On Thursday, at least I think it was Thursday (my memory is shocking) yeah it was Thursday as I have just texted John who was with me, we went to visit our new friend Lee and his lovely wife Michelle. Michelle had contacted us on Facebook saying she was going to prepare a nice home cooked meal and I mean who can refuse that. Not only that we were heading over to discuss plans with Lee about going bike packing on Saturday, staying over Saturday night, then returning sometime on Sunday. Lee is quite clued up on the local area and he knew of a decent ride which ended with a good camp site.
As usual I left everything until last minute and found myself with John and Ern at Go Outdoors trying to pick a tent which I could quite easily pop on my bike. WoW it was more difficult than I though, so many tents to choose from and then when I did eventually figure out which one I wanted they didn't have it in stock, so I spent the best part of another half an hour trying to find one I liked. Sods law really I should have just opted for the very first one I saw in the entrance to the shop as that is the one I eventually bought. The one I got was a Vango Tempest 200,it's a 2 man and not a bad little tent for £90...Not that I know much about tents, other than they are held up mostly with stick type thingy's and bits of rope.
Once at Lee's we discussed where we would be going, had a cracking lasagne, thank you Michelle and watched a few of Lee's home bike movies which were very entertaining. Lee appears to have a more professional approach to making his video's where as I just fudge stuff together and hope for the best lol.
Oh I better warn you now, this could be quite an epic tale so if you would like to head off for a cuppa and some biscuits I'll still be here when you get back.
As the Title says "There and a bit of the way back" and "The Good the Bad and the Scummy. well lets start with the good huh?
Saturday morning arrives I've been feeling ill all of Friday and only had a few hours sleep. Both John and Lee were proper decent and said "hey if you don't feel up to it no probs, we can always do it another day/weekend". Sod that I thought I've just spent £90 on a tent. Maybe I'll feel better once I'm riding. So I messaged back saying that "we are still on".
Again Mr Unprepared I set about figuring out what I thought I would need, after all John and I didn't have to be over Lee's until 12 midday. This is when it became apparent that this camping and carrying all your own gear is quite a task in itself. I had a few goes at packing various things then came to the conclusion it's never going to all fit. After sometime I managed to get everything I was going to take squared away...Jeez my bike was like a laden mule and after I added 2 litres of water to my backpack it felt decidedly heavy. I'm just pleased I had my Bike Bag Dude frame bag as without this I would have been stumped. I was able to pop various things in this handy bag, everything from my GoPro to a few banana's and my bobbly hat.
John arrived around 11'ish, carrying his gear and we had a few minor adjustments of each of our bikes and gear before heading over to meet Lee at his house.
On arrival at Lee's we were greeted by both Lee and Michelle and proceeded to make final checks, get a few photo's taken and Michelle took a little video of us all leaving so that Lee could use it in his video that he was going to shoot.
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| John,Lee and Myself |
