If you’d like to listen to me telling stories about that unique intersection between a) cycling really far, b) migrant solidarity and c) bugling on the beach, then — snakes alive! — you are in luck. I did my first ever guest spot on a podcast this week, chatting to Saoirse at Bikepacking Buds, a … Continue reading Podcast: Talking Thighs of Steel with Bikepacking Buds
If you don’t know how the world’s longest (and bestest) charity relay bike ride works, then here’s a quick and dirty guide on How to Play Thighs of Steel: 1. Don’t worry – you’re not cycling the whole thing, this is a relay. Pick one week that fills you with butterflies of excitement rather than … Continue reading How to play Thighs of Steel Joining the world’s longest charity relay bike ride
After more than 6,000km and 90,000m of climbing, Thighs of Steel is done and dusted for another year. Over the past 9 weeks, more than 90 cyclists have covered every single inch of asphalt between here and London. As part of the core team for 4 weeks this year, I have cycled 1,670 of those … Continue reading Thighs of Steel arrives in Athens, all together
Today is the final day of the epic seven week cycling relay fundraiser that is Thighs of Steel. At about 5pm, the latest peloton of steely thighed cyclists will sweep into Athens, hot, sweaty and exultant after an 85km day’s ride – the culmination of a journey that started 4,600km ago in London. The bike … Continue reading Thighs of Steel: A Community on Wheels
How do you sum up two weeks of doing almost nothing but cycling and refuelling? We’ve cycled from Ljubljana in Slovenia, through the hills of Croatia, the plains of Hungary and the free ice creams of Romania to Sofia in Bulgaria. That’s about 80 miles a day for 12 days, with one day off in … Continue reading Thighs of Steel: Ljubljana to Sofia
And warm greetings from the Palace. This weekâs title is a quote from a poem by June Jordan, written to remember the 40,000 women and children who, on August 9 1956, protested the âdompassâ segregation laws of apartheid. we are the ones we have been waiting for Iâve got my own reasons for carrying this … Continue reading Happy Friday!
Happy Friday! And a warm welcome from the Palace. For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel, Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society and trainee Advanced Wilderness Therapeutic Practitioner. Yes, that is too many hats. Normally, in this … Continue reading Join Me On Night Shift
Happy Friday! And a warm welcome from the Tower. Last night, I dreamt that a friend was leading a snazzy bikepacking tour to the Arctic Circle. I saw her face in a high-end outdoor magazine, looking all adventurous, surrounded by trendy black and white photos of expensive kit and moody Arctic landscapes. I won’t lie: … Continue reading I See The Future In My Dreams (And So Do You In Yours)
Happy Friday! And a warm welcome from the Palace. Two things that this newsletter isn’t: This newsletter isn’t a book. This newsletter isn’t put together by AI. Two things that I don’t hold against people using AI: Single-handedly destroying the planet — AI chatbots aren’t too bad ‘compared to most of the other stuff you … Continue reading Not The Right Book
Happy Feels Like Friday! And a warm welcome from the Palace gardens, where the parakeets cry and the coots pick plastic from the pond. Shamefully, it’s two full months since I last unfurled a story at your feet — forgive me — but since then much has occurred. I went to see the world’s longest … Continue reading Fluent in Welcome: My Albanian Love Affair
Happy Feels Like Friday! And a warm, very warm welcome from the Palace! British Summer Time begins in TWELVE days. We’ve made it! Last weekend, driving home from the Lake District, I was introduced to a 2021 episode of This American Life: a whole hour devoted to embarrassing stories. They’re not always just little moments … Continue reading The Scent of a Thousand Miles
Happy Friday! And a warm welcome from the Palace. I’ve been fortunate to have worked with and for many, many brilliant leaders in the course of my life. To name — and so embarrass — a few: Harri and the core team at Thighs of Steel, Nic, Grace and the leaders of New Forest Off … Continue reading A New Kind Of Adventure
Happy Feels Like Friday! And a warm welcome from the Tower. Tomorrow, at dawn, I drive west to Dartmoor. The weather forecast for my long-awaited, much-postponed three day Hill and Moorland Leader assessment is suboptimal. Heavy rain and a moderate breeze. Heavy rain and a fresh breeze. Strong winds and heavy rain. At least I’m … Continue reading Tell Me About Corvids
Happy Friday! And a warm welcome from the Tower, where it’s been all kinds of summer. For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel and Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society. In this newsletter, I write stories that … Continue reading Vagabond or Tourist?
