How do you cope when you achieved your lifetime ambition in 1996? After John O’Groats to Land’s End it took a while of perusing to settle on the next goal. Cycling aroung the Isle of Wight in the ice at New Year just didn’t hit the spot. Plans to cycle the River Thames from the source to the mouth came to nothing as did cycling Denmark from north to south. My companion for cycling the length of mainland Britain was now married as was I and these very personal dreams now were part of a different shared vision.
So Rob entered the scene. Marrying when I was 35 was a sign of how long it took me to find my own bike mechanic, route planner, provider of discounted rail travel, and professional photographer. Add to that an interest in all things Czech and a long history of trying to learn the language, and seeds were sown for my next plans.
I had grown up with Smetana’s music. Mum and Dad owned a box set of ‘Ma Vlast’ (‘My Fatherland’) by Smetana. I loved putting on this record – so melodic with its themes inspired by folk songs. Our honeymoon (some of Rob’s photos of Prague below) included a trip to Prague where it had not dawned on me that the river under the iconic Charles Bridge was the very same Vltava of the record A bit ignorant I know but a childhood of traipsing round Europe with a father who worked for the railway too, had not included a trip to Czechoslovakia, as it was then – we got further east but stayed west of the Iron Curtain, in Vienna.
So a plan was hatched – to follow the River Vltava from source to the mouth, studying the music along the way and enjoying the photography and Czech culture . . . except it really wasn’t that easy. Autumn 2003 was allocated for departure months in advance, the guide book purchased and Rob had carte blanche to peruse Thomas Cook’s Continental Rail Timetable for hours – and then I learnt that against many, many odds, a baby was on the way. Feeling like you are going to throw up at any moment, especially when drinking anything, was not compatable with plans to cycle a considerable distance every day so it all changed to ‘just’ a trip to some nice places in the Republic.
Roll on to 2025 when all the necessary elements finally combined. Patience is so not any of my names and 22 years was a long time to wait. Now we have the money (mainly courtesy of an uninsured driver on drugs hitting Rob and a wait of 3 years to get some very welcome, but probably not enough, compensation). We are also now ’empty nesters’- that horrible term when your children have left home, but then suddenly return now and then, slightly changing each time and becoming more and more their own person, and consuming more milk than you ever remember.
But September 29th, our planned departure date, has been made more memorable already by the arrival of our first grandchild. This did not derail plans as, born in Malta, the last thing Beth and Andrew need is us descending on them for a while. We will go later in the year. But our plans have had to be curtailed. This will be ‘Vltava – from the source to half-way’ – part one, with part two to be completed in less than another 22 years. Our daughter is having a long awaited op and I cannot in all conscience be out of the country when she comes out of hospital – so home we go on the 6th. That might be a blessing as luggage on a Brompton bike is necessarily so limited and my medications, lotions and potions for a now 60 year-old post-menopausal woman takes up nearly all of it.
And so, finally, departure!
If you would like to hear Smetana’s Vltava for yourself then this is one recommended recording https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AvdJx4y5omg
Claire on the Move 
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