Billy's Telling

As I have always professed, the step out the front door is probably the hardest one to take, thereafter it's more or less one foot in front of the other, drawing on your life experiences to make reasonably educated decisions about what comes next. That doesn't ever mean to say that there is not ever a feeling of uncertainty or trepidation, for even the most streetwise and travelled of people. I consider myself relatively streetwise, and on the way to being travelled, but prior to getting to Cuba, there was a full emotional range of feeling of uncertainty and doubt. I dealt with it in one particular way, just reminding myself to try and immerse myself in this opportunity of a lifetime and that the uncertainty too shall pass. I also think a large part of people's hesitation to embark on solo adventures, is the feeling of loneliness and solitude. This can be a tough part of any adventure and it's always better to share an adventure with someone than to embark on it on ones...

We had to make a strategic call yesterday, whilst sitting in a square in a small village called Manuel, ( yes there were references made to Faulty Towers if you had wondered ). As we sipped on our Radler Mahou beers and contemplated the weather apps and the information we had just been handed by a local, that it was going to "bucket" down tomorrow. We needed to make a call to abort the Camino Del Cid a day early or trudge through high mountains in torrential rain. As I write this, you can guess which one it was. We were due to camp in a town called Bocairent, perched high on a hillside on the border of Parc Natural de la Sierra de Mariola, a majestically beautiful natural forested wild area. The altitude and weather made the decision, not only the correct one, but also an easy one to reach. Sad as it now is for me, and one day fewer to ride, when I look outside from the warmth of the hotel Agora restaurant bar, I am grateful we have had fantastic weather for 2 weeks and am ...

So, impermanence, what does that mean to you? Buddhism will tell you that it is in fact one of three marks of existence. "The doctrine asserts that all of conditioned existence without exception is transient, evanescence, inconstant." For me, I agree somewhat with this( not that they will change anything, due to my thoughts) but also that the term impermanence, which I came across somewhere, sometime in summertime*, has had a profound bearing on how I have come to live my life and manage most things, be they either good or bad. Everything that transpires for me, as I see it, and as it enters my thought process at the time of being, be it fleeting or not, can be linked and managed within the very notion of impermanence. For example, I am climbing a massive hill on my bicycle, or having a really shit time with my friend and we are in a disagreement about something, or I have no money this month to buy what I want, it is all impermanent. It will all end. This may sound obviou...

We have reached some civilization at last, a town of reasonable size...and people living ordinary lives, it seems. Makes a change... I have to say that if time is a thief, bike mechanicals are the equivalent in being able to steal ones mojo and good Che from you, quicker than you can say Jack Sparrow. I generally service my own bike unless it's something like bleeding the brakes or servicing the forks, but pretty much anything else I do myself and seldom have issues unless something breaks completely. I had ridden 4 days in Spain and my bottom bracket started to make some horrendous noises. Not creaks, but metal on metal hideousnesses. It was responsible for me scowling and frowning and generally cursing and eventually riding with music so it was audible no longer. Such can the effect of a malfunctioning bike be for me. So irritating, I even find my blood boiling whilst typing this. Just so you know, I have let it go, it wasn't easy, but such is the nature of bicycle touring, ...

I am well aware that the concept of us having one wild precious life, as we have often seen in quotes of wisdom by some or other wise person, is not new or revolutionary, and the fact that some people are somewhat reluctant to ever leave the safety of their comfort zone, may well be ok for them. Perhaps the idea of going on some wild untamed adventure in the name of living life to its fullest, is a bizarre notion that has never been contemplated ever, or if it has, it was well and truly again stored at the back of the mind, for contemplation in another lifetime. A lifetime, when the home and work environment, where we are so comfortable, will not be an accepted norm or an idea which leaves us feeling sated with a life well lived. I am at no point comparing one to the other, or advocating one over another, that is entirely subjective and the choice of each individual, all I am suggesting is the thought about it, and is the status quo an acceptable life for you at the end of the day? I ...

I love the movie called "Love Actually" and whenever I find myself at an airport I always think of the introduction to the film by Hugh Grant and it showing people giving each other hugs and kisses and happy to see each other, but it doesn't mention the flip side to that coin...when you are leaving a place and one has to say goodbye to the people seeing you off, not actually knowing when, and if you will ever see them again. That was my experience when I left Cape Town international. Not only was I unsure of ever seeing people I love again but when and, indeed if, I would ever be back in the Cape, a place I have called home for the past 10 years. I know I have always spent time away but those have always had return tickets attached to them, this one is an indefinite, unsure departure time away, with no return yet booked. I am sure to some this may sound melodramatic and an exaggerated return of the truth, but I kid you not, I have no plan to return as it stands currentl...