Special Circumstances in Xinjiang

The project has hit a rather large bump in the road: due to “special circumstances in Xinjiang” my contact in China is unable to obtain the invitation letter I need to get my visa.  I'm told that if the China Tourist Service in Xinjiang is unable to obtain the letter, it is unlikely that any other agent will be able to obtain the letter, and therefore crossing the border into Xinjiang "may prove impossible at this point in time".  This, I am told, "would have been a high level decision, which also means that it is unlikely that there will be a later change of heart."

Definitely not the best news of the day.

The maps are back out. China is now a big obstacle between Kazakhstan and Vietnam. Suggestions welcome!

Ukraine in Crisis / Chinese visa / Donations to RoadPeace

As I write, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders have just signed a deal leading to an early presidential poll before the end of the year, and hopefully putting an end to the terrible toll of recent days as the country looked on the brink of civil war.  Hopefully things will be back on a more even keel by mid-April when I am planning to pass through, and the FCO will no longer be advising against all but essential travel... but I do have a Belarus visa application form ready just in case I need to re-plan my route.

I've still not got my Chinese visa, but am making progress and now in touch with people in China who can get me the invitation letter I need, once I have answered all their questions, which seem to keep coming on an almost daily basis.  Not sure why they are apparently quite so worried about a harmless bicycle traveller, ho hum.

Donations to RoadPeace are steadily trickling in now and I have set a target of £5,000 - can you help me reach 10% of that target before I leave?  Click here to sponsor me if you can please!

China, please let me in!

So the days are getting longer, the 5th of April looms larger, and the red tape of visa bureaucracy grips ever tighter.  I only need five visas; on the bright side there's been no trouble at the Vietnamese, Russian or Kazakh embassies, and I should be able to pick up the visa for Laos en route at their embassy in Hanoi.  The Chinese visa however is proving more problematic.

Unlike most tourists, I'm not flying into China, nor do I have any hotels booked. So their embassy in London has asked me to obtain an authorisation letter from the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) in the district I enter China, which is Xinjiang Province, and without this letter of approval the embassy will not accept my visa application.

Googling CNTA Xinjiang got me to this page full of contacts, which looked hopeful but most of my emails bounced back with bad addresses and none of the others have sent any reply.  Two visa agencies in London have not yet found a solution, my hopes are currently pinned on the China Travel Service on Euston Road.

Helpful suggestions welcome!

Around the world in 142 GPX files

The RTW route is planned - 142 GPX (satnav) files are loaded onto the garmin and beckoning to me: Go East Young Man!  It feels like I have spent every spare minute since my visit to Stanfords Map Shop back in September poring over the pile of maps I came out with.  It's been a sobering and sometimes scary exercise.  I'm probably most anxious about China.

I've Google Streetviewed my way across the deserts, plains and mountains of the globe and found advice and tips from a host of fascinating cycle touring blogs and sites like www.warmshowers.org - there's no shortage of info out there!

I've purchased bike bits and tools, clothes and kit, serviced the bike, got air ticket advice, done a bike box test, set up the RoadPeace charity page, sorted the business cards, made warmshowers friends around the globe, opened a youtube account...

Still to do: build a new back wheel, get visas, get jabs, get new phone, insurance, learn Chinese, pack my panniers, weigh them, unpack jettison and repack until weight halved...

Frankly it will be a relief to get going on April 5th.  Planning a noon departure from BikeFix in Lambs Conduit Street.  Anyone fancy joining me on the ride to Harwich for dinner in the Samuel Pepys?  My ferry to Holland at 23:15; last train back to London at 22:28.

We have a logo!

One of the delights of cycle touring, especially on a funny bike, is that most places I stop there seem to be local people interested in what I'm doing and where I'm going.  And when they find out, some of them want to follow my adventures, which is fine, that's why I do the blog and the twitter.  Writing down the blog and twitter addresses several times a day however can get time-consuming and somewhat laborious, so it became obvious during the Baltic Cruise ride of August 2013 that I need a business card to hand out with these details printed on it.  And of course a business card needs a logo, so here it is:

I love it, hope you do too!
Hearty thanks to my fellow Kingston Wheeler, LEL rider and graphic artist extraordinaire Dominic Trevett for this logo, you can see more of his artwork on his site here: http://www.dominictrevett.com/

LHL 2013

London-Helsinki-London went almost according to plan in August 2013.

