A man is cycling to Africa to follow the swallows who live in his shed as they migrate

[Disir]

Environmentalist Edward Beverley-Jones is embarking on an epic bike ride following swallows migrating to Africa.

The 43-year-old pond cleaner, dubbed ‘The Swallow Whisperer’ is planning to ride to Morocco and back – despite having barely been on a bike in the last 20 years.

“I want to see where it is that my swallows go,” the dad of three said.

“I keep all my pond equipment tools in a large old stone and timber barn in the countryside near Chepstow .

“I see the swallows swoop in in the spring, flutter about in the barn, make their nests, fly in and out to get their insect food from the nearby fields and woods and then gather with their young ready for their trip south.”
A man is cycling to Africa to follow birds who live in his shed

That's actually pretty cool.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Hey, in the mid 80's, I decided that for the rest of my Naval career I would live on a bicycle, because I though it would be interesting to try.

Two years later, I was biking anywhere from 50 to 100 miles/day, and decided to see if I could ride a bike to my next duty station. If I could, I would continue to live on a bicycle, and ride to each duty station from then on.

Memphis TN to Jacksonville FL took 7 days.

Jacksonville FL to Newport RI took 12 days.

Newport RI to Norfolk VA took 5 days.

And yeah..................taking long bike rides like that is a really neat experience to have. I wouldn't worry too much about the lady though, because even if you're out of shape and old, you can still make 20 miles/day at the beginning, and as you go, you get into better shape.

When I first started out on my trip from Jacksonville FL to Newport RI, I was already in really good shape, but the constant riding for those two weeks boosted my average cruising speed from 20 mph to 25 mph.

Was kinda funny when I came up on 2 guys riding down Long Island. I asked them when the next ferry left, and they told me about 30 min, but it was around 9 miles further up the road, and there was no way in hell I would catch it (they were averaging 15 to 18 mph). I told them maybe there was no way that THEY could catch it, but I was gonna be on it.

Stood up on the pedals and hammered down, and made the ferry with a few minutes to spare.

 

[Disir]

That is pretty cool. What did you do at night? Did you stop at hotels? Camp?

 

[ABikerSailor]

That is pretty cool. What did you do at night? Did you stop at hotels? Camp?

Actually, the first trip from Memphis to Jacksonville, I packed WAAAAYYY too much (fanny pack ended up weighing 30 lbs), and much of the stuff I packed I didn't really use. Stayed in hotel rooms every night because I would need a shower and didn't want to stink, and rode from morning to late afternoon.

The subsequent trips, I was MUCH smarter. On those, I packed a pair of street shorts, one pair of bike shorts, one jersey, and one pair of sandals, all contained in my Camelback backpack, and one pair of shorts and one jersey that I was wearing.

At night, when I got to the motel, I would step in the shower with all of my bike gear on that I wore that day, shower and wash my clothes, hang 'em up to dry, change into the other outfit I brought, and in the morning, pack the clothes I'd washed the night before.

If you're gonna do something like that, my recommendation is to pack as light as possible. If you can do it as light as I did, cool. If not, I would recommend getting panniers (saddlebags) to put on your bike or a trailer. Pedaling uphill where you have to stand in the pedals is kinda hard when you have 30 lbs sitting on your lower back.

Total weight of the Camelback backpack with all gear included as well as having the water bladder full? About 8 lbs.