Flight checks complete, baggage stowed, we’re ready for lift-off….

Well we’ve made it…got all our luggage in the bags and came in under the weight limit! But not before another three rounds of the various outdoor shops however, to acquire yet more missing ‘essential’ items of expedition kit. Just watch the share price of Rohan, Mountain Warehouse, Blacks, Field&Trek and Millets tumble when we’ve gone!

Another on-going retail saga has been the case of the missing eye-cups. At this year’s Bird Fair in August (you really should go if you have an interest in any aspect of birds) I decided to shed a few pounds (£’s & lb’s) by replacing my old binoculars with the new super-doopa Swarovski EL 8×32 – ultra light-weight and near optical perfection. For a change I thought I’d buy the ones in ‘sand’ rather than the usual green colour, but then noticed that they had silver eye-cups. Now, as any self-respecting birder knows, that’s a bad idea – because it allows light to bounce about inside the eye piece and distract your attention from what you’re looking at. ‘No problem’ said the very helpful Richard on the Swarovski stand, ‘you buy the bins and I’ll send you a replacement pair of black eye-cups’. We shook hands on the deal and I parted with a not inconsiderable sum of money. The binoculars duly arrived from Austria (but not before Prince Charles had given back-word on them, or so the story goes – I guess the colour clashed with Camilla’s Barbour!), complete with silver eye-cups. A single black eye-cup arrived in the post a couple of days later and I texted Richard to express my concern. To cut a very long story short, three weeks and nine eye-cups of differing shapes and sizes later, I finally get my black ones! They fit a treat and no hint of light ‘spillage’. Thanks Richard for the excellent after sales service, I hope I haven’t undermined Swarovski’s marketing strategy, put  the ‘Royals’ noses out of joint or exhausted the stock of spare eye-cups! Mind, if you do run short, you know where to find some!

…but not on this occasion!

Anyway I digress…back to the story. The other highlight of the week has been a trip to Dick my barber. Eighty something, still cycles to work and opens for his regulars at ten t’seven of a morning – now that’s service! I take my seat and he commences with ‘my usual’, meanwhile I tell him about our upcoming trip. He then says, in that case he’ll take a bit more off the top. In a scene reminiscent to the ‘Father Ted’ episode where he’s knocking dents out of his new car, Dick continues to take a bit more off the top…., the sides and the back! The result, well judge for yourselves…

…. Oh well, I’m sure it will grow back for the wedding!

We had our last ‘walk through’ with our travelling companions Bob and Sue, on Wednesday night and apart from some very minor tweaks, we’re ready to go! All that remained was to tell the banks and credit card companies of our plans….easier said than done! One of them said that there wasn’t much point in telling them, it made very little difference, but ‘helpfully’ provided an emergency number for use when they put a block on the card….thanks a lot NatWest!

We have a ‘farewell dinner’ with the kids tonight and the taxi arrives at lunch tomorrow to take us to the airport. If all goes well we’ll be back in ‘dear old blighty’ for Christmas. Apologies in advance if you don’t get a card – blame it on the Peruvian postal system!

Bye for now.

Only a week to go…!

Yes it’s true, with just under a week to go before the start of the BWBA (Big World Birding Adventure) life is rather hectic around here. Jane’s still putting the finishing touches to the itinerary (and the airlines still keep changing their schedules!), we are doing near daily trips to the outdoor shops – it’s amazing how many essential items of everyday clothing and equipment you didn’t know you needed and the pressure to nail the birding sites, particularly in Argentina and Chile, where we are completely acting on our own initiative, is beginning to tell!

We’ve spent the last few evenings using a prototype internet bird listing app., which Matthew is developing, to try to establish exactly what my world bird list currently is, before attempting to add a shed load more to it. It’s surprising to a taxonomy ‘newbie’ like me just how many different names, both common and scientific, a single bird can have! Anyway, we’re getting there and thanks Matt for a cracking piece of kit. It should make the ritual of the ‘daily log &  list’ slightly easier than our last mini world trip, where Jane and Bob seemed to spend longer and longer trying to make our daily sightings tally with the trip list!

On another front, I’ve finally taken the plunge and retired my old Lumix compact camera, which I used for ‘digi-scoping’, and bought a new Sony Cyber Shot – early results appear promising but it’s a complicated bit of kit to master! With this new addition and the necessary supplementaries it means I’ve just got room for a spare shirt and a pair  of undies in my baggage allowance!

