Please donate to our fundraiser: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/turning-the-wheel
Welcome to the first in our series of videos where we’ll be updating you on our progress and sharing our reflections and experiences along the way. Here, Kit and Seb introduce themselves and talk about the journey and their motivations.
We are cycling from Canterbury to John O’Groats in Scotland to raise money for Alfoxton Park. We’re stopping at several buddhist and retreat centres along the way and will be joined by other cyclists for various sections of the route.
If you would like to join us for a portion of our ride, just get in touch with Kit: kdeheger@hotmail.co.uk
hello everyone uh welcome we are at the uh Oak panel room here at Al Foxton um we’ve just made it from cycling uh 4 20 4 old 26 426 let’s say that 426 kilm uh from Canterbury to here uh in 4 days um and yeah this is like the first part of our big Journey up to Jon o Gro um that said myself and a few other people who are soon to join will be doing um all to raise money for for our Foxton um uh this was seb’s idea originally so I don’t know if you want to say a little bit about what’s going on yeah yeah I’d love to um first I just want to acknowledge how strange and weird this is uh the fact we sat here in these two lovely armchairs uh and on camera it’s just weird um talking to potentially infinite people you know um and there’s Harley here who’s just like silently observing it’s not a usual situation for me so I just wanted to acknowledge that that’s bubbling on yeah um but yeah the I remember the moment actually actually it was last year it was on a weekend retreat at Rivendell retreat center and it was on the Sunday post cleanup um when a load of young Buddhists were sat around on the the lawn at rivendale and there was that feeling in the air that um we just finished something like something had just happened uh and we were sort of Basking in the Sun after having completed something and it was resting but it wasn’t kind of that kind of resting it was a very alert and awake kind of resting it was very beautiful and it was this kind of clarity uh and I was looking around and I thought you’ve got quite a nice bike you’ve got quite a nice bike wow there’s like five or six people here with like really nice bicycles and nothing else happened and I just said we should do a sangor and about five people’s ears just pricked off and went and it was like in that moment something had just kind of popped into existence I was like oh yeah something’s going to happen something’s going to come out of this um and then since then it’s just been like a slow uh organic sort of process of of of organizing it and bringing it together and and and getting it happening really um and then sort of yeah my first thing was oh fundraising we should fundraise for it um and then it it was yeah it was decided it weird fundraise for Al Foxton uh so I don’t know yeah maybe you’d like to say a bit about why why that project yeah well I mean I I’ve I’ve got some ties to here um my partner lives here um but I think you know something about cycle touring I think you know something about doing pilgrimage or traveling is a sort of edge to it M you know you you’re you’re out in the world all the time uh whilst we have been you know we’ve been well put up by people on Route here we have done a bit of camping so far and we’ll be well put up by people on our way up to Jon and gr but we’ll also do a bit of camping and you’re out in the elements for over eight hours a day uh there’s an edge to it um I can’t think of a more edgy place in tre Ratner than H Foxton um there’s something very alive and wild and kind of raw here uh and it just made a lot of sense that if we’re doing this it feels linked um in a very strong way yeah it makes me think of uh like brambles and stinging nettles they’re like the Pioneer plants for the forest they sort of break into the grasslands don’t they by being like spiky and you know in difficult kind of conditions thriving in difficult conditions and then that sort of makes a little bit the softer stuff yeah that’s the kind of softer stuff happen and it does kind of have that feel it’s like you got to be quite tough and not like taures are like gnarly sometimes you know like callous callous and lean yeah yeah yeah and I think that you know that I like that analogy of the kind of pioneer plants one of the um a real synthesizing moment on for me when we were thinking about doing this was the point we I can’t remember whose idea I don’t know if it was my idea or if I kind of was convinced of it it was probably my idea to ride on a cargo bike instead of a regular normal bike yeah that was definitely your idea and and carry a buer on the front of it a buha figure uh you know that that perfect you know we’ve titled what we’re doing here turning the wheel it is it is a great pun but it’s also the best title for something like this um traveling moving through the world is a sort of pioneering action we’re not really you know we’re not bringing the Dharma where we’re going but in some ways we’re kind of like creating a channel for the Dharma to travel through I I remember the conversation now I suggested that we all have like little key ring buddas on the front of our bikes like that would be nice nice little totem to