Yeah!!!
I’ve just got back from what was definitely the best ride I’ve ever been on,
and the longest, and definitely the most tiring.
Despite my first attempt at a long ride yesterday being thwarted by a
spurious drawing pin, I was determined to try again. The original intention
was just to follow the same route I did when I fell off; instead, however,
as it was a really nice sunny evening I carried on upwards and eventually
reached the Worcestershire Beacon, over 400 metres above where I set off (I
think).
None of the ascent was really impossible; most of it was on quite decent
gravel paths, albeit extremely steep gravel paths, generally with random
rocky bits strewn all over the place. The main problem I found was after
having to stop for some reason getting on again on such a steep hill was
next to impossible. My most successful technique was turning sideways,
getting on and idling then turning uphill on a power stroke. However this
doesn’t work if the path’s only two feet wide with a huge drop on one side!
I got lots of positive comments; cheers from some kids on a balcony at the
bottom of the hill and quite a few people on the hill itself. The best one
was one bloke saying (something along the lines of) “I’ve never been this
drunk before, I could swear your bike’s only got one wheel…” which I’ve
not heard before.
There were a few people at the very top when I got there; they were very
encouraging; most of them hadn’t seen anyone on a unicycle, let alone at the
top of a blummin’ great hill.
The way down was probably harder… I went the steeper way down the road
from St Anne’s Well; this turned out to be much harder because of the
surface being much smoother, so I went most of the way on the grass by the
side.
Stupidly enough the only time my hands touched down after an unplanned
dismount was on a totally flat pavement, coincidentally enough right in
front a big group of people. Sod’s law…
I’ve put the route map on my website…
http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~pah117/muni.html
Now I’m going to flop in front of the telly, because I’m absolutely
knackered!
Phil, just me
–
“Cattle Prods solve most of life’s little problems”