Just in case you thought this trip was all about birds and my vain attempts to photograph them, you’d be wrong – and to prove it I thought I’d include a couple of shots of Macchu Picchu, taken on our last trip, to give you a flavour of the touristy things we’ll be doing along the way.

A view of Winay Wayna ( the King’s summer residence, if I remember my MP history correctly) taken on the two day trail.

Joseph ( the one that’s getting married to Gabi this time) and our guide, Juan, admiring the view from the Sun Gate.

The ‘Swiss family Williams’ in front of Huayna Picchu.

…and finally, for the birders amongst you, a pair of magnificent Torrent Duck on the river Urubamba.

My last blog, prior to the ‘grande departure’, will be on Friday, depending how the packing goes. Stay tuned for the blogging adventure of a life time…well a few interesting holiday snaps and some ‘potted prose’ from yours truly anyway!

Tour of Britain comes to Norfolk…again!

On Sunday, as a brief distraction from the preparation and build-up for the Big World Birding Adventure (BWBA), we managed to see the closing stages of the first day of this years Tour of Britain, as the race came through just south of Cawston, en route for the finish at the Norfolk Show Ground. The four man break-away was still clear of the peloton, with Sky leading the chase back. With 3k to go, having brought back the break away, Sky were in a commanding position and ready to launch the’Manx missile’, then disaster struck – a crash brought down Cav and most of the other serious sprint contenders! Sky still managed to pull off the win but it wasn’t the start we were all hoping for.

The announcer telling us that the break-away has one and a half minutes up on the peloton

.

It gets more like Le Tour every year!

The break-away…

And now the peloton with ‘Sir Brad’

Sky beginning to take control of the race.

Bradley Wiggins, followed closely by  Cavendish.

Deep inside the peloton.

Better get back to the packing….!

Around the world in eighty days…

Well it’s 84 days actually and in exactly one month’s time we’ll be stepping off the plane in Rio, on our way to Guapiassu bird lodge in the Brazilian atlantic rain forest – the first stop on our big world birding adventure! Absolutely no cycling and very few medieval churches involved either!

Our trip, which has been built on a ’round the world’ air ticket with a number of supplementary internal flights, takes us from Brazil to Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Chile – for the wedding of our son Joe, and then on to Australia and finally Thailand. Most of the itinerary is ‘self-guided’, with a little help in the three tropical destinations in South America, son Dan in NSW and the assistance of our good friends, Neil & Eunice, in Thailand. I’m not really sure what to expect in terms of birding totals – could perhaps be up to 1200 in all, but having been to a few of these countries before, I guess that the number of new species might be in the region of 450? I’m taking plenty of photographic equipment so hope to come back with a good record of our adventures and provide some interesting images to illustrate this blog along the way.

In planning and preparation terms we’re 95% there – just a few more transport details to attend to and then the meticulous packing process. Twelve weeks away without some ‘essential item’ doesn’t bear thinking about! Mind you, my packing list doesn’t look any different than when we go away for a fortnight – am I missing something?

Must go now – trying to get my existing world ‘life list’ into shape before the ‘tsunami of ticks’ descends! I’ll let you know how the preparations are going before our grand departure – after that it’ll be down to the vagaries of the world wide web…!

A taste of things to come……

Scarlet Macaw

Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

Violet Sabrewing

Collard Aracari

Magellanic Penguin

Superb Fairy-Wren

Go Wiggo go…!

Having missed out on the Olympic Road Race – I did my first cycle ride to the historic churches of Norfolk (HCoN) instead, we  decided to catch up on some ‘live’ Olympic action by going to the men’s and women’s time trials at Hampton Court. Not having tickets for the start/finish – well there’s a surprise, we had to find a decent spot along the route. The men’s course, being longer than the women’s, had extra bits added at the start and finish, so figured that the closest place to see the combined finishing sections would be Kingston bridge. We set off early from Peterborough to secure our place – well not as early as we had planned and as a consequence missed our booked train! Two new (full price!) tickets later and we were on our way. We arrived in Kingston about half past ten, two hours before the start of the women’s race and nearly three before they were due to arrive. The town centre was already busy but we managed to secure a good spot, on the bend, at the beginning of Kingston Bridge. By the time my brother and his family joined us we were three deep at the barriers and the pre-race atmosphere was beginning to build, aided through the afternoon by a steady supply of ‘bubbly’ – thanks Stig & Kate! The women’s race was a great prelude to the men’s event, where we realistically  had our best medal chances. In the event Emma Pooley came 6th and Lizzy Armitstead came 9th – Well done girls! The race was won by Kristin Armstrong USA, second was Judith Arndt, Germany and third, the Russian girl Olga Zabelinskaya.

