I think the Dude's secret admirer said it best best when he pronounced that, "Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, well, he eats you." Well today, I was the all-you-can-eat buffet.

After my night in Bonchester Bridge, I awoke to find myself coming down with a cold. Not surprising considering the mileage I had been riding in the pouring rain despicable rain. However, it looked like the sun was breaking and I was only 60 miles outside Edinburgh, then if I wanted wimp out I could jump on the train and get into St. Andrews for my first conference with time to spare.

Plan sounds feasible, right? After all what could go wrong?

As was quickly becoming the norm, the day started with rain, but unlike the previous day this didn't detract from the riding. However, before I could get into the epic riding, I had a small problem to solve.

When you only pack 10.5lbs for a trip, you make sacrifices. In my case, I made a bit of a blunder sacrificing proper rain gear. I got by fine on the first day, but the second day I got hammered. I was hoping day 2 was a bit of an anomaly, but I also new I couldn't get chilled like that again, so I was out with credit card in hand looking to buy a proper rain jacket. Luckily for me (I have weird luck I tell you) Keswick is an outdoor destination, and there were all sorts of 1/2 off sales. As I plunked down the 50 pounds, I told myself it was worth the money if it either a) protected me from the rain, or b) brought sunshine. Actually, especially b).

As I bought the jacket I then realized I had another problem with the 10.5 lbs pack. I had no extra room!

Self portrait

Day two started off normal enough for jolly old England, it was raining. However, before I got on the road I had to solve a small dilemma, there are very steep descents in these parts and I had no front brakes left. When I left Vancouver, my front brakes were already going, but I figured it being summer and the fact I don't use my brakes that much should mean I will be fine for my trip. Nope.

Instead I was on a quest to find brake pads in a tiny town in the Yorkshire Dales. Somehow, some way, I was able I tracked down this odd, somewhat antisocial fellow, who lived in a trailer in one of the camp sites who had decided a few years back to start some sort of bike part import business. The business ultimately failed, but he still had some parts around. As luck would have it had a set of brake pads left that fit my bike!

Next, maybe my luck would extend to the weather? Nope

After arriving in London, assembling my bike I decided it was time to get moving. Originally I had planned to ride from London to St. Andrews to attend my first conference, but circumstances arose such that I had to leave Canada about 4 days later than I had originally intended. This would give me 4 days to ride some 800 miles on a fixed gear. Not likely.

Now given some good training and weather (hmm... foreshadowing?) I might be able to do a single 200 mile day on its own, but four such days back to back. That is so wrong I was almost tempted. Then some sort form of sanity took over as I realized that the Tour doesn't even do that large a mileage. At most I believe they cover 150 miles (240 km) in a day, plus they are not hauling gear, they are on bikes that have more than one gear, and they have support riders and cars offering help.

Now I have thoroughly justified being a slack ass I decided to make it easy on myself and take the train from London to York the evening prior. After which I set out on an epic 100 mile day with rain, wind and 17% grade climbs.

So my plan was simply, pack uber light and make my way from London to St. Andrews Scotland in 4 days on my fixed gear bike. The theme of this trip is about simplicity in a needlessly complex world. Hence why I decided to take only 10.5lbs (including backpack weight) for a month journey, to tour on a bike with only one gear and why the bike could have next to nothing attached to it.

You see, too often we are fooled by modern society into believing we need to buy, possess, and carry far to much crap. Not only is it a bother, but I think this ethos detracts from the quality of life. For me, I wanted to see how much I could do with the minimal amount of gear possible.

So that in mind I knew I could not start the trip (i.e. getting to the airport) without following that same ethos and here is the rub. Transporting a bike overseas can be difficult. You need to pack it down, put it in some sort of box and transport yourself and your bike-box down to the airport.

Clearly this will not do.

To me fixed gear bikes are not about fashion, but about DIYODW, pain, and of course that funny zen simplisity that everyone likes to rave on and on about. (DIYODW = Doing It Your Own Dam Way). I am sure many a fashionable hipster will tilt his/her head in wonderment, and to that I say,

FUCK fashion.

Okay now that my motivation is clearly laid out, lets get on to my next stupid adventure. If you have been reading this here mess of a blog for the past few years then you know that I have a penchant for doing things that most people will shake their head at, however, its been a while since I have been on any truly insane adventures on my fixed gear bike. Hmmm, clearly I need to rectify the situation.

Well I now have been in Guatemala for a week and quite the week its been. So far I have climbed and overnighted on a Volcan Actatenango (3976 m or 13,041 ft), been on numerous tours in various city thanks to some contacts. Hiked around the lake district (Lago de Atitlán). Traveled on numerous chicken buses with another Canadian couple (one who is currently living here). But today takes the cake. Today, I had to fight off a swarm pick pockets in the Xela market.

Well as I type this I am sitting in a cafe in Antigua Guatemala. 

I kinda ended up going on a whim and a tight buget and no knowledge of spanish.  In fact all the spanish I know I taught myself on the plane on the way out.

Well, last week I finally took the plunge. I actually booked my flight to Australia....now what?! There's a whole bunch of little details that I really don't know about, but I'm hoping someone who happens to read this will be able to help me out.

Basically, I decided to go to Oz by process of elimination. Option 1-->go back to school, veto that. Who wants to sit in a classroom and then go work to pay for tuition in my spare time? Option 2-->repeat this year by working and training. Hmmm, another 6 months of long training rides in the rain and cold? Not so appealing. Option 3-->Travel somewhere hot and sunny and ride all day long. Alright, I think we have a winner.

Aerial shot of Hornby Island

There is just something about Hornby Island that is hard to describe. If you know me personally, in any sort of manner, then you probably know the love affair I have had with the Gulf Island ever since my first visit in the late 90's (previous verbage).

I remember the time fondly. I had just gotten into mountain biking, just owned my first car (I no longer own a car) and itching to travel to some XC races when I came across a flyer for the mystical for the now defunct Hornby Island Bike Fest put on by imfamous Tig Cross and friends.