Lion Poo

Sometimes you just wake up with a killer idea and have to act on it immediately. Dogs are a problem whilst bicycle touring, they were in 1884 and they still are. Is there an alternative to Dog Pepper Spray or a Smith & Wesson revolver?

I wrote this letter to find out:

17^th June 2011 07:28

Dear Head Lion Keeper, Whipsnade Zoo,

We recently visited Whipsnade and had a very lovely time at the zoo, we were pleasantly surprised at how much space the animals have to roam around in. It is no doubt because of this visit that the following idea has just popped into my head as I have woken up this morning.

About two months ago I learnt about the story of Thomas Stevens, the first man to cycle around the world in 1884. You can find out where to read about his adventure for free on my blog mentioned above.

It turns out that Thomas was born in Berkhamsted and would have cycled past my house on his round the world trip. This seemed like an excellent reason for me to follow in his footsteps & wheel tracks. I'm leaving on 2^nd August this year starting in Liverpool and aiming to get to Istanbul by October.

Unfortunately one of the perils of bicycle touring is dogs. Wild, tame or somewhere in-between they love to chase, bark and occasionally bite you. As an animal lover I always try to resolve these meetings in a non violent way which is usually the most productive method any way, however some have that glint in their eye which implies they want to have a piece of Richie leg for their din dins. This is when the idea hit me, no doubt sitting in my subconscious after seeing your lovely Lions laying against the glass window at Whipsnade. I remember seeing a documentary once where a dog was taken along side a Lion enclosure at a conservation park in South Africa and the dog became immediately submissive because by instinct it knew that the smell of Lions (my capitalization of Lions is a mark of recognition by the way, as king of the beasts :) sorry, that the smell of Lions meant that it was no time to fool around and that it had better pay some respect.

Is this true? Would it work in countries where Lions haven't roamed for 100's/1000's of years?

If so, or even if not so, would it be possible to have some Lion poo or some Lion wee to take with me or put on my bike to non-violently keep away the excited dogs between here and Istanbul?

It would be much appreciated. Would I have to gather the poo myself? It would be quite scary but well worth it. Or could we arrange for a Lion to pee on my bike? Interestingly Whipsnade is pretty much on the route that Thomas Stevens would have taken, as he cycled between Fenny Stratford and Berkhamsted and it would be excellent to pop in on the adventure and pick some up.

Thomas met a mountain Lion in the States on his trip and unfortunately had to shoot at it to save himself, rest assured I will not be bringing a gun.

This is a serious request and not someone with an animal fetish :)

Keep up the great work at the zoo.

Kind Regards

Richie Turner aged 39 ½ in August

check the blog at anordinarypursuit@blogspot.com

Volume 1 now completed

Stevens wrote an account of his journey entitled Around the World by Bicycle. It is a 1000 page, two volume document of the man's travels.
Volume 1 takes us across America from San Francisco to New York then by boat to England. Here he cycles down from Liverpool to Newhaven on the South coast via Berkhamsted and past my window!
From Newhaven he steams across the English Channel to Dieppe in France and continues through Europe to Turkey and Persia, finishing in Teheran.
Having now read this volume I am going through it again plotting every place he visited on a Google map.
It's quite time consuming but it really helps you get to know the places and his experiences.
If you would like to read the book for yourself you can download it digitally for free or read it online at the links below.
Vol 1. Vol 2.
Both volumes have recently been re-printed as one book, which includes some beautiful sketches of his travels that really take you back to a time of true adventure. Buying it from Amazon using the links below will help to fund my adventure.

After finding out about Thomas Stevens and his first global navigation by bicycle I downloaded the book to my Kindle for free at Project Gutenberg . What happened next has kept me captivated ever since.
At 8am on 22nd April 1884 Thomas set off from San Francisco, California, USA.on a 50" Columbia Ordinary (Penny Farthing) bicycle  to cycle across America and indeed the world.
When I realised that Thomas not only arrived in the UK in Liverpool but also cycled down through his birthplace of Berkhamsted, a quick check of some old maps assured me he would have cycled right past my window. This, coupled with the fact that Apsley, the village where I live is slap bang in between Berkhamsted and Kings Langley, and Langley being the surname of the website where I found out about the first global "Wheeler" was a good enough reason to get me started on an escapade.

So What's All This About Then?

Twas but a month ago (May 2011) that I first came across the man Thomas Stevens.
I had somehow clicked to the website www.jimlangley.net . I had never been there before and I still can't work out why I ended up there. It was something cycling related I imagine as Jim is a bicycle afficinado. When I landed on the site there was picture of a man with a moustache standing next to a penny farthing. When I started to read the text and realise he was not only the first person to cycle round the world but was also born and raised in Berkhamsted, the village next to mine, I just had to get hold of the book he wrote about his adventure and find out more.
Hopefully this blog will keep track of the adventure that is about to unfold.
To be continued...