October 8, 2013
The longest ride: Part one
With the news of the closure of the border crossing that I had originally planned to take between Lithuania and Belarus, I opted for the long ride to get to the Polish-Belarus border crossing instead. In order to cover the ridiculous distance to get there in time I had to go for an all-time personal best longest ride in a day ever. My previous longest ever day touring was 215 kilometres in Florida in 2012. If I could beat that, I would just about be where I needed to be by the end of the day.
In order to cover such an absurd distance at my very slow pace I had to make a very early start and was up and on the bike at three in the morning. It was very, very, very, very, very, very, very dark. There was no moon, no stars, nothing except darkness. Luckily I had a good front light, bought for a pound from Poundland in Dover. I realise you probably think I'm being sarcastic, but I'm telling you, this light is amazing. If you need a new front light for your bike go to Poundland in Dover and buy the headtorch. The straps broke after a day, but tape it the front of your bike and you'll be ready to take on anything the Lithuanian night can throw at you.
At first I was following the same roads that I took the week before after Trakai. There was basically no traffic at all and the roads were flat and long and straight. Keeping motivated in such circumstances might have been a problem but luckily I had recently heard the popular recording artist Katy Perry's 'Eye of the tiger' and it was stuck in my head. "I am a champion, and you're going to hear my roar!" was what I was singing when I was suddenly struck with fear by a noise next to me. Whatever it was, it was something very large and making a rattling noise and I was so scared by it I actually hit my brakes and stopped. Pointing my light towards it I realised with some horror what it was that was terrifying me. It was the exact same cow that had been giving me lip the last time I cycled through here. Alright cow, you win this round...
Apart from being scared by cows I should also tell you that barking dogs are one million times more scary in the pitch darkness. But the first rays of dawn broke and I found I had completed 70 kilometres in the dark with relative ease. It was a good start, and a few hours later I arrived at the Polish border...
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Today's ride: 124 km (77 miles)
Total: 6,875 km (4,269 miles)
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