Frank Montgomery's Personal Pages
Summary of 2013
Dear Friends and
Colleagues,
Wishing you a Merry
Christmas and a peaceful New Year.
2013 has been a
particularly busy and eventful year for me. Rather
than bore you with a detailed list, I'll just
mention 5 things that I've never done before/not
likely to do again!
April: Gorillas in
Rwanda. After three gruelling weeks teaching
masters modules at Kigali Institute of Science &
Technology, my colleague Astrid and I spent a few
days touring the country’s national parks. The
undoubted highlight was the trek in Volcanoes
National Park to spend about an hour with a family
of gorillas. Being habituated to humans, they just
ignored us! We were supposed to keep at least 5m
away from them, but sometimes they came closer. At
one point the chief guide was chopping down some
creepers to give us a better view, and this
evidently annoyed the silverback. I’ll always
remember his roar, and the immediate quietness of
everyone else. Here’s a
short video of two of the youngsters playing.
May: St Kilda.
The highlight of a one-week National Trust for
Scotland ‘Cultural Cruise’ with my sister, was the
remote archipelago of
St Kilda, 40 miles west of the Uists.
Apparently only one in three trips are able to make
a landing, so we were very lucky, especially given
that the weather in Donegal two days before had been
dreadful. On a
trip in a Zodiac round the
Village Bay in
St Kilda, I managed to see puffins for the first
time.
June: Cycling
Leeds-Glasgow in a day. Last year I followed
the first round-the-world cycle race (on the web).
The winner cycled for 92 days at an average of more
than 200 miles per day. I thought that was amazing,
and it spurred me to see if I could do that distance
just once. Several people told me I was nuts, but
that just made me more determined! As in most
things, the secret to success was lots of
practice/training: two rides a week starting in
February, following a programme downloaded from the
internet. Of course I also chose a nice day with
little wind, and reduced the weight & wind
resistance of the (steel) bike by removing the
panniers & rack. I
left Leeds at 0335 and arrived Glasgow 2330.
Pleased to say I
raised over £1600, more than three times my
previous best, so it was worth the effort!
I stayed on in Glasgow
with my sister for a few days, and while there made
this short video of the
British national road cycling championships.
This is the route that will be used for the
Commonwealth Games in July 2014.
July: Retirement.
Did I say this was ’things I have never done
before’? Some folks seem to think otherwise! Let’s
just say 31 July was my last salaried day at
University of Leeds, though I still have an honorary
position, and am still helping out with various
things. I’ve also just been appointed external
examiner for a masters programme elsewhere, and am
still active with CIHT and ICE, so it’s not time for
the pipe and carpet slippers yet! Many thanks to all
who came to the retirement parties on 31 July and 17
October, also to ITS for organising my ‘official’
farewell on 17 October, and to all those who
contributed to
this retirement tribute.
September: Mt
Ventoux & Alps. As part of a 30-day trip (with
14 days cycling) through France, Italy, Switzerland,
Germany and the Netherlands.
For about 3 years I
had been threatening to visit my cousin in her house
in Ari, Abruzzo, Italy. This year things finally
came together, and on 7 Sept I caught the European
Bike Express from Leeds to Orange. In planning the
trip I had noticed that
Mont Ventoux was pretty well on my route from
Orange to the Alps. So, although I could have gone
round it, I decided to have a go at cycling up it.
My
report is here. Two days later I
crossed the Alps. The rest of this trip (to
Rimini then down the east coast to Pescara, six
great days with my cousin in Ari, trains via Milan,
Tirano, Chur to Zurich, cycle to Karlsruhe, trains
to Den Haag for 3 days with my sister, then ferry
from Rotterdam to Hull) will eventually appear on
this blog.
This year, I have
made a donation of one pound per recipient of this
email (256) to
World Bicycle Relief
Best Wishes
Frank Montgomery