Monday, August 22, 2011

Tour Cycle of England / Ireland / Wales (1,794km)

FOG member Dave Ford is now at Gatwick Airport, England, having ridden 1,794km of a tour cycling trip to visit family and friends throughout Britain and Ireland. Nearly two weeks ago he assembled his Trek 4300 bike and four paniers at Gatwick Airport then headed northwest to Oxford (friend), Liverpool (friend), took the ferry across to Belfast, Northern Ireland, then on to Maghera (family) and Articlave (family), north to the Giant’s Causeway and the Old Bushmills Distillery (photo), down along the west coast of the Republic of Ireland to Blarney Castle (kissed the stone, photo) and Cork, then an overnight ferry to Swansea, cycled through Wales then south from Bristol to Abbotsbury (family), and finally eastward back to Gatwick Airport. Typical weather was cloudy, windy, and wet, so tenting wasn’t usually much fun, but there were actually a couple of days when NO rain fell. Best cycling day was 209km, the shortest cycling day was 51km, with no rest days taken along the way. However, being a bit ahead of schedule he now has to wait six days for his Iceland Express flight back to Winnipeg, i.e. lots of time for sightseeing in the City of London.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Indian Adventure 2012


FOG members David Ford (L, Brandon) and Charles Feaver (R, Winnipeg) have both signed up to ride in next year's 2nd annual "Indian Adventure". This supported cycle trip begins in Agra on 19 January 2012 and covers the 4,200 kilometres to Kaniyakumari by 12 March 2012. Riders must provide their own bicycles & spare parts, and sleep in basic hotels; the tour company provides cooked meals, basic nursing care, and some mechanical assistance. Group size is usually about 20 riders, and the mandated rest days require that riders average about 1o0 kilometres on every cycling day. These two guys got together this week to talk about preparations, including physical conditioning, airline tickets, insurance, equipment, visas, etc. You can join them on the ride by contacting http://www.tourdafrique.com/ and making this even more of a FOG Manitoba event.