Geoff Jones

Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

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Life’s mysteries with Fitbit and Weight Gain….

So in the past four days, with my trusty Fitbit,  I’ve walked from Kings Cross station to Milton Keynes which Strava works out at 13.6 + 19.1+ 17.3 + 22.1 = 72.1miles. Fitbit says I did it in 187,762 steps and burnt 22,168 cals based on my actual body weight. This excludes the fact I was lugging a 10kg backpack as well 🙁

Weight Gain after walking
Weight Gain after walking

So imagine my gloom when I stepped on the scales at home this morning to discover I’ve gained 1kg in weight  over the past four days 🙁

Fish & Chips with Guinness
Fish & Chips with Guinness

Now apparently my favourite food is “only” 861 cals per portion and the essential Guinness adds another 210 cals which means I could have eaten 10 lots of fish & chips and still been on target. So where did all that extra weight appear from?

Maybe I will have to be like son Nick and take up fell running 🙂 to get the burn rate up!

 

 

Grand Union Canal jaunt – Day 1

GRand Union Canal armFinally, halfway through the year, the apartment sale is finally totally complete and I’m able to start travelling again albeit currently restricted to shanks pony as having 1/3 of my prostate removed in the HoLEP operation 3 weeks ago makes it inadvisable to do long bumpy bike rides for a while. I decided to stick locally as well  until all the pain when I pee has gone away.

The Grand Union Canal walk from Central London seems a good idea as it isn’t to strenuous but long enough to take a week or so. I still haven’t decided whether to go to Birmingham or take the branch to Nottingham.

Today was a late start as I first went swimming at Jesus Green and then posting my old thermostat that I sold on ebay. So I finally arrived at Kings Cross at 2.30pm.

It was an interesting walk along Regent’s Canal to Little Venice and then along the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union to Alperton finishing today at the demolished Hovis bread factory. Very pleasant except for the constant stream of cyclists bombing along 🙂

My nephew Phillip is kindly putting up with me for tonight, although a first for me was navigating across three bus routes to reach his flat. I ended up getting the busmapper app as the fellow passengers were too friendly bombarding me with all the options. Weird at 67 my first attempt at being on the buses!

Tomorrow it looks like a huge loop and heading south for 5 or so miles to avoid the hills at Harrow.

According to Strava I did 13.6 miles in just under 4 hours. The pictures of the day are here

South East Asia bike tour post index.

Here are links to each of my days cycling from Hanoi to Singapore through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand & Malaysia during 2014.

  1. Arrival in Vietnam & first day in Hanoi
  2. Halong Bay Tour
  3. Hanoi moments
  4. Hanoi to Hang Tram – Ride Day1
  5. Hang Tram to Thanh Hoa – Day2 biking
  6. South East Asia bike ride day 3 – Thanh Hoa to Dien Chau
  7. South East Asia bike tour- Dien Chau to Vinh – Day4
  8. SE Asia bike tour Day 5 – Vinh to Ky Anh
  9. SE Asia cycle tour Day 6 – Ky Anh to Phong Na
  10. Paradise caving day
  11. South East Asia bike ride Phong Na to ChoNgoi
  12. South East Asia bike ride – Cho Ngoi to Hue
  13. South East asia tour – Hue to Dar Nang
  14. Cycling South East Asia – Da Nang to Dung Quat
  15. Cycling South East Asia – Dung Quat to Ta Phong via My Lai
  16. Geoff’s SE Asia bike trip – Tan Phong to Phu Phong
  17. SE Asia bike ride – Phu Phong to Pleiku
  18. SE Asia cycle tour – Pleiku SE Asia cycle tour – Pleiku to Borkeo
  19. Biking SE Asia – Borkeo to Stung Treng
  20. Rest day in Stung Treng & some trip statistics
  21. Asia bike tour – Sting Tring to Preah Vihcar
  22. Krong Preah Vihear to Koh Ker on my SE Asia bike tour
  23. Koh Ker to Siem Reap on Geoff’s bike tour of SE Asia
  24. Seeing the sights around Sien Reap
  25. Lazy day in Siem Reap
  26. Siem Reap to Sisophon on Geoff’s SE Asia biking tour
  27. Sisophon to Wattananakorn on Geoff’s SE Asia tour
  28. Wattananakorn to Phanom City on Geoff’s SE Asia tour
  29. To Bangkok from Phanom City on Geoff’s SE Asia tour
  30. River Kwai one day trekking tour
  31. Bangkok booty
  32. Bangkok to Samutsongkhram
  33. Samutsongkhram to Hua Hin 
  34. Hua Hin to Kuiburi
  35. Biking from Kuiburi to Baan Grood 
  36. Baan Grood to Chumpon Beach
  37. Chumpon Beach to KohTao Island
  38. Koh Tao to Donsak 
  39. Don Sak to Phrasaeng
  40. A long day from Phrasaeng to Khlong Dao 
  41. Lazing on Lanta Island
  42. Visiting Phi Phi
  43. Ko Lanta to Ko Lipe by boats
  44. Lazy in Lipe
  45. Lipe to Penang on the ferries
  46. Georgetown to Butterworth on the mainland
  47. Butterworth to Taiping 
  48. Taiping to Huang City
  49. Simpang Empat to Kuala Selangor
  50. Kuala Selangor to Banting 
  51. Banting to Port Dickson
  52. Port Dickson to Malacca 
  53. Around Melaka
  54. Malacca to Muar 
  55. Muar to Kluang 
  56. Klulang to Singapore Island
  57. Statistical end to my SE Asia bike trip

