The Next Challenge

"The Days After" theme sort of fizzled out, basically because nothing was happening worth writing about. I'm no longer out there riding 60 odd miles a day and having adventures. Nobody wants to know what I had for breakfast, or how long I slept, etc any more. These things did seem moderately important during the ride but they are very mundane these days along with the rest of "normal" life.

I have spent the last two weeks trying to get down to some work again but always finding something more important to do like BBC sport website and the "Tour of Switzerland" on the telly, not to mention every second of Euro 2012 football. I have also been trying to update the blog by adding photos and routes but this is very time-consuming and I haven't really made much progress on either front. I'll keep plugging away though until the work has piled up so high that I have to get rid of some of it. Hopefully the blog will be something like complete by then.

As far as cycling is concerned we do have on the horizon the Manchester to Blackpool on 8th July. I have managed this for the last four years but the ride is logistically very difficult to organize. You have to get you and your bike to Manchester, do the ride and then get yourself and your bike back home. It has only been possible for me to do this ride with an organised group including volunteer van drivers. The group I've done it with in the past are not doing it this year so I think I'll give it a miss myself.

Further down the line is the Manchester 100 on 2nd Sept which is more convenient because it starts and finishes in the same place so it's a case of drive there with bike and then drive home, with a small matter of 100 miles in between. This is easier to organise and more of a challenge so it's a definite for me and I'm going to start training soon - honest. I have done a few short rides on my old road bike, mainly up through the plantations to Haigh Hall with Barney (dog). My tourer is at Robin's in Newburgh for rest and repair. Robin kindly offered to him to put it

Then there is next year. By next spring I will be ready for a major challenge and I would love to ride to Turkey again but I couldn't use the same route, or even go through all the same countries. This year's ride was so unique for me and so special that anything vaguely similar could never be as good and is bound to be an anticlimax. So, the plan is to use a totally different route. At present France, Italy, Greece is favourite although the Adriatic coast is a possibilty with maybe Albania and Macedonia involved. Another major departure from this year's ride would be that I would like to go in a group this time. It has been mentioned to a few friends and they are "thinking about it". The beauty of this idea is that it opens up possibilities for people to fly out and join in for a week or two along the way. If nobody fancies it I may attempt it myself but it's a long way off and too soon to say.

The main thing is - wheels are in motion.

The Days After 3 - 4 Jun

Sunday 3 Jun

I remembered to do my stretches and did a load of random sit-ups as well, first thing. I have lost quite a bit of weight and this was my first (and very weak) attempt at stopping the weight getting back on too quickly. It will eventually return, I am sure, but I am actually thinking that joining a gym may slow it down, although a long bike ride in the near future would give me the incentive to get out and do some long distance training. I need something on the horizon to aim at. Manchester to Blackpool is favourite but there is also a Manchester 100 in September which would be further than I have ever gone - in a day that is. 

Breakfast was porridge and cereal again and I watched a bit of telly before starting the Sunday dinner, the one thing I have missed most of all about life here at home. There was an option for Chinese but I put my foot down like a real man and got my pinny on. It was OK, back in the swing of things, peeling potatoes etc., and the end product was acceptable although I did make loads too much. It will do for tomorrow as they say.

I tried really hard but had a load of biscuits with my cup of tea for supper.      

Monday 4 Jun

I got up at the crack of dawn – Ok the crack of 8.00 - and took the dog out for a jog up the hill in the plantations to Haigh Hall. He loves jogging along as I struggle up the hill but I get my own back on the way down as he is galloping along and gasping for breath. I let him have a drink in the stream if he’s good.

It felt good to be back on the bike again, in this country, I must add, although I did have a couple of ventures out on the bike last week in Calis but only to the shop or the pub.

The afternoon saw us celebrating the Queen's jubilee at my mum's with the extended family, some of whom had returned from Calis only that morning. Tough our girls, or what? I ate loads of buffet but only drank a few cans of cider so maybe willpower is kicking in. It was a good do but we didn't stay late and I got to bed at a reasonable time.    

The Days After 2 Jun

I retired on Friday night/Saturday morning at around 2.00am so, with about 10 hours sleep I obviously didn’t see much of the best part of Saturday morning. I had a huge breakfast of porridge with shredded wheat, which is what I should have had every day on the ride but never mind.

It is my intention now to develop the blog by adding photos and tracks to each post. For a number of reasons, some tracks didn’t record so I will have to try to re-create these on the bike route website and get them on the blog somehow. I may also give photos and maps pages of their own which would mean people don’t have to trawl through the whole thing again to see them, if you’ve got nothing better to do that is. I could not do this abroad for some reason or it would have been organised so I pottered about a bit with the blog for an hour or so. I think I may have finally emptied the suitcase.

I checked the sponsorship account and must confess to being a bit disappointed. I suppose it is early days but I would just ask that if you have promised to donate please do so sooner rather than later because these things can easily slip the mind. Obviously, a big thanks to those who have donated already.

In the middle of the afternoon I set off with my BYW to visit my mum and see the rest of the family. I received a welcome of near-Fethiye proportions and picked up a number of well-wishing cards from other family members containing sponsor money in various forms, which made me feel a bit better. There is a Saturday tradition at my mum’s of all-day-breakfast so I tucked in again, good style. We had a good chat there and got home in time for the England football match. At home, I just couldn’t stop eating and had a couple of cans of cider as well before retiring at a reasonable hour.

