Julian Davies, 'The Iceland Divide', a 550km bikepacking expedition across Iceland
In episode 22, we talk to Julian Davies, a father and business owner in his fifties, who recently cycled over 550 kilometres across Iceland’s mid-ocean ridge fault line in a self-directed bikepacking project he called the ‘Iceland Divide’.
We talk about how his time as an officer in the British Parachute Regiment helped him craft the fundamentals of personal resilience, the concept of ‘Future water’ adapted from kayaking, the unique challenges of mixing katabatic winds with glacial rivers, and how Scottish author Nan Shepherd encouraged him to embrace sensory experiences and take a slower, more contemplative approach to personal adventures.
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00:00:00 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
And welcome to the Tales of Venture podcast.
00:00:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And where it goes, it's.
00:00:04 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It's one of these catastrophic. It's OK. There's future water. You don't know the ruins and you're experiencing.
00:00:10 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
If if you get.
00:00:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A listing to take a 5.
00:00:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Level of effort to expand.
00:00:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Day after day and day.
00:00:18 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
From long days, how you build resilience? Well, it becomes timeless and the scale of it, it changes the frame of mind that it really works for this.
00:00:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Type of thing.
00:00:31 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Hi, I'm Chris, your host every month of the interviewing inspiring adventures about overcoming hardship taking.
00:00:38 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Risk and doing it to.
00:00:39 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Rugby podcast aims, document and learning. We've got these, stand out individuals to where they are now. In this episode we talk to Julian Davis, a father and business owner in his 50s. We've seen circled over 550 kilometres.
00:00:50 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Across Iceland, along the mid Ocean Ridge fault line in itself directs a bike packing project he called the Iceland Divide.
00:00:57 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
We'll talk about how his time as an officer in the British Parachute Regiment helped him craft the fundamentals of personal resilience. The concept of friction, water borrowed from Craig.
00:01:06 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Any chances of mix of katabatic rooms with glacial brothers and how Scottish orphan Nan Shepherd and got him to embrace sensory experiences and take a slower or contemplative approach to personal adventures?
00:01:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Hey, Julian, wait. It's great to have you on the tells Adventure podcast. How's it going back into New England? Yeah. Good. Thanks. Good. And the.
00:01:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Thanks very much.
00:01:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
For for, for asking you to do the podcast I I I really appreciated it when you showed up after the the article I wrote and.
00:01:38 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Just just pleased to pleased to join in.
00:01:42 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Wait, I I saw your your your post and your blog on on social media like them. And I must admit, I was absolutely taken aback by just this, this fascinating personal expedition you did. Kind of. What was it back in 2021 across Iceland? And and I what I just definitely want to get you into the podcast and share.
00:02:02 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
More about it because the the, the the story itself is fascinating and the.
00:02:06 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
The.
00:02:07 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Scenery looks incredible and just like looking for the pictures of the sand and cycling through on the on the bike. You know I was like this is this has got many layers of stories so I knew I had to get you on the terms of venture podcast to share more.
00:02:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah. Thanks again for for joining in and.
00:02:24 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I'll just I'll.
00:02:25 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Go into the questions if that's OK to to to pull out some detail.
00:02:30 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
The so. So where did the idea for the bike packing expedition come from? Like was it? Was it? I mean, we've seen Iceland on the Walter Booty film. It's been like covered in, like, lots of documentaries and all sorts. But where did the idea for cycling across Iceland come from?
00:02:47
Well.
00:02:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I've I've been fascinated by Iceland for years and I I I hadn't been to Iceland even though I was fascinated by it. I've I've always been interested in Unreceived history. In other words, the history that you don't learn at school.
00:02:57
Yeah.
00:03:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And and one of my one of my fascinations is with the the early Irish monks and these these guys.
00:03:09 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:03:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Set out to live in the the hardest places they could find. They they'd established these little monks communities off the West Coast of Ireland in amongst the, you know, the waves and the weather and and all of.
00:03:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That and they, they, they.
00:03:30 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Had spiritual reasons for doing it, but for some of.
00:03:33 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Them it wasn't enough.
00:03:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And I I read years ago about the voyage of Saint Brendan, and it seems that this guy and a few of his monk.
00:03:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Right. Got in a a leather boat and sailed to America via the Ferrell Islands. Iceland and Greenland. Yeah. Wow.
00:03:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And there's a there's a Latin text called the navigatio that talks about it and and the navigation was dismissed by academics who obviously know better as being pure fantasy. But I thought, well, there's there's too much in here that.
00:04:06 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Is accurate and it could only be accurate.
00:04:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
If people had.
00:04:09 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Been there, the description of Iceland being one.
00:04:10 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:04:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I mean, I'm more.
00:04:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Recently, I think in the 70s or 80s a a guy called Tim Severin actually built a boat based on the description of Saint Brendan and.
00:04:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Did the journey and he.
00:04:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Proved it could be done.
00:04:25
Wow.
00:04:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I won't.
00:04:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I I thought well. Oh, yeah. So what these what these monks were seeking out in Iceland was something even harder than the hard.
00:04:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Places they've they've already found in Ireland, but.
00:04:39 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
They were doing it.
00:04:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
For spiritual reasons and and and I thought, yeah, this is really interesting so.
00:04:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What was the?
00:04:46
That was the.
00:04:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Thing that first interested me in Iceland and and then yeah. When when I went there eventually it was on.
00:04:53 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A.
00:04:54 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
All four day city break and.
00:04:57 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I I saw enough of Reykjavik in in half a day and decided to hire a car and get out and see. Yeah, a bit of Iceland and I can remember walking up to this ridgeline. I can't remember exactly where it was and and looking out towards the interior. These endless lava fields with.
00:05:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Volcanic cones and glistening ice in the distance. And I as I stood there looking at it, was in January. It was actually freezing.
00:05:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Two hours.
00:05:25 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Sorry.
00:05:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A day like before.
00:05:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It'd be interesting just to set off into this and see what it's like.
00:05:33 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And what was going on around in my head for a while, so I'm not sure in the book shop in Reykjavik, I picked up a an English translation of the sagas of the Icelanders and I just started reading through.
00:05:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It's a big book.
00:05:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In one of the sagas was called from cell saga.
00:05:53 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
There's a very short passage which talks about the difficulty that the hero of the story Africa face.
00:06:00 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In crossing the interior of Iceland, so tropical was a a Viking settler from around about the mid 9 hundreds during the time of the Icelandic Free State and he was there and he was a real person and he was a renowned jeweller not.
00:06:08
Yeah.
00:06:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Have somebody else to read, but somebody who kills people and yes.
00:06:26 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
This one.
00:06:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And the other thing about preferential was that he never paid a thing called waggled, which is the main price now. Julian was accepted in early Icelandic culture as long as you paid. We're guilt to the family of the the victim.
00:06:41
Yeah.
00:06:44 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But raffle kill was was so hard that he never paid her guilt and his answer was always well, if you want the money come and get it and I'll kill you.
00:06:53 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So. So he he was about as hard as they come. And and he lived on the east of Iceland. Well, there there's some area of freshman kills. Saga is about a.
00:07:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A. A man that that threatened, killed killed in a jewel, he was called Anna and Anna had actually trained from Kelly's horse, no.
00:07:22 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I've often killed was a devotee of the God Fryer. Yeah, and he'd named his horse Freyfaxi after the God in honour of the God and honour, unbeknownst to half and kill had broken in the horse, but he committed the cardinal sin and traffic kills. Eyes are riding the horse.
00:07:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So and nothing till the previously said. Anyone who rides this horse, I will kill. So he killed. I know.
00:07:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In a fit of rage, yeah.
00:07:51 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
But he regretted.
00:07:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Doing so and it was the only man he killed who he he had regretted killing so.
00:07:59 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Almost father.
00:08:01 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Visited graphical to demand where Guild and Raffaelle said no because I never pay were guilt.
00:08:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But he did feel sorry for killing, and so he and on his father agreed to meet at the the old think in Reykjavik so that the the Elders could decide the most appropriate settlement because the the two men were so unequal.
00:08:27
Yeah.
00:08:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Socially, that they couldn't.
00:08:30 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Settle man to man they had.
00:08:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
To do it through the.
00:08:33 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The old thing? No, here's the thing.
00:08:34 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, there's a short passage in this sober at this point, which says that.
00:08:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Even more rough and cold was seriously better. He he considered the land crossing through the centre of Iceland to be too hot. It was a 17 day journey by horse and the sand, the sand as it's referred to in the.
00:08:51
Yeah.
00:08:53
Right.
00:08:56 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Saga.
00:08:57 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Was just a place. He didn't want a big.
00:09:00
Yeah.
00:09:01 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So I read this and I thought ohh right. If it's too hard for her to kill this this this might be worth.
00:09:09 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Having to go.
00:09:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So so I got the maps out and.
00:09:19 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I would form obvious line based on the places mentioned in the saga.
00:09:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And it just jumped out at me. So through the centre of Iceland running north to South you you have this rift formed by the the junction of the American plate tectonic plate on the left of the map and the Eurasian Plate on the right of the map. And then this this coming limit.
00:09:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Based this place, that's both, but neither that runs right through the middle of Iceland.
00:09:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I thought, OK, well, there's the obvious.
00:09:51 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Route.