bring up to Scotland and you were like no big golden fulls sized on the front um which is going to be beautiful when it’s complete because we’ll be able to park your bike up and you know and then and then we’ll have a shrine like around us when we’re camping yeah you know it’s going to be it’s just going to be beautiful it’s going to be lovely lovely yeah yeah so um should we talk a little bit about the kind of conditions that we’re going to move into after butfield so it’s been quite because it’s been quite like light and just been basically a little touring holiday so far for us uh getting to know each other a little bit better um yeah I just want actually I just would like to say I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you over these last few days I feel like we’ve got quite a familiarity but we’ve only really spent time either on Retreat or working together which are very kind of specific things um so it’s nice to just have had like plenty of time just to be doing something we both laugh and and doing I think that’s been my favorite part so far just that there was a moment um with about 45 minutes to go before we reached here yesterday where kit mentioned uh the fact that he’d designed a video game a survival video game based on bike touring uh and in that moment I thought I found the one I’ve been waiting I’ve been waiting for this conversation my whole life okay let’s talk I think that might be my highlight do you have anything yeah yeah no it’s been really really lovely this first part it really has felt like a holiday which has been great um yeah I just really want to say thank you for like you’ve done a lot of work organizing this um and putting it together and really like making it a thing um which is actually you know there’s a real tension with doing it’s a bit like going on retreat you kind of just want to stop just focus on cycling just enjoy your time but you’ve really gone above and beyond to kind of make sure that there’s a thing happening here that other people know about and brings others in which I feel really grateful for um yeah I’ve had loads of fun so far it’s been really great but I think the thing that really comes out for me is just like you came to my house in Canterbury the night before we left and I just immediately felt like oh it’s all in hand it’s all fine it’s going to be great um I don’t know what you did but there was just some sense that kind of traveled with you that was just like yeah and then we’re just going to do it um so yeah and that’s that’s continued through the trip it’s felt very very easy in one way interestingly manifesting I’m like I have been eating less than I normally do on a tour I’m normally like an absolute garbage bin and I’m just like but like I’ve just felt very easy and so I’ve yeah little bit less craving which is nice yeah that’s good yeah yeah um should we do some questions uh yeah well I’ll just say um so yeah as you mentioned we we’ve just done that this first 400ish kilometers from Canterbury to Al oxton uh basically it’s just a fun little holiday um uh today uh we’re recording this on Tuesday we are going to be heading to Butterfield um for the festival um and that will Mark the kind of like official start we’ve got more people joining us at Butterfield uh and when we leave Butterfield on Sunday uh we’ll be kind of entering into semi Retreat conditions about as Retreat conditions as you can get while trying to cycle the length of the country yeah I think I mean what I’m learning about myself is that cycle touring makes me quite manic um so yeah we’ll see how we can maintain some Stillness Simplicity and contentment through also just being like gunning it down a hill excited um but uh yeah just for clarity that’s where we’re going um we’ll be kind of entering into a kind of ritualized space uh inra bodyi is currently very heroically finishing the Buddha that will be going on the front of my cargo bike so hopefully by the end of buddhafield that will have been don’t know I feel like there there should be a a special word for putting a butter on something the will be placed um the shrine will kind of be built uh and the the kind of the thing will happen I’m going to ask the lovely Festival goers of buddhafield to Adorn our bicycles in beautiful but lightweight adornments which will be fun to see what they look like after that fantastic yeah some questions answer great so I’ve got some uh questions from our adoring fans and by adoring fans I mean the thoughts that have accosted me before I’ve been going to sleep for the last few nights because we don’t I don’t know if anyone’s going to watch this yeah it might just be my Mom hi Mom uh yeah do you want to pick one do you want to just pick one out of these well I think the first one’s really good um why why do you do it why do you ride for thousands of miles and why do you do it self-supported I think it’s the closest experience I have to freedom to like Pure Freedom that’s it in a nutshell uh you’ve got everything you need potentially survive you can you can live like that for months or years you know I’ve done 6 months in the saddle you know quite comfortably spent 300 pounds over the whole six months M you know um so yeah I think for me it’s just like absolutely the closest you can get to Freedom uh when you can lift up your whole life