Sunday, September 13, 2009

Day 14

It happened in Ipswich and it happened again in Leicester... the person who'd agreed to be my Human Sat Nav for the next ride just went AWOL. I called, I left messages, I sent a text and I tried their e-mail address... no reply at all.

In Ipswich when that happened I asked the audience if anyone there could help me and got the excellent Dave so I thought I'd try the same in Leicester. I wasn't disappointed... I got the brilliant: Kirstie and Mike


When I tried to work out the route for myself I couldn't see a way of making it much less tan 80 miles but Kirstie and Mike got it down to 68 miles... here's the route we took:


And as you can see from the uppity-downity chard, there was a lot of climbing:
I think this means we were climbing for nearly ten whole miles at one point - from mile 49 to 59. My thighs definitely agree.

Here are a few photos from the day, starting with the classic - almost cliched - picture of a swan and a wheelie bin:



I don't remember it being called that when I was a lad:




And here we are at the end:

7 comments:

Grethic said...

Beginning to wonder when and or if you sleep. 10 miles climbing after the flat lands of 'stanglia sounds like a lot of hard work. Love the pictures of your satnavs, they seem like a great crowd.

Dave Gorman said...

I get an adrenaline buzz from the show that makes sleeping impossible for a while. As it goes, I'd written this and uploaded the photos and then fell asleep before hitting the button that publishes it... woke up, pressed the button and then went to bed.

I'm not getting enough sleep for all the activity... but somehow the ride is proving to be energising and the audience gives me a kick of energy for the shows too.

Lee Grice said...

Saw the show in Stoke last night Dave - it was great. Just wanted to say a quick thank you.

I believe in magic!

Mike and Kirstie said...

Hi Dave

Just wanted to say thanks again for a great day out yesterday. We enjoyed the opportunity to ride with someone new.

The map says 3500ft of climbing in total which is no mean feat given that we were cheating on far lighter bikes.

There are a few pics in my flickr account of what to expect in Scotland!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrmichaelwright/

Hope you enjoy the rest of the trip

Mike and Kirstie

Dave Gorman said...

@Mike & Kirstie: you were excellent companions and excellent route planners. I reckon we were 20 miles shorter than any route I would have come up with. I had the benefit of all that climbing today - with more downs than ups on my way to Manchester.

Jason said...

Dave, saw you in Leicester, excellent show - I keep remembering little bits and laughing at odd times in the office. Good to see your appeal got you a new Human-Nav!

Cheers again, eagerly awaiting your return!

Kirstie said...

Hi Dave,
So Roger has appeared again - he's alive, but not all that well, it seems. He was in bed all weekend with foot and mouth or some other dreadful lurgy. I'm sure he'll be in touch.
All the best
Kirstie