Cycling to John O'Groats 4

18/04/17

So as I begin with the day, I see a hill range across the bay and I absolutely can't wait to get there. I have this surge of excitement that I can't contain. So what do I do? Smile at strangers, greet them and semi-dance to the music blasting in my ears. A friend once told me, "Vedu when everything is going absolutely fine with you, make sure you are the reason someone smiles, if everything isn't going fine, then probably doing the same thing would make your day too". So true! I have found a nice route through those hills and the kinda southern range of mountains in the Lake district National park. I am biking out of the city on A6 quite comfortably when a tractor decides to scare the shit out of me getting my reflexes to push me straight onto the kerb. I land on my arse quite unceremoniously and laugh at my reaction to the tractor for good 5 minutes sitting there eating brownies. The front tyre deflates and I have no clue why that happens every time I crash. Never mind, some workout for my arms then! I pump in the air and set off. Sitting down is an agony so I decide to try every different position to bike in which is comfortable without sitting down. Result? I am going faster and definitely not gonna be having saddle sores. That's such a win-win. I don't know but strangers seem friendly today. Smiling at me and all. I wonder if my shorts is torn somewhere and that's getting those friendly smiles. Nope. Not torn. Although I'm caressing it every now and then to check if the part has got it's senses back. After an unending road to the mountains, I'm finally climbing one and it feels indescribable because I genuinely needed some challenge to channel all this excitement. Probably this is the best way to do so when I'm not in a trance and writing some of my own shit. I stop at a service station because I have a pressing need to pee and after I'm done I find myself having a great conversation with the guys there. There are 5 of them and another one joins later, so basically 6 of them and we're having quite an interesting chat about absolutely shite followed by some questions from their side like "what if the tractor hit you today!? why won't you be scared of such stuff?" I wanna really laugh because my mind works in a silly way. I just tell him that it'd be approaching me from the side I can't see. If that even happened I won't know. If that had to happen, that would happen. Do we not get punctures even after checking all the tyres and carrying stuff to repair it with us? After a good banter I leave feeling really good that I found some people to talk to, if not for a long time, for a short time at least. After all the ups and downs of the extremely picturesque views but no pictures in my phone, I reach at the hostel where I'm supposed to spend the night. Basically it's closed and I'm stuck outside. A brewery has some refurbishment work going on. I am only too excited to not be doing anything right now so I ask them if I can help and they refuse after knowing where I'm coming from and what I'm up to. Fine guys fine, I'll rest or whatever. I decide to get my bike checked for the musical squeaking. Evans cycles' guys here are absolutely awesome. They explain me how to fix the adjustments if the same problem arises midway some day. Then I tell them about my gear not shifting to first. They immediately ask me how did I do the route I covered today without front first gear working and I just say that I didn't need to use that. Their next question is HOW and basically I tell them how I assumed I don't have a front first gear at all .....and we all laughed together. They told me how to fix this. Cheers to all such guys who don't just help me but teach me how to do it myself in future. It's so important for me to know stuff that I'm curious about and stuff that's mine. Anyone can fix a bike, but it needs special kind of people to explain such stuff to someone who needs that knowledge. I think if everybody respects curiosity, creativity and many such intangible elements then world would be a much better place. Jeez, that sounds so weird coming from me! Anyway, I have coffee at the 2sisters cafĂ© later and order a chocolate cake. I sink in deep thoughts while I shamelessly finish every piece of the cake and down the coffee like a shot. I miss out the fact that I'm staring directly at the elderly couple. The lady at the till later tells me that the couple was on their weekly date, the guy being around 70 and the lady of around the same age. This is love. Something that never gets old. I get back to the hostel where the guy offers me fruit salad- a full big bowl of it- and I eat that too. Shit, I feel like a beast eating this huge amount of everything. 
Well, while I am not writing about the actual cycling experience- route and weather and stuff- but the "travelling" experience, I hope you understand that THIS is what matters to me the most and what's changing me to the core and all for the very best!


