I am back on my lonesome on my bicycle, and over the last few days have cycled from Ocracoke (where Blackbeard allegedly buried his treasure, although I am sceptical as the water table is so high) all the way to Richmond. I have had the help of several people, and have met some brilliant warm showers hosts, a huge thank you to Jim and Vicki for all their help, taking me shopping etc, and to my hosts here in Richmond Alan and Lois who are welcoming enough to have me for a second day whilst I do some chores!
The route has been fabulous, the outer banks, bleak boring and far too windswept to be pleasurable but interesting none the less, and in land the route has been marvellous. Tiny little roads with almost no traffic passing through farmland for miles on end. Cotton fields still full of their bright white cotton puffs stretching to the horizon, soybeans and peanuts too. Many of the farmhouses have been beautiful wooden things, with porches and sadly many of them falling down into ruins. In one field there was just one stark brick chimney stretching to the sky, a reminder that a family once lived there and tilled the soil. Travelling by bicycle is so beautiful and leisurely and one can really notice the little details, a frog hoping from out of the way of my wheel, a huge grey blue heron rising up in clumsy yet majestic flight from the stream, a bob cat crossing the road ahead of me and leaping like a lion with such grace and power over the hedge. (I think this is why I like the Miyazaki films so much, they seem to capture these details).
The weather has been mixed, some days hot and sunny, others freezing cold, it was about 2'C yesterday morning and getting started was so hard, Saturday was so wet and windy I hid in my tent all day and enjoyed reading the Never ending Story which I hadn't read before. (Thanks Marco for the recommendation). Everyday has been windy though which I have found hard work, my knees are a bit cranky because I am not very good at downshifting for the wind.
As I journeyed towards Richmond, going via Jamestown America's history has really become apparent, every road is covered with markers telling me of some important or trivial historic event which happened, and I have travelled passed plantations, and battlefields which has also been fascinating. Some of the houses have the careworn appearance of the genuinely old, and many proudly date back to the 1600's. Richmond itself has derelict early 'Victorian' industrial buildings near the railway - just like many of Britain's towns, although now I am staying in a beautiful 1920's regency house!
I am finding travelling alone hard this time though, at the start of my trip I relished it to begin with, then after travelling with Steve, Christof, Eric and Marco and others for a couple of weeks, cycling alone now seems very lonely, and this time of year there aren't many cyclists out and about touring. The days seem very long alone, and even pedalling I am slower, less motivated and just a bit bored on those sections where there is not much to see. I am beginning to talk to myself more and soon will need locking up with the crazies! However the weather is getting colder and with reports of snow further north I don't know how far I will get on my bicycle.
The route has been fabulous, the outer banks, bleak boring and far too windswept to be pleasurable but interesting none the less, and in land the route has been marvellous. Tiny little roads with almost no traffic passing through farmland for miles on end. Cotton fields still full of their bright white cotton puffs stretching to the horizon, soybeans and peanuts too. Many of the farmhouses have been beautiful wooden things, with porches and sadly many of them falling down into ruins. In one field there was just one stark brick chimney stretching to the sky, a reminder that a family once lived there and tilled the soil. Travelling by bicycle is so beautiful and leisurely and one can really notice the little details, a frog hoping from out of the way of my wheel, a huge grey blue heron rising up in clumsy yet majestic flight from the stream, a bob cat crossing the road ahead of me and leaping like a lion with such grace and power over the hedge. (I think this is why I like the Miyazaki films so much, they seem to capture these details).
The weather has been mixed, some days hot and sunny, others freezing cold, it was about 2'C yesterday morning and getting started was so hard, Saturday was so wet and windy I hid in my tent all day and enjoyed reading the Never ending Story which I hadn't read before. (Thanks Marco for the recommendation). Everyday has been windy though which I have found hard work, my knees are a bit cranky because I am not very good at downshifting for the wind.
As I journeyed towards Richmond, going via Jamestown America's history has really become apparent, every road is covered with markers telling me of some important or trivial historic event which happened, and I have travelled passed plantations, and battlefields which has also been fascinating. Some of the houses have the careworn appearance of the genuinely old, and many proudly date back to the 1600's. Richmond itself has derelict early 'Victorian' industrial buildings near the railway - just like many of Britain's towns, although now I am staying in a beautiful 1920's regency house!
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| Thank you Alan and Lois! |
I am finding travelling alone hard this time though, at the start of my trip I relished it to begin with, then after travelling with Steve, Christof, Eric and Marco and others for a couple of weeks, cycling alone now seems very lonely, and this time of year there aren't many cyclists out and about touring. The days seem very long alone, and even pedalling I am slower, less motivated and just a bit bored on those sections where there is not much to see. I am beginning to talk to myself more and soon will need locking up with the crazies! However the weather is getting colder and with reports of snow further north I don't know how far I will get on my bicycle.
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