Looking Up, Looking Down (August 1)

Today began with more urgency than recent days. Of course, that’s all relative because there really haven’t been many urgent mornings on this adventure. That said, today’s urgency was the result of my Warm Showers hosts having plans this morning. As such, I needed to be packed and ready to go by 8:15. Spoiler Alert: I was.

Despite the early start to the day, there was still time for a full breakfast of cereal and toast and fruit. And in case I haven’t mentioned it before (yes, I know I have) I think cereal is a fantastic breakfast … or lunch … or supper.

After a quick photo with Shirley and Lee I was back on the road again. Well … briefly. I had to make a quick stop at The Co-operative to stock up on provisions. I pretty much finished all my food while watching cricket yesterday. Well … I had a small bit of pasta remaining, but that was it.

With my coffers reasonably stocked, I headed out towards Cambridge. “Towards”, not “to”. The goal was not to get to Cambridge today – not because it wasn’t reachable but because I’m still ahead of schedule so I need to slow the pace considerably over the next few days – not that I’ve been racking up the mileage so far.

I had sent out a couple of Warm Showers requests for destinations between Leicester and Cambridge but had not received any responses before I hit the road. And so I set off with the hope (more likely an assumption) that I would find WiFi along the way to keep tabs on any potential Warm Showers responses.

About 20 km into my ride I happened to pass a McDonald’s, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t mind as it gave me my first opportunity to find out if I had a destination for the day. Spoiler Alert: I didn’t. While a quick check of my e-mail DID reveal some good news, it wasn’t the exact news I was looking for at that moment. I was able to confirm a Warm Showers host for Tuesday night in Cambridge but I was still waiting on a response for tonight. And so, I pedalled on.

Not far down the road I arrived in the town of Market Harborough which was is an interesting little town with a rather vibrant collection of shops. And quite a few people. I can only assume most of which were tourists. Seriously, there were a LOT of people in what otherwise looked to be a small town.

I went through the usual routine of finding a WiFi source which revealed another Warm Showers response. Sadly, the host in question wasn’t available. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I prefer not to send out multiple requests at the same time because I don’t want to have to turn down someone in the event of multiple offers. So, before setting off down the road again, I sent out another request and hoped for the best.

My route from Leicester to Cambridge to this point hadn’t been particularly direct as I was following several minor roads in an effort to enjoy a more scenic ride and to avoid the heavily travelled carriageways. It was highly recommended that I avoid the A1 and the A14 carriageways.

As a result of the recent Warm Showers response, I altered my route slightly to lead me towards the next potential host. A review of that host’s profile indicated that there was a campground only 2 miles from his place. So, I figured if he wasn’t able to host I would still have accommodation options for the night. And so, I set off towards Brampton. Yes, another Brampton. This would be the third Brampton since I’ve been in England. Weird.

My route from Market Harborough continued along several minor roads through several small communities. It was in the area of Brigstock that my day’s plan changed once again.

I was pedalling along, minding my own business (as per usual) when I cycled past a sign for the Welland Gliding Club. Even though my flying experience is limited to hang gliding and paragliding, whenever I see signs for any sort of gliding I tend to take note. With an overcast sky full of rather dark and somewhat low clouds, I just pedalled past the sign as I figured there wouldn’t be any flying today. That said, a quick look up in the sky and sure enough, there WAS a glider in the air. That’s when I noticed the large winch used to launch said glider.

Winch launching is how I originally learned to fly hang gliders but I didn’t realize sailplanes like this could be launched in the same manner. I continued to watch from the road and when I saw the familiar sight of a jeep driving towards the winch and then driving away from the winch pulling out the line I decided to stop in for a closer look. And that’s how I met Mark (and then Jim … and then Bob).

I talked with Mark for a while about the club and gliding and cycling and other such things before he asked if wanted to go up for a flight. As a fellow pilot (although, not of gliders) he offered me the “International Reciprocal Club Member” pricing. How could I refuse? I really only planned to watch a launch or two out of curiosity but before I knew it I was seated in the front of a K13 glider (I think that’s what it was) with my pilot Bob.

