I woke up after a night of sporadic insomnia and 3 hours sleep in total. I felt stressed and terrible. I also hadn’t had the time to train for this long (for me) ride – I’d been caring for my 20 month old daughter and starting a new gardening business. But I was all packed, ready and excited for this multi day ride challenge. Couldn’t wait. 

Riding past streams of Michaelmas daisies in full bloom I forgot all about the tiredness and concentrated instead on eating regularly and all the operational stuff necessary to get me to the end.

Three weeks earlier, I’d quit my corporate retail job of 17 years in a mess of emotional turbulence and confusion. Thoughts of what happened felt unresolvable. I needed to ride my bike all day, take some photos, and be by myself.

Halfway in and deep in the countryside, any ability to think dissolved away in the heat anyway. I kept my arm sleeves on to protect me not from cold but from the sun’s radiation – it was the start of a UK heatwave. I poured water over my arms and head whenever I could, but it evaporated in minutes. 

At this point I started to feel sick, and felt like giving up. I looked for the nearest train station, but 20 minutes later decided instead to slow down and buckle in for the long haul.

Eventually I got to Hastings and the sea. I knew I could make it now and wasn’t going to die of heatstroke today.

It was a beautiful ride, especially once past Hastings where after a brutal climb I swooped down through little villages, went off-road a few times, and slowly counted down the distance alongside barren seaside towards Rye.

Eventually, I arrived at my Air BnB, opposite a bleakly beautiful little church, baked and dusty.

I ate a huge meal in a pub and slept a lot that night.

The next day I rode through the new Rye Harbour sanctuary – hot, bleak, barren and beautiful. 

I carried on over some railway tracks where I stopped to wait for a train home – I couldn’t face riding back anymore in the 30 degree heat – I felt cooked, nauseas and dry from yesterday. I also felt a bit homesick, wondering what my little daughter was up to without me, I’d had enough of an adventure. 

Afterwards my head was filled with new perspectives and different, more positive thoughts.

Writing this a few weeks later and looking at the newly developed photographs, I feel happy all over again. 

End Notes:

All the above photos were taken with my newly bought vintage film camera, an Olympus XA-3. It’s tiny enough to fit in a pocket. It did however break the next week. I’ve just ordered another one.

The bike I used for the trip was my Specialized Crux DSW (a gravel bike allegedly), but with 35mm Continental GP 5000 AS TR tyres on carbon road wheels. It’s turned out to be an unexpectedly perfect combo for me – a light fast all road bike with wide gearing for when I’m knackered (a daily thing).

That’s all. Thanks for reading.

Hope you liked the photos – it’s amazing how much more emotion film gives you in each pic.