This film is about a London-based wild camping bikepacking trip that I did in January on my Brompton. I wanted to do a micro adventure, or mini adventure, close to home, camping wild, easily doable in a weekend. So I cycled up the River Roding, one of the rivers that flow into the Thames. I started in Barking, at the river's mouth, and cycled up to its source, in Essex. It was a short journey - two days, one wild camp. At 7am on day one, riding with my tent and camping gear through east London, it did feel like the whole idea was a bit crazy, but it turned out fabulous. I took it nice and easy - I did about 35 miles each day, and there were only mini hills. And at the end, I hopped on a train, and was pretty much home in half an hour.
As always with me, it was “slow travel”, looking around, stopping to talk with people, lots of breaks for food and coffee. Hope you enjoy the film!
Actually, I found a lovely book called ‘Thirteen Rivers to the Thames’ a few weeks ago. It's not about the lost rivers that have disappeared under the streets, but about the living ones. It's out-of-print, from the early 1960s, but really inspiring. I am thinking of doing a series of two-day bikepacking journeys along the thirteen rivers, camping or at campsites. Seems like they might make nice, doable, interesting weekend trips.

LINKS - three things I found when researching this river -

‪@JohnRogersWalks‬ has walked loads of stretches of the Roding. One of the films shows the amazing local people who are restoring the river in Barking, living on the water, tackling pollution and things like that - here's that film    • Lost World of the River Roding - Ilfo...  

Feargal Sharkey also walked along the Roding, a couple of years ago, the whole way I think. He highlights water quality issues. The water was really low when he did his walk - couldn't believe it when I saw his photos. He tweeted a long thread about it - his twitter @Feargal_Sharkey

The farmer at Waples Mill Farm told me he runs a campsite on the meadow by the river. Here is the link:
https://www.pitchup.com/campsites/Eng...

MUSIC
Kylie Dailey / Golden Things
Loving Caliber, Mia Niles / Just One Kiss
Velvet Moon / Dear Moon
Melanie Bell / Back of my Mind