Bike the Pipe

Bike the Pipe
2007

I made it, 122 miles of pipe, quite a lot of hills and lots of leaflets distributed. In the next few days I will write something about the trip but for now, I';m safely back, rested and thank you to all those who supported me on this adventure - hope to return the favour one day soon - I have a good pair on paniers going!

Written before i set off....

When two guys turned up at the Brecon tree camp having cycled from Edinburgh I knew that I had to put my vague idea of cycling along the pipeline route in to action.

And so on Sunday 25th March myself and friends will set out from Felindre, near Swansea and peddle on our rusty bikes winding up and down hills, and hopefully turn up in Corse, near Gloucester, a week later.

Along the way, I’ll be stopping at every opportunity to chat with people about the dangers of this pipeline, to share the knowledge that has been built up during this campaign, to share experiences of other communities who are resisting the imposition of a mega fossil fuel infrastructure project (eg Shell in Rossport, Ireland and BP in Casanare, Colombia) and to connect people who want to fight it together

One Brecon woman said to me recently "people just don't realise the implications that this pipe will have on their life". There is a real lack of information about the pipeline amongst the people who are going to have it tearing up their backyards over the coming year. We hope to change that in whatever way we can.

Biking the Pipe at first seemed like a crazy idea. A couple of years ago I discovered the joy of biking as a cheap, fun and quick means to get around the city, but biking as a means to cover long distances on is an all together different scenario. But I am excited about this journey precisely because I want to kick away the barriers I have in my head to cycling long distances. And reaching the top of a big hill after a long hard climb gives me the most amazing feeling of aliveness.

Shifting our perspectives of travel are really important if we are to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and part of this journey for me is about challenging my own mindset of opting for the simplest option of travel. I’ll let you know how I get on...

If you want to get involved in Bike the Pipe, or future Bike the Pipes, there is plenty of different skills and help needed:

• join us for all, some or one day of the bike ride
• place for us to put our tent up each night
• sort out press in your town;
• invite us in to a school/community centre to talk about BikethePipe;
• organise a workshop for the future;
• donate to the campaign against the pipe
• massage our weary bodies
• put up posters and give out leaflets

please email bristol@risingtide.org.uk or phone the BRT phone

The schedule

Day one – Sunday 25th March
Neath train station to Felindre 10 miles
Felindre to Ammanford 7 miles

Day two – Monday 26th March
Ammanford to Llandeilo 8 miles
Llandeilo to Llangadog 7 miles

Day three – Tuesday 27th March
Llangadog to Brecon 28 miles

Day Four – Wednesday 28th March
Brecon to Hay on Wye 15 miles

Day Five – Thursday 29th March
Hay to Peterstow (Ross on Wye) 30 miles

Day Six – Friday 30th March
Peterstow to Corse 15 mile

Total = 115ish miles

Additional Distances
Corse to Bristol 50 miles