Attack of the Drones! The 'Real' Adventure Begins
i feel like i've been punched in the face welcome to my adventure of a lifetime my kidney function was declining fast so instead of staying put and waiting for them to fail i quit my job and decided to try and cycle 10 000 kilometers around europe and do five skydives in every country i visit to raise money for charity if you like this video give it a thumbs up and if you want to see more and help the channel grow hit the subscribe button as well just to let you know you're going to see me wearing this t-shirt quite a lot throughout the series i can guarantee you it's nothing to do with covid if you'd like to find out more watch this video if you couldn't care less let's go in last week's episode i said goodbye to my family and friends and rode 145 miles to get the ferry across the english channel join me this week as i take on the first overseas leg of the trip while i had the worry of a swollen face amongst other challenges along the way it's definitely not so funny anymore i sat on the ferry from dover to calais feeling ridiculously excited but at the same time slightly overwhelmed by the daunting challenge i was about to embark on the main concern as you may well know by now was my health and if this trip was really going to accelerate the decline of my kidney function but once i got off the ferry i put all that negativity to the back of my mind and looked forward to the road ahead [Music] ah yes this is it i guess this is where the real adventure begins blimey i'm on the other side of the water i can't believe that plan actually came together i didn't think i'd make it in two days but i just got my head down and did it what the hell i'm in calais right what now i hadn't even bothered logging the checkpoints this time i'd lost faith in that process completely since my route from henley to dover led me to way more hills than i planned out so i just tapped in the destination dunkirk and started pedaling without thinking twice i just followed the garmin bike computer which led me in the complete wrong direction and i was just obliviously pedaling until i realized the sun should be on my right hand side the headwind is making it so tough today i am pushing hard and going about six miles an hour my legs are burning i'm only about two miles away from calais i used to get a move on but eventually i rode alongside canal de bourbou in the direction of dunkirk ah you know that headwind i mentioned it's definitely not so funny anymore i feel annihilated it's relentless i've been riding into wind all the way from calais finally got a little bit of wind coverage and it is glorious oh we're in a cycle lane now just outside dunkirk the battle i've had today is with the garmin taking me way further than i actually need to ride and google maps taking me down some sketchy little gravel road into a dead end no man's land crackdown look it says straight on through here but i think you'll find that's a fence i have just got to dunkirk what a long ride that has been and i'm just about to meet my first ever couch surfing host don't really know what to expect never met this person before quite anxious to find out where i'm actually going to be sleeping tonight couchsurfing is an awesome platform with a community of like-minded people who love to travel and benefits anyone looking for a place to stay or willing hosts who enjoy meeting new people davey invited me into her flat and told me to make myself at home it felt like i'd been her friend for years so david's just gone to work and left me with the keys to her flat which i think is amazing i mean it just goes to show there's some really kind people in the world so i've got this little table here i'm going to set up a base and do some work and try and plan the rest of my trip because i know i'm going towards brussels but i don't actually know where i'm going so i need to work that one out first of all it was time to check in with the mudder just to let her know that i'd arrived in one piece mum yeah can't we do a video call hello hello well there you go that's my mom's attempt of doing a video call hello we got there in the end i said are you less stressed now that you're actually on your way um i wouldn't say less stressed but sort of uh excited to get going but it's a weird mix because um i still feel very out of sorts you know the bags and everything trying to get everything organized and in the right place and i go to get something and then all right it's in the other pocket or it's in the other the other bag and a lot of faff you know it's not a case of just getting on the bike and riding because i'm stopping i'm filming changing batteries and yeah it's just it's a lot of juggling all the kit and stuff and it's a bit it's a bit more faff than i expected um yeah but that's because you've got quite a lot of stuff i do have a lot in there yeah i have got quite a lot of stuff stop filming your phone no i'm going i'm not having it why i look at that i look about 90. i haven't brushed my hair all day that's not my fault i'm going sam i need to get on my dinner my husband will be home for dinner soon just woken up in dunkirk and i feel like i've been punched in the face um i'm pretty sure i've got low blood protein levels or something like that probably not eating enough protein so my face is a little bit puffy also trying to work out how much of this i can actually get rid of i've clearly got too much stuff with me i'd say the battery chargers weigh the most it's just ridiculous the amount of charging equipment i've got for the cameras that's a four-way battery charger for the dslr it's definitely clothes i need to lose a few t-shirts or something i work it out i found myself walking around the town in a bit of a daze i was exhausted i was going to visit the beach of malou labat where the world war ii evacuation took place but i lost track of time and basically forgot my mind was elsewhere thinking about my next move and still overthinking whether this trip was a good idea or not that evening davey was home and we had some time to sit down and talk about life and how everything had led us to where we are now i live too fast sometimes i just want to do everything and i want to do it now so it makes me quite impatient and i think that's part of the reason why i want to do this because i'm able to and if it's going to raise money for other people and help them because if i didn't i'd be taking too much i'd just be all taking in my giving so i'm just about to leave dunkirk i feel exhausted it's taken me way too long to get ready to get