On Friday I returned from my summer tour around north Wales, and again it was one I cut short. In contrast with my last tour, which was cut short because of poor weather and tiredness, this one was cut short because of heat. We’ve had weeks of sun (for a change) and while it’s been fantastic for lazing around in, it’s not great for cycle touring in. I’d followed through with my training plans, and had been cycling a lot more, including a lot more hills, so I was feeling fit and strong ahead of this tour. However, it was still difficult to ride a fully loaded touring bike up lots of the hills on my route, and again I spent a lot of time pushing. In the intense heat, this meant that I was sweating huge amounts, with it running into and stinging my eyes, yet I was having to ration my water intake as there weren’t many places to top up along the way.
Withnail Weekender
When I first watched the movie Withnail and I… I don’t remember when that was exactly, but several years ago… it was with great anticipation. I’d heard it quoted many times and people had mentioned it as a great film, but when I saw it for the first time I was a little underwhelmed. It was OK, but I didn’t really understand the fuss about it. The next time I watched it I enjoyed it more, and the third time I began to understand why people liked it. But then something strange happened the next time I watched it; I couldn’t make it all the way through and ended up switching it off. Perhaps I just wasn’t in the mood that time, but I started to think that maybe I actually don’t like it and I’d been trying too hard to enjoy it previously? Anyway, I didn’t watch it again for a few years, but the next time I did… wow! I finally “got” it. I’ve watched it several times since and it just keeps getting better.
So when I booked an AirBnB apartment for a long weekend in the Lake District and included in the information was that the phone box right at the end of the access road had appeared in a scene in the movie, I started looking at where else they may have filmed locally and found that most of the Lake District scenes were within a few miles of where I was staying, so I began planning to visit as many as possible.