Happy Friday! And a warm welcome from the Palace, where, last night, I saw a fox curled up on a stone gate post outside number thirteen. His big head startled as I approached. Animal eyes looking into mine, first jumpy, then wary, then, after a minute, sleepy. He tucked his big head into his fluffed … Continue reading Stop Judging You: A New Forest Story
Happy 2025! And a warm welcome from January, the god of all beginnings. For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel and Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society. In this newsletter, I write stories that help you and me … Continue reading Three Tiny Big Things To Do In January
Happy Tree Skeletons and Sky! And a warm welcome from the last rites of 2024 — treasure the ritual because this year won’t come round again for a veeeeery long time. While we all wait for Poincaré Recurrence Theorem, Loop Quantum Gravity, Hindu and Buddhist Kalpa or Penrose’s Conformal Cyclic Cosmology to work themselves out, … Continue reading 24 Tiny Big Things From 2024
Happy Mistletoe Boughs Drip from Branches And a warm welcome from the inside of a named weather system that I didn’t know was coming when I left my house yesterday afternoon. Despite absorbing an entire storm cloud’s worth of rain with my inappropriate evening wear, I only got physically spun round once on my cycle … Continue reading Enter 🐈 Phone
Happy Teasel Brush Silhouettes! And a warm welcome from the bathroom. (The only other room in the house that gets decent wifi.) Do you remember the story I wrote in May 2023 about The Secret Society of Lost Hats? Frankly, I’d be amazed if you do, but, last weekend, standing on the storm-whipped asphalt of … Continue reading Guaranteed For Life
Happy Autumn! And a fireside welcome from the weekend! For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel and Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society. I know that we’ve only had the concept of the ‘weekend’ for less than two … Continue reading Do It While You Can
Happy Autumn! And a warm welcome from the micro-season of Wind Swirls Through Fallen Leaves. For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel and Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society. Wondering what British Exploring Society do? Watch this video. … Continue reading A Time Of Unmasking
Happy Friday! And a warm welcome from my sick bed, with apologies for missing last week. 🤧 For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel and Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society. In this newsletter, I write stories that … Continue reading Everything Is Free*
Happy Sunday! And a warm welcome from the Palace Park. A Snowberry! For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel and Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society. In this newsletter, I write stories that help you and me understand … Continue reading It’s Okay To Be Cool
Happy Free Money Day! And a warm welcome from the beach at the end of a week of metaphors in the woods. For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel and Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society. In this … Continue reading Five Minute Fire
Happy Day! And a warm welcome from Hathersage, where it is delightfully drizzly. For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel and Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society. In this newsletter, I write stories that help you and me … Continue reading Cheep Cheep
Happy Friday Sunday Monday! And a warm welcome from the day that summer forgot. For those of you new around these parts, welcome 👋 My name is David and I’m a writer, outdoor instructor, cyclist-at-large with Thighs of Steel and Expeditions Manager at British Exploring Society. In this newsletter, I write stories that help you and … Continue reading A Flaming Match Head
Lockdown was a bit of a piss-pot for all of us. But I wonder: can you think of one positive thing that came out of those months of loneliness? I can, just about. Lockdown, by taking away almost everything I’d ever taken for granted, gave me the time (so much time) and introspection (so much … Continue reading 5 Incredible Things I’ve Learned From 340 Days Of Adventure NUMBER FIVE WILL BLOW YOUR MIND! 🤯
2024 will be my first year without a major Thighs of Steel cycle-raising adventure since 2017. 2023 & 2022: Glasgow to Athens co-organiser 2021: Spell It Out record-breaking co-organiser 2020: Around The World lockdown cyclist 2019: London to Athens core team facilitator 2018: Ljubljana to Sofia cyclist 2017: Bugger all 2017, it’s fair to say, … Continue reading Gaping Abundance If an hour when you were a kid was worth tuppence (who gets bored on their summer holidays? Kids, that’s who), then an hour today is worth The Bank of England.
