Because It Is There: A Zero Emissions Odyssey

Shortly after leaving Exeter I caught my first glimpse of the Channel. I started to weave myself through small coastal fishing villages whilst enjoying, for the first time in a week or so, glorious uninterrupted sunshine.  It was as I was cycling between these quaint villages that I met Hans on his bike and he and his wife Liz very kindly put me up for the night and sent me off the next day with a packed lunch. I was headed for Torquay where I would base myself for a few days to find passage across the channel.

******

3 days in Torquay was enough for me. There were only so many times I could sit by the Marina seeing boats come and go, twiddling my thumbs waiting to hear about possible crewing positions so I decided to take off and head to Dartmoor for a few days wild camping. So I loaded the bike once more and set off.  I weaved my way along the coast for a few miles and then double backed on myself to take an ‘A’ road to Dartmoor.

This is when it all wrong. One moment I was freewheeling down the road and the next I was face down in a patch of stinging nettles. It took me a couple of seconds to realize quite what had happened but as I lifted my head and looked back up the road I saw my bike and panniers scattered across the road, blocking traffic. I started to climb to my feet when a couple of men ran over and helped to pick my equipment up. We managed to gather all my belongings quite quickly and it was then I started to feel the pain in my left leg.

“What happened?” asked one of the guys, straightening out my handlebars.

“I’m not sure, I just came of my bike. I must have hit a pothole or something”

“Are you sure? I’m pretty sure that car hit you” said the other man now joined by his wife.

He went onto explain that he saw a small white car hit the trailer, which I gather threw me off balance and ended in a tumble. The driver drove off and nobody was able to get a good description or a number plate, so that was that. As we were stood there the pain in my leg grew worse and as I started to hobble around trying to piece together my bike I realized that the derailleur had bent and snapped, and that the front wheel was slightly buckled and the rear wheel had several broken spokes and was severely buckled. I wasn’t able to ride the bike anyway.

Luckily the gentleman and his wife who had stopped offered to go and fetch their pickup, put my stuff in the back and drive me to a campsite. In those few minutes I had to wait for them to return with the pickup the pain in my leg was growing worse and (rather comically) I realized I was covered head to toe in nettle stings from being unfortunate enough to land in the only patch nettles for 100 yards.

After spending an evening in the campsite I took my bike to be repaired at a local bike shop that replaced all the broken bits a pieces and made sure the bike was structurally OK. This unfortunately cost me £300 which had caused a huge deficit in my funds (and makes the search for sponsors even more important).

The bent derailleur

For the next week I stayed at my grandparents friends house as I rested what I thought was just a pulled muscle or some bruising. After the swelling went down and I was still in a lot of pain I went A&E to get my leg checked out. Apparently I have strained a ligament in my knee and have been advised to rest for ‘2-3 weeks at least’ and then ease back in to gentle cycling. The nurse confirmed that gentle cycling doesn’t involve a fully laden bike.

So I made the (extremely) hard decision to come home until my leg is healed and I can resume my journey from where I stopped. This is quite a blow as I was just getting into the swing of things and was really enjoying my time on the road.

So hopefully in just a couple of weeks from now I’ll be on my bike once more and pedaling east.

A huge thank you to Carol and Owen for putting me up (and putting up with me) during that first week. Another huge thank you to the very kind couple who helped me at the side of the road.