and put it over a fence and then climb over the fence you know like that’s that’s Liberation for me uh not to mention um the people as well like the people that you meet along the way uh one you get into situations where you’re in like a random Village that no one ever goes to cuz there’s no tourism there there’s nothing there and you cycle through and you stop for a break and people are like what are you doing here why are you here and you’re like well I have to go through here cuz I’m going this way and they’re just like delighted to kind of meet you and talk to you and and also they respect what you’re doing as well so you get lots of help you know you really do get assisted it’s not a thing you do on your own psycle touring you can’t it’s impossible to cycle Tour on your own you have to be willing to let people help you along the way yeah um so yeah that’s it for me yeah yeah I mean I I Echo a lot of that um I think yeah I’ve always had this kind of like drive to just kind of just move um I did a lot of traveling when I was young but you know in the classic get on a plane go walk around a city get and it just it it felt always felt empty um there’s something something about just like you know traveling by plane or even car really although less so um you kind of exist in one place and then you’re in the next place and there’s no there’s no integrative transition um and you get that with hiking and everything but I am a massive bike nerd uh and I love bicycles uh and you can just go much further than you can on foot uh but you still get that full integration of you’ve seen the outskirts you’ve seen the foliage change you’ve seen the environment change um just coming here I mean I’ve I’ve done a lot of touring around the south of England and I know it very well but even still it’s just so refreshing to feel the land change as you go through it and it like it means your entire body comes with you you’re not just there and then you’re back home you’re like you’ve done the movement um which is really really wonderful and yeah just the level of community that just Springs up as you said it’s um uh I’m I’m not a very kind of I don’t you know it’s hard work for me to talk to strangers often um but there’s something lovely about you got this big thing that you can just talk about which is your bike uh and then it just Sparks this immediate joy and interest and yeah it’s it’s gorgeous it’s absolutely gorgeous um yeah I think this one’s mainly for you what what’s what’s the craziest thing that’s happened while you’ve been doing one of these oh gosh um it’s quite hard to choose really the craziest thing that’s ever happened bik touring I think oh God could just R like so many so many images are coming to my mind um I’ve nearly died twice by touring uh once in someone’s flat and once uh I jumped into a river for fun and I went over some Rapids and I was like woohoo as I went over the Rapids and obviously like expelled all my air and then got caught in an undercurrent and nearly drowned uh but it was funny because I remember think being in the water and thinking uh follow the bubbles you know like something that you taught when you were like I was must have been five when someone came to school and was like if you’re ever in water upside down follow the bubbles and that just cl to my mind was like stay calm so you don’t build up like CD in the body and then follow the bubbles and that’s what I did and I got out it’s fine um so that was pretty crazy for sure I remember like I was like 22 years old I pulled myself to the side of the river and I just like burst out laughing I was like you know um not today death not today exactly ha you nearly got me um my own stupidity so I’d say that was probably the the craziest thing M but that was me being crazy the craziest thing I’ve seen was a guy bike touring on a on a unicycle that was just crazy he was just like rest you know resting with one foot on a wall with a unicycle two piers on it and I was just like how do you heels how do you heals yeah those things are single and so yeah that’s it you’ve had more tame experiences I I’ve definitely had more tame experiences but I suppose something i’ you know maybe pick out a crazy thing about it that’s often boggles my mind is just a how easy and often how cheap it is um uh I often tell I’ve toured around uh Norway famously very expensive country and I was in Norway for about a month uh and only bought um one bulb of garlic and a packet of peanuts um and other than that just eight out of their bins that’s which might sound very rough but it’s the lifestyle and it’s incredibly joyous um the world when you’re out in it is just constantly giving you stuff and if it’s not bin uh then it’ll be some lovely person he says why don’t you come in for dinner or why don’t you come in for a shower or something like that the the kind of generosity that you can tap into is really really strong um and definitely when I’m in the kind of normal mode of living in a house being stationary that feels crazy the possibility of that feels very crazy yeah it does yeah You’ think I would never have like I’d be on my own it’ be too yeah be on my own and it just really isn’t everything’s supporting yeah I think you’ve just reminded me of the most beautiful moment I’ve had by to uh I was on the span pass which is one of