00:09:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Choose a start point Akureyri, Iceland's second largest town. Choose a finish point down on the South Coast. Draw a line between the two those you root.
00:10:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And there's another route, the F-26, which is a gravel Rd.
00:10:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, that was the obvious written. That's the springy Sander root, no springy. Sunder comes from 2 old Icelandic words. Springer, which is where we get spring time from, which is the the type that jumps up.
00:10:08
So.
00:10:19 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Hello.
00:10:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And well, Sander sand the jumper, the jumping sands. Well, it doesn't quite mean that. It means the sands across which you have to drive your horses so hard that they they they die. You wanna minimise your time spent there because it's such a horrific.
00:10:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What's the genesis of the name? And so I looked at it. I thought, well, OK, the F.
00:10:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
26 just.
00:10:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It's the logical route, but just over to the east.
00:10:54 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
There's an alternative route which which runs parallel and it's.
00:10:59 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It's kind of a root, but it's not a root. There's nothing on the ground for most of it other than a few wooden marker posts and this alternative line runs through part of the world's largest lava field.
00:11:03 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, yeah.
00:11:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So to start with it it.
00:11:17 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
1 S from the ring Rd. Through this from the Green Valley with a few farms and it then it rises up simply the lava starts, then you go past the massive vascular volcano. You go around the flanks of that and then you you rise up again and you get to this area called. Forgive my pronunciation.
00:11:38 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
O'Hara, which is the the latter field now.
00:11:40
Hello.
00:11:44 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Part of that larger field it was created in a fissure eruption in 2014. Two 1015 it's official eruption as as part of the the wider Bardarbunga volcano. Now Bardarbunga is this urban volcano that.
00:11:53
Yeah.
00:12:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That's under the Vatnajokull ice cap, and when it goes, it'll go one day it's it'll. It's one of these catastrophic, you know, cataclysmic volcanoes.
00:12:14 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Well, I thought.
00:12:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Right, OK. Well, this is the way they go.
00:12:17 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
We've got the this is the route and the rejoin the F-26, the springy Sunday route later, and continue the journey. But OK, so here's here's the route. Yeah. So. So what was the genesis of the idea? And once I'd seen the route on the map, there was no way I was going to let this one pass.
00:12:38 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So it it it had to happen.
00:12:42 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Really. Well, I'd. I'd love it. That's we're just we're just saying then the one that's and I'm definitely guilty of doing this. I'm just doing doing events or races or things because they're there and that's kind of like what got me into mountaineering and what got me into.
00:12:58 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
You know, doing, doing marathons or doing running events and stuff, but I love, I love the I love this is more like an organic approach into kind of taking on that personal goals because it's something that came from visiting there. It came from books. It came from stories and then see this kind of roots almost.
00:13:15 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Materialised in front of you, having done the the research, I think that's it's far more interesting, better approach to evention in my view. Yeah, I think I I I agree. Whether it's better or not I think depends on every individual's disposition and aspirations. Yeah. Yeah. But I I agree with you. I think it is better.
00:13:34 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And I've replaced the word better with more satisfying in in my own view, for, for. For me, there has to be an aesthetic beauty in something, and I I don't wanna get.
00:13:38 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yes, yeah, yeah. Good show. Yeah.
00:13:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Very fairy about that but.
00:13:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
There are different ways of looking at this, but one one interesting way of looking at it is to use the term that kayak has white water kayakers use, which is future water. The water they're gonna paddle through doesn't yet exist.
00:14:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You're correct. Has developed this intuitive sense for what future water is.
00:14:06 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Going to be and then.
00:14:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
They they move themselves into it and the water evolves as they move.
00:14:13
Although.
00:14:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Well, that's that that, you know, that's a really nice way of thinking about it. You don't know the route until you experience it.
00:14:19 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And we'll, we'll, we'll.
00:14:22 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Talk about my my favourite author, writer, writer, a little bit later she she was a woman called Man Shepherd Scottish.
00:14:28
Yeah.
00:14:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And her phrase was the thing to be known.
00:14:37 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Grows with the node.
00:14:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In other words, you don't know what it's going to.
00:14:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Be you don't.
00:14:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Have a defined start and end point. Nobody else has organised this for you, which is the case with the race. The only way to really understand something is to set off with.
00:14:54 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
With flexible expectations and build your appreciation of it as you flow through the experience. And that's.
00:14:57
Yeah.
00:15:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That's really a big part of my approach to these things rather than.
00:15:09 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Allowing somebody else to define the terms of it and then having to, yes, race against the pressure that all of that creates, that's something I've done in the past and which I've found.
00:15:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Unsatisfying, so I didn't want to do it.
00:15:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That way this time.
00:15:25 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, 100% that that makes sense of sense as well. It's almost like allowing the the adventure to to kind of grow as you're as you want it and then fit your kind of your needs and your expectations and your your, I guess your resources as well. Yeah. Yeah, I really like the that approach to.
00:15:43 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
How you how you build with venture that it being kind of like 2 set by time or resources or distance or or into anything. I mean how it it does get me into my next question like how do you find a teammate that's going to join you on for something that's I guess so or slightly nebulous but doesn't doesn't have a you know specific.
00:16:03 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Route to a.
00:16:03 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Specific goal in mind and and how do you plan for that?
00:16:06 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Kind of thing.
00:16:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
As well, that's the the the question of teammates is I think the most important for anybody planning something similar. There were there were three options.
00:16:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I can only think.
00:16:22 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Of three ways to go solo. The other way is to go with a single teammate and the other.
00:16:27 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:16:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Is to go with.
00:16:30 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
More than one. Yeah. I'd immediately discount go with more than one teammate because the problems are not additive. They multiply as you add more people.
00:16:40 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:16:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And.
00:16:44 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I guess for a lot of people there's a there's a sense of safety in numbers. There's a sense of.
00:16:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Sharing the experience, these things on things that drove me so I I don't go that way. I find when more people have a view on things, it spoils the whole experience because everything slows down friction votes.
00:17:05 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:17:10 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A single partner.
00:17:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Can be a good.
00:17:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Option.
00:17:18 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But if you have a single partner who displays a significant weakness which is unanticipated.
00:17:26 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You end up with a big problem because you've become.
00:17:28
Yeah, yeah.
00:17:31 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Entirely responsible for that person. If their resilience breaks down. If you go solo and you know yourself.
00:17:33
Yeah.
00:17:41 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It can be the best option. So as an aside, for years I I did a lot of cave diving.
00:17:49 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
No.
00:17:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know, these were long dives sometimes, you know, 11-12 hours long and deep, literally kilometres underwater. You know, below 100 metres, water depth, all that sort of.
00:17:54 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Wow.
00:18:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Thing.
00:18:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Wow, I did almost all of those dives. So yeah, because well firstly.
00:18:10 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Nobody's gonna help you. Something going.
00:18:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
This isn't like Paddy recreational diving. It's a whole different set of considerations.
00:18:19
Yeah.
00:18:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But more importantly.
00:18:22 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Really small differences in terms of speed, efficiency.
00:18:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Underwater multiply to become big.
00:18:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So I'd I'd rather accept that and be on my own in that type of situation. There's another advantage in that it lets you get into the sort of flow of things undisturbed now.
00:18:32
Everyone.
00:18:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Having said that.
00:18:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In this case, I started the journey with with a good mate of mine, a guy.
00:18:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Called Steve.
00:18:51 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, Steve is a tough, resilient, experienced guy. He's he's one of Britain's, if not one of the world's best.
00:19:00 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
White water, sea kayakers and long distance sea kayakers. He's done. You know, some some really good stuff.
00:19:03
Wow.
00:19:06 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
And he did some.
00:19:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Really good stuff. The week before we left for Iceland, he paddled across the Irish.
00:19:10 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Sea.
00:19:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But not for the 1st.
00:19:15 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Time, but it meant he was absolutely knackered when he turned up and.
00:19:18 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It was, yeah, yeah.
00:19:19 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It also dropped his watch into the Irish Sea and hadn't.
00:19:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Hadn't got a new one, so.
00:19:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
He turned.
00:19:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Up without any way of telling the time.
00:19:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And he'd invested most of his preparation in the Irish Sea crossing, not in preparing his kit and his bike first.
00:19:38 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:19:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So we we.
00:19:44 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Were in actuary.
00:19:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
On the morning we were supposed to leave.
00:19:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know, spending time on Steve's kit. He hadn't packed his gear onto the bike before, and so on. And and I could already see the problems starting to build. His bike was overweight.
00:19:51 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:20:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I was looking at the tyres on it. They went big enough for the sand thought. Ohh no. Alright OK.
00:20:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It was too late by then, yeah.
00:20:10 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:20:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I knew that Steve was tough enough for resourcefully enough and all of that, so that wasn't a concern. But I knew he was going.
00:20:18 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
To.
00:20:18 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Be slow. Yeah, yeah.
00:20:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And he was. And this caused us real problems.
00:20:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So.
00:20:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Straight away I'm thinking.
00:20:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I'd probably been better on my own and and that's not a good way to be starting a, a journey that requires commitment and everything with it so.
00:20:34 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:20:37
Yeah. Go go back.
00:20:38 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
To what I said before, the choice of partner or not is probably the biggest planning consideration in doing something like this.
00:20:45
Yeah.
