9th
January Escape Craig
Armstrong
At
9.30 a.m. Richie, Maddy and I set off. The roads were, as on previous days,
very slushy with traffic moving very slowly along bumper to bumper. To cycle on
such roads would have been extremely hazardous. One slip and I would be beneath
the wheel of a car and there was also a less selfish consideration. My cycling
on such roads would have caused the traffic to move even slower.
Despite the slushy roads it was a beautiful,
sunny, calm day and the scenery along the canal tow path was lovely with the
trees crusted with hoar frost and deep snow on the ground. Birds at last were
seen as I pushed the bike along through the deep snow. There were ducks, swans
and geese on the canal, with Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, titmice, Robins
and thrushes; Redwing and Fieldfare in good numbers seen also. The occasional
Cormorant and a number of gulls were using the canal as a flightpath, occasionally
coming down to land at the gravel pits that we passed. On one a group of Common Gulls [69] were standing on the
ice amongst other species of gulls.
Birds, particularly the listing of them, had
been on my mind for the holder of the record I was trying to beat, the Green
Year list record, Chris Mills, had started his own Green Year list on this day
back in 2005. By the end of the ninth of January 2005 Chris had been on sixty-two,
after he had spent a day cycling around his home county of Norfolk. I was ahead
but not by that many. Chris had created a British Green Year List record, known
in the USA as a BIGBY, a Big Green Big Year, whilst in competition with Simon
Woolley from Hampshire. Both of these lads are very fit, athletic-even
cyclists, unlike me an old doddering bike rider; both of them with a huge
passion for birding.
In 2005 they competed against each other by
Green Birding in their home counties, Norfolk for Chris and Hampshire for
Simon, with Chris eventually coming out as the winner. Simon did his Big Green Big
Year as a fund-raising exercise for the terrible tsunami that hit Sri Lanka and
other nearby countries killing many thousands back in 2004. Simon and his
girlfriend had been out there when the tsunami struck and had witnessed first-hand
the devastation it caused. His Green Birding year is detailed in a book named
Birding by Bike – The Hampshire Big Year 2005 and is available for £5, all of which
is donated to charity. There is also a blog of his BIGBY at
zootherapy.blogspot.com.
Chris has also authored a book although I will be honest and say I am not sure whether he ever published it officially, called Birder on a Bike.
How many variations on a theme can one create
with the words birding, birds, biking and bike?
Their
books and lists were with me as I cycled on my own BIGBY, giving me constant
motivation, inspirational texts.
Some
parts of the towpath were easier to push the bike along than others. Those were
parts that had been walked along the most by other people enjoying the day. The
trampled impacted snow being easier to push through than the deep, hardly
stepped upon areas.
Richie and Maddy took a route away from the
canal after a few miles, so we said our goodbyes and promised to stay connected.
To this day I have heard from Ritchie. I think he blames me for his incredible
cycling journeys in so many parts of the world. On Facebook Ritchie is now known
as Tash Rider. I have no idea why this name. I will have to ask time next time
we meet up but his travels are far more extensive than mine. For the detail on
these please visit his blog – Batman to Robben.
Looking up Ritchie/Tash's latest postings on the blog, the last post made back in 2015 details thoughts of him riding around Morocco on a donkey!
Take a look and see the list of countries visited. Amazing!
https://batmantorobben.wordpress.com/
I continued pushing along the towpath and by 1.00 p.m. had reached Rickmansworth. Here I met Tim, an Aqualung-looking (Jethro Tull album from the 1970s), grey-bearded older gentleman standing beside his iced-in barge. Inviting me onto this lovely old barge to warm me up, I was soon in the smoke-filled warm interior sitting on a chair being mobbed by his three affectionate dogs. The kind gentleman, Tim was of Irish origins, having come over here from Cork many years ago. He gave me a warming mug of Bovril and pieces of delicious wholemeal toast before insisting I take the Bovril jar with me. His wife, Amber, was on the mobile phone berating someone quite aggressively over some family matter as two parakeets squawked loudly from their cage. What a racket! Fabulous.
Onward, I then came across a group of teenage
lads enjoying a rope swing. Filled with memories of enjoying such ropey swings
as a child, I had to have a go and survived swinging over a frozen stream.
Great fun!
Once
when I was a spotty young teenage kid, at my Nan and Grandad's house in
Birmingham, there was a long-roped swing over a dried up and filled in derelict
canal. From the bridge I put the stick on the end of the rope between my legs
and leapt off only to find that the rope was indeed too long and I dragged my
legs along the gravel canal floor, taking the skin off my knees and shins in
doing so. The exposed legs, lads wore shorts in those days, were shredded. I
can still remember having the grit removed from the bloody wounds.
People walking along the same towpath
occasionally stopped me to ask why I was so mad as to be pushing such a heavily
laden bike along. This led to some kind donations for the RSPB Robin collection
box on the front of the bike and a few photographs. So thanks to Stuart and
Rowan and to Iver, who later sent an email with a photo of me with his German
girlfriend attached. To the other kind donors whose names I did not jot down,
thanks and apologies.
Later I came across another barge with
someone atop and hence another chat. This barge had a naughty sign offering the
good advice, ‘slow down for duck’s sake’ painted on the back. The barge, or
narrowboat as I was corrected to call it, was moored in an area of ice-free
water and here a number of Tufted Duck were diving down to feed.
By now the Sun was setting and after coming
across a long, straight length of snow free towpath, where I could actually
cycle along for a bit, I saw a Barn Owl
[70] quartering a field adjacent to the canal, just before the place where the
canal goes beneath the M40. This large, white moth-like creature was the best
bird seen so far on my trip and came close as I watched it searching for its
evening meal. This bird had come at a suitable time as I was feeling quite
exhausted having pushed and cycled along the canal side for around seven hours.
Dark now, I reached Uxbridge and found the
Police Station. My thinking being that they would know the area and would know
of a local Bed & Breakfast or offer me a night in the cells. By this time I
was so tired I would not have minded being put up for the night under Her
Majesty’s care. The officer at the desk heard my plea and gave me a
photocopied, pre-prepared sheet of such accommodation and someone in the queue
even put a fiver into the collection box.
17.47 miles 181 feet elevation up 298 feet down
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