the highest roads in Europe I think it might be the highest mountain pass in Europe crosses from Switzerland to Italy and i’ reached the top I’d woken up at like 4 in the morning halfway up the climb and then done the rest of the climb reached the top left my bike there and decided to hike a little bit up to the tippy tippy top uh where I found like the purest spring water ever which became my special water I had a bottle for special pure Mountain Water and then you know that common muck but when I came back down from that hike um uh on my bike someone had just left two Peaches on the seat you know and I I just wept I was just like and you know the the thing that struck me about it is they weren’t there you know they didn’t like hang around to S to S to get the thanks they just like saw a bike completely unlocked left at the top of thing thought yeah they’re going to need that and then went on and I just you know just like put me into this stream of of kindness you know just yeah that was that was probably the most beautiful thing that’s ever happened yeah I think yeah I can I can I can Echo moments like that people just kind of even if it’s not kind of giving there’s just like so much excitement around it um I think something that brings a lot of sadness is is tied to this is that a lot of people believe they can’t do it um and a lot of people actually can’t do it well a lot of people can’t do it you know you have to be very very grateful for the ability to do it um but you can see it in people’s eyes often they they are so just you know it is that kind of sense of Freedom coming through um and it’s yeah it’s really beautiful to kind of behold that in other people um when when when you come with by on your bike well there was that Scottish guy the other day yeah you know both out cycling and he kind of just had this little twinkle in his eye that he just wanted to join us he went like that to his wedding ring was like oh dude like like just got to convince got to convince this one you see that kind of thing you know you see that kind of thing a lot it’s like people just feel kind of stuck into their lives yeah and they you know they kind of see you and they’re like wow I want to do something like that yeah yeah yeah yeah oh this one’s we’ve done the most beautiful thing there this is my favorite most important bit of gear I love the gear now we’re getting into it cyle nerds listen up the gear man has something to say do you want to say what your most important bit of gear is um well it’s got to be secondary to the bike I feel like obviously the bike Neary obviously the bike’s the most important Big G but also I don’t think so because you can do a tour on any I I do think I mean I’ve seen a unicyclist tour you know guys in like big tricycles tandems like you see the craziest things so you can you know like I saw one guy touring on like a 10B M thing that he’d found in a scrapyard you know and it was just but he’ been doing like hundreds of miles on it you know crazy so the bike isn’t actually the most important thing you can Tour on any bike but that is a hard question the most important bit of gear I think every tour that I’ve had I’ve done I’ve had a kind of totem dangling off the front MH uh sometimes I’ve been with me for like years the first one I remember was a little uh Little Monkey teddy bear that my my brother gave to me before I left and he was like five or six and he was like you like you’re going to do a big scary thing take this with you kind of thing and it it got hung there for ages now I’ve got a little um plastic skeleton which represents my granddad coming with me you know so I think there’s something about that something that’s kind of completely novelty or not you know practical in any in in any real sense that’s kind of totemic that that you can look at while you’re riding to kind of draw inspiration from I’d say it’s probably the most important thing for me saying that I did just lose my vadra necklace I think the other day which I’m really sad about uh but yeah that’s me what about you I’m going to say something far less enchanting right um I think it’s bike bags really nicely designed bike bag God I’m so such a materialist um but in a similar sense you’re on the bike all day um and if you can find a way where you don’t have to get off to do stuff that is so nice yeah when you’ve just got your snacks right there you can get get a coat out can’t quite do that with the current setup on the cargo bike but my normal touring setup I can just get my coat out put it don’t have to put my feet on the floor yeah and that is there’s something really wonderful sometimes a little net to have fruit in like a little front net and you can just like Munch banana while you’re moving yeah yeah all those sorts of things um I yeah spend hours obsessing over kind of getting everything within an arms an Arms Reach in all the directions um but I definitely yeah I do that that could take us onto a great I saw this question it’s funny that I’m reading these out I know um yeah what have you noticed about me and what have I noticed about like touring quirks little quirks I don’t know if you have you seen anything um you’re very it’s interest I think we’re quite dichotomous in this way that’s why I wrote it down yeah but it’s nice cuz it feels kind of um complimentary