Follow the Blue Line Podcast: Recent Episodes
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This podcast is for anyone who just wants to embrace the freedom of cycling. If you remember what it was like to jump on your bike as a kid and lose yourself for the day without any worries – you’re in the right place. Welcome to my happy place. Support this podcast at: buymeacoffee.com/JohnWHayes
We might never climb Mount Everest, launch ourselves into outer space, or discover some hidden desert island that has somehow eluded Google Earth but we can still tackle the occasional mini-adventure.
A mini-adventure is something that takes you out of your comfort zone, something that most people will never do, something you will feel proud about as opposed to boasting about. A mini-adventure cannot be bought like a five-star holiday or a shiny new car. It’s something you will potentially dine out on and bore your friends for months or even years to come. Who knows, you might even get a book out of it.
I don’t really like the phrase “bucket list”. I’m all about getting things done before I get that terminal prognosis – but seeing as we are all stuck at home in what is now week number five of the Coronavirus lockdown in the UK (seriously, week #5 - where has the time gone?), creating bucket lists is pretty much all we’ve got at the moment – so I wanted to share my top ten items on the list.
- A coast-to-coast bike ride across the UK
- Cycle the Eco-Via along the Algarve coast in Portugal (again)
- Ride an e-Bike up the Rock of Gibraltar
- Ride down a volcano in Tenerife
- Bikepack somewhere remote
- Family ride across Belgium
- Write another book
- Ride from Land's End to John o' Groats (maybe next year)
- Ride along the Danube from Vienna to Budapest
- Ride from Lisbon to Faro (on a Brompton)
What's on your COVID-19 bucket list? Share your comments with me on https://facebook.com/followthebluelinebook
Check out my book: Follow the Blue Line: Cycling the Algarve on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Bed3tr
A café bar in Fabrica, which according to Lonely Planet is home to one of the world’s most beautiful beaches and, in my opinion, is still one of Portugal’s best-kept secrets, is a funny place to start a story about cycling between the more, shall I say bracing, Lincolnshire seaside resort towns of Cleethorpes, Mablethorpe, and Skegness. But it was in Fabrica, in the long, hot summer of 2018, that I was inspired to write about cycling in a much cooler place. Clearly, I’m talking about temperatures here.
Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Follow the Blue Line Podcast. My name is John Hayes and I’ll be your host. I’ll be sharing all my chaotic and rather random thoughts about cycling, life, the universe, and everything, as well as hopefully introducing you to my friends, collectively known as the Portugal Pie Eaters, and essentially putting the world to rights.