Sheffield Leeds 75km

I am in love with Yorkshire now
Lovely hills and fields and fluffy clouds
Route a bit random, lack of maps, but ended up beautiful and quite straight
I wouldnt have thought I could like hills so much really
Wind but from the west so it was fine
The whole trip went very smoothly. My brakes suffered a bit today, as last year along the jurassic coast. Tires still fine.
Had very little rain compared to forecast.
I recommend Yorkshire strongly.
forgot phone in Sheffield dont try to call me

getting out from Sheffield

clouds!

monkey puzzle 6

clouuuds

argh

I stopped abruptly on an A road to take this picture

Newark Sheffield 89km

today I crossed sherwood forest
didnt see robinhood
fairly headwindy
cloudy except for some sun in late afternoon
very nice hills
steep sometimes for a change
again 2 monkey puzzles today am happy
this was a short stage am not tired could have done more
rather complicated approach to sheffield
I hope the northern wind will abate tomorrow

monkey puzzle 4

monkey puzzle 5

Sheffield

Stamford Newark 95km

rode through a big grey cloud all day long
hilly at times
strong headwind
whimsical bbc radio 4
reached newark at about 4 quite tired but happy still

carpet of cherry flowers

monkey puzzle 3

cherry!!

Cambridge Stamford 115km

peterborough around 1pm
rather sunny a bit windy
saw two monkey puzzles
one handkerchief tree
many amazing laburnums
weird-coloured maples
a cathedral
people kayaking on the nene
am sunburnt, unexpected
in Stamford at 6pm

laburnum!!

rapeseed and sky

monkey puzzle 1

allotments, Peterborough

handkerchief tree, copper beech, cathedral

monkey puzzle 2

looming sky, leaning tree

Burghley House

Cambridge - Leeds

Here is the route. I will start on Sunday and arrive on Wednesday, hopefully! Four days is a long time for this relatively short distance, but I expect some sound headwind... and some rain, of course. Most ominous weather forecast since I've begun touring.
I will probably blog on my Kindle, which means that it will be terse, stern and sadly pictureless at first. But I will add pictures later, I promise.
 

Checklist:

- 2 spare inner tubes
- spanner
- pliers
- plastic tire levers (not steel ones, they damage the rims)
- good air-pump (they really vary in quality)
- one brake cable
- one derailleur cable
- oil+rag
- a compass in case the sun is hidden (cf weather forecast...)
- some maps in case the compass is not enough
- no GPS (that's cheating)
- no gun (that's cheating)
- camera
- MP3+headphones
- Kindle 3G
- some clothes, duvet, soap, etc.
- oatcakes, milk-chocolate digestives, bananas
- money to buy more oatcakes, etc
- some whisky in case it's very cold and rainy and hilly
- water in case there's no whisky left
- a touring bike (slightly heavy, yes, but tough) and two snobbish Ortlieb satchels
- a lock (preferably with two keys, the spare one if of no use in a drawer when you're touring)
- a pen and some paper for the conference

Cambridge - Saffron Walden (bis)

Some sun after days of snow...
But on a young beech one lonely stalactite persisted

Very windy, very cold. No food until Saffron Walden, but then, asparagus and salmon quiche... YUM. And I wrote letters, I felt so good.
spoke to no-one this time
Oh yeah, I bought the Guardian, and the guy, taking the coins, said in amazement: "your money's cold!" and he laughed. People usually keep their money warm, that's a fact.

Cambridge - Ely - Cambridge, bis: the End of Winter

In the morning, Moby Dick appeared on my wall and told me to go cycling on some solid part of the world.

So I obeyed, and I saw grapes of samaras,

...alder pseudo-cones,

...a branch above me on a blue blue sky,

...un serpent boa ayant avalé un éléphant (ou était-ce tout simplement un chapeau ?),

a strange tree (can anyone tell me what it is?),

...with its striped bark (a zebra-tree?),

...puis, ayant poussé la porte étroite,

...I watched the blue sky once again, partially hidden by a tree and a cathedral.

Thursday morning in the fens

I started reading, and then the weather was so good I couldn't stay inside...

someone's fishing in the cam

boggy boggy

 Yggdrasil (young and wintery)

Cambridge - Saffron Walden (and a bit further)

Mouillé

Silo !

"...or is the dreary change in me?"

There I was cold, my feet were kind of frozen. I drank tea from my bottle, and it felt as if the tea was going directly into my toes.

Saffron Walden Market. "Darling, are you sure you need another pair of pruning shears?"

Saffron Walden. "It's ok, dear, leave your bike here and walk around. Rosie? This lady has cycled from Cambridge. We'll keep her bike so that she can have a walk." Later: "Have a good ride. But be very careful: we have a pervert, here in Saffron Walden. All ladies here are warned, but as you're a stranger I wanted to tell you... He is mostly around in the evenings. Be very careful". "Hum, sure, I will. Thanks." Didn't see no pervert.

Didn't step inside - was hungry. Went to eat a broccoli and stilton soup, and garlic bread. Felt happier.

brownie

Cambridgeshire in the snow

Girton

 

near Girton

snowy path

faithful even on snowy paths

slightly slippery

patterns

oops my shoes not waterproof :(

bliss