uh yeah definitely less planny than I am um uh and much more kind of like in the moment which I think is is beautiful um any specific quirks can’t think of any really to be honest but just like very kind of going for it um and just like things go in and it all gets off and then if you go and I think you what that’s not been done properly it seems to work you got no mud Gods first thing I noticed what the hell big yeah here’s a big Quirk a huge line of mud up your back that’s a quirk of yours the reason why I don’t have mud guards is because no one’s given them to me yet I haven’t seen any in a charity shop and I haven’t found any on the floor in a bin so that means you got no mud in my world you may never yeah I’d probably just say the opposite then like anything I need I’m like K you got this he’s like yeah and like he’ll like know the exact pocket the exact part of the pocket it’s in on what bag it’s amazing he’s like um I’m like where’s the flap jaacks like we’ve got like a massive box of flap Jacks he’s like can we have a Flap Jack and I’m like like rooting around who puts the flap Jacks at the bottom of the bag yeah who puts flat on the Bott but yeah I think it’s the it’s and I think that’s saying something about your mind I think you must have quite a relatively clean and tidy M to be able to make the space around you so precise and it’s really beautiful yeah it’s really nice to see how organized it all is and it does make things very smooth yeah yeah I think the final thing which kind of leads I think nicely on um what what what do we think about while we’re doing this for eight plus hours a day um and I think possibly you maybe kind of like relate this to the Dharma um cuz I think I’ve been noticing that a lot these last few days yeah yeah it’s a big question isn’t it you do get through a lot of thinking if you’re riding long days um yeah I suppose the first hour is just like why do I do this first hour of the morning either it’s that cuz you’re achy and everything and you’re tired and stuff or it’s like oh yes morning and everything’s kind of there isn’t it that largely depends on if you camped at the top or the bottom of a hill yeah and whether you did 90k the day before or 130k the day before um yeah I think I just I just do a lot of emotional processing on the bike like without effort I don’t have to sit there and try and work through stuff things just the Turning of the wheel it just happens in your mind like that’s what I not about the first so when I first went touring um in the year before I was like severely depressed playing video games uh taking drugs you know not really not having a great time with it dropped out of uni uh living in my girlfriend at the time’s bedroom and you know just was very overweight and very unhappy and then you know when I started touring it was like I had original thoughts again like oh I haven’t thought about that before Oh I haven’t I think it’s just because of there’s that cyclical thing happening you know an efforts going in and you’re getting somewhere that just kind of starts turning the wheels of the mind and I think from doing that for so many years it just eventually ex like exhausted itself in a certain sense like i’ I’d thought about enough and it was like okay well now I want to now I want to know how to stop thinking about stuff as much you know and then that’s what kind of turned me towards the DH more and more is that you just because you’re doing this py cyclical thinking so much you kind of see the patterns forming and then they can kind of fall away and then you see the next pattern form and then they can kind of form away fall away and that kind of helps begin the kind of unfolding I think process of the mind um I mean a lot you know a lot of it will be where are we going you know oh what what kind of thing could I get to improve the bike set up and stuff like that there are obviously all of those thoughts kind of popping up random things from the past like really random things from the Past end up popping in for me they have been this weekend cuz I haven’t been touring for a long time you’re just kind of constantly met with the world and so you you get constant things that kind of pop into your mind um responding to those kind of stimuli and so I just end up thinking about the past quite a lot I think uh lots of things kind of like random things that never thought about in years and years and years old movies and moments and then because I’ve got nothing I’m just cycling I just feel them like I feel those moments again and how that movie made me feel or that kind of time with my friend or you know and then I feel them and I might kind of get really happy or cry or something will kind of happen yeah yeah yeah I don’t know what about you yeah I know that feels very familiar I think yeah there there is something about that just kind of I think what I love you know when I first started touring I wasn’t very cognizant or aware of this but like maybe you can empathize feel slightly that life lacked purpose and there was something that wasn’t like what am I really doing this for I wasn’t I wasn’t a Buddhist back then but um there is something about just each day what you do is you get on your bike and you turn your legs around until you go to bed again um it’s pretty straightforward actually and there’s