Safe Return Doubtful

Travelling with a bike

Manchester Airport is probably amongst the most uninspirational of places to start a wilderness adventure, but the proximity of the station to the terminals make that part of the journey at least, stress free. Trains from Cumbria start late on Sunday mornings, and too late even to make a 2 pm Heathrow shuttle. But they are sometimes direct. The hotels at the airport often hold sales, even for this, one of the busiest times of year. All in all, train at £25, Hilton at £55 and dinner at £12 (note carefully that there are certainly no micro-breweries here) is not too much of an early sting.

British Airways are amongst the few airlines who fly your bike for free, or included in the baggage allowance. Pack the bike in a box and bear in mind that the box is not designed to hold 20+ kilos. Strengthen it where possible. Damage to boxes is often in the places where it has been lifted. I doubt the baggage handlers will be as careful as the owner. Should there be any damage at all on arrival, photograph it and report it at the airport. It often isn’t until it is unpacked that something missing is noticed. It is a more difficult job than usual to ensure items not allowed in the cabin are in the box (tent pegs, bike tools, etc). Tighten nuts when dismantling the bike. Sounds obvious, but there can be a massive headache when reassembling. As the ride is likely to start at the arrival airport, the whole process is quite stressful. Damage is most likely to occur when the bike is being handled, so when booking it is good to minimise the amount of transfers.

Holiday, Challenge or Course – how to refer to the journey

When I organised and ran these type of journeys for the schools if worked at I was very careful not to refer to the trip as a holiday, in letters to parents, and when speaking to the participants. I would hurriedly correct them if they called it a holiday. It was a course. If they complained during it, I suggested they had perhaps chosen the wrong course, or ticked the wrong box, and that arranging flowers or pottery would have been more applicable. These days I refer to the journeys as ‘challenges’. And again, certainly not holidays.

However, the challenge, fulfils everything I would want from a holiday. There is no better way to switch totally off from work and life at home. For the next 30 days the major concerns will be all about the bike, the next break, the next hill, and of course, the next micro-brewery.

Granted, that idea of a holiday maybe completely different from those of the greater percentage of the population. But, everyone to his / her own, and from the growing number of blogs hosted on CGOAB, it is catching on.

22 kilos on my scales (used to a lot more weight than that). 24 at the airport, but the check-in person admitted their scales are often wrong…