To get right to the point, the launch was a blast. The speed at which we started moving and then ascended was incredible. And the angle of our climb was so steep. I loved it. And it was all so quiet while it happened. I don’t know how long we were on tow but it certainly didn’t feel like more than a minute before we released the tow cable at about 1,300 feet. From there Bob managed to quickly maneuver his way over to a thermal where we we began to climb. Side note: I didn’t take this for granted as several other pilots were going up and coming down quickly without finding much thermal activity. Bob had much more success.

We (and by “we” I mean Bob) turned into a thermal and began circling. The rate of climb wasn’t staggering but we were going up. Bob managed to ride the thermal up to over 2,500 feet before flying out of it and heading out so that I could get a chance to take the controls – which I did. And it was great. I felt I did a much better job controlling the glider than I did during my only other flight a couple of years ago. That said, my turns and ability to maintain a level flight still need work! We also did some somewhat steep turns and a stall … just for fun.

In the end, our flight lasted 27 minutes and the landing was as impressive as the launch – although, for different reasons. I’m not an expert but the landing seemed near perfect. As we turned onto our final approach I felt we were coming in a bit low to make it back to the field. I wasn’t concerned as I knew Bob knew what he was doing. And he did. We touched down right on the edge of the field and the glider coasted to a stop next to the other gliders. It was perfect.

With my flight officially over, I thanked Mark and Bob for the flight – and Jim for operating the winch that launched us – and resumed my ride. I still only had a general direction but I’ve become rather accustomed to that.

Not long after leaving the gliding club, I made one somewhat short detour to a site that was pointed out during my recent flight. The site was Lyveden New Bield, an unfinished Elizabethan summer house that dates back about 400 years. It’s a ruin but in some ways it always was as it was never actually finished.

The next adventure of the day was navigational. There were a couple of routing options to lead me towards Huntingdon (where Brampton is on the outskirts). Google’s most direct “cycle” route was less than ideal. However, unlike some of Google’s questionable routes of the past, I was somewhat able to assess this one BEFORE getting too far along to turn back. The question I had to answer was, “How bad would the road get?”. After a short deliberation of the risk/rewards of this off-road route I opted to take the chance. As far as I could tell, the off-road portion was about 1 km and I couldn’t imagine said kilometre being any worse than the 12 km logging road of a few weeks ago – not that that’s setting the bar particularly high. That said, the time and distance it would save was significant.

The road ended up being about as good as one could’ve hoped under the circumstances. For the most part it was essentially a grass path worn by vehicle traffic. Relatively smooth. Not too overgrown. And as mentioned before, it ended up saving me a lot of time and distance. Plus, it meant I had very few navigational decisions the rest of the way to Huntingdon.

The only real navigational issue of the day came near the end of the day when I found myself cycling on the A1 and the A14. Yes, those are the same aforementioned carriageways that multiple people had told me to avoid. And I planned to. Really. I did. But sometimes plans don’t work out. Fortunately, I handled both carriageways without incident; however, there were a few cars and lorries that were clearly not happy with my presence. I can’t say I can blame them. It was a high speed carriageway with no shoulder whatsoever. Not at all cycle-friendly. (I would later learn there was a parallel road I could’ve taken that would’ve been MUCH more appropriate). C’est la vie.

I eventually arrived in Huntingdon and found myself once again standing outside a Barclays bank using their free WiFi. I still hadn’t received any further Warm Showers responses so my new plan was to track down a local campground for the night.

Timing really is everything. I had found a campground on the map and was literally minutes away from turning off my phone and heading to said campground when I received a Warm Showers response from John. And John was available to host. Did I mention it was starting to rain? Well it was. And John lived about 5 km away. The race was on.

Fast-forward about 5 km and I arrived at my destination where I met John and Leslie. They were both so great and welcoming. And as a bonus they also invited me to join them for dinner. And to think I was minutes away from camping in the rain. Instead, I had a great evening with my hosts talking about all sort of things and did so while enjoying some wine and cheese. Not a bad way to end what was already a pretty great day.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 98.86 km
Ride time: 5:05:24
Average speed: 19.42 km/h
Maximum speed: 41.69 km/h