something about that kind of directness and and ease and just like Simplicity of purpose that means you go to bed every night feeling like you’ve really accomplished something um that you’ve really done something in the world you’ve done something with body you’ve done something with your mind and that does really conduce to a kind of Stillness um I’ve noticed um I think what I found interesting you know this is uh only the second time I’ve done a tour since really engaging with the Dharma um but what I’m noticing more and more is like oh yeah there’s that there’s still it’s like got its own world of quirks uh and it’s definitely in a kind of more refined state but there’s like all this other stuff and you’re right it dredges things up um we were talking uh the other but just like my pure hatred of cars um no offense to any who owns a car or drives a car but I really struggle with them um when you’re going along a busy road and there’s just that noise and that pre presence is big thing coming past um but it’s been so good to use that as a kind of like oh what’s that saying um what is that there’s another human being there why why is there that kind of like empathic disconnection happening um why is ill will coming up against what is just another phenomena um passing by um uh and it’s been a lovely thing to reflect on um uh just yeah that that thing you’re always moving as well like the world is coming in and then going your field of view is just kind of constantly soaking the world in and then it’s passing by um and so just letting things come in and you know some things are easier to let in much easier to let in a beautiful view as you’re going down a descent than it is um like a very angry driver yeah and giving you the finger as they go past you know some things are easier than others but trying to treat it all as just the world coming through or you going through the world whatever um it feels really really wonderful well that’s important isn’t it cuz it it’s like you nothing around you stays the same you’re not in your house where you know where everything is it’s like okay yeah you got the bike where everything should be in the right place should be should be uh but everything external to that is is new information you know it’s completely new information and then it’s old information it’s gone you know you don’t you know we we’ve kind of so great how similar similar we are in touring in certain ways cuz we both don’t want to ever turn backwards like we both just like no we’ve gone this way it was the wrong way it might add on a long distance but we can’t go back who’s going to go backwards but it’s like that does something to the mind because it’s all newness coming in yeah and so what you’re seeing and what you’re experiencing is just your Tendencies like really clearly uh and it’s really easy to separate that from the world it’s like oh this is me doing this it’s not the world that’s kind of having that effect because it’s all coming in and it’s all new this is me I’m creating these kind of things in my mind and and that gives you the ability to kind of do something about or at least just watch definitely and uh yeah our our next destination is the very top the tippy top the tippy top of the country jonno GRS um so lots of new things there parts of the country I’ve never been to before whatso lots of the Midlands I’ve just never seen I’m really looking forward to that yeah really looking forward to that all all Buddhist centers apparently um from here to Jonah GRS appear to be in the hilliest regions of the country so looking forward to all of that yeah looking forward to making that decision yeah that was great um but I’m also looking forward to being joined by a few people we’ve got a couple more people joining at butfield and then there’ll be people in and out all the way out the country if you’re watching this and you do want to join in do reach out um and you can join us for any stretch of it that you like basically not sure as little as you can make yeah wonderful um CU it would be nice when there’s a full full group kind of together yeah yeah yeah yeah and uh yeah just to reiterate we’re doing it um for this wonderful place which is an excellent context of practice um if if you want some Edge in your Dharma uh and you you don’t want to cycle uh up the country come to our Foxon um uh yeah I feel very grateful for what this place is has given me um over the years that I’ve known it uh and yeah I’m I feel I feel happy that I can give something back and I’ve this is my first time actually visiting Al Fox and I’ve I’ve literally never been here before um and I’ve only been here for one night but already I can see talking to a few of the people who have just visited for the last few weeks and maybe are moving on soon uh you can really feel how much it’s touched their lives and how much it’s really changed them in such a short amount of time so it is really doing something here yeah and by being here I’m now fully behind the mission brilliant that’s good I was skeptical for at first but now I’ve been here I’m like yeah this is great so give us lots of money please yeah yeah that would be amazing link in the description like comment subscribe like com subscribe that’s it isn’t it that’s how you do one is that yeah that’s the way great thank you very much what