Lizzy Armitstead  – 9th place

Emma Pooley – 6th place

In the men’s race hopes were high for a medal, after Bradley Wiggins’ success in Le Tour and after the crushing disappointment of Mark Cavendish, in the Road Race. In the event, we were not to be denied..Wiggo was ‘on fire’ and got gold, with only Tony Martin, Germany, separating Brad from bronze medal winner Chris Froome. What a day for British cycling…!

Go Wiggo go…..!

In second place, Tony Martin, Germany

….and in bronze position, second in the Tour de France, Chris Froome

Well done Team GB…just brilliant!

In the beginning…

Last Saturday I did a ‘test ride’ for my next cycling adventure – visiting and photographing all the historic churches of Norfolk. I set off early morning to make sure I was back home in time to enjoy the finish of the Olympic Men’s Road Race and hopefully see Mark Cavendish sprint to Gold medal success – I should have taken my time! But see my next blog from the Olympic Time Trial.

I’d planned a circular ride, starting with my home church of  St John the Baptist, Aylmerton, heading north to Beeston, east through Cromer and out along the coast to Trimingham, then turning inland through Trunch to the outskirts of North Walsham, west through Erpingham before finally heading north, through Alby and Roughton, to home. I visited 22 churches in total and covered 42 miles in a time of about five and a half hours. Lessons learned on this first outing:

*   Always take a back up camera – first, my battery started to die and then my lens broke! Fortunately I was within the last few miles and I could amend the route and revisit the missed churches without too much effort. That wouldn’t be the case if I was down on the Suffolk border.

*   There are many fewer cafes in remote rural Norfolk than there were on our John O’Groats to Land’s End epic, so take a flask and a supply of flapjack!

*   If you start off too early, many of the churches are still locked. Actually I was surprised at the number that were open later in the day – it’s nice to be able to see inside as well as snap the exterior.

*   It’s surprising how easy it is for churches to ‘hide’ once you get into the villages – so I need to research the route more carefully to avoid constantly getting the map out.

*   Unlike the End2End rides, it only a couple of miles between each stop – this is a different kind of cycle ride. Things will obviously change once I start visiting locations further from home though.

*   I like it – it’s nice to be back on the bike and the prospect of visiting almost every community in Norfolk over the next few years excites me!

Here are a few of the photos I managed to salvage from the broken camera and a copy of the route. I hope you enjoy these excursions to the historic churches of Norfolk as much as I intend to!

Finally, a list of the churches visited:

Aylmerton, Beeston, West Runton, Cromer, Overstrand, North Repps, Sidestrand,  Trimingham, Gimingham, South Repps, Trunch, Swafield, Bradfield, Antingham, Suffield, Colby, Erpingham, Calthorpe, Thwaite, Alby, Roughton and Metton.

If anyone out there has done a similar thing or can see that I’ve missed out on an historic church somewhere on my travels, do please leave a comment…See you next time.

Cycling to the Churches of Norfolk

Yesterday I attended the unveiling of the Active Norfolk banners at The Forum, Norwich. After a two month break from cycling, following our successful John O’Groats to Land’s End epic, the event has spurred me on to start my next cycling project –  cycling to all the historic churches in Norfolk, from our home near Cromer. There are about 800 churches to visit and I estimate that I can probably do around 20 each day, with an average of 50-60 miles cycled. I plan to do a mixture of single day rides, combined with a number of ‘long weekends’ to reach the more distant locations. At it’s furthest the county boundary is about 50 miles away from my starting point. On this basis, I expect it to take me between 40 – 50 riding days, spread over the next three years. I plan to keep a photographic record of my journeys and post them on this blog. My first test ride is this weekend – I’ll let you know how it goes!

As an update on other projects, past and future: Our End2End ride raised over £5000 for much deserving charities. We’re about to close the giving web site  so, if you haven’t made a contribution and would like to do so, this is your final chance. Visit the site today.

Planning for our autumn ’round the world’ birding trip is well advanced, the current itinerary takes in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Australia and Thailand. WiFi permitting, I’ll be blogging the whole trip – bringing you the high-lights on a regular basis.

