Trip

When I think of going to the Roche Au Dade via ferrata I often think “but it’s far”. That’s when I am going by car. I think the same when I consider going to St George, Fort L’écluse and other places. The paradox is that when I think of going to these places, by bike, now, I don’t.

When you go somewhere by car, it costs money, and time. By bike it costs time, but that time is the experience. When you cycle from Nyon to the Col De La combe Blanche, before descending towards Mijoux, and then back up the other side, towards Morez, the ride is the experience. You can take quieter roads, in so far as possible. You can look at the landscape. You can hear the sounds, or the silences.

When I was younger I switched from skiing to snowboarding and I loved the sensations. I loved how quickly I adapted my skiing knowledge to snowboarding. Within hours I felt okay. I often feel that I could have progressed faster if I had been in a group with people who were just experiencing winter sports for the first time.

When I was a child I sometimes played with a skateboard but I just went up and down a street. We played as children do.

This morning I found that I did have trip desire after all. As I drove out of a village towards the East I found that I had this desire. I did want to go for a long drive, and go on a trip. It has been January 2019 that I haven’t traveled. My reason, before, was that we need to stay locally, to stop the spread of the pandemic. I had the old fashioned notion that a pandemic should be neutralised as soon as possible.