Where are we? Spalding, Lincolnshire
Where should we be? Denver, Colorado
Miles today: 220
Miles total: 220
From the mile high city, to the Lincolnshire fens - hard to imagine two places more different. This morning we should have been picking up rental bikes from Denver Colorado and plotting a route vaguely south-west towards monument valley, though not before many a switchback through the magnificent Rocky Mountains, before turning left through New Mexico, Oklahoma (why? - because I've never been), Kansas (ditto) and then north to Nebraska, South Dakota and finally Wyoming. Me, feeling a little sad about being unable to take that magnificent trip? Nah, not when you have the Fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire to make up for it! Ah, well, mustn't complain, at least we are out and about. And, weather permitting, we have the highlands of Scotland to look forward to. So, early on day 1, we find ourselves here! Is it an omen?
And, just perhaps, the USA is not where I would want to be right now. So the great coronavirus disrupted tour finally gets underway - just not in the good old U S of A! The fact that I am alive, healthy, have an outdoor space and have not lost my job, is certainly not lost on me. I have not suffered at all really in the last 5 months of restricted life - and even a cycle along a largely deserted seafront in the early days now feels like a privilege and a luxury, rather than the restriction it actually was at the time.
However, this is a travel blog (and occasional rant!), and travel has been very restricted. A three week trip to South Africa in March and April bit the inevitable dust and a motorbike trip to Ireland scheduled for May went the same way. (To say nothing of cancelled gigs, theatre and family visits).
Regular readers of this dross will already know that Steve has hung up his motorbike helmet and, with a wry smile on his face, wishes us well covering 300+ daily miles in howling gales and pouring Scottish rain (likely to be mostly true apart from the 300+ miles - no more than 250!). On this occasion Rob is also otherwise engaged and can't make it either, however many bloody English Heritage castles and ruined churches Eric tempted him with.
So it is just the two musketeers, who instead of jetting off across the Atlantic to explore Rocky Mountains, prairie fields of wheat, endless roads and old style cowboy towns, are sticking to this sceptered isle. Yep, its just Great Britain - no passports needed and no borders to cross. Not even a ferry - well, I might find one across a loch, somewhere down the road, ideally while it is wet so it gives us the heebie-jeebies as we slither on and off across the wet metal plates that inevitably greet you on arrival and leaving. Pictures will follow, hopefully not of bikes on their side!
Eric and I met at a biker cafe in Essex this morning, to fuel up with what will likely be the first of many a full English! Unleaded also topped up we were raring to go north through as many back lanes as we could find in East Anglia to Lincolnshire and our destination for the night, Spalding, one of the most pro-Brexit towns in the UK. So just as well I have renewed my “I love the EU” sticker on the front of my bike. Hopefully the bikes will still be there in the morning!
A quiet day really, weather kind so far, no major getting lost and with only two of us we haven’t even lost each other, usually a regular feature of our trips.
Persuaded as I was to join “English Heritage” before leaving, this tour may rapidly descend into the “not another f***ing castle/church/abbey” tour, as I tramp around after Eric, my personal amateur historian/guide/knobhead, (just kidding Eric, you know I love your historical tours - and in return you allow me to do mad things like drive pointless hundreds of miles to cross state borders and take the bikes on ferries!), into yet other example of English aristocratic excess, now preserved for the hoi polloi, who probably mostly died in their hundreds building the bloody places! Great, got that off my chest!
As it happens, Castle Acre in Norfolk was fabulous and we managed to while away a hour or so wandering the ruins before I hijacked the whole shebang and headed for the local teashop - more coffee and cake, but to be fair we didn't actually stop for lunch. And whilst Eric is claiming I am the only one who had a the full English, he omits to admit that he started his day with a sizeable portion of apple crumble and custard! Each to their own. I left home at 8.30 this morning with nothing more than a cup of hot water (although did stop on the M25 for a very necessary coffee).
So here we are in Spalding - the Tulip Queen to be precise. Feels like a Premier Inn to be honest and the pub next door, will doubtless serve the usual stodgy British fare - burgers, fish and chips (and probably more apple crumble for the addict!). Suits me, not too surprisingly we are both tired and hungry (did I mention I was not allowed to stop for lunch?) after a long day - 220 miles for the first day is a decent effort, avoiding as we were all the A roads. And who knew there are so many "chocolate box" villages in Essex!
We probably need to average about 200 a day to reach the top of the island in about 4 days. If the weather holds! On that score, so far so good. A couple of minor drops today but we are hoping that promised ridge of high pressure next week keeps us dry, if not particularly warm.
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