So, going to WOMAD festival and back, we did 150 miles through the English countryside, which was lovely. We travelled light this time, which was very pleasant. The drawback is that we had to buy everything we ate instead of cooking on a little gas burner, so it turned out to be quite an expensive weekend.
First stop to eat a well deserved cereal bar: Off we went: This field was striking blue with some kind of flower. No idea what it was, but very pretty: We passed the four-shire-stone, which marks the corner where 4 different English counties meet: Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Worcestershire.
This is where we stopped to eat the sandwiches we had prepared the previous evening. It was a very nice spot. On top of a hill in The Cotswolds so we had a beautiful view whilst enjoying our lunch. This part of England is lovely with its small stone-house villages and cottage gardens.
We also passed a deer park:
And here is my sporty husband!
Oh, during that weekend, I passed the 5,000 miles milestone on my bicycle-mileometer. I have had it since January 2006. So, that's 2,000 miles a year, not bad, eh?
And finally...
not cycling related but this is quite a good photo. I started reading this book and stopped because I was a bit tired and had the sun in my eyes. Dave took a photo and finds it very funny because of the title of the book.
This festival is incredible!!!! We had such a good time! Everything was really well organised and enjoyable: the music was great, the food delicious, and it was clean, and people were courteous. And no hassle getting there and leaving the site.
We cycled there, with luggage and tent, but we travelled light this time (10-15 kg on each bike, including cereal bars and full water bottles). It was 75 miles (120km) from home to where we pitched the tent. We left on Thursday 24th at 7.30am and arrived at the camping field at 3.30pm, so we did quite well.
We pitched our tent, locked our bikes and wandered around the site, trying to decide which stand we would buy our dinner from. (That's a hard life!) We had an early night on Thursday.
They had a great recycling system in place, whereby if you brought back 5 or more pint-size papercups to their recycling point, you would get 10p back per cup. So there were loads of kids running around, collecting as many cups as possible, and picking up any cup that may have been left on the floor. This worked really well generally.
The other nice feature of the festival was the "Taste the world" stage, where artists performing at the festival present a traditional dish of their country, perform, and prepare food for the crowd to taste. You can also ask the artists questions, about food, their music, or anything else! As the presenter told, "it is cold 'taste the world', not 'feed the world', so there won't be enough for everybody!" This is a great opportunity to discover new cultures and their approach to food. For instance we had a fantastic report on the importance of coffee in the desert by Bedouin Jerry Can Band on Friday.
Here are the workshops/concerts we went to on Friday:
Amusing fact for those who speak German: they are playing at a gig in Austria on 30th August, in a village called Klein Klein (Little Little), near Großklein (Big Little). I found this amusing. Apologies to my Austrian friends if this isn't!
Best performance of Saturday: hmm, difficult to pick one, but I would vote for Babylon Circus, followed closely by Paprikus Balkanicus and Shantel & Bucovina Club Orkestar.
We decided to go for a ride yesterday, training for our Cycle Cuba challenge. We had a very nice afternoon and the weather was perfect for it. We cycled 33 miles (~55km) in 2.5 hours. Here was our itenerary:
I have tried many different ways of conciling work + studying + wedding prep + raising funds for African Now + cycle training + cooking & general housekeeping and I am really struggling! So I have now eliminating the cycle training dilema of finding the time by taking a longer route to and from work. Last Friday I started doing 10 miles (16 km) each way and it is really good. The landscape is much nicer, and there is much less traffic, possibly because I leave home at 7 am!
For those who know Warwickshire, from somewhere between Sydenham and Whitnash I cycle through Radford Semele, Offchurch, Hunningham, Weston-under-Wetherley, Cubbington, and get to work.
I might not persevere over winter, but so far so good!
