Monthly Archives: December 2013

Long distance cycling: Cardiff to Bucks

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Above: departing Penarth, Wales for England

As 2013 draws to a close, I’m reflecting on one of my most memorable experiences of the year: fulfilling an old ambition of cycling from Wales to Buckinghamshire. I set off on Monday 2 September from my parents’ flat on the seafront at Penarth, just outside Cardiff.

It was a real challenge. This was my first cycle tour carrying my own luggage since 1998. I’ve put on a few pounds since that tour of Normandy, so I wasn’t surprised to find myself struggling up the hills. This was also my first tour relying on digital rather than paper maps, which proved very frustrating. I couldn’t help looking back to my 325 mile cycle tour of the West Country in 1995, when I got lost just once while navigating the most obscure country lanes, thanks to a stack of Ordnance Survey maps. This time, I wasted a huge amount of time as my Garmin Edge 800 failed to alert me to my programmed turns. (I had a back up with the Bike Hub app, but it wasn’t the same as having a map on the handlebars.)

It was a wonderful ride, but I’ll be honest and say I enjoyed it more in retrospect than at the time, with some exceptions. It was wonderful bowling along at 18mph on the levels between Cardiff and Newport. I loved the 25mph race towards Tetbury, as the first day’s 73 mile ride came to an end and I looked forward to dinner with my sister and her family in Cirencester. The Vale of the White Horse in Oxfordshire was a delight. I relished my al fresco lunch at the Cherry Tree pub in at Kingston Blount, Oxon on day 3, in glorious sunshine, followed by tea and cake at the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre at Great Missenden on the final leg home.

My least favourite bit? The interminable attempt to escape from Swindon. My route past Purton was closed, so I had to navigate Swindon’s characterless sprawl. (I’d have been better off going straight through the town centre.) I was very relieved to reach open countryside – no wonder I enjoyed the Vale of the White Horse.

My biggest lesson: cycle touring rewards those who keep fit. But it’s still a peerless way to enjoy the countryside.

PS: my 16 year old Raleigh Randonneur proved a superb choice for the challenge, as did my Ortlieb front roller classic panniers and my old Camelbak classic hydration pack.

IMG_7583Above: into England, old Severn Bridge

IMG_7589Above: near Hawkesbury Upton, Glos

ImageAbove: Oxfordshire’s lovely Vale of the White Horse: Stanford in the Vale

ImageAbove: ploughman’s lunch at the Cherry Tree, Kingston Blount

How to use GoPro Hero 3 with iMovie

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Above: a still from one of my first GoPro videos: Hodgemoor Wood, Bucks

Way back in 1998, I cycled at speed down a Normandy valley wishing I could have videoed the experience. Some 15 years on, I have the answer: the GoPro Hero 3 video camera. I’m still learning how to make the most of it, but I love this clever bit of kit, which brings together two of my passions, cycling and video.

I usually edit my videos on my Mac with Apple’s iMovie app. All the reports I’d read suggested that GoPro videos needed converting from MPEG 4 to a format iMovie can handle. But the first time I tried importing directly, iMovie seemed to handle everything fine without converting. But then I ran into difficulties. I had to cancel the first import – and couldn’t get the Mac to resume. (It wouldn’t do anything without the camera being connected.) I had no better luck the second time. So today, I bit the bullet, and converted my latest video footage in GoPro Studio before attempting to edit it in iMovie. It worked flawlessly.

So my best tip for anyone else wanting to edit GoPro footage in iMovie is this: accept you need to convert the footage first. You’ll save yourself a lot of frustration.

I’ll end with one last still from my Hodgemoor video. There’s nothing better on a wet and windy evening than reliving a wonderful sunny day on the bike. I wish I’d had this for my 2002 Land’s End to John O’Groats ride…

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Here’s the Hodgemoor Wood video:

PS: read my review of the GoPro jaws clamp mount.