My Little Planet

Камчатка 2011 – о том как это было ;-)

VG — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:10:41 +0000

Ну что тут еще скажешь?! Тот случай, когда все необходимое – в названии и можно смело вдаваться в детали. ;-)

Поездка на Moreton Island

VG — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:03:37 +0000

Маленький видеоотчетик о нашей Рождественской поездке на остров, расположенный в океане в 40 километрах от Брисбена.

Christmas Lights

VG — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 07:17:01 +0000

A short video about Christmas. There are many streets full of lights in Sydney. This is a short video of some of them with commentary.

Сиднейский салют 2012

VG — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 02:31:37 +0000

С наступлением каждого нового года в Сиднее, вот уж действительно, зажигают нипадецки! В этот раз и мы решили приобщиться к отжегу :) Отжег, на мой взгляд, удался и, несмотря на не ахти какое качество сьемки, общее впечатление все равно передается…

Полеты на Синей Сове

VG — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 12:30:57 +0000

Это там, где мы ползаем по пещерам, катаемся на “жигулях” без лобового стекла и санках для перевозки рыбы, посещаем Вологду, Суздаль, одинокий остров на Кубенском озере и другие места, пьем шампанское “посреди ничего”, в абстрактной точке “N”, а так же портвейн “3 топора” среди памятников архитектуры, ну и водку на острове и много еще чего, где фоткаем маленького медведя и ищем на свою голову встречи с большим, дурачимся и внимаем окружающей красоте, периодически дудим на сове, отчего и название такое получилось :)
В общем, бессмысленно искать в этом фильме какой-либо смысл, лучше просто налейте себе стаканчик “чего-нибудь такого”, устройтесь поудобнее и нажмите “Play”…

Автор: Владимир Гизатулин

Day 6 riding – Braemar to Kingussie

VG — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:57:04 +0000

Day 5 in Scottland, day 2 riding: Clova to Braemar

VG — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:54:59 +0000

25 miles …
Uphill …
In the rain …
What a bugger !!!
Leaving Clova about 11 am, the briefing was that we should take about 3 hours to do the 25 miles. Well … 3.5 not to push us hard
Yeah right !!! We stumbled into Braemar about 5.30 pm …
The ride from Clova was OK for about 20 minutes – then we hit the hills. My bike rolls fairly well, yet I had to push it constantly.
We had to walk our bikes up and over the ridge. There is hardly a track. These are old goat paths. It took us about 2 hours to crawl up.
The ride along the tops and down to a lake was quite enjoyable. It was still pissing down rain and dirt was flying into your face, but at least it was more down than up. The track was very sandy and that added to the difficulty. The wheels were sinking and with the wind against us we had to pedal to get the bikes rolling downhill.
When we paused at the lake for about 20 minutes, the midges were there waiting. Annoying little things they are… I don’t think anyone cared by then.
Then it’s up the hill again… 6 miles or so – uphill, wind in the face, on the sand … pain … many walked… I probably struggled the most. Being heavy and running high pressure in the tires I sank right into the sandy trail. This made my going very tough.
From there another 6 miles on the road. It almost looked flat, only we were going right along a raging river – and we were riding against the current. If I know any physics – we were still climbing.
We rode past the Braemar Castle which is about ½ a mile out of town, but I just didn’t have the energy to stop and film or take a photo. Maybe tomorrow…
…Tomorrow… 35 miles tomorrow… I think we will be in the saddle for about 8 hours…
Better stack up on energy bars!

