Free Country - A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain
- George Mahood
George and Ben plan to go on an adventure cycle ride, between two extreme points of United Kingdom, from the most westerly point in England (Lands End) to North-East tip of Scotland (John O' Groats). That's around 1000 miles. The most interesting part of the adventure is, not the ride. They have to do it without spending a penny. That's right. And, that's not all. They can't even start the trip with their own cycles or even clothes. They have to depend entirely on the mercy of people along the route, for practically everything.
They start their trip with just a pair of shorts each, as cover page of the book depicts, at the Lands End. They explain their challenge to the people they meet en route, and request them to part with anything that helps them start their ride. Within a couple of days, they manage to get some abandoned bikes, socks, shoes and some TShirts.
From then on, their routine is pretty much same for the next 18 days. They cover around 50 miles a day. For breakfast/lunch/dinner, they knock doors of random places en route, explain their challenge and request some food, and offer to do some chores in return. Most of the days, they manage to get food without doing any work in return. And, there are days, where they end up helping cleaners in kitchen or even picking up cigarette buts in the front yard of a hotel. By dusk, they reach some town/village and look for pubs/hotels/hostels and play the same record. Some readily offer them a full service room and some offer just some space in parking lot, where they can pitch their tent, again given by someone after listening to their challenge, and some just express their inability to help.
By the end of 19th day, they could confidently say that people of Britain were great, as they didn't go hungry even for one night, and even had a couple of beers almost every night. They had a few interesting places to spend their nights that include, a luxury boat, a barn with cattle, a disorderly house with a drunken self proclaimed hitman, floor of a pub etc.,
- George Mahood
They start their trip with just a pair of shorts each, as cover page of the book depicts, at the Lands End. They explain their challenge to the people they meet en route, and request them to part with anything that helps them start their ride. Within a couple of days, they manage to get some abandoned bikes, socks, shoes and some TShirts.
From then on, their routine is pretty much same for the next 18 days. They cover around 50 miles a day. For breakfast/lunch/dinner, they knock doors of random places en route, explain their challenge and request some food, and offer to do some chores in return. Most of the days, they manage to get food without doing any work in return. And, there are days, where they end up helping cleaners in kitchen or even picking up cigarette buts in the front yard of a hotel. By dusk, they reach some town/village and look for pubs/hotels/hostels and play the same record. Some readily offer them a full service room and some offer just some space in parking lot, where they can pitch their tent, again given by someone after listening to their challenge, and some just express their inability to help.By the end of 19th day, they could confidently say that people of Britain were great, as they didn't go hungry even for one night, and even had a couple of beers almost every night. They had a few interesting places to spend their nights that include, a luxury boat, a barn with cattle, a disorderly house with a drunken self proclaimed hitman, floor of a pub etc.,
For such a long ride without a penny, I expected it to be a bit more eventful. But, despite the pathetic condition of cycles and not even having a pump or a puncture kit, and not so great planning about which town/village en route to spend the next night, they manage to have an almost smooth ride. Some of the conversations that they had over free beers make good reads.
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