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July 31 Monday sunny humid Bicycle touring England After picking up all the garbage strewn about by the skinhead nature lovers, we camped the night on a pebbly clearing next to the lake. We packed up all our bicycle touring gear, and the skinheads' garbage, and bicycled off for an early start to our English bicycle tour in England's Lake District. Mist was hanging in the mountains. Saw a church in a valley beneath some peaks. Lots of sheep are laying on the road this morning. Trying to harbour the warmth from the asphalt? The lambs have their legs tucked beneath them. They look like enormous black fuzzy slugs. Cycling along, we came across a handwritten sign in the local Cumbrian dialect -- written exactly like they talk around here: Tek Care Lambs Ont Road. We have a long climb over a pass which is rated 25%. Hardknott Pass? We tried to take a picture at the top with the gradient sign and sheep in the foreground, but the sheep were too shy of us. Sharon attempted to round the sheep up, but that only made them more insistent on going in the other direction. Silly beasts! The downhill is steep and twisty. I have my bicycle brakes clamped on constantly and still the hairpin curves feel fast. On our way down the steep descent, we saw a Japanese tourist in a rental car coming around a corner. He was well over into our lane on the narrow road. The close-up view I got of his face looked amusing as he twiddled the steering wheel: It's my first time driving on this road. We had Muesli and Weetabix for breakfast by a clear stream flowing under an arched stone bridge. Sharon swung on a tree branch, pretending she was going to jump in, but the stream wasn't deep enough. Made a neat picture, though. The town of Keswick, England, was busy with tourists. The centre of Keswick is closed to vehicles. Hundreds of pedestrians mill about the area. I went off in search of sustenance and found scones and ice cream bars. On the way back to where I had left Sharon in a small triangle of grass under some trees next to a parking lot, I saw two bicycle touring cyclists across the street at a bank machine. I went over to say hello. They are from Australia. They had started the bicycle tour in Rome on April 2. I didn't get a chance to talk to them for too long though as the heat was quickly melting my ice cream. I had just returned to Sharon when I saw them cycling along the road towards us. I ran out to the roadway and asked them if they had time for an ice cream (after all, I had ten). Being normal cyclists they responded with, "We always have time for ice cream." Neil and Ralph are both teachers. Neil is an elementary teacher, Ralph is a secondary teacher. They have taken thirteen months work leave to bicycle tour Europe. They were both born in the UK, so they possess British passports as well as Australian. They tell us it is very handy to have two passports -- they just show whichever passport is better for a particular country when they go to enter. For example, they said, France requires Australians to buy a visa for Aussies to visit their country, but for EC members a visa is not required, so they just show their UK passport -- no questions asked. The same for East bloc countries, they say. Very handy. And, because they're holders of UK passports, they can legally work anywhere in Europe, too. After his European bicycle tours, Neil is thinking of staying and teaching in Germany where his girlfriend lives. Our Aussie friends tell us they have a star rating for accommodation: 1 star -- free camping; 2 stars -- campground with pay showers; 3 stars -- campground with showers included; 4 stars -- hostel; 5 stars -- invited to family home; and the coveted 6 stars -- invited home by two blondes. Coveted, but elusive. They added they haven't had any six stars. But they're remaining optimistic. I can only guess what a 7 star rating would be. Neil and Ralph opened their bicycle touring panniers and made sandwiches for lunch. They took the bread out of its cellophane wrapper, spread the bread slices out on the grass and slapped some cheese on it. Right beside some dog shit. Yuck! And Sharon says our standards have slipped. But they've never slipped that low! That's the trouble with two guys bicycle touring together. No one to watch for hygiene. "Would you like a sandwich?" Neil asks. "Ah, no thanks." We bid Neil and Ralph a good bicycle tour of England's Lake District, leaving them with directions to a 25% downhill (neglecting, of course, to tell them that to get to the 25% downhill one must first negotiate an equally steep pass to get there). What are friends for? We pulled our touring bicycles to a stop and ate supper by another stream and arch bridge. Continuing our bicycle tour for a ways, we set our Kelty bicycle touring tent up in a field alongside a rock bridge wall under a low hanging tree branch. Free bicycle camping spots in England's Lake district have been fabulous. |
