Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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smith4188
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by smith4188 »

ElaineB wrote:I love the sound of your trip but I wonder if you would have better luck finding 'buddies' on perhaps the SAS or Royal Marines website's, if they have them that is.
From my experience the CTC start the day with a Trangia cooked 'full English' followed by coffee at 11, lunch at 1, afternoon tea at 3 and then at 7 a local meal with wine and bed by 9.
If you manage to get Ray Mears to come along then count me in, no disrespect or offence intended.
All the best to you and lots of luck. x


Cheers, but I've already got seven people who are interested from here, CycleChat and cycling and foraging pages on Facebook, although half of them have some good reason why they might not be able to come and so if anyone else from here is interested then please get in touch. Ray Mears has kept a very low profile.
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smith4188
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

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Weimarunner wrote:This sounds brilliant! I'd love to come along, it combines my two passions cycle touring and fishing but unfortunately I doubt I'd get away with 3 months off work.


Join us for a week or two if you like. The map on the website - http://www.rideandseek2015.com - shows all the airports en route serviced by EasyJet and RyanAir and in a few days I'll be posting a itinery of where we need to be each day to finish in the 100 days.

Weimarunner wrote:Do you know about LRF fishing? It's essentially really light lure fishing.


I'd seen the tiny rods-style of fishing but it sounds like LRF is something different. I'll check it out. Thanks for the info.
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bigjim
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by bigjim »

Whats your take on wildlife as a food source? Rabbits pigeons etc. A catapult is a handy item. Maggotts are apparently a good food source. Add them to your stews.
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Sweep
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

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smith4188 wrote: although half of them have some good reason why they might not be able to come and so if anyone else from here is interested then please get in touch. .


it may not matter much to you if at the end of the day/on the day of departure, few of these make it.

If it does matter to you for whatever reason I'd get to talking on the phone to likely folk fairly soon.

In my experience of forum organised stuff (particularly the likes of cyclechat and YACF) folk can witter on for page after page about what they might do, trying to get you interested in all sorts of variables of their life from passes from partner, cat's sex life, whether twill be a bit drizzly when the day dawns bla bla bla bla.

Sometimes technology is not as clever as it seems.

Basically because of the human element.

Best of luck with the trip whether it ends up as a lone venture or you progress across Europe like a massed army of locusts.
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Sweep
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

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bigjim wrote:Whats your take on wildlife as a food source? Rabbits pigeons etc. A catapult is a handy item. Maggotts are apparently a good food source. Add them to your stews.

Am intrigued.

Do you have any experience of any of this bigjim?
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

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Sweep wrote:
bigjim wrote:Whats your take on wildlife as a food source? Rabbits pigeons etc. A catapult is a handy item. Maggotts are apparently a good food source. Add them to your stews.

Am intrigued.

Do you have any experience of any of this bigjim?

Not at all. I'm one of those sad dreamers that read things in books. Though I have slept in some strange places and foraged for food across Europe. I read a really good book, IMO, about a couple of young children who had to survive in the wild. The older child a girl had to forage for food for herself and her much younger brother. They lived off rabbits, greens, and maggots that she found after digging down a little in the forest floor. Apparently a true story. They survived after months alone.
I won't mention too much how I was sustained in childhood in 1950s Ireland. My young cousins were wonderful poachers who disapeared after dark to "visit" the English landlords estate and return with the best food I've probably ever tasted.
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Sweep
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by Sweep »

Sounds like an interesting book bigjim.

Do you remember the title?

Can anyone recommend a good kindle book on foraging - both urban/countryside?

Or a web page/blog.

It strikes me by the way that living off foraging might be a damn sight healthier than shoveling down a lot of the processed/boxed **** a lot of Brits eat.
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by nirakaro »

You could try the Poachers' Handbook, though not available on Kindle.
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

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Sweep wrote:Best of luck with the trip whether it ends up as a lone venture or you progress across Europe like a massed army of locusts.


Cheers, Sweep! To be honest I originally imagined that I'd struggle to find anyone. The fact that so many are interested after only three weeks of fairly limited searching now makes me believe I won't be doing this alone but, if everyone eventually backs out, alone it will be. I'm sure it would be much more fun in a team. There are also several people who may (or may not) join us for a part of the trip. So far we are locusts ;-)
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smith4188
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

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bigjim wrote:Whats your take on wildlife as a food source? Rabbits pigeons etc. A catapult is a handy item. Maggotts are apparently a good food source. Add them to your stews.


Mmm, hypocritical though it is as a meat eater, I reckon I'd have a problem killing a rabbit. Pigeons wouldn't be too bad, but city pigeons at least carry chlamydia. I think my focus will remain on fish and seafood. But ask me again when I'm starving.
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by mnichols »

pwa wrote:My father, Irish and proud of it, has always been keen on foraging. His version consists of walking into a field and picking carrots, swede or whatever, in an open and obvious way, even walking over to the farmer for a bit of conversation. As a boy he was brought up to see this as a socially acceptable perk of living in the countryside, and he refuses to modify his views (he's now 82). I'm not recommending this approach, and I don't do it myself.

PS this may get you shot!


The farmer in the field next to me grew sweet corn, I was tempted for weeks to pick some and didn't because it felt like stealing. One day as I was walking past he destroyed the whole crop. I can only assume that he was growing it just for the subsidy
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by Vorpal »

Or maybe he was leaving it for game birds?
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

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Destroyed??
Are sure it wasn't put into a silage clamp? Costs £700/Ha to grow.
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

Post by Samuel D »

I am curious how this idea has stood up to another month of thought. It’s audacious, to say the least.
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Re: Unique Cycling Tour...Riders Wanted

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Samuel D wrote:I am curious how this idea has stood up to another month of thought. It’s audacious, to say the least.


Thanks for asking :D. So far I have eleven or so people interested in joining me on the ride, although some have personal obstacles to overcome that could rule them out. I'm not asking for a definite 'yes' until mid-May. I reckon I'll get the four or five people I was originally looking for. If all eleven come, which I seriously doubt, then we'll have to split into two teams. You up for it?
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