And we’re off… It’s Day 1 of my trip. I have a rough idea of where I’m going to but nothing definite as the general idea is to head south and see where I end up. I know that planning is an essential part of travelling, but rather than have a definitive plan of where and what to do, I wanted to have a degree of flexibility. The Lake District, Wales then Essex was the battle-plan, and then whatever happens inbetween is a bonus.
I packed my gear the night before, so all I had to do the next morning was to have breakfast, make a flask of black coffee and then load up the bike. How did I load the bike…?
- Left pannier: Cooking stuff, which included my stove, gas, cooking pots, water bottle, cup, plus some tupperware boxes containing the little stuff to help make life more tolerable when camping. Oh yes, some tins of food plus breakfast cereal. Every morning I have to have a 50/50 mixture of museli and all-bran, so besides the pots and pans were two zip-loc bags, one with museli and one with all-bran.
- Right pannier: Tent, groundsheet (as I dont yet trust the groundsheet of my tent), blow-up mattress, fold-up chair and anything else to do with the tent.
- Tote bag: Clothes.
- Add-on bag: Sleeping bag and some extra warm clothes if I need to add an extra layer while on the road.
- Top-box: Oil, tools, puncture repair kit, air compressor, waterproofs, laptop and iPad.
- Tank-bag: Some snacks, a spare pair of gloves and my power-banks – connected to a USB hub which in turn is connected to the USB ports on the dashboard.
It was quite cold when I left, about 13 degrees, but as I was moving south towards Carlisle the temperature started to rise – thankfully – as I didn’t fancy freezing to death this early on. Because the fuel on motorway services is so expensive – why…? – my first port of call for fuel was at Carlisle.
If you come off the motorway at J44 and head west for about a mile, turn right at the first set of lights and you come to ASDA – and cheap fuel. After a much needed top-up I got back on the motorway, came off at Teabay and then headed into the Lake District – which is when I turned on my video cameras for the very first time.
I’m not really sure why I bought the two Drift video cameras. I had thought about cameras but didn’t like the idea of Go-Pro’s because they look a bit cumbersome, especially to fit onto a helmet. The Drift cameras are small, streamlined and look just the thing to fit to a bike and helmet – so I bought two: one for the helmet and one to fit to the bike.
Do I want to be a travel blogger..? No. Definitely not – but in the future I want to travel further and visit some really nice places which I’d like to remember, as well as share, so I thought I would get the cameras now and start to grow my experience with them. So, cameras on – we ventured forth into the great unknown. Er sorry, Windermere…
The video below is my journey into Kendal and then onto Windermere. I was going to stop at Windermere for some something to drink and eat but it seemed to be full, so I carried on and headed towards Coniston. After a break I headed south to Spark Bridge then headed up to Satterwaite and Hawkshead along some great twisty roads.
By the time I got to Hawkshead the day was getting late so I decided to spend the night. After finding a small site nearby, I managed to find it easily and on arrival I got the stove going – which is the first thing I do because by the time I have the tent finished the water will be coming to the boil, and by the time the tent was up and my baggage unloaded, it was time to enjoy a much needed and glorious mug of tea.
