Over the last few years I’ve noticed a steady, but lately accelerating decline in the use of those funny orange flashing things on either side of cars. When I was young, I was taught that they were called ‘indicators’ or ‘blinkers’. Technically speaking, they are supposed to be used to ‘indicate’ to other road users and pedestrians that you wish …
For a number of years, I’d quietly set myself a goal of completing the infamous ‘3 Peaks’ Challenge – or what is now known as “Peaks Challenge – Falls Creek”. It was definitely a bucket list kinda thing. Each year around November, there’d be guys I rode with or knew that would be training for it and each year I’d …
As I stood at the kitchen sink late last night, washing up the last of the dishes after everyone had gone to bed, I was struck for reasons unknown by the lack of real honesty in my daily life, both in others around me and in myself and it made me sad. I was tired, physically and mentally and I …
After two days of action and adventure around Stavanger, it was time to wind down a bit and I had planned to visit a virtual friend of mine who lived in Oslo. We’d never met in person, but had spent many hours together sailing virtual yachts on our respective computers over the years. Yes, we were sailing simulator boffins. It …
Many months ago, after having decided to go to Denmark for the World Masters, I started researching possible cycling adventures in Norway. At some point I stumbled upon a picture that had me transfixed. It was the little village of Lysebotn, right at the end of Lysefjord. The photos clearly showed a road snaking it’s way up the prodigious slopes …
My first day in Stavanger included a planned day trip to Preikestolen. It is a jaw-dropping natural outcrop of rock overlooking a quintessential Norwegian fjord called Lysefjord. To get there involved a ferry trip from Stavanger, east to Tau and then a bus to the Preikestolen car park, where you faced a one hour walk to the rock itself. The …
I’d chosen Stavanger as my primary destination for Norwegian sightseeing as it afforded reasonable access to a number of outstanding natural attractions. I say ‘reasonable’ because it’s not like these attractions were close by, but they were closer to Stavanger than any other largish town. Stavanger itself was a charming town with a bustling harbour and a large network of …
You’d think after a day like yesterday, I would sleep like a baby, but no, I woke at 3:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. So I wrote up my blog posts. No point being idle if I was awake. Today I was taking the train to Hirtshals right at the top of Denmark and catching an overnight ferry to …
My sleep was as crap as every other nights sleep. To qualify, the beds are good and it’s nice and quiet, I just can’t sleep properly. The other thing is that the rooms are very warm and there’s no way to manage the temperature. I just opened my windows at night to let some cool air in. Start time for …
Today was the day where I wanted to get everything in place, get a nice ride in and otherwise relax as much as possible before what I knew would be a very difficult yet hopefully satisfying day tomorrow. It started with breakfast. Danish waffles with jam and icing sugar, fruit, bread with cheese and ham and a nice cuppa tea. …
The TT out of the way, I could now focus on the road race which meant taking of the tri bars off and putting the bottle cages back on. There, that’s better! Now you look like a real road bike. I also had to figure out how to get from my hostel to the station and then make sure I …
My date with destiny started with a leisurely breakfast at the hostel, very leisurely. My start time was 3:15pm so there was no hurry. But with nothing else to do, I got my gear on and prepped the bike for my first TT adventure. It was beautiful and sunny as I rolled out, relishing my first ride in Denmark. I …
Started with breakfast at my Copenhagen hotel. Lots of nice things to choose from – great crusty, seeded bread that I dropped cheese, ham and egg onto. Glad to see I wasn’t the only one who poured yoghurt into a glass expecting it to be fruit juice… They were juice containers I tell you! Of course I kept filling up …
You really don’t get a full appreciation for the extent to which people in many European cities utilise bicycles until you’ve been there. I tried to take photos which would reflect the sheer number of bicycles parked beside the road and outside buildings along the streets but they all came up well short of conveying the numbers. There are literally …
After a somewhat disconcerting previous evening where a Qantas staff member told me that I would have to ship my bike via Qantas Freight and arrange this at 5am this morning, I am finally ready and calm 😜. The 5am call yielded no outcome as they didn’t open till 7. Thanks very frick’n much. A follow up call to Qantas …
