Adventure cycle touring takes you out into the unknown, in the elements and closer to life which is a good thing. We often end up spending a good portion of our time couped up in vehicles or offices in perceived safety.
What is wonderful about cycle touring is that you are suddenly outside for most of the time (cycling and camping) and you start to get used to the changes in temperature, feeling the sun or getting soaked by the rain. After the first few weeks of Ride Earth, I realised that I wasn't going to keel over from exhaustion but rather, my body adapted to the exercise, my skin gained a nice tan and weathered look and I wondered why I ever did anything that didn't involve long stints of exercise everyday. Suddenly I was aware of having had a lot of untapped physical potential which I was now fulfilling.
This is an unusual phenomenon. Often if I talk about exercise with someone they will play it down immediately saying something like 'ooh I would probably die after ten minutes of cycling', like it was some kind of rite of passage to feign unfitness. Yet I see tonnes of people running in London and I know a lot of people take their fitness seriously. A huge amount of effort and training goes into completing a marathon or one of the numerous duathlons or triathlons that take place in the city. With this amount of fitness already at your disposal, the world is there to be explored by a slow mode of transport like your feet, skis, skateboard or a bike.Fitness isn't even that important because your fitness improves with the activity of traveling.When I think of travel, I always think of my experiences of traveling by bike. Bicycle travel is a purer form of travel than going by overland public transport or certainly going by plane. It connects the rider with their surroundings. I was able to stop and talk to people, see everything in 360 panorama and take in the sights and smells. A cyclist experiences travel differently to someone sitting on a bus just like a human experiences the world differently to a fly or a bird, with the freedom to fly through a space. Walking would give the ultimate access to the experience but then there is a trade off with being able to go fast enough to cover distance and I imagine that you would get invited in for hospitality about twelve times a day!
Wherever I traveled there was a dialogue going on between myself and the places and people who I came into contact with. The environment responded to me and I to the environment. Ideas were constantly triggered and over time, my experiences were diverting my own journey's path just as I was having a small effect with the things which I did in a place.
It was interesting to note the other forces acting on a space other than myself or the environment. For example, authoritarian control by the police, or government, or a place was designed to make people act in a certain way or divert their daily activities. A simple example of this might be a path or a perimeter fence. These controlling factors are much more obvious in a city or built up area than they are in the countryside.
I think that perhaps we are so used to these imposed rules in a place that we forget or don't even see that they are there. I certainly wouldn't have paid a second thought to the idea had it not been clear to see whilst traveling by bike. These structures are not necessarily a bad thing.They are the physical manifestation of settled human community and all the rules and regulations that are required to make society work.
Once observed, it's easier to manipulate how one interacts with them and whether to play the game or not, enter or exit. Perhaps these observations come under the realms of city planning or architecture but considering that a city grows in an often chaotic way then the interrelationship between designed spaces is not always fluid. The structure becomes more than the sum of it's parts and more difficult to understand.
In conclusion I would say that skills learnt in a non-traveling context like physical fitness and working can be useful in a traveling experience to heighten the quality of the experience. The mode of transport undoubtedly affects the way that the environment is perceived and questions the credibility of certain modes of 'travel'. A travel experience by bicycle, foot or by skis is so different to taking a bus or a train, can they really be considered in the same breath. One of the most fascinating aspects of traveling by a mode of transport like cycling is becoming aware of the ideas behind settlements and society after passing through numerous settlements over a period of time and being able to compare and see trends, regularities, irregularities, imprints, signage - official and non-official, control structures, and how all these contribute to how the society works.
A final note:
I recently watched a video of a talk by Ralf Potts of vagabonding fame, about time being true wealth. In a western-world concerned with earning money it's important to barrier one's time to devote to our own dreams and hobbies.
Ways to increase your time:-
- Get up earlier
- Go to bed later
- Investigate poly-phasic sleeping patterns
- Get to places quicker (if you are in a city get a bike - it's the best mode of transport) or more slowly e.g by bike (thinking time)
- Quit your job- this will give you a lot of free time to devote to personal projects
- Get a job - this will give you drive to use your free time better
- Make decisions more quickly - don't waste energy pondering decisions too long
- Make decisions more slowly - make sure you make the right decisions and choose activities which will free up some time for you
- Get a job which allows you to work on your own timings so you can fit your work around personal projects
- Do less - this will result in more free time
- Leave the country - this will free you of everyday commitments
- Get a watch - this will allow you to monitor time better
- Get an alarm clock - this will allow you to get up on time
- Have cold showers - they take less time, less water and refresh you into action
- Don't worry about time - worrying is generally a waste of time.
- Make a plan - if you really want to do something then try to stick to a plan because it will mean less faffing about
- Sometimes I think that it's better for me to let other people get involved in my time because it breeds new ideas and changes old patterns of thinking
- Buy shopping in bulk to reduce repeated trips to grocers, butchers etc
- Cook things in bulk. Have a mass cooking session and then freeze / store food.
- Get other people to help you to do projects and get involved in other peoples'. Group work and team work are good.
- Have a look at my post on ZTD
No comments:
Post a Comment