Moving out of London

Meet you at swindon and ride the last leg together?

It's just the opposite side of the Pacific, how far could that be?!? I would love to... 🤑

It's closer than London anyway 😘

Canadian border is still mostly closed, but as far as I understand it we can enter as it's classed as non-discretionary travel on my study visa (I'm unable to study online as my course is mostly technical/practical). However we're hoping for the internal BC travel restrictions to lift so we can go early and do a big road trip before starting uni/work. Bit of a waiting game at the moment, but we've got a few back up plans!

It's awesome, come and visit! We're at the getting-rid-of-all-our-stuff stage of moving....want to buy a bike?? We don't have a place yet, planning to airbnb/camp/live in a truck for the first few months (travel restrictions dependant!) and find somewhere once we're out there. Otherwise, visas are finally sorted so it's just sorting our stuff, getting all the paperwork in order, and hoping they'll let us in when we want to go! 😅 (Visas are the worst, and I can't believe they make the final decision at the border in Canada??)

Sounds good but if it’s my next visit to London I’ll need to drive as I’ve a lot of stuff to collect.

I’ll have a bike in the boot though

That means he is at least an hour further inland than you.

Sounds like excuses ;)

@hillbilly It's been ages mate, I'll def show my face at a leaving party.

Hope you don’t mind me asking but how far down in SW France are you? We’re eyeing up something near Bayonne.

That's about 350km south and west of us. We're in the Charente-Limousine, just outside Confolens.

if you've got an in with any landlords

I don't but Mrs Boot-bonnet is on all the community mailing lists and stuff. If you let me know what you're looking for, when, and where (you said around Burnaby Heights though?) I'll ask her to put out some feelers.

Oh and my brother in law has a small but mighty bike shop here, but it sounds like you are well enough equipped with those already.

Oooh, thanks! Will PM.

Way to long man! How you been?

Wow @mrs_socks @hillbilly that’s amazing news. Very excited for you!

Yeah, that makes sense. Are they doing isolation or covid hotels on entry? It's so hard to plan anything travel-wise, but just the moving and working local stuff out will take up a bunch of your energy anyway and even if you can't travel new places are always exciting to explore.

Ha, I really need to get rid of some bikes. You don't have a hardtail in my size do you? :D

Best of luck with all the paperwork and associated nonsense! I'm kind of hoping restrictions will be lifted in a couple of months as everywhere tries to 'open for summer' but we'll see.

Hmm, do we have a Canada sub-forum?

They're doing mandatory 14 day quarantine, but you can organise your own place it doesn't have to be a hotel. just have to present a satisfactory plan at the border.

Hardtail is the only one I'm keeping! 😂 (And the OG Plug, of course!)

Looks like they're starting to relax the BC internal restrictions a small amount already so 🤞🤞🤞

Think we're gonna have to start one!

Hi all, wanted to give a heads up for a really good business opportunity in my little town.

https://www.gth.net/property/rps_gth-wel210019s/bs26/axbridge/the-square/house/4-bedrooms

The tea shop is up for sale in Axbridge - we're next door to Cheddar, 30 mins from Bristol, at the foot of the Mendips. Loads of active tourism round here even in Covid times, and I reckon the tea shop would be an absolute goldmine if pivoted a bit. It's been run profitably by the current owner for several years, even though she doesn't open for breakfast or any later than mid afternoon. It's always rammed with locals, but could definitely cater to the innumerable cyclists who pass through on their way to the gorge etc as well.
It previous years it's housed a restaurant, apparently, which did well until the owner retired. There's no decent bakery round here, so that's another possibility. I reckon if you had a shelf of craft beers you could make a killing too. I'm just putting out my wish-list here, obvs.
The town itself is amazing - small but incredibly sociable, very left-leaning, and full of young parents due to the really good primary school. There's a decent pub, and another sort of pub / sort of restaurant. The other pub recently closed, sadly. My and my wife run the local community cinema, which is currently applying for a full alcohol licence, so that's another fun thing that happens when we're not covid'd up. Other than that, you're at the foot of the Mendips, with all the outside greatness that entails. Good for road riding, great for off-road. Trails at the Quantocks, Forest of Dean, Afan, Bike Park wales, Cwmcarn, etc etc all within easy striking distance.
I can honestly say that moving here is the best thing I've done, and I want more good people to move here and make it even better.

We went to that cafe when we were down that way for a week's holiday in 2016. We'd hired bikes in Cheddar and rode there on the Strawberry line with the kids.

Ahh lovely! Yeah the Strawberry line is great, fantastic for families and stress-free riding.

That's neat. Better than that compulsory hotel crap.

Yeah, smart move keeping it. There must be some sweet riding over there.

Now racking my brain to think of a blogger I used to chat with. Singlespeeder that I think was based in Canada somewhere but now I can find no evidence and can't even remember his name. Many, many moons and beers ago.

Did he do the tour divide ?

http://www.tydomin.com/blog/singlespeeding-the-tour-divide-2017-part-1

Best blog on TD I’ve ever read. Did a great podcast interview on My Back 40, lived in Canada for a while before returning to Aus. Cycled there.

Jinxed it 😂 they've just brought in mandatory 4days in a hotel before heading to your arranged spot. Hopefully that'll change before we go as it's more expensive than the rest of the months accommodation combined 😬

I may or may not have already looked at the Canadian part of the tour divide...no harm in looking, right? 😅

We stayed in a gite just outside ruffec a few years ago, which is a bit closer - lovely area, hoping to go back once mini hammer is a bit bigger!

I haven't spoken to him for years. Back in the day he was racing shorter MTB XC stuff and I'm really struggling to think of any more details. I think there may have been an animal involved, like singlespeedbeaver or some shit but who knows why I have that slightest of inclinations in my head. I can't even remember what he rode but pretty sure he had a red bike. It was maybe 15 years ago when I was still mucking about on singlespeeds off-road and stuff.

Oh it's definitely not Ty. This guy is American or Canadian local.

Not this, but similar vein
http://singlespeedoutlaw.com/archives/blog.html

Bugger. 4 days just seems weird - can they even tell you have covid in 4 days? If they can tell with a test, why not just test before moving you on? If they can't tell with a test then it should be longer, no? Anyway, hope all that shit goes smoothly and you don't burn too much cash on bullshit hotels.

Nice. I'm doing a lot more dirt stuff these days so maybe one day I'll throw my hat in the ring for something like the TD. Do they have a Fat Veterans category? :D