00:20:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It's a really simple question. Can I do this myself and do I depend on myself? Am I willing to sort things out if I fall off and hurt myself if I fall over during a river crossing? Am I happy to deal with that area etcetera, etcetera. Versus do I want to take responsibility for someone else?
00:21:02
Good.
00:21:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I do it solo next time.
00:21:09 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, yeah. To your your blog. I saw the kind of differences in the bikes and immediately and I I kind of. I knew a little bit about the the the thick sand in across Iceland and I've I've I've invested in a fat bike myself. So I've got a fat bike and a mountain bike and A and a gravel bike.
00:21:26 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
And I know, I know just how the difference is, you know, riding, riding, mountain bike with sand versus riding a fat bike through sand. It's just a game changer, isn't it? It's like you you either move or you don't, if you're.
00:21:39 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Gonna watch them.
00:21:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What would if one was a?
00:21:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Kind.
00:21:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Of hybrid. Yeah, I I bought it myself. As you saw from the.
00:21:51 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
OK, it was a real high quality steel frame built by Mason cycles. They make their frames in Italy really great frames.
00:22:01 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And then I the the key thing was to make sure that I had wide enough tyres on it so.
00:22:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
They weren't quite fat. They were. I don't know.
00:22:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
If they had a BMI, they'd be.
00:22:09 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Somewhere between.
00:22:11
You know.
00:22:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Chubby and obese.
00:22:18 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I think and then.
00:22:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I was going to say if if you weren't running through, say, a desert, or you know if it wasn't Sandy the entire start to finish line, I think actually probably the best option because it was like you could do with sand when you encountered sand. But if you're on.
00:22:32 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Say rolling hard pack actually be able to maximise your speed with I think with the 2.8 versus say like four or five inch, yeah, fat bike tyres which just gets which gets super heavy when you're cycling, you know, 4 inch tyres for all day you just you just you're knackered you.
00:22:49 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Haven't really gone very far.
00:22:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It gets too hard.
00:22:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Here you, you.
00:22:53 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You've hit the nail on the head.
00:22:56 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A lot of the journey so sporty sender itself like spiky sender.
00:23:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Is basically the broken down bare bones of mountains. They used to be volcanoes. Yeah, which were growing down by the glaciers.
00:23:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And then as the glaciers melted, they deposited all of this.
00:23:19 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
All these pebbles mixed in with all the stuff thrown out by later volcanoes riding over that is, is better done on slightly thinner tyres. In this case the ones I took, we actually got a bit further South. You're actually on, as you said, hard packed gravel in the National Park.
00:23:19 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
So yeah.
00:23:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah.
00:23:33
Yeah.
00:23:38 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But for the size of my fat bike, there would be.
00:23:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A liability, yeah.
00:23:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So I mean I, I I got it right, yeah.
00:23:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Not by accident. Look really hard at the conditions. Whereas Steve thought, well, a mountain bike, you know, can go everywhere, so it'll be alright.
00:23:56 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And I've seen.
00:23:57 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I've seen other people that attempt the route, not the exact router too, but they've tried it on gravel bikes. If anyone's listening and they've been seduced by the phenomenon.
00:24:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Gravel biking then take a bravo bike to Iceland because you'll you'll suffer big time and there were there. There was an American couple a few days behind me, all gravel bikes. They tried to do exactly the route I did and they gave up and had to be pulled out.
00:24:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In Hollow Fran or Dahan, because the gravel bikes just.
00:24:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Weren't for the building.
00:24:30 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Wouldn't cut it.
00:24:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, they got slower and slower and then they they realised that as they got to the river crossings, they were, they were beat, so they they got.
00:24:39 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah. Wow. Incredible work it. It is getting into my question. How do you, I guess.
00:24:39
Up.
00:24:46 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
When when you?
00:24:47 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
How do you physically and mentally prepare for something like this where you don't know what the routes going to be or what it's going to throw up? What you know because you essentially guess looking at a blank canvas so.
00:24:56 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
It's how do you how do you prep?
00:24:59 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
That.
00:25:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Because it's all of those things I I think preparation needs to focus on resilience rather than fitness.
00:25:11 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:25:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
This is a. This is a big thing because if if all this is coming from a racing mindset, the natural but completely incorrect assumption is to train like you're trying to race.
00:25:24
Yeah, yeah, I.
00:25:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I would advise not taking that approach. I I'd say develop resilience but physical fitness.
00:25:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Naturally occurs as a result of building resilience. How do you build resilience, build? You and I are both acts.
00:25:36
Yeah.
00:25:41 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Infantry officer. If you want parachute. Richard. In my case, Royal Marines and yours.
00:25:43
Yeah.
00:25:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That builds resilient. We yeah, we already have it built in. And then what you have to.
00:25:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Do is adapt.
00:25:54 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
To the circumstances before you, through a bit of specific preparation.
00:25:58
Yeah.
00:25:58 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
We'll talk about that.
00:25:59 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In a minute, because the specific preparation to me wasn't really about physical training, it was about building resilience and efficiency.
00:26:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
With efficiency on the line then.
00:26:09 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I'll talk about that.
00:26:10 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In a minute.
00:26:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But for other.
00:26:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
People who maybe don't have our background longer term.
00:26:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I think they have to find a way to develop sufficient resilience to be able to a yeah, understand.
00:26:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What is a realistic level of effort to expend day after day after day for long days, but also to have a sufficient reservoir to deal with unforeseen?
00:26:39 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Eventualities contingencies, which will occur. Absolutely. They're gonna occur now. This is where the racing mindset fails because.
00:26:41 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yes, yeah, yeah.
00:26:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
If you if you.
00:26:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Allow small pressures to force you to increase your pace or expend energy. You're just stepping into that reservoir.
00:26:58 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yes, yes.
00:26:59 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Physical but more importantly, emotional energy.
00:27:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And you need emotional resilience when you're looking at a horrible river crossing or you crash and need to dust yourself off. Or yeah, you, you you may fall in the river and get swept away, stuff like that. That happens. Which. Yeah, so.
00:27:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What? What do we need to think about technically here when we're talking about resilience? Well, the first thing is.
00:27:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You need to build.
00:27:30 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
An absolutely bomb proof diesel engine.
00:27:34 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I.
00:27:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Engine that's trying to just get 2 metres ahead of a competitor. You know what it's like when you're racing, there's that jockeying for.
00:27:46
Yeah.
00:27:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Position forget all.
00:27:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That throw that.
00:27:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Away, but it has no place in this.
00:27:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You're just chugging away.
00:27:54 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Now in in heart rate terms, that's zone too. It is a whole thing in Zone 2.
00:28:00
Yeah.
00:28:01 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I think I dipped into Zone 3 once for about 7 minutes in in this whole crossing. Yeah, just don't do it. Find the temptation. Train yourself not.
00:28:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
To get above that Zone 2 level, it's absolutely crucial. Why do you want to be in Zone 2 technically?
00:28:15 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Half million.
00:28:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Because you can burn fat forever in zone 2.
00:28:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
How do you train your body to burn?
00:28:26 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Fat well over the longer term, think about.
00:28:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What you're eating?
00:28:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Restrict your carbohydrates in order to get your body to crossover to being a fat burning machine. Think about intermittent fasting.
00:28:37
Yeah.
00:28:42
Yeah.
00:28:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That trains your body to switch on and off this ketosis effect.
00:28:50 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yes.
00:28:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, this isn't.
00:28:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
About body image and all that kind of thing, it's about being a ruthlessly efficient machine.
00:28:57 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And that gives you resilience more than anything else. You just don't get tired. I didn't get tired on this trip apart from one day, which we'll talk about.
00:29:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That, yeah.
00:29:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
All of these things really matter. It also produces a clarity of thought because you're not under pressure and knowing you're bomb proof. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely crucial to do these things.
00:29:16 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:29:19 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
So I'm just gonna.
00:29:19 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Add add as well the your blood.
00:29:21 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Sugar level doesn't.
00:29:22 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Doesn't roller coaster as well because when you bring fat and you're obviously maintaining it and you're not going to.
00:29:28 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
To zone 3.
00:29:29 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Or 4 but you're 7 two. Yeah, 100% it.
00:29:31 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Keeps your blood sugar.
00:29:32 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Stable as well, which kept them keeps.
00:29:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Absolutely. You know, I'd I'd advise anyone who wants to do this kind of extended effort to learn about these things and.
00:29:35 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Mentioned here.
00:29:44 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
This isn't fair. You gotta be able to put it into practise before you go well, before you go, you'll make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, build them into your your resilience and and feel it working. It's it's really good.
00:29:58 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Now the the other thing that that lets you do is sit in the saddle for 10 hours.
00:30:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A day or more.
00:30:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I'm not not gonna settle at all. Not to stop. So only time I stopped him these days.
00:30:09 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:30:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Was to take a photograph or to, you know, get some Harrow bows out on my my pocket or my bike pack. What did I what did I?
00:30:19
You know.
00:30:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Eat right. Let's talk.
00:30:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
About fueling, because this is part of resilience and efficiency.
00:30:24 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Here.
00:30:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I'll do a dehydrator and I made all of my own dehydrated meals. Brilliant. Why? So that I'd know exactly what was in them. I knew that in the morning I had to eat a certain number of calories for breakfast in the evening. Certain number of calories for dinner. I didn't stop for lunch.
00:30:39
Yeah.
