-Brest-Paris starts here on Monday so I will be visiting the start of that with a nutty South African fellow I met at the campsite. He has just finished following the Tour de France on his bike carrying his kit as well, and is now off to do the Paris-Brest! Strong legs I think. The heat here has been amazing, I have been roasting during the day, and the night as well, and I only had to use my sleeping bag for the first time last night

 

My machine and the Chateau.

well its the 30th today and I have made it to Strasbourg! The knee has been hurting a fair bit but it does seem to be pretty constant which is a good thing, had a fair few problems with the lorries when I left Paris so the lesson was to ride on the smaller routes I think. So I have been zig zagging my way across the country not the quickest way though! After one really good soaking in Versailles while camping the weather hasn't been to bad until the last few days, I rode into the mountains and the clouds followed me and oh did it rain. Another soaking while camping, and everything is wet again, so last night I slept under a picnic table to give a bit more protection. Today though I have given in and bought a cheap tent, dam the weight I like sleeping in a dry sleeping bag. Have found the Rine canal which has been a godsend, this I have followed for a few days now and of course is lovely and flat, only had one problem on it which was an annoying huge gate which appeared blocking the way. I started to dismantle said gate, when a man appeared, happily he didn't notice my handiwork, and took me off to see the boss, who after much convincing opened it and let me through! Heading into Germany tomorrow not sure where, but east I guess, will have to buy a map I think.

 

Have just been woken up in the campsite in Versailles!

 

No I don't sleep with the helmet on, but the Italian fellow insisted upon it for the photo. Don't I look good in the mornings!

 

Notre Dame in the heart of Paris.

 

The Louver was shut on the day of my visit, but it was still splendid anyway!

 

What a nice Tower!

 

The lovely town of Luftsburg along the Rhin canal going towards Strasbourg.

 

Looking rather relaxed in a lovely doorway in Strasbourg.

 

The stunning Strasbourg Cathedral, this is without doubt the best cathedral that I have so far seen.

 

Looks great at night to!

 

Up in the Black forest now, the air is so clean, but the temperature has dropped and the rain has started to fall!

 

The Danube cycle path has now been joined, but a good deal of it is gravel, not so good for the bottom that sits upon a solid tyre!

 

Free camping has been without any problems, and you always get the best spot!

 

This tunnel appeared out of the forest, I didn't bother with turning on my lights though.

 

The most stunning forests have been encountered, this was probably about five miles long, and of course amazing.

On one of the wetter days in Germany.

A short ferry ride had to be taken, as the Danube is very low at the moment they are only using small boats.

 

I did have thoughts of having to dive down and rescue my machine, but happily we landed safely.

Another of my forest camp spots, I'm a real nature boy now!

 

I now have arrived in Vienna. The stunning city is my favorite so far I think, this has been helped by the wonderful hospitality shown to me by the Vienna Penny Farthing riders.

A sepia pic!

 

Ahh blue skies again for a few days.

 

The horses and Chaise are all over the center of Vienna, very in keeping with my mode of transport I think.

The day comes to leave Vienna and I am all ready for the off with my fellow Penny Farthing riders. They are going to accompany me for the day on the ride to the border with Slovakia.

What happened next...

I left Vienna with my good friends the Viennese Penny Farthing riders and we had a super ride through a tremdious storm to the border with Slovakia. Here we went our separate ways and I entered a new country. Being waved through with barely a look at my passport was nice to find, and so I stopped in a muddy field to camp for the night hoping that the rain would ease off in the morning. The rain was gone when I awoke, but my left knee was in extreme pain and I had great difficulty in bending the joint. This I couldn't believe was happening, a new knee injury just didn't seem fair. Taking lots of pain killers and cycling with one leg I slowly headed for Hungary. Thankfully a huge tailwind was blowing on my back and this kept me moving and a week or so later I arrived in Budapest. There had been no improvement in my knee and the thought of heading down into the Serbian mountains using one leg didn't seem like fun. With my head in my hands I flew home. I have since seen the consultant and had some x-rays, and it appears that my kneecaps aren't running in there grooves, this can be corrected by surgery so I'm now booked in to have the operations, sometime hopefully in 2004. A huge thank you to all the people who sent me messages, smiled, waved, helped, and who I met on this adventure, you made it a wonderful experience. Oh, and when the knees are fixed again watch this space!