The Days After 1 Jun

Dalaman Airport is not a very nice place, for a number of reasons. One is that you are forced to spend a couple of hours there at the end of your holiday which means the holiday is over. Another is that the food and drinks are a ridiculous price. Don't they realise that if the prices were a bit more reasonable people might actually spend some money. We expect airports to be expensive but 15YTL for a beer is just too much. The staff just sit behind the counters and polish their fingernails and try to look busy while the punters avoid eye contact and try to make themselves comfortable. Also, there always seems to be a delay which makes things a lot worse, and there was one on this occasion. 2.00am is a good flight time for me. On holiday you can often find yourself awake at that time so you shouldn't be too tired at take-off and if you can sleep on the flight 4 and a half hours is a decent flight duration to get some quality zeds in. Plenty when you can top it up at home later. A two hour delay means you get a lot more tired at the airport and must be alert for boarding etc. It was poison for me. I couldn't sleep in the departure lounge and I couldn't sleep on the plane. The delay meant nobody could pick me up but the train was a decent alternative. I struggled on the concourse and up and down a number of lifts with the bags and the bike-in-a-box but got to the airport station OK. I actually used my phone as a wi-fi source and downloaded the blog onto the little lappy-toppy thingy while on the train and got a taxi home from the station in Wigan.


Siobhan made me a cup of tea and some cheese crumpets as I eased back into Wigan life. I emptied the case in instalments while re-associating myself with the workings of the remote controls and nodding off here and there. I decided to go to bed in the afternoon but couldn't sleep at first. When I did eventually drop off I jumped up half an hour later when Tom came in and decided to tough it out. I was delighted to be able to put the bike together and get it looking good again and after a bite to eat we settled down to watch the Wigan youngsters demolish the world rugby league champions, Leeds. After the rugby real beer beckoned and I met Tom and Paul in the Royal Oak. Three pints of nectar later I was home and enjoying a large-ish single malt before retiring, after a ridiculously long day, to my own bed again. I don't know what happened in the next ten hours.  

The Days After 30 - 31 May

On Wednesday I had been invited to make a guest appearance and to make the draw for a raffle at the weekly FIG coffee morning at the Yeni Dunya on Fethiye front. I was all ready for the dolmus at 1020 when Marg and Keith offered to take me in the 'jeep'. They were going into Fethiye anyway to try to sort out their internet connection yet again. We bounced along for half an hour and then they dropped me in the centre and I continued on foot. I realised halfway there that there was no pain of any description in either of my knees. Hurrah! Could it be the jeep jostling? I reached the venue and was plied with coffee and cakes and then with congratulations and then with questions about the ride from various FIG members past and present and from other particiants. It was another pleasant occasion and nice to meet the enthusiastic and energetic FIG members again. I made the draw and had a close one when I drew out a ticket next to one I had bought. The whole event lasted an hour and a half or so and I said my farewells and left to good wishes from everyone.

I realised I had no change for the 'dolly' back to base so I had a drink at the Kemal and brought the blog up to date using their wi-fi. I took my time and realised I was out and about and alone for the first time since the ride had ended, and enjoying it - ominous, or what? I took the water taxi across the bay back to Calis and then wandered back to Zakkum still pain-free.

I went out later for a meal to the Eros with our Marg and Rose and Betty and Megan. This venue was Betty's choice on this occasion and a fine one. I enjoyed a sea bream with too much salad, not enough chips and no rice at all. Do these people not realise my situation? I need unhealthy food to get back out of shape. The sunset was the usual mindblowing spectacle and we wandered back via the Shamrock and the Dawn Beach where Eko was in his usual good form, and then got a taxi back 'home'. We had a drink or two outside Rose's and I eventually got my head down, after watching a bit if telly, at the ridiculously late hour of 3am.

There was heavy rain during the night and, instead of turning over once or twice, I revolved until about 10 o'clock. Keith and I then took the bike around to Ali's and he packed the bike neatly in a box for me. The rest of the day involved slowly tidying the apartment and getting my bags packed. Shaun and Shirley came around on the way to the guitar club and Keith brought a bottle of home brew out, and then another. It was a bit like rocket fuel. I had a couple of glasses and ended up sleeping for two hours in the afternoon while he went off with Shaun. I saw him later and he looked OK. I then found he had been on fruit juice all afternoon. Not like Keith at all.

That time eventually came and I went to the gate to wait for my transfer. The minibus arrived and I stashed my case and the bike in the back and said my farewells to all the family there with me at the gate. At the airport I found out that the flight is delayed for two hours. This means I can't be picked up at Manchester but there is an easy way out. I will take the train from the airport to Wigan and get a taxi home from the station. I just need a key to get in the house. While queueing to check in I asked the Thomson rep what I should do about my bike. She asked if I was the man who had ridden over from England. I said I was and she told me that her mum had sat next to a young lady on a flight over to Turkey last Wednesday who was flying to meet her dad who had cycled to turkey. The young lady was obviously Siobhan complete with pork scratchings and Uncle Joe's. How about that? And was that a week ago?

So I am sitting here in Dalaman airport and have drafted the blog while fighting off sleep. That feels familiar. I will complete the blog update after I get home and complete my night's sleep in my OWN BED.