00:30:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Lunch. Well, lunch didn't exist. With breakfast. I drink a lot of black coffee, you know. Kick start the fat burning and then on the bike after a maybe the first hour and a half, I just start trickling in. Hurry boat.
00:31:05 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:31:06 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Mini size miles bars.
00:31:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And crucially, fat.
00:31:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So fats were just cashew nuts and or what are those little cheese things called?
00:31:17 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
That mini baby bells.
00:31:23 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I have exactly the same approach to I'm like it's like.
00:31:31 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You, you you can't.
00:31:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Do these efforts on just sugars, edible energy gels, or let's sort of?
00:31:34
Yeah.
00:31:37 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Stuff it doesn't work.
00:31:40 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yes.
00:31:41 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Day after day, because you you become sick of them. Yeah. Whatever. These 4 hour efforts. But Ultra Ultra distance athletes understand.
00:31:51 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The relationship between trickling in fats and.
00:31:54 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Sugars over the course of.
00:31:55 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The day look in really simple.
00:31:56 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Terms. Your body can only.
00:31:58 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Access its body fat stores in the presence of blood sugar. Yeah. So if you do two things wrong, if you go at Zone 2 for too long and deplete, you'd like it in stores or.
00:32:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You peek into zone 3 or, God forbid, 4.
00:32:15 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You'll constantly bond through those like kitchen stores, and therefore what we won't be able to access that. So you, you're doomed, you're.
00:32:18
Yeah, yeah.
00:32:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You've gotta get.
00:32:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A night's sleep. You've gotta eat a proper meal. OK, you've lost loads of time. If you are stupid enough to.
00:32:29 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Do that. Yeah, that's awesome.
00:32:31 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Doing these things you you've built in massive resilience and efficiency. OK, so actually robbing from a train to get a little bit faster on the bike.
00:32:44 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Train for these things and understand these things and put them in. Practise putting them in practise, so for some fairly long rides leads to another thing is is a really good thing to do.
00:32:57 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What do those rides look like? Or if you're hiking, what are those hikes look like? Whatever. Well, do them at night. Do them in bad weather.
00:33:05 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Do you hear you?
00:33:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Do them in adverse circumstances. What do I say that?
00:33:10 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Another thing that's really useful to do in preparation is to observe your own failures. Other people's failures. I see people fail mostly when they're stepping outside their routine, so some one of my mates guy called, which is a really good cyclist.
00:33:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But he's a road cyclist.
00:33:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, yeah.
00:33:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Three of us did the the, the, the, the King Guilford Way. You know, it runs. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure the, you know, day one, he's he's a lightweight guy. He's a good Rd, absolutely kicking our ***** for the first day. Until he.
00:33:36 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yes, Sir.
00:33:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Any area of you know it, it wasn't trickling in. The sugars and the fats later in the day started to get.
00:33:56 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Slower and slower it got.
00:33:58 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Dark it doesn't ride in the dark. That's not what we're.
00:34:01 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Cyclists do it.
00:34:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Picture the voice started to go up, all got a bit wobbly and and then there was a proper breakdown. Yeah, sort of emotional breakdown.
00:34:14
And it.
00:34:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It it it it's observing those types of failures and the reasons why it's got nothing to do with race fitness.
00:34:22 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
We've been in.
00:34:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Interrogate that and say well, OK, you know, I'm. I'm gonna have to be doing 10 hour days in the saddle.
00:34:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Here I'm going to be riding into the evening at night practise.
00:34:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It and learn.
00:34:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Not only to be able to tolerate it, but to.
00:34:37 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Enjoy it. Yeah, yeah.
00:34:39 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, 100% Westland at that time of year, you get 24 hour essentially, but it's at midnight. It's really weird sunshine it it and it it changes your emotional state. Yeah. When I talk about resilience, it's about being able to accommodate.
00:34:40 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Hi.
00:35:00 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And enjoy it rather than being unsettled by it because dealing with.
00:35:05
The.
00:35:06 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A sort of degraded emotional state actually takes a lot of energy, and you can't afford to be wasting energy on these things. But but this was one of my mate Steve's big problems because he.
00:35:15
Yes.
00:35:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
He didn't click in the in the desert. Yeah, it really got under his skin.
00:35:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It didn't help that on day three.
00:35:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
He had to walk.
00:35:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And push his bike for something like 70 kilometres.
00:35:35 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Have you have?
00:35:35 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
You ever hike a bike on a on any kind of places or anything? You know how mentally degrading it is? Just like I'm trying to stand upright in this kind of wobbly thing and hold a bike as well, that's heavily ladened.
00:35:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Absolutely.
00:35:46 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
With gear and it's it's a double double whammy, isn't it?
00:35:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Ohh it's a double blooming and then the double blaming becomes and then it.
00:35:55 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
When you're in a terrible state, you.
00:35:58 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But let you can put.
00:35:59 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Some numbers to the efficiency, so let's talk about traffic.
00:36:04 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Your.
00:36:06 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
All of these.
00:36:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Little things you do in a day add up, yes, yeah, some some more average speed through the hard parts of this for 16 kilometres an hour.
00:36:16 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Wow. Wow, that's that's fast. That's work as well. Yeah. Yeah.
00:36:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It it was fast because the bike was right. Yeah, and and and. And that was its own too. So that was a that was an efficient.
00:36:31 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Speed. Yeah. Think about that. Think about what, 10 minutes huffing equates to in terms of distance?
00:36:38 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, yeah.
00:36:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And and train yourself not to FAP.
00:36:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I I see people face so much when they're having to be self aligned. Yeah, why not? Well, because they haven't practised all the basic stuff they'll concentrate on.
00:36:57 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Intervals or a CrossFit session?
00:36:59 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Or something like that. Well.
00:37:00 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Fine. OK, you're super fit, but you've just wasted 5 kilometres worth of work by that thing for half an hour.
00:37:06 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Or 20 hours.
00:37:07 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, yeah. Trying to find something that's at the bottom of your bag or not having your beer set up properly, not letting your way around you. Yeah, I 100% and saying exactly the.
00:37:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Right.
00:37:15 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Same mindset I I.
00:37:17 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I I just. I was just thinking actually from from what you're saying before about.
00:37:20 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
But the the food that they're training in, the environments that you'll tackle as well is exactly the same approach for the mouth, and the samples like.
00:37:29 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Getting up at.
00:37:29 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, like, you know, 3:00 or 4:00 AM when it's still dark and cold running the South Downs way in preparation for, you know, for for the bills, you know, which obviously it's all the same terrain as the desert because it's it's a hard pack. But it was.
00:37:41 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
For the like, get up, get up past 3:00 AM, it's cold outside.
00:37:45 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
You know their bag on and just going run out in the dark and everyone else is still sleeping off a hangover or something like that. And I was like, exactly the same mindset. Brilliant. I love. I love it when I hear somebody.
00:37:57 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Talking the same. It's funny something. So I did the this is gonna reach me now.
00:38:04 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
North on Disabler and I think it was the 13th 1 back in 1990.
00:38:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
1990 whatever, but I.
00:38:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Run it as John Aspel.
00:38:18 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So.
00:38:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
There there was one power team. Presbyterian parachute was our team going out there. They trained for about a year and I've I've been away in Germany for that year on a different job. And I remember sitting in the officers mess with a guy called Evan Fury. Officer, great guy.
00:38:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I was chatting to him more for breakfast and they were due to go to the Sahara.
00:38:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In I think the next day. Yeah. And we tried to go for breakfast and I said, well, I haven't. Who's, you know, is the team ready all fit. And he said, oh, well, we'll we were. But Johnny Aspell actually popped his Achilles on the training run yesterday. And I'm looking for somebody to go out there.
00:39:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So before I even realise what was going on, I said you have billion, would it? So I want to go to Aldershot. Both some new trainers. So my my training programme.
00:39:19 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
For the marathon, disable it was a a four mile run along a bit. I found. I found myself in the you know, the better intents that you. You still? Yeah. I was on the.
00:39:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Sure.
00:39:33 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I was.
00:39:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In one of those.
00:39:37 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
When I arrived sort of going through this rock set that have been given to me with someone.
00:39:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Else's Kitty. Right. OK, what have we got here?
00:39:46 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
So yeah, that was.
00:39:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
My prep for that and did I learn any? Did I learn any lessons? Yes, I did.
00:39:54 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Like, that's a big, big respect cause it's like like one day prep and some gear and then obviously, you know, you know, the climatisation that goes a bit. That's that's. Yeah. That's incredible.
00:40:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah. So.
00:40:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So you know, compare that to all the things I've just been saying about the premier Iceland, you know, a totally free.
00:40:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
More from this.
00:40:16 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
But yes, I arguably, then arguably you put yourself in that, you know, you call it the arena, you know, the the pressure test is, is it then you're like, OK, Now I know the variables that that should be controlled. And so my approach then changes.
00:40:28 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Is to, you know, controlling as many of these variables as possible. When it comes to something like, you know, like the island divide or something. So yeah, the evolution of it.
00:40:38
It it.
00:40:39 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Exactly. And it, you know, it's funny it it, it was a what it what? It was a as a salutary experience. But at the time I was, I was a young.
00:40:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know parachute.
00:40:51 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Regiment captain. And you know my day job involved.
00:40:54 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Hard physical effort so.
