The epiblog.

God, that's a terrible heading. 

Now I'm at the ultimate journey's end: Wheatley, Halifax. Home !

Claude picked me up from Heathrow at 8 am and I spent  a day and a night at his place in Richmond, which made the whole trip almost symmetrical. The next morning we pedalled through the medieval splendour of Richmond Park. We parted company in Barnes and I cycled on to Kings Cross. Cycling in London is surprisingly easy and better than Halifax.You can ride down the relatively empty bus lanes and dedicated cycle lanes and there is lots more cycle traffic for company. There's also lots of interesting stuff to look at and you can pull onto the pavement to take a longer look whenever you want. Good on you, Boris.

If you leave your bike on the concourse for a couple of minutes at Kings Cross while you get your ticket you get a special mention over the PA system and a police lady will come and give you a friendly telling-off. Grand Central Trains are good with bikes. There is a guards van at the back of the train for bikes and the guard loads and unloads it for you.

Back in Halifax, it's been lovely and quiet in Wheatley since I arrived, as The Gas Board, or whoever it is who relays the gas pipes, has stopped 90% of the traffic passing our house. The road down the valley has been gloriously severed while new, improved pipes are installed. Even the work itself is a  quarter of a mile away.

Southern Africa seems a thousand miles away; probably about 5000 to be imprecise, and a great experience is gently receding. It's back to the comfort zone, cleaning windows, sipping beer in familiar pubs, cleaning bicycle chains, enjoying friends and family.

Nick and Rob have done a splendid job keeping my window-cleaning customers happy and the round right up to schedule.

On the news this morning was more bad news from Southern Africa: striking miners dancing for the cameras with weapons raised. This, following the shooting of many of their fellow miners at the Marikana platinum mine a few days ago.

I hope my blog has shown that there is a much more peaceful, friendly and welcoming side to the continent from where our ancestors wandered out.  I suppose we are all Africans really.

That is not what I intended to show when I started this blog. I'm not sure what I really intended. A bit of showing off maybe. Sharing a dare. Like the journey, blog-writing was just a new experience really.

Cyclists' Corner

Here are some technical details for keen cyclists.

My bike is a Dawes Galaxy, a classic touring bike that's been around for the last 40 years. It simply gets "tweaked" and modified year on year. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Galaxy. Also http://www.dawescycles.com/p-20-galaxy.aspx for photos and details of its bits. It's great on tarmac but struggles off-road if the surface is too soft. The tyres are only 1 5/8 inches.

Over the 75 days of my trip I averaged about 60 km per day. Given that I had approx 18 days-off though, the average cycling day was really nearer 67 km, or 42 miles. The shortest was around 40 km and the longest about 150 km.

42 miles per day doesn't sound a lot but over 5 or 6 days non-stop and with 30 kg on board it can be quite knackering. Organizing the food and water for the day and the right clothing for changing temperatures , as well as fettling the bike from time to time , all makes for a pretty busy day.

The climate in winter, the mostly gradual gradients and the quietness of the roads makes Southern Africa a good place to cycle. Rather better than the UK, in fact. On the other hand eating and sleeping opportunities are less good and frequent than in Europe, though good enough.

Dan questioned my "1,000,000 turns of the pedal cranks". In fact it was probably a good few more. I worked it out as follows. Pedal turns, regardless of the gear you are in, tend to be about 1 per second or 60 to the minute. My average speed was about 13kph. Over 4,500 km, this gives approx 1,250,000 turns. Then you have to knock a bit off for free-wheeling. You'd think your knee and hip joints would wear out. There must be some good lube in there somewhere.

I'm grateful to Barry Firth at Firth Cycles in Queensbury who built me a new back wheel for the trip and renewed all the drive. Apart from the collapsing rear luggage rack and about 6 or 7 punctures the bike never let me down. For friendly and expert bike servicing I'd recommend Firth Cycles, which is on the left-hand side,  about 200 yards short of the dog-leg in the middle of Queensbury, coming from Halifax. You can park outside the shop. www.firthcycles.com/

End of "Cyclists' Corner".

Finally, thanks for the generosity of people who have sponsored me. I'll be out collecting soon.

To view 125 of the 700 and something photos I took, here's the link...Just click on "My photos" on the next line, even though it doesn't look like a link.

My photos

Thanks again for reading this stuff.

If you've enjoyed it, you might like SHALLOW THOUGHTS OF A YORKSHIRE WINDOW-CLEANER, coming soon.

On yer bikes !