19/04/17

It's 3am and I can't sleep and I need to do something about it. I think I am gonna watch the IPWR documentary again. Well, after I'm halfway done, I'm already inspired to ride so much that I start packing. It's freezing outside. It's still dark outside and I am dizzy with hunger. Finishing the brownies wasn't a very wise decision last night. No matter. I'm leaving. I will sneak some bread out of their fridge and have a couple of mugs coffee. Oh wait, I have paid £4 for breakfast. I can technically take their whole loaf of bread along. But do I have space to keep that in my bag or bike!? Nope. So 5 bread slices and off I go.
As I get to the dining room, I have my music blasting in my ears to keep me from going back to reality and sane and probably back to sleep. I make some good two mugs coffee for myself and toast a couple of breads. The lady who owns this place and finds me in the kitchen. First question: Where on earth are you going at 3:35am? It's dark outside! I tell her my plan. She looks blown and asks me to get out of the kitchen. I go back to the table sipping the coffee and the next thing I know she's cooking egg sandwich for me. She returns with the dish and says, " You thought I'm letting you go hungry? Mad young woman!". I smile and thank her. She sits across the table as I eat that. She hands me another sandwich, an apple and a lil bottle of orange juice. We talk about my plan of action and she's just nodding like she wants to say, "I can see that you're stupid as fuck but I can't help it". She brings her dog who's now licking the nutella I managed to get on my knee somehow. I get up to wash the dishes and mugs and cutlery. Oh my gosh! She's back in the kitchen screaming, "Get out! Get out of the kitchen! what the fuck are you doing? I'll do it. Go ride your bike and live your life...you can help me when you're not riding to Groats..." Scared as I get when someone screams at me, I smile at her again and she hugs me a goodbye and as I go downstairs, she has already got my bike from the locker room. I am speechless. This marks a good start to this day. 
.. 
I speed out of the city and screw up with the planned route in the very first attempt. Ah! Never mind. I am going everywhere. All these mountains. I first ride to Keswick and then keep taking all B-roads which then join the A-road again. I see the most beautiful sunrise ever (I say this after every sunrise I see). This is getting brutal now but I can't not see the remaining Lake district. So I push on until I realise that the last mountain to cross before I am outta here is getting a bit too tedious. It's windy and even raining a bit and me? I'm freezing and numb and hungry. I have the packed egg sandwich and down the orange juice and let me not forget to mention the very special Kendal Mint cakes. This makes me happy and jumpy and what not. alright then, I'm such a baby. I only needed food AGAIN! Nothing else. I leave to finish the long long uphill and I decide not to fool myself and look down this time. I decide to look straight up and around and everywhere but down. Why, you ask? Because I don't wanna be distracted from the effort. I wanna see the struggle and still see the most beautiful things around. Doing both IS possible. 
When I reach the main pass, I look behind me and I can see the trail of what I just climbed. This is a feeling you can only know after climbing a mountain. It feels like all the efforts were worth it. and I feel so excited for what I see ahead of me as well. That downhill is indefinitely long and I am ditching the brakes. This is nice. Ok, no, this is wonderful! I feel like I exist. Actually this feels like this is what someone would live for! It just keeps getting better. I am giggling as I roll down and this sure feels so exciting. Probably, I do live for this laugh. 
..
I reach the destination earlier than I had expected. All Indian restaurants are closed so I have coffee at a street cafe, still freezing and numb. That guy strikes up a conversation and I'm up for it. Turns out he's Hungarian and has been here since 5-6 years. He asks me if I want another cuppa and I don't refuse. He doesn't charge me for the second. That's the magic of storytelling. We talk for a bit and he wishes me good luck, asks me to get warm by going indoors somewhere and tells me that he's impressed by the lil amount of Hungarian language I know. 
..
The guy in the hostel welcomes me graciously and offers me some fruits. I never say no to a fruit so I have plenty of oranges. A guy and his wife and two noisy kids cross the corridor. That guy is a lecturer in Sound tech course at Edinburgh university. His daughter asks me my name for over 15 times and insists on seeing my bike. The guy and his wife offer me a can of beer and I don't refuse. We have a long chat over beer and his wife joins when she's put the kids to sleep. Turns out, my university is one of the first universities to start the music tech courses. Who knew? Anyway. We just talk and talk and talk until he realises that his daughter woke up and he's a bit intoxicated and his wife a bit more than him.



20/04/17

Tired as I might be, a sound sleep is sometimes a real hard deal to get. Why? Well, Nightmares! So waking up to one of them I decide to read a book until I fall asleep again. That doesn't happen though. I gear up for the last day at Lake district and mechanically walk into the dining room making myself some coffee and searching for breakfast stuff. Just as I sit down to have it, the lecturer,his wife and noisy kids enter the dining room. No, no, NO! This is gonna be a clash. The lil girl is repeating my name over and over again as 'Veedaangee' and says she likes it. Thanks, not my choice though. In no time she gets into a brawl with her brother and they're all over the place. I vow to myself to never have my own mess like this.
I start the ride with the usual excitement although at some point I realise that my bike needs some wet lube. I find it in my bag and in middle of some mountain around Keswick, I lube the chain. I thank myself for that decision several times later on for how good it feels after that. 
I realise that I'm feeling hungry too often so this time, I keep mint cakes handy and I instantly realise why Edmund Hillary took them to Mt. Everest. They boost my mood, excitement and everything to level 10 from 4. Alright then, the original version of me is back. I keep pedalling through the mountains and this smoother version of my ride feels good. When uphills gets brutal, I decide to ditch the brakes for downhills that follow. It's a bumpy ride today but I know I've done worse so it doesn't matter that much. 
It's freezing and windy but it's fine with me today. The crosswinds feel good on uphills but they push me too away from kerb during downhills. It's hard to not have that effect. I stop by at the Dirty Harry's cafe bar. It is for motorbikers but I least care as long as I'm getting food and drinks. I order something that looks like a pasty with egg fillings and beans on it. I have absolutely no clue what that is. I finish it in no time. A group of motor bikers gets there. What a great mood-setter. One of them offers to buy me beer because I'm underdressed for the climate and I tell him that I'm riding on and can't have alcoholic drinks. 
"You cyclists are such lightweights"
"Get her some non alcoholic beverage, I'm paying" 
Ah! Such an angel! The only reason I wasn't buying a coffee was because it was a bit too costly. But now this guy has already bought me one for my 'cycling efforts' as what he states this journey so far. The motorbikers are fun people. They are talkative and so am I so I stay there for longer than I should. I cycle further when done and I see an unusual sight of a city from a hillock. As I speed down that one, there's a sign that says 'Welcome to Carlisle'. What? How? When? The destination arrived too soon than expected. So I decide to visit the museum and castle and a bike shop there. Needless to say, I hover around in the bike shop a bit longer than the others. Not tired, not satisfied with the day, I check my bank balance. I laugh at whatever two digit number I see and find the place I'll be spending the night at. This is the only backpackers' hostel in Carlisle and I'm glad I got a place here. Planning the Scottish part of my journey on low finances is pretty tedious. No matter! I know I'm gonna be fine with whatever I have, wherever I go as long as I believe that this journey has a destination where I'm destined to be. Excited as ever, I am crossing the English borders tomorrow. Scotlaaaaand, here I come!

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