00:40:56 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah. So actually the the the preparation was longer term and deeper than just.
00:41:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The four mile run so it it it wasn't.
00:41:03
Yeah.
00:41:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It could. It could have been a lot worse.
00:41:12 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Come back to the.
00:41:14 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
What?
00:41:15 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
The in terms of the western divider, what kind of challenges do you encounter on the expedition? I'll, I'll. I'll make sure I sign post more to your blog.
00:41:22 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
On that, on it as well.
00:41:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, yeah, maybe, maybe before we touch on that. We haven't really talked about the mental preparation, which is yes, maybe, maybe should we should.
00:41:30 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
So yes.
00:41:32 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
We talk about it. Yes. Yeah, please. Yeah.
00:41:34 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
And and this is.
00:41:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Where I'm going to try and avoid getting all sort of hand WAVY and very very new age about things. That's not where I'm coming from at all, but let let's talk about the mental preparation so.
00:41:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
We talked about resilience before and I I think resilience is a natural product of getting the the physical preparation right through all of the things I've I've just talked about and what really is the long term.
00:42:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Process it it it takes a lifetime to develop that bomb. Proof resilience that can do pretty much everything.
00:42:14 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, yeah.
00:42:18 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But.
00:42:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Maybe here a step out of?
00:42:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The the physical process to talk about the thinking and earlier when I mentioned man Shepherd and her masterpiece.
00:42:34 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The living mountain and and and I recommend that book to anybody who is considering this type of thing.
00:42:41 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Her her book really is.
00:42:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Is is a is a meditational landscape, but the final two chapters, which I think are called the senses and being.
00:42:50
Where?
00:42:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
She really provides an insight to how she understands landscape and when I when I read it relatively recently.
00:43:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It it hit the nail on the head, it articulated perfectly the things I was struggling to articulate. Yeah and.
00:43:10 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A few a few phrases from it there.
00:43:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Are instructive, I think so. The the book challenge is what you might call the the heroes journey narrative.
00:43:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Which comes back to that racing mindset and that this is all about the numbers and the Instagram photos. And yes, yeah.
00:43:28 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
All all of that.
00:43:30 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The It's not about that. It's about a sort of a moving meditation, if you like.
00:43:36 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And experiencing of the thing through the, you know, which grows as you as you go through it.
00:43:46 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
She she calls it.
00:43:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Bodily thinking or experiential meditation, which.
00:43:52 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Anderson.
00:43:53 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
In in the modern.
00:43:55 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Material world is is verging on.
00:43:59 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know, slightly mystical and fairy fairy.
00:44:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Very much, but.
00:44:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It but it isn't because.
00:44:06 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Bear in mind that a huge part of this landscape.
00:44:09 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Was only created in 2014. Fifteen and.
00:44:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, yeah, there's a as soon as you step into this.
00:44:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Landscape, particularly if you're on your own.
00:44:19 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Without a vehicle.
00:44:22 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It becomes timeless and the scale as it changes you become very absorbed in the landscape and this is one of the things land Shepherd talks about, she says. The landscape.
00:44:24
Yes.
00:44:34 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Only becomes material through our perception of it. Yeah, yeah. And the experiential thinking phrase starts to make sense then.
00:44:44 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I think at this point.
00:44:45 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
The.
00:44:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Articulating the experience through words starts to break down, and it only makes sense when you when you do it and experience it. But.
00:44:54 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yes, this this.
00:44:58 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
This is all part of the mental preparation which goes hand in hand with the physical resilience for this type of thing. I I think if you're considering stepping out of a structured environment which is a race or an organised event to be self-sufficient autonomous.
00:45:03 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, yeah.
00:45:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That's the frame of mind that really works for this type of.
00:45:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Thing.
00:45:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Because there are a lot of risks involved.
00:45:26 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And being that selfish.
00:45:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Without that frame of mind and resilience.
00:45:32 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
100% yeah, yeah, yeah, I can say because it it's because they're the one that's obviously put all the effort into preparing for it and then managing managing it and and and then doing it as well is that obviously it's very, it will be very easy then to kind of absorb, absorb the blame. You know, if things did go wrong, for example, which you know can cause injury.
00:45:52 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Because you know all all sorts of, you know, kind of like follow on damages as well. So yeah, I like that. Like we're thinking about.
00:45:58 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. It's it's it's very hard to put into words. And I think you can only go so far.
00:46:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
One Shepherd says that an attempt to do so.
00:46:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Is a pallid simulacrum of the lived experience, and I I like that phrase. I I I think you have to put a full stop at the the oral description at that point or the verbal description.
00:46:25 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:46:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
At that point.
00:46:26 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And say, OK, this is now about committing to the experience and taking what comes, yeah.
00:46:30 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, like crossing, almost like crossing the threshold and saying, like, this is it's it's now doing it.
00:46:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah.
00:46:37 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, exactly. Exactly, yeah.
00:46:41 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
So I've I've read your blog through kind of several times because I was so fascinated by the the trip and the sort of the glacial rivers and the katabatic winds that came for the ice cap were two the big so he's smelling ohh God. Cheers. Cheers. Running with his Chris like.
00:46:58 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Were they the? Were they the only challenge? Not the only challenges, but were they the the main challenges, or did we encounter anything else which maybe you know wasn't you weren't expecting or was a new a new thing?
00:47:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yes, in a sense, no in a sense. So. So the first thing is that the, the, if you get your level of intensity right.
00:47:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Most most of the effort is easy.
00:47:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And and and I know that sounds a bit strange because the landscape is so hard. How can it be easy?
00:47:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, yeah, you've you've.
00:47:40
Well.
00:47:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Done the thinking you've done, the preparation of the bike, the kit. You know what level to work out. You've got the resilience. It's actually quite easy.
00:47:50 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:47:51 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What makes it hard?
00:47:53 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The river crossings were really hard and mentally and physically very mind that Frankel didn't wanna do the river crossings, OK and he and he was he was an Uber hard Viking. So. So he wasn't prepared to do.
00:48:11 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
And what other?
00:48:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
People's accounts of bike packing or hiking along springy Sander and pretty much everyone was stopped by a river and had to wait for a Jeep to come along so that they could hitch a lift.
00:48:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I was adamant that I wasn't gonna do.
00:48:26 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That.
00:48:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, his.
00:48:30 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
For this to be authentic, let's go back to the aesthetic beauty thing I was talking about earlier.
00:48:37 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That would have been wrecked if I'd used the vehicle.
00:48:41 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
No, I didn't see a vehicle or a person for the first four days.
00:48:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So I could have been stuck at a river for four.
00:48:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Days if that was right.
00:48:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I was. I was willing to.
00:48:55
To.
00:48:56 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Accept the risk of difficult over facing river crossings in order to maintain the authenticity, so they had to happen and there had make them happen.
00:49:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah. When you work with one of these roofers, the the first thing to know about these these roofers is that the the flow rates and the water level fluctuates through the day and through the seasons and day by day because they depend on how much melt water is coming off the.
00:49:20
Yeah.
00:49:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Ice cap or the glass?
00:49:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So when you get there, you have to make a judgement about how deep, how fast and how.
00:49:33 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Intimidating. The thing is, yeah, and not just rivers. OK, the, the bridges that they run through have been hacked out by placing water. Yeah.
00:49:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But it's not just water, because cold air comes down off the glacier channels into the river channel and is blasting down along the water, whipping up this really sharp cold spray.
00:50:00 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:50:00 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It's a. It's a. It's almost like a a train, an express train, a fast train blowing across the top of the water, so you won't just deal with fast flowing deep water that you can't see the bottom of.
00:50:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It was also dealing with this horrible malign wind, which is trying to push you in as well the noise. It's sort of gloomy and dark. Yeah. See where the the the Icelandic sort of not the sagas, but the.
00:50:34 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The myths come from, you know, you, you, you start entertaining.
00:50:36
Yeah.
00:50:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Dark thoughts when you're you're doing all this. So you, you, you get to this river and this is what faces you. But let's go back to the other thing that was the problem because the distance between Steve and I was was so great at this point. I would arrive in a river and I was faced with the choice between just getting in.
00:50:59 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And doing the crossing while I had momentum in the sense of momentum.
00:51:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah. Yeah. Waiting for Steve.
00:51:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In the cold.
00:51:08 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:51:09 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Glowing. It's everything's starting to get under my skin and me starting to think about things that I didn't need to be thinking about, what I have to be doing.
00:51:19 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The judgement call and and where it could be criticised for just getting across and expecting Steve to do the same on his own. But then we think well.
00:51:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
OK.
00:51:30 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In this relationship, you've got one person who's underperforming and weak. You've got another person who's doing OK and a strong.
00:51:36 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
If I wait and sit in the cold for.
00:51:38 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Maybe two hours.
00:51:39
Yeah.
00:51:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And then I.
00:51:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Get in a glacial river, which is, you know, one or two degrees Celsius.
00:51:44 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I get in.
00:51:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The cold you've now got 2 cold, weak people.
00:51:48 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%, yeah.
00:51:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It's quite it's, it's. It's quite a grown up judgement call to make, so most of the time I just got in, got through the rivers and then cracked on on the other.
00:51:58 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Side yeah. Yeah, not.
00:52:00 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Every time, so that was one of the challenges.
00:52:06 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
When I did on.
00:52:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
One occasion I did decide to wait and let Steve catch up because it was very late in the.
