Getting into the swing of it (Pärnu)
Well, after two days of cycling I have both good and bad news. The good news is that very little seems to have changed for me in terms of travelling this way. Yesterday, although getting out of Tallinn was as stressful as leaving a strange city on a fully-loaded touring bike always is, I quickly noticed that indeed, I had not forgotten how to do this. Nor did the little over 100 km I covered both yesterday and today seem impossible to do, although the last 20 km certainly took some willpower.
One thing that has greatly eased my settling into the right mindset is the fact that my Dad is accompanying me for a few days in his camper van. This means that not only do I have a soft mattress to sleep on and someone to pay my meals (;-), most importantly, there is someone to encourage me on (in his case, this means trying to get me to put the bike on the van and driving with him instead of cycling, something that I obviously wont do :-). All this works in my favour, as does being able to get rid of almost all my bags while only carrying the absolute necessities for the day.
The weather has been wonderful despite the occasional stretch of direct headwind, and km's seem to be almost flying by. The Estonian countryside, seemingly almost devoid of people, still seems to be littered with little shops and kiosks, and I am actually having to restrain myself from stopping at them all as it would seriously slow m´y progress. As on previous trips, I have become acutely aware of all the wild flowers, birds, cows and cats that I see on the roadside, and am deriving as much entertainment as possible from them.
However, there are some problems too. As was to be expected, my body is starting to complain about this sudden increase in excercise: yesterday, I already had the familiar and extremely painful cramps in the soles of my feet (as before, getting off the bike and walking barefoot for a while helps), and my neck, back, bottom, wrists AND fingers have all at some stage tried to tell me to give them a break. I am reasonably confident that i can judge if and when there is cause for real concern, and would still think this amount of pain is within safe limits. Still, I do know I have not got any younger (or fitter!) since my last trip, so cannot ignore this either.
One thing that cannot be tolerated anymore is the lack of use of my smallest front ring, and along with it, one third of my gears. Today, I had another unpleasant moment when I accidentally shifted to it and the chain jammed again - this time in a situation where I really needed to keep pedalling. I had planned to leave sorting out this problem until I get to Riga, but now it seems safer to do it immediately. Thus, tomorrow, instead of continuing on I will be staying in Pärnu and looking for a repair shop to do whatever needs to be done.
Incidentally, Pärnu is a really nice town, full of people in their best holiday mood, so in all honesty, I don't mind this break at all. It is probably best to give my old knees a small break as well. And while doing it, I can rest my eyes on the hunks playing volleyball on the beaches of Pärnu. In other words, a real win-win situation!! :-)
P.S. For some reason, this entry disappeared from the blog soon after I had published it. However, i was able to save it and have re-added it a few days later in Riga.
One thing that has greatly eased my settling into the right mindset is the fact that my Dad is accompanying me for a few days in his camper van. This means that not only do I have a soft mattress to sleep on and someone to pay my meals (;-), most importantly, there is someone to encourage me on (in his case, this means trying to get me to put the bike on the van and driving with him instead of cycling, something that I obviously wont do :-). All this works in my favour, as does being able to get rid of almost all my bags while only carrying the absolute necessities for the day.
The weather has been wonderful despite the occasional stretch of direct headwind, and km's seem to be almost flying by. The Estonian countryside, seemingly almost devoid of people, still seems to be littered with little shops and kiosks, and I am actually having to restrain myself from stopping at them all as it would seriously slow m´y progress. As on previous trips, I have become acutely aware of all the wild flowers, birds, cows and cats that I see on the roadside, and am deriving as much entertainment as possible from them.
However, there are some problems too. As was to be expected, my body is starting to complain about this sudden increase in excercise: yesterday, I already had the familiar and extremely painful cramps in the soles of my feet (as before, getting off the bike and walking barefoot for a while helps), and my neck, back, bottom, wrists AND fingers have all at some stage tried to tell me to give them a break. I am reasonably confident that i can judge if and when there is cause for real concern, and would still think this amount of pain is within safe limits. Still, I do know I have not got any younger (or fitter!) since my last trip, so cannot ignore this either.
One thing that cannot be tolerated anymore is the lack of use of my smallest front ring, and along with it, one third of my gears. Today, I had another unpleasant moment when I accidentally shifted to it and the chain jammed again - this time in a situation where I really needed to keep pedalling. I had planned to leave sorting out this problem until I get to Riga, but now it seems safer to do it immediately. Thus, tomorrow, instead of continuing on I will be staying in Pärnu and looking for a repair shop to do whatever needs to be done.
Incidentally, Pärnu is a really nice town, full of people in their best holiday mood, so in all honesty, I don't mind this break at all. It is probably best to give my old knees a small break as well. And while doing it, I can rest my eyes on the hunks playing volleyball on the beaches of Pärnu. In other words, a real win-win situation!! :-)
P.S. For some reason, this entry disappeared from the blog soon after I had published it. However, i was able to save it and have re-added it a few days later in Riga.
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