It’s been a busy work day today so no cycle training. So here’s a
picture taken a couple of days ago on the road (actually just off the road) near Castle Howard.
The new thing is that I am sending this picture AND message from my phone. My brother reminded me that I could do this through Flickr.
So now I’ll be updating both pictures and text from the road during training and on the sponsored ride in July.
To sponsor me visit www.help.co.uk/ridingbike
You can stand and watch the high speed trains shoot past on a wooden platform at the back of this building. The experience is sensational. Travelling at anything up to 125mph they don’t stop to let customers off – it’s just a viewing point.
I did a series of stretches here. I could feel my muscles tightening and some numbness in my fingers and toes. The result of a few hours in the saddle and leaning on the handlebars.
I travelled through Alne (pronounced Orne) and Tollerton to get here on the edge of Shipton by Beninborough. The main A19 passes nearby but it’ll be some miles before I join it. I turn off in a few yards to Overton and then to Skelton for the three miles home alongside the main road on a series of variable cycle tracks..
One thing I notice entering any town or city. The road surface deteriorates. So I judder my way into Eboracum or Jorvik, now known as York. Time for a shower and tea.
One day and 38 miles closer to my sponsored ride in the Yorkshire Dales next month in aid of Palestinian Students attending the Riding Lights Summer School.
To sponsor my Yorkshire Dales ride click here
I make a long phone call from here – business has to go on and so we chat, appropriately, about arrangements for the storytelling course we’re running at the Riding Lights Summer School.
The summer school is one of the reasons I’m doing this ride. Four Palestinian students have been invited to travel here and I hope to help them pay the airfare. A quick look at the help.co.uk/ridingbike website reveals donations have reached £360.00. Gift Aid will bring that total to £458.00. Good progress for the first few days. The momentum has to be maintained for a number of weeks yet.
If you want to donate click here
After a four finger Kit Kat and some grapefruit juice I’m on the return trip.
Crayke is a sinister looking village when seen from the floor of the Vale of York. It rises like a fortress from the flat lands around, and the outline of a large stone built house and the church on the skyline reinforce the image.
Inside it’s charming and the pub, The Durham Ox, has a deserved reputation for good food. But the road is steep and a small shower of rain welcomed me as I sweated and ached. Just a couple of miles to Easingwold from here – mostly downhill.
To sponsor my Yorkshire Dales ride click here
The village of Sutton on the Forest is select. Post card material. Everyone looks after their bit of the village and it’s a patchwork of neatly trimmed lawns which reach right down to the road, and stone houses, although this end is more modern.
The next stop is Huby and then the climb.
To sponsor my Yorkshire Dales ride click here