00:52:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Day.
00:52:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
We actually camped by the river, didn't really get any sleep because I was worried about what you call yokel loves, which is a flash flood because of volcanic activity.
00:52:25 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yes. Yeah.
00:52:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I was. I had these unquiet thoughts about.
00:52:31 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Dying in a, you know, a world of blackened volcanic floodwater and all that kind of.
00:52:38 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Good, good.
00:52:38
Thing.
00:52:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So everybody sleep. And did the river crossing early the next morning actually, once it got in the water it was fine, so I needn't worry but.
00:52:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Problem 2 then emerges around about this point, which is not in this river, but the next one, which I thought was easier. Steve was behind me. I've got through just fine.
00:53:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Stayed fallen and got washed downstream and.
00:53:06 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Got hypothermic.
00:53:09 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And that was the end of the trip for him, really.
00:53:11
Yeah, yeah.
00:53:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Well, he was.
00:53:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Stood at the side of this this river, having managed to get himself out, he stripped down to his underpants.
00:53:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Tried to get some dry kit on just as.
00:53:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The first vehicle.
00:53:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Which he'd seen in four days arrived, driven by a French guy who was crossing Iceland on his.
00:53:30 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Own.
00:53:31 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
He's confronted by this freezing cold Welsh guy at the side of the river. Since you know well, excuse my accent, you know. Well, why are you here in your underpants?
00:53:41 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Sort of, Steve says. Oh, I've just. I've just been for a swim.
00:53:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Why are you sitting? This river is not suitable for swimming.
00:53:56 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So I didn't know any of this at home until I arrived at the first manned Hut on our need. Needler and Steve arrived with this French guy. I explained what had happened and that was the the end of the trip for Steve had to start thinking about.
00:54:12 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:54:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Better, you know, continuing my own whilst at the same time making sure Steve.
00:54:17
Yeah.
00:54:19 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Was OK and.
00:54:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Catered for and all of that.
00:54:21
Yeah.
00:54:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So so that.
00:54:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Was one of the big challenges we wrapped up within the bigger challenge of managing leading somebody else who's physical and mental resilience was was degrading, you know over time.
00:54:39 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah. So, OK, so you've then you've you've reached the the Hut and then you probably got quite a difficult decision and ahead of you to of of how to go ahead and continue I guess?
00:54:55 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The the first part of the decision was was obvious and was made for us. It was the right decision and we we wouldn't have done it differently, but just just before reaching the Hut I was, I'd stopped to take some photographs of some interesting.
00:55:14 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:55:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That comes from a recent eruption and what I was doing it was huge. Truck appears first vehicle that's been here for four days.
00:55:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And a few.
00:55:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
100 kilometres and it was it was the search and rescue truck was 2 Icelandic.
00:55:33 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Who go out to check that the route is open after the the snow and the ICES disappeared? Oh well, this is what July. So it it. It only opens for a really brief window.
00:55:37
Hello.
00:55:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I've really been surprised to see me and to where where have you come from so?
00:55:53 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I told them.
00:56:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You understand?
00:56:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So yeah, I just. I've just seen those guys. But then so when you get the hot Steve, it's all gone wrong at the river for Steve.
00:56:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The search and rescue device just said look, we're not letting him continue and that that was fine, but there there was no question of him continuing anyway. So they actually took responsibility for finding him a, a ride across springy Sander which would take us to the last bit of the journey now.
00:56:23
Yay.
00:56:33
Yeah.
00:56:41 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
That's.
00:56:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
We we know on the.
00:56:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Main F 26 route there's a.
00:56:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Little bit of traffic.
00:56:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I think I saw.
00:56:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Five vehicles over the next 150 months to stretch, so it's it's getting busy at this point. We're in the Pebble Desert. We're between the two ice caps of what would it be Hoffs Hoffs yokel, and that the yokels would sort of in between these two bleak, you know, harsh?
00:56:51 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
There.
00:57:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Irish landscape getting battered by these katabatic winds coming down off about the octal ice cap, the yeah 100 mile an hour. Plus you can see them coming.
00:57:18 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Because this this wall.
00:57:20
Of.
00:57:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Ash kicked up from the ground.
00:57:23
You get off the.
00:57:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Bike take cover loom into it. Let it.
00:57:26 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Pass and crack on.
00:57:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So yeah, the decision was.
00:57:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
OK, Steve, Steve's not coming there. Maybe we'll pick Steve up later in the route after Springy Sander, which we did what I did rather and and then.
00:57:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What am I going to do? So originally we'd plan to do this 150K section.
00:57:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
As, frankly, send her over two days, which was, you know, quite reasonably easy going.
00:57:53
David.
00:57:55 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
We've lost a day at the Nutella Hut because of the delayed river crossing and the.
00:58:00 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
00:58:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The unplanned camp and then the day at Needler.
00:58:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So I did what I thought was obvious to me, so, but I'll just crack on.
00:58:10 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And do the.
00:58:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Two days together in one.
00:58:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Which which was a pretty hot day actually.
00:58:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
150 kilometres on.
00:58:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The road, yeah, Britain would be.
00:58:23 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Quite easy for a trained cyclist.
00:58:26 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But a kilometre and springy Sander is not like a genius from the British Rd.
00:58:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The the The the homeland does.
00:58:39
That.
00:58:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But we've gone through in the first four days ask her to.
00:58:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Hollow crown or to have her own.
00:58:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Is in rain shadow. It's a tree desert that doesn't receive a lot of precipitation, and the weather was actually sunny, warm. Not much wind. Quite nice. Soon as you you get around the edge of the fat. The octal ice cup. The batter Bulgaria into needle.
00:59:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Everything changed. It was gloomy, freezing, cold, raining.
00:59:15 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Katabatic wind.
00:59:17 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
150 kilometres over pebbles in that weather is really hard.
00:59:22 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, I can imagine.
00:59:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And this wasn't about physical fitness, you know, although the rules apply, zone 2 fuelling all happening as it should not a problem, just told them.
00:59:34 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, but yeah.
00:59:35
What?
00:59:38 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah. So.
00:59:40
Following.
00:59:41 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Hour 8.
00:59:44 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I was. I was pretty tired. It was pretty.
00:59:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Cold.
00:59:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The last few hours were just some. Sometimes you just gotta reach deep into yourself and and just get it done. And that's just one of those days. You know, I wasn't enjoying it.
00:59:49
You.
00:59:57
Yeah.
01:00:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, let's just get this bit done. No, that's OK. You get any attempt or, you know, in this case it was quite lucky there was a a hotel at the end of the stretch, but a decent points cap and some decent food. And you're you're you're good to go again. That's absolutely fine. No.
01:00:12 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yes.
01:00:17 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Harm done.
01:00:19 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
At this. At this point I'm gonna change the merged so.
01:00:24 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
This, this, this.
01:00:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Really put a stop to it. It was it was. It revealed. The only mistake you ever made in the planning. And I I got annoyed with myself for it. And this is my big lesson here for anybody is don't let yourself get annoyed with yourself.
01:00:40 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, yeah.
01:00:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That's a very.
01:00:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Corrosive thing to allow to.
01:00:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It you're going to get.
01:00:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Annoyed, but don't let it take over. Find a way to solve the problem and accommodate that emotion. Overcome it and then be positive. This isn't manufacturing a positive mindset. This is stepping back into a properly positive.
01:00:54
Yeah.
01:01:04 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Problem solving.
01:01:06 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Optimistic, optimistic aggression to mindset is it's a skill that you have to learn. If you're gonna do this sort of thing.
01:01:15 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What what basically happened was on the flight over. So I was using tubeless tyres which by the.
01:01:20
Yeah.
01:01:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Way was really where to go.
01:01:22 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tubeless tyres.
01:01:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Gets rid of.
01:01:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The problem with punctures not a problem, but you still have to carry an inner tube.
01:01:29
Hey man.
01:01:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Just in case.
01:01:34 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So the the other tube was in.
01:01:36 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
My kit.
01:01:39 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What had happened was on the flight over, the bike was properly backed up and everything but.
01:01:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
My front tyre had come off the river in and at some point during the journey I discovered that at Reykjavik Airport I had to then spend a bit of time in Reykjavik, find a bike shop, get some yeah fluid for tubeless tyres, get that front tyre.
01:02:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Back on the rim. Good to go.
01:02:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What should I have done right we know.
01:02:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
If you're flying aircraft.
01:02:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The most probable time for an engine to fail is just after another engine has failed because the something wrong in the system.
01:02:16 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, yeah, true.
01:02:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Idiot forgot that lesson and didn't check the rear tyre which look friendly affixed.
01:02:23 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I'm not.
01:02:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But actually the rear tyre had lost all of its tubeless fluid on the flight over as well. But I hadn't noticed because it looked OK, so I bought this tubeless fluid, fixed the front tyre and then actuary gave my bottle of tubeless fluid to a bike shop.
01:02:33
Today.
01:02:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yes, it's expensive stuff, so I don't need it. I'm good to go.
01:02:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So when you go.
01:02:51 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
To this point, at the end of that double day across brain, December already absolutely shot, cold, tired, feeling a bit fragile emotionally.
01:03:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Came out the next morning and my rear tyre was off the.
01:03:04 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Rim.
01:03:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Because it was slowly deflating.
