Interlude

On the final day of our Canadian jolly I stopped the truck at the side of the road opposite Halifax Cycle Gallery to dive in and see what loveliness they had on display. Truth was I was drawn by the tandems outside, unfortunately it was too late in the day for us to rent one.
Anyway whilst in there getting a souvenir tee shirt I spied some copies of Boneshaker magazine on the counter, and I'd not seen it before so grabbed issues 3 and 4, along with the tee and a snazzy magnetic business card, which I think is genius but will probably kill your bank cards.

I was eager to read the magazines but such was time and travels that it wasn't until I got home that I was able. I wanted to know where the magazine came from, and if I would be able to get it over here in the UK.
Surprise Surprise then when I found it was produced in Bristol, just over the frontier...
Even more of a surprise was an article in one of the issues I had bought covering Nick Hand's trip Slowcoast. I'd not long read about this in the book I mentioned a month ago, One Man and His Bike, and here was an article on it.
Further perusal was necessary so I went onto the Boneshaker site to find out. There was the book for sale along with more copies of the mag. So I purchased a few.
The book arrived and is almost to lovingly presented to open.

The other issues arrived also.

Whilst on the boneshaker blog I was interested in a post on photography, and even more so when reading that the trigger had been a photographer by the name of Mike Lusmore whose name I remembered as he was/is friends with my girlfriend's brother.
Sometimes it's a bloody small world.

A good read

I've mentioned before how I enjoy reading, and books. I don't subscribe to the e-reader model, all the people that want to read whatever smutfest trash disposable novel is trending on facefriend without others knowing can keep to those.
Ahem.
Anyway I've just finished reading One Man and his Bike by Mike Carter freelance travel writer. It was a birthday present from my girlfriend's folks, plucked from the shelves 'because we thought you'd like it'.
Very right they were too.

I won't give too much away but Mike presents himself as a slightly day weary individual unsure if he is running from problems. In that sense it is quite similar to Ted Simon's recollections post-Jupiter's Travels in Riding Home. We don't ever really find the conclusion to Mike's problems, but what we do get are some very close answers. Dipping between the highs and lows of human contact and insect infestation and roaring through sections of countryside maybe under-recognised, the book is really rather good. In fact, and I mean no slight upon Mike here, but if I'd been told it had been written by a travel journalist I probably would have considered it to be filed alongside the dry Lonely Planet guide style books.
Thankfully there is none of that.
For the gear nerds amongst us, the bike spec is left pretty much out of it so don't go expecting an appendix similar to Long Way Round detailing kit types and sources. I would have to say that because of that, and although the bike is a definite constant companion, the focus is always more on the experiences.
Here is a person on a bike with the same general aspirations as any other rider; getting to the end, hopefully without too many hills.
I liked it, it has found it's way into my top 5 I think.