Day 4 first day riding Lunan bay to Clova

VG — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:53:57 +0000

Today is my 4th day in Scotland and my first day of the “Coast 2 Coast” tour with Wildcat Adventures.
Staying in Stirling for the night, I left the hotel about 8.30 fully laden with my entire luggage and
cycled to the meeting place. Thank god that the organisers were driving in and saw me on the way … I am seriously lacking direction in this part of the world. Is it because everything is up-side down?
GPS is a lifesaver.
There is quite a few of us at the meeting place.
Apart from myself, a family of 4 Canadians and I think one more bloke – all others have toured with Wildcat before. Some have being 3 times, some 6, some have being riding for the past 23 years.
For example Brian is 73, he has being riding for the past 13 years. He is fairly fit and probably one of the stronger riders in the group, apparently he lives in a very hilly area and has being riding for years around there to work and to commute.
From our meeting place in Stirling we took a coach, with bikes in the tow, and headed for Lunan bay. There, on the East coast of Scotland our tour was to start.
Once there we unpacked the bikes and everyone changed their pedals and seats. We were ready to head off.
Today’’s slug is about 34 miles from Lunan Bay through Forfar to Clova. We stopped a little pass Forfar for some snack and drink. The first 17 miles to there was OK. Country roads, very narrow, similar to, say, the stretch between Litgow and Oberon. In fact if you swap out the trees here for eucalyptus – you wouldn”t know if you were here or there.
It’s all rolling hills, all asphalt … the tour guides said that they expect to do the whole today’’s track in 3-4 hours!!!! That was well beyond my pace. Most of the group kept up. I only managed to stay with them up to Forfar, from there it was a steady climb for the remaining 17 miles and I quickly fell right back. I prefer to ride a little slower enjoying the views, pausing for an occasional photo or to film something.
I rode solo for most of that stretch, though I was pushing, so didn’t do much filming. The group stretched out a lot. Riding at the back I did not know that, so I was actually a little surprised to have come in about 5 minutes behind the main bulk.
We didn’t get any rain while we rode – but as I was pulling in to Clova it started to drizzle a little. It is raining lightly as I am writing these notes.
Tomorrow is a 25 mile slug over the mountains… up and then down … John, our leader, recons one can’t ride up – it will be an hour or an hour and a half walk instead. Then there should be a big downhill … hopefully I can redeem myself tomorrow on the downhill – there are some good riders in the group – but I don’t know how good they are off-road.
The hotel we are staying at is a little different in architecture from what I have seen so far and is actually quite nice and pleasant.
Better get plenty of rest before tomorrow.

BorcheG goes to Scotland – London to Edinburgh

VG — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:50:07 +0000

Then we arrived to London.

There were 2 signs: If you have something to declare – go this way, and if you have nothing to declare – go that way … I went that way … and before I knew it – I was out and in England.

Loaded with 2 backpacks, a bike in a bag and a camera over the shoulder I walked everything to the train station. Guessing 2 miles of corridors … When there I asked if I can assemble the bike to take it on the train assembled – as it would of being more convenient for me.
They said yes.
So I did… in the process I discovered that Cathay Pacific bent my frame (arm holding the rear wheel on the no-chain side)… obviously something was bumped into it (like a pallet with a forklift)

Ofcourse there was no one to be found at the arrivals so I had to look in departures… another 2 miles of corridors … long story short, took me about 1hour for them to take down my details. They said they will be in contact to give me a claim number etc … and never did … just disappeared…

Also it seems that Optus has not activated my roaming, despite saying they did… so I have no phone.

2 miles back through the trenches and I am at the airport train station. Only to be told that I can’t get on the underground with a bike. They call it “tube” in London…

Apparently I can take it on the overground and there is a station not far from the airport and if I want I can ride there. The lovely young bloke reckoned it was about 2 miles away …

Thank god the navigator on my mobile worked!!!!

Loaded with my bags it took me 30 minutes to find a way out of the airport, through some tunnels and roads and another ½ hour later I made it Hounslow West station…

The guards at the entrance were very surprised to find out that they had an above ground section and told me that the bloke at the airport was partly right … I can’t get on the underground until 9.30 … given that it was only about 8, I sighed and pedalled on. Hounslow just was not interesting enough to hang around for 1 and a bit hours…

I am going to Edinburgh today and need to get to the King’’s Cross station. I think it is about 20 miles from the airport.
I was also blessed with wonderful warm weather of about 30 degrees.

The phone lasts about 2 hours with the navigator on, so soon I was without.
People in London are very helpful, but for some reason totally lack sense of direction. Luckily they all carry i-phones with maps… also any distance no matter how great or small, is always measured in sections of “couple of miles”.

