This was our first really wet ride…..not heavy rain, just that fine mist that is determined and relentless…..I kind of like it…..saying our goodbye’s to Carol and Steve we headed to Avonmouth, where we stopped off to get a few extra supplies for tea  and crossed into Wales over the first Severn bridge crossing…by this time, the drizzle had turned serious and the crossing fun though it was….was windy and wet, for a bit of company we had met a family from Scotland also cycle touring also having a lot of fun. I have some video of the crossing that I’ll share at a later time when I get a bit more of a chance to continue making a film.

We stopped by Fedw forest and made a wild camp in torrential rain…..I hasten to add that all our stuff remained dry in our panniers but we were soaked.

This turned out to be a very strange camp…..once sorted out, with both of us changed into dry clothes and food on the go….. it seemed a great place…Until both in our tents there came these strange sounds from the copse of trees we camped by……sort of creaking  and the snapping of twigs….it did not sound like people though and at first I thought it was a badger, but I was not sure…..asking myself….Badgers….do they eat tree’s….. I think not and with that thought there was a really strange, and extremely loud retort which could only be a tree collapsing. But there was nothing to see and over the next hour or so similar retorts and branches breaking….It was spooky and it was getting dark. On walking around I finally caught sight of the tree as another large branch broke off…..Mystery solved…..But we were both glad it had happened during twilight, and not in the middle of the night….that would have been just too spooky…..We have never witnessed a collapsing tree before…..very odd….

The next day came with showers and sunshine and by mid day we were dry and packed and on our way.

In some strange way we had made a tentative plan to meet up with a good friend of mine and Julia’s back when we were studying for our M.A. in fine art at Cardiff and somehow with bad signal and a dodgy mobile…….I had dropped it into my cup of tea a couple of days before we left St Just…we met up at a great place called Crickhowell just 26.8 miles down the road, the next day, and were treated to a glorious sunset……good conversation and some well earned beer…..

someone fly fishing

Reflections

Sunset

It was lovely to meet up with Donna again, and to meet her husband Gareth….reminiscing about that shared house and the weekend long drunken games of Risk, learning to snowboard……fun times and good memories. So we were now in Wales and heading North……

In my mind I had a difficult choice when planning this part of the tour…..I have never been cycle touring in Wales and I was completely torn between the route I had planned which would take us North along the coast….or to head diagonally North through the heart of Mid Wales……Now a few glorious days later we are on the edge of Snowdonia national park and I am so glad I changed the route at the last minute. Cycling through mid Wales has been one of the best cycle touring journeys of my life…..Steve and Carol back in Bristol had mentioned the Red Kite Feeding center at Rhayader…..I have always wanted to see Red Kites, and so that was it……. we were on our way to see some Red Kites…….

After Ashclyst all our devices were pretty much out of charge…..I had tried to source a compatible portable power bank in Penzance and had managed to find a likely looking doodad at Argos but…… it was out of stock. there were however two at Cribbs causeway in Bristol so I decided to reserve both thinking that as we would be staying in Bristol for a couple of days with our good friends Carol and Steve it would be no problem to pick them up……with that plan in mind we did manage to charge our gps along the way at Hemyock and Drayton so that we could log our ride North…….And the point of all this is that for this stage we have no photo’s…..

I do have some more sketchbook work to share though……

Sunset and dark sea

Sometimes the watercolours can be quick and sometimes they may e something I work on for several days, but not constantly……it’s really about allowing the paint to dry properly before continuing with the piece. and as we cycle North after  makin each camp the sketchboos come out and the work continues reflecting on experiences days or even weeks ago. In this way the work maybe informed by the memory of the experience……

Bedminster is a great place and now seems to be something of a street art capital with a festival of street art that happens every year, By the time we got to Bristol we were just lucky enough to view most of last years work before preparations for this years street art begin…..So here are some of my favorite examples……

Well it was great fun wandering around Bedminster again, spending some time with Carol and Steve….as usual great food and terrific conversation. In the end we stayed for three nights….had a good wander around the docks……and shared some fab memories with Aaron.

We lived for 5 years in Bristol and I remember cycling past the Mathew as it was being built on my way to teaching on Foundation at Weston Super Mare……so of course we had to have a wander around the Mathew as well….and there was another tall ship docked too……never found out where that came from or where it was off too next…..

The Mathew

Another Tall ship docked.