01:03:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I thought, ohh no, I don't need this now, so my emotional has taken another dip before. That said the trips over because you can't reseat a tube. That's total without fluid.
01:03:12 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
01:03:18
Yeah.
01:03:26 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
It's like actually turns up.
01:03:28 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Like like Vaseline or like some kind of like obscure thing actually.
01:03:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, absolutely. All you need is some sort of fluid, so.
01:03:41 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
One of the nice things about Icelandic people is they're very resourceful and they're they're very willing to.
01:03:46 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Help.
01:03:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
When somebody else needs resourcing, the but the history has has caused them to be this way. So you're asking the person to help you get help. So.
01:03:48
Yeah.
01:04:00 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I can't remember what it was it it was something like fascinating or something. I don't know. So I just got it on my finger. Run it around.
01:04:06 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The rim.
01:04:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And then reseated the tyre in the.
01:04:09 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Way you would, but no fluid in it.
01:04:10
Yes.
01:04:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And miraculously, it sat on the room.
01:04:17 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But I had to pump it back. Yeah, OK.
01:04:22 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I thought, well, OK, this is not what.
01:04:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I wanted, but I accept it. Let's.
01:04:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I'm good to go. I'm good to go, so.
01:04:32 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I'm going to.
01:04:33 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Talk about getting into a problem solving mindset that was more opportunity to throw all my toys out the pram.
01:04:40
Yeah.
01:04:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Give up. Get on the bus.
01:04:41 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
01:04:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You just go back to.
01:04:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Reykjavik cause I could have done that.
01:04:44 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
There was, there was a route from there which wouldn't let me do it, but I turned off and.
01:04:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Managed to finish the journey.
01:04:51
With the boat.
01:04:51 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Performing acceptably, but not optimally after perfection after good enough.
01:04:54 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
No. Yeah, exactly. Exactly the same mindset. You know, if it's if it can, if it can, you know, because you're you're that close to the finish line at that point, then obviously it's it's just a case of finishing what you'd start start and obviously being through.
01:05:09 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Those holes in those difficult hurdles and in the in the same way, so yeah, completely.
01:05:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah. And for for anybody, you know, looking looking for other other lessons about how to.
01:05:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Build this wider resilience mindset. Whatever.
01:05:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Book I really.
01:05:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Recommend not. Might be hard to get hold of, and if you like, I can.
01:05:36 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Send it to.
01:05:36 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You it's really hot messiness, Antarctica both heaven and hell. Back in, I think 1990, February 1990, Reinhold Messner and Arvid Fox.
01:05:37
Yeah.
01:05:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Walked across Antarctica and the key theme of of that story is about Harry Reinhold Messner managed.
01:05:58 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The relationship with Ovid, because Ovid was a lot.
01:06:01
Subbu.
01:06:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Slower than one.
01:06:04 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And how not to let that be be a a, A cause for the relationship to break down.
01:06:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
No, it did break down after the journey, but it didn't break down during the journey, which was absolutely crucial. It's it's an absolutely brilliant book, both guys hardest nails, you know, really, really fit just tough guys.
01:06:15 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
01:06:27 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But the environment was such that.
01:06:31 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The hidden weakness has emerged when would Messner?
01:06:32 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
01:06:36 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
One of the Messner actually thrives on other people's weaknesses, and he becomes strong.
01:06:40
Yeah.
01:06:41 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
His inclination is to drive harder.
01:06:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And I I experienced that intuitive response in Iceland with Steve, but you have to rein that in. And so I'm not here to punish someone else. I'm here to help them. And it was being able to draw on long hold messiness description of this journey which allowed it sort of equipped me to deal with Steve's.
01:06:48
Yeah.
01:07:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Temporary weakness and hopefully exhibit better leadership than my natural personality would have done.
01:07:11
Yeah, which is.
01:07:14 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
And your son?
01:07:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So you are going to.
01:07:17 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
With the shin, it's never read of it myself. I've I've like I've I've come across, but I'm I'm conscious. I'm going to get too much of your time. But I guess with with any lessons that came out of the entire experience for you, I guess when's when's it lasted from? Say they didn't, you didn't?
01:07:35 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Get in the.
01:07:36 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
And in the NDS or other, you know or or other kind of similar experiences, what would it any came out from this one aspect?
01:07:43 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Really.
01:07:47 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, 3.
01:07:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The main one we've touched upon before, but it's worth restating is.
01:07:55 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Make the right decision about solo one partner or more than one partner.
01:08:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That, that's yeah, fundamental. Absolutely fundamental.
01:08:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And then I listed what six others.
01:08:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
One is to plan meticulously, but to be flexible and not.
01:08:18 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Not allow deviations from the plan to spoil things. Just just accept them. Even if you can't embrace them, you don't have to accept them.
01:08:21
Here.
01:08:26
Yeah, well.
01:08:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Sometimes you can't change. Just get comfortable with that. Make it work for you. That that's the first. The the second is.
01:08:38 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I think quite a hard.
01:08:39 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
One, it's easy to say, but hard to do, which is to be worthlessly honest with yourself about your own resilience.
01:08:45
Yeah.
01:08:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And what follows from that?
01:08:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The Third Point is to is to focus your preparation and your training on your weaknesses.
01:08:58 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Don't don't train.
01:09:00 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The things you enjoy, that's the point that should be really.
01:09:01 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I'm.
01:09:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Good at them.
01:09:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Do the hard stuff and make it not only, yeah, but make it a job.
01:09:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, that, that's that's really important.
01:09:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The.
01:09:15 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
The the four things specificity.
01:09:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Find a way to channel your general experience.
01:09:26 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In the lead up to something like this through specific preparation, we talked about efficiency. So rather than doing lots of CrossFit.
01:09:35
Work.
01:09:39 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Practise.
01:09:41 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Your camping routine and and and make that worthlessly efficient.
01:09:42 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yes. Yeah.
01:09:46 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Hundreds. And you, you reminded me of the times when I was, when I was, when I was trying to put up a tent, you know, times a week when you're cold, wet and tired and purple tent is like.
01:09:55 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Impossible, isn't it? You know, so. So it's like I almost find find myself going out just just to, like, put myself somewhere cold, wet, tired. I'll try and put up the tent that you use for that expedition. So yeah, I'll hand it to the same mindset.
01:09:59
Yeah.
01:10:08 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
When it comes to that, yeah, I'm with that.
01:10:17 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
B.
01:10:18 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Make sure that you always have situational awareness. Look, I I talked before about Steve dropping his, his watching.
01:10:26 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
To the Irish Sea.
01:10:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What really, what time it is alright. I talked about the timelessness of this before. That's on a certain level. On another level, you need to know.
01:10:36 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Good. I'm fine, baby. Yeah, yeah.
01:10:36 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
What time it is?
01:10:39 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, yeah, you too.
01:10:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You're you're almost running 2 software programmes at the same time. There's this one, which is all about timelessness and the flow and all the Zen stuff. But you're still in the real world.
01:10:53 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Well, what time it is and.
01:10:55 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know, basic stuff. Let let's not.
01:10:57 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Get away from.
01:10:57 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The the practicalities here.
01:11:00 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Get your navigation on point all of that stuff you you can't afford to feel disorientated. It really helps.
01:11:01 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
01:11:10 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Now the the.
01:11:11 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The the last one is context. We started off by talking about the genesis of the idea.
01:11:20 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I think we've all experienced in a race setting where we get tired, particularly in Ultra marathon type effort.
01:11:28 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You get tired and then you get really.
01:11:29 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Sad.
01:11:31 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That's where you need to fall back on.
01:11:34 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Meaningful context as as a way of motivation. This is not manufactured motivation, it's real. It's where.
01:11:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know the aesthetic beauty of the thing, the meaning of the thing actually provides a a buffer for your own emotions. I think without that context, it's very hard to do these things well and to enjoy them now. But the last bit of the journey, I haven't really talked about, which is where we went through one of the national.
01:11:54
Yeah.
01:12:01 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Parks.
01:12:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The scenery.
01:12:03 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It was great in many ways it was.
01:12:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Comparable to the first part of the journey, I mean.
01:12:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I wouldn't. I wouldn't. It looks nice. It's just horrible. The only nice thing about it is there are some ground nesting birds and.
01:12:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That that's interesting that you know that that was that's about the best thing to do this when you sent, I'm afraid. But the National Park is visually stunning. The problem with it is that there are loads of cars there. There are loads of tourists there.
01:12:21 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
01:12:33 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
And.
01:12:34 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So.
01:12:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
They all have a right to be there, of course they do. They're enjoying their holidays, but it impacts on this kind of aesthetic experience and it it the reason I don't talk about that part of the journey much.
01:12:41
Yeah.
01:12:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Is that it? It it.
01:12:48
Yeah.
01:12:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Lacked all of that.
01:12:49
Yeah.
01:12:51 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So that was just a case of kind of getting through it and enjoying it as much as I could, but.
01:12:55 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
That wasn't much, to be fair.
01:12:56
And.
01:12:58 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So I I would really say, you know, find a context that you find meaningful and then shape your journey around that context rather than maybe doing it the other way around.
01:13:10 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Percent.
01:13:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know that I I guess that brings us to where we are now. I'll start with this journey at a body weight of 84 kilos, which I'd had to drive myself to cause. I'm that's not my natural build and I'm not naturally an enjoying so athlete so.
