Day 1: which way...?

Wednesday September 23, 2009, 56 miles (90 km) - Total so far: 56 miles (90 km)

Posted via email Wed Sep 23 14:17:02 2009 PDT

Erm.... Not the greatest of starts to a cycle tour.... I didn't get much sleep at all, and my sat nav forgot most of south-east London...! ... More on that later....

Woke up at about 3am, got up at about 7am feeling tired but ok... Finished packing the last few things that I couldn't do before then... And this was the view through the window....

How cute...!

Left home at 7.30 heading in a slightly strange direction but thought I'd trust the sat nav for a bit.... Then promptly ignored it as it was sending me off in a very strange direction.... Turned it on and off a few times but that didn't seem to cure it... So ended up going the strangest route possible to get to wrotham... Where a very tasty (but not at all good for me) sausage and egg roll was delicious...!

Got up wrotham hill fine... Except that this is where the first equipment failure was noticed.. About 2/3rds of the way up I thought I'd walk the rest... Unclipped my left foot from the pedal but my right foot wouldn't unclipped... If there was a god, it would be god telling me that I shouldn't walk up, I had to ride... It turns out the clip on the shoe was loose, meaning the shoe wouldn't release from the pedal... I could walk up the hill with one shoe and one sock, or I would have to ride.... I rode...

Ignoring or turning off the sat nav, I followed the A20 to swanley where the problem with the satnav became abundantly clear.... It couldn't tell me how I should go through south east London, as it didn't have any map information... And this did also explain why, when I got to wrotham it wanted me to get to streatham via tunbridge wells..! (basically, it was sending me round the areas that it did know...)

My knowledge of SE London isn't good, but I thought that if I kept heading for sidcup, I should at least be able to pick up the south circular... And luckily I had packed a set of paper maps that confirmed this approximately... So... Via foots cray, petts wood, mottingham, and then lewisham, I finally found the south circular... (hint: it's Definately NOT a direct route!) once on the south circular, though the traffic was generally heavy, it wasn't anything I haven't seen before in hong kong, but the fact that I hadn't had a good nights sleep was catching up... I really felt beyond tired... Exhausted... I freely admit that I walked a couple of hills on this part (I fixed the shoe clip at foots cray)... And this leads me on to the other trouble I had today... Physically, today wasn't THAT hard, but mentally the whole journey was tough... I guess without a good nights sleep the brain just isn't as tough... I was struggling for pretty much the second half of the journey... Exhaustion and a weak mindset made for a hard day.

Have a good one.... I hope tomorrow goes better for me... I'll see how I am in the morning, but the train could be beconing...!

Nick

Day 2: a lazy day...