They are good drivers in London, far better than Ausies … I actually felt comfortable riding a bike through unknown places on the road. But British can”t walk … they see nothing but their i-phones.
They are very courteous though… if you ride behind a group (or a person) walking in the middle of the footpath and say “excuse me” – instead of moving over to let you through they stop! Turn around … and slowly say “Yeeeeeeesssssssss????”. Almost fell off the bike a few times…
But they do try to help … even if sending me in the wrong direction, they will always smile and say: “it is only a couple miles that way”…

The best conversation about a route I had was with an American – saw a guy standing on the street, pulled up and asked for directions. I said: “scuse me, would you know how to get to Kings Cross station”.
In an instant with a beaming smile he replied: “Sorry, no clue – I am American”… I loved it!

London itself is not much different to Sydney city. No surprises there … it was built by the same people… there are a couple of pretty streets – but not really to my taste – lined terraces or complete blocks following the streets with no gaps 4-5 storey high.
There is also no green – they have some pots hanging from lamp posts … and that is about it.
The streets are very narrow – mostly 2 lane.
Same brands of shops as Sydney and same company logos everywhere including “West Bus”.

Looks like London is being rebuilt: construction and scaffolding everywhere.
The workers are just like in Sydney – one working (laying bricks for example) and 5 watching and waiting for him to retire so they inherit the spatula…

It is extremely uncomfortable riding with 2 large back packs, a roll of bubble wrap between the knees, an empty hydration back pack and a camera bag … my knees and shoulders are killing me and I am pretty sure I got sun burnt. My back kills as well: I probably lost a couple of inches in height from riding with the back packs.
Also have a problem with the chain … under load it seems to get stuck – I think I have damaged some teeth on the front sprocket.
Will try to find a bike shop tomorrow in Edinburgh – see if they can have a look at the frame and the chain.

There are no street signs… you never know where you are or where you need to go. I did find a map in Hyde Park of – you guessed it – Hyde Park… yey!!!!

London is a stone bag… I guess it was built when England was an Empire, designed to crush you with the very presence … and it does.

Rode past Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park and plenty of other places, even filmed something – but I was really exhausted by then… so I didn”t give too hoots.
I just wanted to find the damn station.

50 (up the road 2 miles) later I found it … similar to the Central Station in Sydney only much more disorganised and no garbage bins or toilets… Information turned out to be ticket sales.

There was a train leaving in 10 minutes – so I bought the ticket and got on.

I am exhausted.
Hungry.
Dehydrated.
And everything hurts.
I have not slept for over 30 hours and I still have at least another 6 hours to the hotel.
All I want to do is get to my hotel room and hit the sack.

I am literally using my last bits of energy to write this whilst I am on the train from London to Edinburgh. Also using the laptop to recharge the mobile so I have a GPS in Edinburgh, otherwise I am not sure I will make it to the hotel.
Got a couple of sandwiches on the train – feeling a little better now. Just need a shower to cool off and some sleep.
The train ride is very enjoyable – the country side is beautiful and the train is very fast and comfortable. It even has Wi-Fi … I just can”t be bothered registering for it.

BorcheG goes to Scotland – flight from Sydney to London

VG — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:34:39 +0000

I went to Scotland in August 2011 for a cycling tour from the East to West coast organised by Wildcat adventures.
This is the first in a series of videos about this trip.

Part 1: flight from Sydney to Hong Kong

The flight from Sydney to Hong Kong was good.
The plane was 1/2 empty and the stewards were attentive.
The aircraft itself was quite comfy and roomy.
I had no one sitting next to me, so it was a ball.
In Hong Kong the flight was delayed by about 45 minutes.
Apparently the plane had to be brought from the hangar but because of traffic on the runway they delayed….
At the customs in Hong Kong I was searched because they could not work out what were the black boxes that I was carrying. Of course they were spare tubes for the bike.
From there on it went downhill…
The plane was a 747 with seats designed by the same guy that designed my wife’’s car… it is for legless anorexic people and the metal hinges for the seat belt were conveniently placed INSIDE the chair (o0?) – so they were up my bum for 11 and a bit hours.
The stewards were not great either. They would serve the food and go away… they would then take the empty plates 1/2 hour later… of course until they did, you could not get up or anything …
they also never took around any drinks – you had to call them all the time.
All in all I think I got about 3 hours of very poor sleep.
On the plus side we flew over St Petersburg … god knows why make such a loop but hey, at least I saw it and even filmed the bridges ;)