mi barrio local

pyrenees... coast to coast... almost

got back from scandinavia on the 16th July, lots of miles, incredible places and realized how much fun it is to update blogs, ie; none. still got to trawl through another couple of hundred photos to post up to flickr.

so now, I've just about moved out of Kingsdown & will be doing the Pyrenees coast to coast east to west & west to east on the way down to altea. ...1600km of mountains =)





View Pyrenees in a larger map

not easy this blogging on the road

could a dynamo hub power a "eee pc" I wonder? what is the charging voltage on a netbook? the hub produces 6V. hmmm?

made it to Norway this morning - getting lots of great pictures - hope to post soon.
weather has been excellent - however it is turning to rain for a few days on monday.

getting on the bike now.

Black Op Badgers & When Animals Attack

ran into a real, live badger last night, up until then i have only ever seen dead ones on the road.

i know Bernard Hinault was nicknamed "Le Blaireau" (the Badger) because the animal has the reputation of not letting go of his prey. so a quick check to see what sort of trouble i could be getting my self into traveling in the wilderness, I come across these....

Victim relives badger attack
A late night encounter with a badger outside his Evesham home seemed harmless at first to Michael Fitzgerald.

But within minutes he was savagely attacked, leaving him with horrific injuries to his arm where his flesh was torn away and in need of skin grafts.

Michael Fitzgerald is recovering at home after going through what he has described as "some kind of hell".

"I never envisaged I would be seeing my own insides," he said.

read more

N.B. This same badger went on to hospitalise 4 other people and also attacked 2 police officers

and ...

Brit troops release badger plague on Basra
Forces deny responsibility for musteline black op

British forces in the lively Iraqi city of Basra are denying claims they are responsible for a "plague" of "vicious badger-like creatures which have attacked livestock - and even humans", the Telegraph reports.

Shaken locals have recounted chilling tales of rampant "ratels" - feared desert carnivores who normally dine on cobras and attack humans only when provoked. Sattar Jabbar, a 50-year-old farmer, explained: "I saw it at night attacking animals. It even ate a cow. It tore the cow up piece by piece." read more

and finally on looking for some live "badger attack" footage I came across this hilarious video, at which maybe I shouldn't be laughing at as I head out into the the great wide open...

Freetown Christiana

Look's like this "Freetown" could be closed downed by the time I ride in sometime in the middle of July. It'll make a bunch of hippies unhappy, I presume. Anyways, the wiki page makes an interesting read.

Allemansrätt

idea started a few days ago, on Saturday night to be exact. england driving me mad, waiting to take off to spain.

ordered myself a dynamo hub and a dynolader direkt to GPS the whole way but that fell through. planned a route on google maps and got my train ticket through to denmark today.

View Larger Map

gotta get my bags, my bike organize-ized before I set off. 10 days to go man.

Allemansrätt: The freedom to roam, or everyman's right is the general public's right to access certain public or privately owned land for recreation and exercise. The right is sometimes called the right of public access to the wilderness or the right to roam.