Tuja

Journée très pluvieuse, mais je me trouve à présent dans un merveilleux camping tout a côté de la mer. J'ai passé la matinée à régler des problèmes de vélo et à chercher du matos plus sérieux pour la pluie. J'ai trouvé de la Borjomi comme en Georgie ! Les dames du supermarché n'ont pas compris mes cris de joie. Il est presque 22h30 et il ne fait pas encore très sombre.
J'ai visité, sur ma route, un incroyable musée du vélo...
Je rentre dans ma tente car le vent marin est frais.

Riga - Cercle polaire - Paris

Je vais rédiger ce blog en anglais pour que les gens des pays où je passerai puissent le lire. Mais je commence par un peu de français. Le but, c'est de partir de Riga et de rentrer à Paris en passant par le cercle polaire arctique.

Mais si j'ai le temps je pourrai aller plus au nord en Laponie. L'itinéraire dépendra aussi du vent, http://earth.nullschool.net/. Le 30 juin, je m'envole pour Riga avec mon vélo. Il faut que je sois à Tallinn le 4 juillet, pour le festival de musique où je retrouve Chris and Kat (des amis rencontrés dans le Kerala en février). Après, je pars vers la Laponie. J'espère être de retour vers fin août.

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