going i was aiming to leave by half a it's now quarter to 10. i just feel really out of sorts everything i'm doing is taking twice as long to get the bags ready to get all the kit together i just feel really like what am i doing [Applause] [Music] i left dunkirk and for the first time on the trip i had absolutely no idea where i was going to sleep that night it felt good to be back on the road again and i enjoy you good to see you really rider it's very nice i think to do this maybe one day i will do a touring yeah yeah yeah cool made a friend yeah all i knew was that cordray was about 80 kilometers away and that's where i was aiming for i couldn't seem to slow my mind down and i was so distracted thinking about the swelling in my face that i didn't even realize i'd cross the border into belgium i knew the swelling was a sign that my kidneys weren't coping too well with the endurance exercise and i couldn't stop worrying about how this might affect the rest of the trip oh what the hell please don't be broken [Music] it's now half three in the afternoon and i'm only around halfway between uh dunkirk and katrik i think that's how you pronounce it codrick cortrike so i've just gone on to couchsurfing sent a few messages out to people and i'm just gonna keep going in that direction and by the time i get there hopefully i'll have a message to say that i've got a place to stay tonight if not it's just gonna have to be an expensive one and maybe uh pay for a hotel or something like that not ideal but i'm just going to keep going and see what happens [Music] i found an affordable hostel in the center of the city well within my budget it was the perfect reminder that i didn't always need to plan my every move and that while i was in the big cities i should always be able to find a cheap hostel to stay the night having said that while copying the footage from the memory cards i sat down to research the best route into brussels later that evening though i was accompanied by a roommate called thierry so thierry here that i've just met in the hostel works for the cycling federation over here in uh belgium he had a whole bunch of gadgets attached to the bike so i asked him to explain what they're all for well this is the measuring bike of the cyclist federation and uh the main thing that we do is to measure the vibrations on a cycling path because we see that the many cycling bars or the cycling infrastructure in general it's very uncomfortable and we like would like to measure how comfortable or uncomfortable it is talk me through it what have we got on here this is the sensor to measure the vibrations and we also have a tablet where we register all the tracks that we drive on a whole day i can open it here so this is here for the tablet and then of course when we are driving we also make pictures that's for here it's a whole machine like that here we also have gps to register the gps track that we did on a day explain to me a little bit about so testing the vibrations but what else what else do you do all the things that matter for uh cycling comfort so how what is the width of a cycling path how is it separated from the traffic all sorts of obstacles uh is there a hole in your cycling path that is very dangerous that kind of stuff so what do you make of my um bespoke custom built camera mount on the front there i'm rather fascinated let's say uh because it's something rather original that you made rather creative is it legal for sure it's not illegal well that's good to know it's been a pleasure yes okay good to meet you thank you what a gentleman thank you so much i'm stuck have a seat hold up i got it i got it following the directions on thierry's beautiful hand-drawn map i'd set myself a really long day's riding with 50 kilometers to gent plus another 55 kilometers to brussels [Applause] so a nice route along the towpath by the river today but as thierry did mention quite a lot of it's under construction so keep having to find an alternative route never mind the route wasn't particularly interesting either so i did whatever i could to keep myself entertained hello i made a little donkey friend [Music] i see pride and i see power [Music] look at the guns on that bad boy what are you marvel horses or something [Music] i see a badass murder who don't take no crap up for nobody i better go i gotta keep riding my little bicycle see ya who don't take no crap [Applause] things soon got a bit spicy when i found what i thought was the perfect opportunity for a drone shot [Applause] the drone was a gift a very kind donation from a member of an organization called the guild of television camera professionals who were supporting me by sharing my story throughout the trip but i hadn't been able to practice much using the auto tracking feature and was struggling to get the drone to fly backwards without veering off to the side i'd been told that the drone had survived a couple of crashes and the rear sensors were a bit temperamental [Music] but i don't think the canopy of trees helped either and i didn't anticipate that it would fly straight towards my head [Music] [Applause] not long after that terrifying ordeal i arrived in yent i didn't hang around though and continued my second half of the journey towards brussels have you ever wondered what riding a bike with hearing aids sounds like not particularly comfortable [Music] i really put the power down on this last leg i was determined to get to brussels for the weekend because the drop zone i'd planned to skydive at were only open at the weekends you can definitely uh feel the buzz of the city now and it was a lot less safe riding on a bike this is it coming into brussels here we are this looks like the center i'm in brussels 105 kilometers complete and i was really excited about taking a few days off the bike ah yes i was hit with an overwhelming sense of achievement and the realization that i just traveled from my home in the uk to brussels in just five days of cycling it made me feel invincible but i knew deep down my kidneys were struggling and i wasn't sure if i was going to be able to continue at this pace yes i've just ridden my bike from england to brussels [Applause] [Music] ah i can't believe i'm here how did this happen yes yes ah what a journey right i should probably go to the hospital now what have you done to yourself man i feel like a small fish in a big pond i don't want to wait for an entire week so you're having like swelling because your kidney function is down i think i need to slow things down a bit it didn't go to plan don't betray yourself never
2021-02-11 20:12