The plan was 5,000km round the Baltic and Gulf of Bothnia in three weeks @ 250k/day:


View Larger Map

This is how it turned out - just under 4,000km, missing out the Gulf of Bothnia:


View Larger Map

All was going to schedule until I got to Poland and beyond where road surfaces and navigation both became more challenging.

There were some lovely bits too:


However, by the time I got to Helsinki I was over a day behind schedule and it was clear I could not continue north around the Gulf of Bothnia and complete as planned.  So I headed west across to Naantali for the ferry to Sweden where roads were almost universally superb:

Things were taken at a gentler pace across Sweden and Denmark with a day off the bike completely for fishing on a Swedish lake with a German friend and a long afternoon/evening visiting the wonderfully bike-friendly city that is Copenhagen.

More photos here

Baltic Cruise Tweets here

It was all a good test of my own abilities, the new bike and various bits of kit.  Am I confident now for the world tour next year?  I think so...!

Vital Statistics
3,918km ridden
201 hours riding
304 hours sleeping/eating/shopping/tweeting/fishing etc.
Average ride speed: 19.5km/h
Average ride speed including stops: 7.8km/h (just over walking speed!)

LEL2013

So LEL2013 is now completed, a little over 1,500km in 5 days from home to Edinburgh and back.

Sunday 28th July, home to Pocklington (Yorkshire), 379km
Left home at 05:00, rode to The Mall where the Prologue started at 6am.  Royal Parks had forgotten to close the road as agreed, but TfL Road Events Supremo Gary McGowan flagged down a passing police car and the road was closed to motors five minutes later.

The Queen must have overslept so there was no wave-off from the royal balcony by the time we needed to get rolling at 06:15... to the official start in Loughton, Essex.  A quick breakfast and I was on the road at 08:15.  Fine weather and a strong tailwind plus strong legs on the first day combined to produce a fast ride across the plains of Herts, Cambs & Lincs, over the Humber Bridge and into Yorkshire just before closing time for a pint with the hearty locals at the Red Lion in Market Weighton.  Controlled at 23:44 at Lyndhurst School, followed by hot dinner, quick shower and camp bed in the gym.  No trouble sleeping despite cacophonous symphony of farting and snoring from several hundred weary randonneurs.

Monday 29th July, Pocklington to Moffat (Dumfries & Galloway), 371km
We made it into Scotland by around tea-time, and were with beer in Moffat before dark.  A delightfully scenic route across the Pennines via Alston where we stopped in the splendid Moody-Baker tea rooms and I ate all the cakes.

Tuesday 30th July, Moffat to Brampton (Cumbria), 227km
An early start saw us in Edinburgh for breakfast, then we turned south - time to go home.  At the Traquair control I was alarmed to discover a splitting rim on my rear wheel.  Luckily there was whisky.

Suitably fortified, I was given a lift into Peebles by one of the volunteer controllers where the nice man in the bike shop said he could build me a new wheel for the next day if I was in a hurry.  I explained just how much of a hurry I was actually in, then went for lunch in the pub.  My wheel was ready to collect just as I was finishing my lasagne and pint of heavy.  I'd obviously needed a new wheel, and lunch, so no time wasted, but that did set me back three hours so I only made 227km today back to Brampton - really did not fancy going over Yad Moss atop the Pennines in the dark, leave that for the morrow.


Wednesday 31st July, Brampton to Market Rasen (Lincs), 301km
A grey day today in the Yorkshire drizzle.  Crossed back over the Humber in the company of Stuart "Bikefix" Denison and Dominic "Wheeler" Trevett.

Thursday 1st August, Market Rasen to home, 311km
The final day, the party's all over too soon.  Strong headwinds across the flatlands of Lincs and Cambs but got into a useful group with a couple of Yanks and made stonking progress, only interrupted by frequent visits to local hostelries in premature celebration of our achievement.  Final brevet card stamp at 22:53

Really nice medal!

 

more photos here