On the way to Bristol I could tell I was starting to have some problems with my break pads and of course taking all the minor roads and off road trails and tracks we had found meant no bike shops, by the time we got to Bristol I could hear metal grinding……BIG OOOOOOPS !!!!!!

I was just hoping that there was no damage to the disks…..and having changed the pads to softer organic pads they are working perfect…..But I did take an image of the worn pads…..

And finally for today here are two images of watercolours done along the way….

We had no real rush to leave Marazion, our train left Penzance at 13:07 so we slowly packed up and did some last minute wandering around Penzance to pick up a few odds’ n ends, Caught the train to Exeter and headed off for a fairly flat ride, it was a relief to leave the busy roads of Exeter behind and pick up the minor road towards Ashclyst Forest……from now on it would be minor roads and off road trails all the way to Bristol…..in all about 20% off road and maybe 1% A roads…..and the rest minor roads…..

Map of first ride today…..

And this is a map of or second ride today….

10.3 miles. 747 ft (227.686 meters)

So this is where we ended up…..making camp

And for lunch pasta and pesto……yum

This was a perfect place to camp, way out in the sticks miles from anywhere, and the scent of the forest was wonderful….absolutely quiet….though later in the night we were both woken to the sounds of Badgers, foxes and several owls…..

And most important is that whatever we brought with us we took away with us…….This is absolutely the rule and it is the essence of wild camping. When we leave the camp……it is as if we had never been there……to walk the Earth lightly…..

Next day after packing we continued our journey North…….

Once camp was set up and we were fed we talked about the day and thought about tomorrow’s route, how far we might travel, between us we have a kindle with our favorite books to read and I had plenty of sketchbook work to think about…..

Marazion

Sketchbook

Sketchbook

Crescent Moon after sunset

After 5 nights with two of the best friends you could ever hope to have, we said our farewells and resumed our journey north. Another short ride, starting off we thought that by night fall we would be wild camping near Ashclyst forest about 10 miles North of Exeter, but first on the way to Penzance train station I stopped to show Aaron the Burial chamber Anne-Marie and I had walked to just the day before. It was such a surprise having walked and cycled all over Cornwall to find such a fantastic place for the first time….

Burial chamber near Green barrow engine house

Burial chamber near Green barrow engine house

And it gave me the chance to begin some drawings and take the odd image. When we arrived at Penzance train station with the intention of taking a train up to Exeter we found out that there was no room for our bikes. Oooooops !  Thing is though, Aaron and I had already cycled out of Cornwall during Aaron’s sponsored bike ride to raise funds for his trip to Cambodia the other year and so we had decided to simply pickup the journey from that point, it also gave us a head start for this tour and the chance to explore new places as soon as we could…….

Well one of the best things about cycle touring is being able to adapt to changing situations, not a problem at all…… we simply had to book our train journey for the following day. As it happens Aaron and I a few weeks back had cycled through Marazion and I just happened to spot a likely place for a wild camp, I had intended to have a trial run to check out all the gear to this place, but work and preparations for the tour left me know time, and also oddly I felt like I was not quite ready to get straight onto a train…..it almost felt too sudden. So the chance to wild camp at Marazion jumped instantly into my mind and it just felt like the right thing to do. So just a short ride along the cycle path brought us within site of St. Michaels Mount and a really nice spot to wild camp well out of everyone’s way and with a spectacular view.

relaxing at Marazion

Look…..a thistle

Marazion panorama

One of the first drawings of the artist in residence

Having set up our tents, the sound of the slight breeze and the sea was like therapy this was exactly what we both needed……all the hectic weeks of planning and preparations and work just seemed to disappear. We just sat starring into the sea….. and eventually made some food…..and on the menu tonight was pasta and pesto……

Falling asleep to the sound of the sea

Our first wild camp, the first of many was terrific. Total cost….well a bag of pasta from Lidl 30p and a jar of pesto £1.89. This is the essence of the plan….to wild camp as much as possible. Staying in campsites only when we had to make a base to shelter from the weather and be able to wash our clothes, make any repairs, or simply that we could not find a suitable wild camping pace. Campsites have become ridiculously expensive….almost as much as renting a property, B&B or so called credit card touring is completely out of the question. Also the philosophy behind wild camping is so agreeable, so simple, it can be summed up in this way – to walk the Earth lightly. Whatever we brought with us we took with us when we packed and left the next day. Any jars or plastic packaging was recycled along the way. No mess, no rubbish was left behind. When we packed and left it was as if we had never been there and no trace at all was left…..unlike at the end of the summer when you walk along any beach in Cornwall, you will come across discarded throw away supermarket barbecue sets half buried in the sand along with beer cans, bottles and discarded packaging which I find utterly abhorrent.

