Gary Prescott, The Biking Birder, is going to visit friends in October. Then the plan is to cycle for the whole of November, the south-west region of Rwanda. Fundraising for Acorns Children's Hospice and the Planet Birdsong charity. For Planet Birdsong, there is a link to the side on my blog page for you to take a look at the work they do in Rwanda and how you can help. Biking Birder IX - An African Adventure, Part 2. The Return to Rwanda.
Golden
Plover to wake me from my slumbers, also from the tent just outside Braunton,
Devon. I explored the amazingly large sand dunes at Braunton Meadows.
I then
cycled to the Chapel Wood RSPB reserve. Indeed the reserve did have a
ruined chapel. Goldcrest, titmice, Ravens, Buzzard were all seen and also, an
extremely hard to discern hill fort.
Whilst there I met a RSPB girl whom I had met before at
Arne two weeks before. What is this - are they checking up on me?
The rest of the day was spent cycling to my sleeping spot on Exmoor, which gave
amazing views of Lundy and the Taw Estuary as the sun went down.
Travelling again, this time in the right direction, towards the Isley Marsh
RSPB Reserve at near Bideford, Devon, I cycled to Holeworthy and along down
to Bideford.
A van with shouting lads gave me some advice using expletives,
which consisted of me packing up cycling!
From Bideford there was a cycle path
that ran along the estuary and RSPB reserve edge.
There were very few birds but
three Spoonbills were noteworthy.
Over a tall arching bridge with views along
the River Taw to Barnstaple, I cycle, once over the bridge, the road towards
Braunton and found a sheltered place to camp in a field.
Once again, I had pushed myself and covered a fair
number of miles, understatement as I covered over 50 miles during the day. My back was still not good but I had to keep on schedule.
Advice for lower back pain came via texts. Ian Crutchley, an ex-Coppice High
School student, texted details of how to do a back assisting exercise called
the 'Cobra' and many other people messaged me with other remedies. Thanks to everyone.
51.8 miles
1,719 feet up 2,126 feet down
Actual 2010 Biking Birder blog for the days preceding this date . . .
A Red-crested Pochard seen on this day but for the life of me, despite I remember seeing it, I can't remember where! Must find my 2010 bird list to find the details!
Maurice
and Sylvia had already said that I could stay there again on my way past and I
desperately wanted to get back into Devon. I eventually got to Launceston but
my back was back with a vengeance. Maurice and Sylvia rescued me. Sylvia was a
nurse and after a mild telling off, she gave me heat pads and Voltorol tablets
and later I was persuaded by her to lie in bed with a rolled up towel beneath
the area of most pain and told to rest and sleep.
Susannah
and Donna, who both had severe Cerebral palsy did not like each other but were
unable to express their dislike so frustrations grew between them. Back in
those long off days there were no computers and Donna had an alphabet on a
wooden board, which she used to communicate with others by pointing to each letter
laboriously. Donna went on to get a First class honours degree in History! A lesson learnt, appearances are always deceiving.
Then there was Vinnie, a very tall, severely
disabled and extremely thin and lightweight seventeen year old. I remembered
how he was prevented from going on The Revolution, a brand new rollercoaster at
Blackpool Pleasure Beach because of his disability. I remembered my disgust
with the operators of the ride over their unfounded prejudice. Vinnie would
have had no problems from this ride. I wondered whether The Rotary Club of
Blackpool still organised tickets and events for the charity?
I stood with ‘mon pouce magique’ outstretched
by the nearest M6 roundabout junction to Carnforth, junction 34 and soon had a
lift in a small lorry. The driver, Norman Golightly, was on his way to Hemel
Hempstead. There must be something about that place, for the mere mention of
the town's name these days brings me out in a cold sweat with shallow breathing
and heart palpitations!
The weather was particularly foul and got
worse as the afternoon drifted into evening. Just before the Wednesbury turn
off near Walsall, a car cut Norman up and the lorry went into a spin. It then
smashed against a central reservation lamppost and I went flying out of the
door. No seat belts to be worn back then, I hit the tarmac and ended up draped
across the crash barrier. Obviously, I have no recollection of this as the
impact of me and the tarmac knocked me out. Ambulance paramedics told me how
they found me as I was asked which limbs I could move before being placed on a
stretcher and taken to The Manor Hospital in Walsall.
I
should have been dead. Hitting the fast lane of a motorway shoulder first meant
that my left side was severely damaged and glass from the smashed windscreen
had to be removed from my back by a nurse using tweezers. I had survived.
I
went to the teaching job interview with broken ribs and a severely dislocated
shoulder strapped up. They gave me the job, a science teacher with
responsibility for biology, because of their amazement that I would be
interviewed despite such injuries. I went on to teach there for eleven years.
Now
that accident must have damaged my spine for every so often my lower back goes
into spasm and this is what had happened whilst in the tent.
Feeling
a little better I went into Launceston for more cycle repairs and at the superb
Launceston CyclesNigel gave much needed advice over cycle repair and usage.
Too much oil so gear replacement and chain. I tried to see the castle but it
was closed until April.
In the church of St Mary Magdalene I looked at each
memorial stone and particularly the one about the Lawrences. Mum and Dad died
around the age of 40 but their four children did not reach that age; two died
as infants with no age specified and the other two around the age of twenty
each. Sad times.
I bought a book in the Oxfam bookshop; Bill Oddie's Gripping Yarns. A book to
read and smile whilst doing so, I relaxed some more and spent time talking with
my lovely hosts.
Malcolm
and Sylvia were great company and together we watched the Birds of Paradise
Natural World programme on TV, followed by another programme about Scottish
wildlife. Midges! I looked forward to encountering those little mites this summer!
Malcolm and Sylvia, I still cannot thank them enough.
There
are times when one does stupid things. Well, I do anyway. Today I decided that
my back was not too bad and so I had set off along the A30 eastwards. I
persuaded myself that once in a typical cycling position, the pain would be OK
enough to get some miles under me and that I could get as far as Launceston.
Dead owls seen beside the road didn't lift my spirits. So sad to see so many.
I soon found that I could
not cycle and really, I should not even have tried! I got as far as Bodmin and
decided enough is enough and found another Bed and Breakfast. Into Boots the
Chemists I went for more advice and then visited a library to take my mind off
the panic of the pain.
Next
morning I woke up in a cold tent and immediately realised I had got a major
problem. My lower back was causing what one might call – jip! I could hardly
move and could not straighten up. A cold night in the tent at Godrevy Head, I had
fallen asleep watching the stars. Yet I had awoken up cold and stiff with a
seized up back that would not ease up. I had got to March without any other
health problems so this, I considered, would add to the experience. I would
rather have been without it though.
The lack of cloud and being sheltered from that keen east wind had meant that
there was a frost when I woke up in the morning. Still I had to get moving and
so I packed up everything and bent double over my bike, gently pushed it down
to Gwithian Nature Reserve. This time I found the bird I had failed to see the
day before. In fact I found two of them; cracking males, Northern Wheatear [151].
Cycling was very painful with me pushing the bike whilst bent double over the
saddle for much of the way but I eventually made it to Portreath. “You got a
bad back. Do it again. Wheels turning round and round. You got a bad back. Do
it again.”
One
bright moment was when I had a remarkably close encounter with a stooping male
Peregrine whilst going along the coast road near the National Trust's North
Cliffs.
I
manage to get to Redruth and here I saw a doctor and booked into a bed &
breakfast. Every step had been excruciating and at no time could I get on the bike and cycle. Ouch!