01:13:22
Yeah.
01:13:31 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know, doing something totally different now, I mentioned to you in a message the other day about.
01:13:37 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Lifting. Yeah, you know, a few years ago.
01:13:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I discovered.
01:13:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The the lost traditional culture in our Celtic nations lifting heavy stones, it's been done for maybe thousands of years.
01:13:48
Yeah.
01:13:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And between, you know, a.
01:13:54 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Small group of us with.
01:13:56 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
We discovered a load in Scotland, Ireland and now North Wales and and they're difficult to live so.
01:14:05 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know, that's what.
01:14:06 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I do know and it's it's.
01:14:07 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It's it's partly about strength, obviously, and the the physical side of it, but actually more than that it's a.
01:14:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Sort.
01:14:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Of a journey back to the centre. It's a rediscovery of heritage and culture and.
01:14:17
Yeah.
01:14:19 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Grand Groundedness within all of that, and and that that's what really gives it meaning.
01:14:22
No.
01:14:25 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I mean, yeah, I mean it.
01:14:26 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
It does give me a quick quick next question I guess is, is there anything do you have plans for something else? And I guess I guess presumably does it does involve those stones, does it include rapes? Does it?
01:14:39 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Quite, quite big.
01:14:39 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
No, it was like.
01:14:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It it it it is it? I think it's not about.
01:14:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Collecting stones. It's not about having a list or.
01:14:54 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
This strong sports are like any other sports a.
01:14:59 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Lot of it is ego driven.
01:15:01 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And.
01:15:02 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I I've lifted the biggest one and I've been the 1st to.
01:15:04 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Do it, but none of that really interests me.
01:15:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
This is about, you know, standing on a bit of Welsh Moreland surrounded by these, like scudding clouds. And, you know, in a in a quintessentially Welsh or Scottish or Irish landscape, sometimes on your own. And then.
01:15:13 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
01:15:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Stepping across that threshold, as you called it, which is an instantaneous thing in this case where?
01:15:25 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
01:15:30 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Everything just focuses in on the moment.
01:15:32 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
01:15:34 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know the individual crystals of a stone stand out. You feel the weight, but you don't feel the weight and you know, we're getting back to all the things we talked about in this Icelandic landscape.
01:15:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
In many ways it's it's the same experience, the same level of experience, but.
01:15:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, done differently. So yeah, I mean that, that's that's what I'm doing at the moment and it's a, I think this whole journey gets overused, but it it is kind of a journey. It's it's a journey forward in time as you you find and lift more of these things. It's it's and landscapes.
01:16:10 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
01:16:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But it's also a journey back to the centre of, you know, your own identity and a disco.
01:16:18 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Prove literally where you come from in, in terms of your, your ancestry and rootedness, and and landscape. And that so yeah, that's.
01:16:19
Yes.
01:16:24
Yeah.
01:16:27 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
That's what it's all about. You you've gotta, you've now put. You gotta push me towards actually finding more meaning in these kind of things rather than just tick ticking off a, you know, a checkbox list of.
01:16:28
Check.
01:16:38 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Have I done this and this and this because it's I think as a youngster you definitely.
01:16:43 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Have that or I definitely have that kind of that approach to doing these things. And now it's like, well, actually there's a whole lot more that comes out of them and you know can be enjoyed especially as as a millennial, you know I'm I'm 41 and it's now actually it's like well, I've got to work hard to make time to do these things. It's not just a case of I can just fit them in any anywhere and.
01:16:50
Oh.
01:17:02
Yeah.
01:17:03 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
You know, it's comes like parts party. What drove there? Drove, tells Adventure was, you know, helping other people find the the the, the ability to fit.
01:17:08 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, yeah.
01:17:10 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Them in as well.
01:17:12
Yeah.
01:17:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah. Which which, which I suppose leads.
01:17:16 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
To the the the final thing I might say, which is what else am I doing now?
01:17:20
Yes.
01:17:24 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
If, if, if you look at a lot of what?
01:17:25 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
People are striving for in a professional setting, a lot of it is about just having a voice. It's about.
01:17:34 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Having a bit of meaning in a hierarchical, disempowering commercial kind of yeah. Yeah, setting there's a lot of that on link. There's a lot of that on LinkedIn, isn't there? But I think you can.
01:17:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Couple that with the sense of.
01:17:47 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The.
01:17:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Clock ticking as people get to 40s, fifties and yeah, you know, I'll go and do an Ironman or a triathlon or, you know, four. OK, cool, cool.
01:17:50 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
100% yours.
01:17:59 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And that's great, but to me at least, it all of that lacks the the deeper, more meaningful context and.
01:18:09 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
One of the other things I'm doing you might have seen another poster I did on LinkedIn recently. I've I've started training other people not not commercially, not for money, but friends of friends or relatives or friends who.
01:18:24 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
For whatever reason, we've let it slip physically or you know they're not in a great place mentally and feel too intimidated to walk into.
01:18:31 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:18:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A gym and.
01:18:33 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know, but.
01:18:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Bringing together all this lifetime of experience and reflections to to help these guys regain a sense of.
01:18:44 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Physical and mental well-being, self affirmation and and all that.
01:18:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And.
01:18:49 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A big part of it is not just gym training. It's OK. Well, let's start in the gym and then let's get out and lift some stones.
01:18:54 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Yeah.
01:18:55 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Or, you know, do a do.
01:18:57 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
A route or whatever else is a meaningful goal for these guys and it's.
01:19:04 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Especially really great to be a part of, you know, to to not worry about your own success in inverted composites to start transferring that to other people and that's.
01:19:12
Smooth.
01:19:17 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It's not a common rating point, but it's it's maybe a a A sort of.
01:19:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Transitional culminating point in my my own. Yeah, but.
01:19:25 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I'll I'll make sure I make sure there's there's some links to other website or or the how people can get in contact with you in the show notes because that's really important is you know people.
01:19:34
Yeah.
01:19:36 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
You know, experiences for the for the US and divide and for the, you know, for all these these.
01:19:40 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Other projects you've worked on, you know, I think it would be actually fascinating. And, yeah, I'd, I'd, I'd definitely keen to kind of meet up at some point and compare, mate. So I mean for sure.
01:19:52 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
So yeah, yeah, sure, I guess.
01:19:54 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Do you have you got any kind of like, final, final piece of advice for people who want to undertake remote expeditions?
01:20:01 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
As well, you know kind of in I guess in the more general sense now is like.
01:20:05 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Is there?
01:20:07 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
How? How will they get started with it or how would they kind of like take a step up to the next level for their their remoteness.
01:20:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah.
01:20:16
I think that.
01:20:17 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Maybe the first thing is is to believe that it's possible.
01:20:19
Yeah, yeah.
01:20:22 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Even if it the specific thing you wanna do hasn't been done before, I don't think that matters because you can always be. You can be a true explorer, you can be the first person to do something.
01:20:35 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
So so believe.
01:20:37 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Not only that, it's possible that, but that you can.
01:20:40 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Do it.
01:20:41 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, realistic about it. We've we've touched on that realism.
01:20:45 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
But then surround.
01:20:48 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yourself with people.
01:20:50 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Who have positive energy and and and allow that to.
01:20:58 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Help you build your.
01:20:59 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Own I.
01:21:00 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
I think those are the two main things and and then it it just becomes a case of.
01:21:06 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Taking it upon yourself to make it.
01:21:10 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Because with this type of thing, nobody else is going to do.
01:21:14 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It for you.
01:21:15 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
100% yeah.
01:21:19 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Just just just believe in yourself.
01:21:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
And enjoy it.
01:21:23 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Dude, that's probably a great mate, a great moment to kind of end it on because I I realised I'm taking up hours of your afternoon afternoon with this. If I could talk about it all.
01:21:32
It's.
01:21:33 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
And yeah, because they thank you so much again for jumping in, joining the tales of Venture podcast and talking about your experiences and and this this I I think one thing I want to kind of draw out is that this is such a it's such an interesting project because it's so it's complex in multiple different layers which I think you know I've I've learned a lot.
01:21:53 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Know about it just in the in his last, his last hour and a half talking, talking about it and just realising there's so many more factors that I haven't facts and variables that I hadn't thought of beforehand and.
01:22:04 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
I was like.
01:22:05 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Oh yes. You know, there's more nuance to this than I than I first realised. So yeah.
01:22:12 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Yeah, it's.
01:22:13 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It's it's no absolute pleasure and I I agree, Chris, it's it's complex.
01:22:21 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
True, true, true.
01:22:22 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Complexity is very similar to simplicity, but complicated is something we manufacture and makes things difficult and.
01:22:32 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
You know very nice.
01:22:33 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
The difference I suppose, but I think it's been.
01:22:35 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
It's been real pleasure. Real real fun to discuss it and you know, thank thanks for your interest. I I really hope people listening.
01:22:42 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
To it.
01:22:43 Julian Davies, father, bikepacker and co-founder of Cygnus Resilience
Find it interesting and the the offers always there to chat to people.
01:22:59 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
Just.
01:23:01 Chris Shirley, Website Developer, Digital Marketing Strategist and Brand Designer at Hiatus.Design, website design and brand studio
It's really great talking to Julie about the earth and divide. Want to hear more about the adventure? Check out his website in the share it's below. We'll see you next time.
