Memories in photos

So I was talking to my friend Regan while writing my last blog post. I was asking him if he had any pictures that would go with what I was talking about, and he ended up just sending me around 30 random pictures from adventures we have had. Mostly they made me laugh while I remembered the times we have had. I find it very interesting to think about the memories that can be conjured up just by looking at a few random pictures. I will share some of them now.



This is me driving Regans old Fiat Punto across Europe. I am quite tired at this point.



This one is a gnome that we found stood on top of a chair and a piece of wood that we also found inside a telephone box. We thought it was hilarious at the time...




This one is us weighing our bags before we set of hiking last summer. It was a good trip. Short but packed with memories.



This one is me surrounded by the stuff we were about to make a raft out of. On the island next to Regans place. There have been many good times there.



This one is Regan after coming out of the shower while getting ready for a night out.



In this one I am crouched in a hole we dug on the beach at midnight. I don't remember why we decided at 10pm to go and dig a big hole on the beach but it was certainly fun!


This one shows the Belgian Trumpeters that came out for the coronation (is that the right word here..?) of the new town Mayor of Brussels. We just happened to walk right by them and get freaked out. This was shortly before being put on Belgian TV for being the only British people at the event!



This is one that Nathaniel took of Regan and I. I am on the left. We are on our Europe trip again. This time we are at a farm and the sunset was magnificent.



Here you see Aaron, Jules and myself preparing the bath tub for its most recent test before the race we had in August. It was a rainy day, and we got quite cold. And quite alot of the paint came off the boats in the canal. I told Jules it was a stupid idea to use emulsion!

These are just some memories that have re-surfaced thanks to some pictures Regan sent me, there are plenty more where this kind of thing came from! And I certainly hope there will be plenty more in the future too!

Adventure

Every year I think that it is the year that I will get up off my arse and ride more. Get properly fit. Like i did when I got my first road bike at 17. Then I could ride for 70 miles and have an average speed of 21mph for that distance, come home and do other things afterwards too. But each year I fail to muster the required enthusiasm to go out on a bike by myself on my days off. Which is odd really as I have always enjoyed riding a bike by myself. It is where I escape. I can go out with the sole intention of riding so hard I can’t walk when I get home, or I can go and see where I end up, exploring new routes, or I can go for miles and miles and have a cake before coming home again.

I have some fantastic memories from riding by myself, and some from riding with other people too. For the most part I have always found it a fantastic way to relieve any stress or anger that I may have accumulated in a way that doesn’t bother other people. Except when I used to track mud through mums house. I am sure she is glad I have moved out for that reason alone.

I would like to get fit and go on a real adventure at some point. I am trying to talk my friend Jules into coming on a (relatively) short cycle tour with me over summer this year. Maybe doing 60-70 fully laden miles a day, and then camping on a circular route. My thoughts about touring have been inspired by some articles I have been reading recently about men who have just got to a point in their lives where they knew something was wrong, and so they quit their jobs, loaded up their bikes and started pedalling. Some with a plan, and some without, but all achieved a massive adventure. And that is what I am craving at the moment. Perhaps not to the level that some of those guys has had. I recall one was captured by terrorists on the Libian border, and somehow managed to get released by teaching them cricket... That is perhaps slightly more adventure than I need. I would however like to be able to put a bivvy bag and a small cooker in my backpack and set off for two or three days on my mountain bike to see what happens. Sleeping under the stars and eating cold food from your pack. All seems like good fun to me. I mean, it was when I did it on foot, so it surely should be by bike!

Ok, so doing a two or three day adventure by bike really isn’t something I need to be crazily fit for. But it would help. Most of the stories I seem to read about the guys who give up everything to live by bike are not fit at all when they start. Maybe going to the gym once or twice a week, but certainly not 70 miles everyday from here till Nairobi kind of fit. But the body soon adapts. I went from cycling just 6 miles each day to being able to do a 100 mile event in just over a week. You just need to push a bit.



The other adventure I have planned at the moment is possibly the most idiotic thing you will ever read about on these pages. And that is from the man who went swimming in the sea when there was snow on the beach. My friend Regan and I are planning to drive his 749cc Fiat Panda from here to Mongolia. Looking at various maps that is a minimum of around 5000 miles. Also from the maps I have worked out that around 500-1000 miles of that doesn’t have roads. Looking at a route that doesn’t cross war-torn countries also puts the mileage up to closer to 7000. To us this looks amazing. We came up with this idea thanks to a group called the adventurists. If you ever have 5 minutes to yourself online look them up. They do stupid things each year, and encourage others to do them too, all in the name of “making the world a less boring place”. We like their ideas. Unfortunately we are unable to comply with all the rules that they have set down for their version of the Mongolian rally, so we figured we would just do it off our own backs. If anyone wishes to accompany us, they are more than welcome. They need: a minimum two man team, a small car, enough money to cover food and fuel all the way, a bag big enough to carry everything they need for the entire trip that is also small enough to carry for many miles in case of emergency, a current passport, to not be wanted by the police in any countries between here and Mongolia (that’s approximately 18-24 countries depending on route...), and of course a sense of adventure.





Alternatively we are intending to do this for a charity (more details to be released later) and I am intending to write a book about the whole thing in order to make my millions. So, if you would like to put some money towards us in sponsorship nearer the time I will make it clear how to do so.



I am hoping that I will get some awesome memories from this trip, and with everything that happens with me and Regan, I know I will. Like the time we saw a penguin on the beach or the time that I abandoned him when a random woman got in his car. Or the time when we were driving to Wales with the guys and an OAP woman flashed us on the motorway. Every-time we get together something stupid happens that makes us laugh. Or in the case of the old woman, want to be sick! But we know we will always have a memory to take away, and that is the best thing to bring back from an adventure. Well, that and some scars for the ladies...