…watch this space for some interesting up-coming travels!

Venice

First of all, please excuse the absence of any blogging since the end of our three week epic cycle ride from John O’Groats to Land’s End, via the ‘four countries’ – only I’ve been trying to re-adjust to a less nomadic life-style and clear away the back-log of ‘domestic duties’. Anyway I thought I’d make a come back by sharing some photos of Venice, taken last weekend, on a short break to celebrate Jane’s retirement!

We’ve been to Venice a couple of times, but only for day trips. So on this occasion we decided to push the gondola out and stay somewhere in the very centre of this unique and exquisite city. We eventually chose the small, up market ‘B&B’ – Locanda Orseolo, just off St. Mark’s square, with a canal side entrance and fabulous personal service. We used a book of walking tours to navigate around some of the lesser known areas of the city and we enjoyed a great afternoon on the island of Murano.

Here are a few snaps of this enchanting place:

 

Land’s End…..and Journeys End

With only 20 miles left to do of this epic journey we allowed ourselves the luxury of a late breakfast. It was gone ten before we rolled out of the Countryman Inn car park and headed for the coast road which would take us via St Just all the way to Land’s End. Not to disappoint, the weather was fantastic and the scenery superb – this felt a truly fitting ride to end with. And in keeping with most, if not all previous days, we had some pretty strenuous hill climbing thrown in for good measure. We stopped at St. Just for coffee and toasted tea cakes before setting off on the final down-hill run, through Sennen, to Land’s End. With Land’s End in view Bryan said ‘I’ve spent the last eleven hundred miles with my head up your a – -e  (following me), which is infinitely better than having it stuck up my own’ –  I think I understand what he meant. There were a few tears of relief before the Champagne cork popped, a brief celebration and then the ‘official’ photos and paper work and that was it – job done!

Before I finish todays blog and conclude this epic tale there are a few thanks and acknowledgements we need to make. Firstly  to our families and close friends who have put up with us during the planning, preparation and execution of this task – thank you for your loving support and encouragement. A special thank you to Jane, back at ‘Mission Control’ for doing all the accommodation booking (and un-booking when we changed our minds!) – we’ve stayed in some excellent places, which we could never have found on our own. To the proprietors of those establishments – hotels, hostels, B&B’s and cafes, thank you for making us welcome and aiding our recovery from our long day rides. To Interserve, our corporate sponsor, and particularly to Debs for most of the communications, setting up the giving site and arranging this evenings Celebration Dinner. For all the guys at Devonport and Help for Heroes for allowing us to celebrate our ride in such style. To Jayne Evans and the Active Norfolk team for their help and support. To those individuals who have either turned out on the route or supported us through their regular comments and tweets. And finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has made a contribution to our nominated charities – your contribution will make a big difference to the lives of the people they support. If you haven’t made a donation yet, you can do so at:

http://www.justgiving.com/teams/justice

The last word however must go to Bryan, the conceiver of this epic journey, chief route master and navigator, head mechanic, personal trainer, sports psychologist and travelling companion. It’s been a genuine pleasure to be part of your odyssey and to be your ‘lead out man’ for the 1150 miles!

In case you were all wondering – no great psychological insights, no momentous decisions or life changing moments. Just three weeks on a bike…with my brother. Nothing more to be said.

A full gallery of photos will follow in due course. I’m off to CELEBRATE!

In the path of the Olympic torch

As I write this mornings blog the Olympic torch has just left Land’s End on its ten week, 8000 miles, journey around Britain. I couldn’t think of a more fitting day to finish our own End to End journey. I wouldn’t seek to make any closer comparisons between the effort and abilities of the olympic athletes, who will compete this summer, and our humble endeavour but I think I can safely say, when it comes to physical exertion and endurance – we share their pain!  Anyway, back to the task in hand – finishing what we started, three weeks and over eleven hundred miles ago! Our route this morning takes us along the north coast from St Ives, through St Just and Sennen to the very southern tip of England – a distance of about 30k. As birdwatching friends of mine will know, there are also one or two severe climbs on the way! And of course this is all dependent on Bry’s bike holding out, which is far from certain. With no prospect of effecting a repair we are just going to hope that he doesn’t hit any holes in the road and that his rear wheel holds together. He did say last night though that Plan B  is to knock some poor child off their bike and steal it – I think he was joking!

The route to the finish….

See you there….I hope!