Today’s route….. 9.8 miles and 574ft (174.995 meters)

Map

Since Monday 10th July we have been camped with two terrific friends –  in Anne-Marie and Tony’s garden for a few days while I re stretch and build a box for a large panting and then organise a courier to collect and deliver the artwork. It was great fun and all part of the adventure. We had to collect some packing materials and in all it took three days to sort out, so no problems really.

It’s been a great couple of days chilling out in the evening with good food and good conversation covering all the usual philosophical topics that arise after a few beers, and last night we simply watched the first 5 episodes of Game of Thrones.

Today we plan to cycle in to Penzance via this ancient burriel chamber near Green Barrow engine house. Then we plan to take the train up to Exeter and cycle North to find our first rough camp. It will probably take us 4 days to cycle up to Bristol, and we will most likely be out of contact for that time.

Cycle tour.

An artist in residence…..where the journey is the residency

Cycling has always been the beginning of my creative process, It is how I go to work, carrying sketchbooks watercolours even small oil paintings into the landscape to begin or continue an artwork.

In January 2010, I gave up car ownership completely, and since then I have cycled over 38000 miles exploring the coastline, cove’s and landscapes of Cornwall. The simple act of taking a sketchbook and cycling, clears my mind, it is a form of meditation allowing the tones, colours, the texture of the land, sea and sky, it’s ever changing weather to become a part of my consciousness,  stopping to draw whenever it occurs. These cycling journeys are a fundamental part of the artwork….. in fact they are artworks in there own right, my creative response to nature, a choice to be as close to nature as possible.

On my eleventh birthday I was given my first road touring bicycle on that day I planned to cycle around the world. A dream that has been with me ever since. Rather than an artist in residence….I like to call this project an artist in transience, or more properly the journey itself is the residency, producing artworks along the way. This is an ongoing and self sustained journey with no destination. Fully loaded cycle touring.

The start of the tour St Just town center 9th July 2017

Starting in the Summer of 2017 the first part of this world cycle tour will be a 4 month cycle tour of Wales, Ireland, Scotland including the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland after which we pause to produce a new series of paintings on canvas. Following on from this in 2018 we will be heading South into Europe and finally concluding this part of our world cycle tour journey through Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland. During the tour I will as always have sketchbooks, drawing and watercolour materials to record the journey and at various stages pause to create new paintings on route. We will be documenting the journey through my website and through my social media websites,  facebook, twitter, youtube and vimeo.

The reason…..

I decided a long time ago that I would not be raising funds for any particular cause. I did not want this journey to use the raising of funds to justify this journey, I wanted no distractions from the idea of…. ‘The Journey’…. call it a journey with no destination….except the journey itself. It is quite simply something I am not only drawn to do but need to do as part of my creative practice. The ride itself, the philosophy of this activity, every ride….. every day is it’s own artwork.

It is also fundamentally to promote a sustainable lifestyle, to live simply and in such a way as to minimise the impact I have as an individual on nature, to be as close to nature as possible. Traveling by bicycle is very agreeable, it’s a great way to travel slow and to be surrounded by nature, to meet people and to draw and paint this experience. 

This is the first test ride with fully loaded panniers in preparation for the 4 month cycle tour starting at the end of June.I will go ito what and how I pack over the next few weeks. The only things missing from this set up is the top rear rack pannier which will contain the art materials I will be taking with me.

I cannot express properly the excitement I feel with the planning and the preparations for this tour. The Bike felt absolutely wonderful and I could not stop smiling at how stable, smooth and easy to ride The Bike is to ride with  all the gear. I will be going into why I chose this bike in a later post.

Out cycling with sketchbooks…..stopped here at Boscawen Un stone circle for some sketching

Taking the new bike out for a ride and took this panorama on the Cliff’s at Carn Gloose just outside St Just Cornwall. The bike is the Trek T920 adventure touring bike…….and it is fab, really looking forward to some long cycle tours on this

And this is a close up…….