Tenerife & La Gomera Walking Holiday

1-IMG_5495Sally and I decided that it was about time we gave the two wheels a rest and give the  Scarpa boots & Leki poles an airing 🙂 Sally’s criteria was it had to be warm and hilly! Since Mr T would only allow her two weeks of and it was November we came up with the Canary islands,  particularly Tenerife and La Gomera. So of we flew with Easyjet from Gatwick. Only to discover on arrival that Ryanair passengers from Stansted were collecting their baggage in the airport 🙁

A quick taxi ride (€30) and we were at the docks and straight on the awaiting ship (€56 each way) making it a smooth passage to our apartment in San Sebastian booked a couple of weeks ago on booking.com. We booked the rest of the accommodation as we went, invariably the night before we arrived (Yep, I’m that organised).

The walking & weather were excellent every day with some days outstanding like the walk down the Masca Valley & Las Poyatas to El Cedro (here is a cool site with trail lists)

Here is a table of all our walks with links to the GPS/GPX tracks we did and my photographs:-

2014 DatePlaceHotelRoute gpx (Strava)Photos (G+)Steps (Fitbit)Miles (Fitbit)Ascent feet (Fitbit)KCals (Fitbit)
Mon 3 NovLa Gomera - San SebastianApartamentos San SebastiánSan Sebastian to El Cabrito45 Pics3112114.2723204247
Tue 4 NovLa Gomera - San SebastianApartamentos San SebastiánSan Sebastian to La Casetas loop62 pics3120014.3121803861
Wed 5 NovLa Gomera - San SebastianApartamentos San SebastiánGran Rey to Arure74 pics2255510.3433503116
Thu 6 NovLa Gomera - San SebastianApartamentos San SebastiánSan Sebastian to Laja via GR131-Stage180 pics2672412.2536704334
Fri 7 NovLa Gomera - San SebastianApartamentos San SebastiánHermigua El Cedro loop70 pics2599711.9230703583
Sat 8 NovTenerife - Santiago del Teide La Casona del patioExplore TF65 around Santiago del Tiede43 pics2567611.814003549
Sun 9 NovTenerife - Santiago del Teide La Casona del patioSantiago del Tiede to Masca Beach91 pics2625912.0414405007
Mon 10 NovTenerife - TeideTeidi ParadorWalk to cable car onTiede
Tiede walk below summit		80 pics150476.96607394
Tue 11 NovTenerife - TeideTeidi ParadorCircular walk below Tiede50 pics2703112.413604771
Wed 12 NovTenerife - TeideTeidi ParadorHike up Tiede to top station of cable car
Portillo information centre walk		46 pics2526511.5945104168
Thu 13 NovTenerife - San MiguelHotel RuralRoques de Garcia loop102 pics2743212.5826603775
Fri 14 NovTenerife - San MiguelHotel RuralSan Miguel - The Camel trail82 pics3287515.084404568
Sat 15 NovTenerife - Golf del SurRoyal Park AlbatrosLa Laguna town walking45 Pics182128.353502909
Sun 16 NovTenerife - El MėdanoFlight homeMontana Roja64 pics166467.658502918
Totals934 pics352040161.52826058200

I can recommend the island for walking & don’t be put of by the horrors of Los Cristianos / Playa de Las Americas ( where I ended up renting a car to make a fast escape) & Los Gigantes. The beaches behind the airport are excellent & quiet. The local bus service is also good although the first buses don’t leave until 10am from San Sebastian.

Here is the story according to Google+