And a warm welcome from various trains running north and south along the east coast of Britain. Today’s gargantuan story is Part One of a selection of titbits from the fullness of the year just gone. For easy digestion, I’ve divided the fifty-two into sections, with half of each section coming today and the other … Continue reading 52 Things I Learned In 2023 (Part 1)
This is Alice Baddeley It’s 2021 and, in this photo, Alice has just arrived in Camber at the end of a long bike ride around Sussex, her home county. It wasn’t the bike ride she’d had planned for that summer, but you remember — that wasn’t really the summer for best laid plans, was it? … Continue reading The more I see, the more I realise that it’s just fantastic Don’t always think that you need to go abroad for a big adventure. Don’t underestimate the value of things on your doorstep. Don’t underestimate Britain.
Days Of Adventure 2023: 83 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ What is this? Every year since 2021, I’ve tried to fill my days with at least a hundred adventures. ‘Adventure’ for me has a pretty low bar compared to the sorts of things that some people do. I’m not sailing across the Atlantic, like my friend Jess (and 200 … Continue reading Taking Adventure Out On The Town Keep your antenna up for moments you could explore. Shelter from the rain in a public museum, slow down to soak up a stone-grey street scene, swivel your lobes for a little light earwigging on the bus.
And a warm welcome from Highgate Woods, once part of the ancient Forest of Middlesex. This Forest was once described by Thomas Becket’s admin guy as a ‘vast forest, its copses dense with foliage concealing wild animals — stags, does, boars, and wild bulls’. Now it’s the dominion of the dog walkers of Muswell Hill, … Continue reading Could This Be A Moment? On Friday I counted seven moments. Seven, for the whole day.
And a warm welcome from the back of a 2005 Ford Transit called Beryl, doing 110kph into the Aosta Valley, an hour shy of Chamonix and our beds for the night (👋RK🙏). I left home on 10 July, eleven weeks ago, to ride Thighs of Steel 2023. This was the sixth time we’ve cycled to … Continue reading Together Through The Flood Barely a week before we cycled through, the region was hit by more than a year’s worth of rainfall in just 24 hours. At least 17 dead. Homes, farms and villages wrecked over an area of 730 square km.
And a warm welcome from Thessaloniki, named contemporaneously for the sister of Alexander the Great of Macedon, an etymology that hints at the long human history for culture and conflict at this crossroads of the world. But (in the words of The Tim Traveller) we’re not here to discuss any of that. Or maybe we … Continue reading A Midpoint 738km and 8,672m of climbing from Kotor to Thessaloniki in six and a half days
A warm welcome from the walled city of Lucca, a sacred grove of luminous space in Tuscany, Italy. Eight hundred years ago, a beloved domestic servant of Lucca was buried. Three centuries later, her body (definitely not her body) was exhumed, discovered miraculously undecomposed, and put on display for veneration. A hundred years more and … Continue reading Not A Miracle The extraordinary ordinary, or: how lucky we are when we work hard together on something worthwhile
The reason I’m not writing to you until now is that I’ve spent the day hammering through the zillions of pettifogging tasks that cram the hours before a lengthy departure from home. Tasks like these: As you may or may not have gathered, on Monday I leave for Glasgow, for four days’ final preparation before … Continue reading Enter The Packing Room Five items that wouldn’t make it onto most touring cyclists’ packing lists (let alone into their blessed packing room)
Happy Friday and welcome to Bournemouth, where I am writing — no, wait — that’s a lie. I’m actually dictating this to you through my phone because I have somehow injured my left wrist and it hurts to type. This injury was really bumming me out — until I re-read my old diaries. When this … Continue reading Proust’s Wrist Unlike Proust, rather than spend the whole of the rest of my life lying in bed tracing back to source this momentary mnemonic sensation, I searched my 2022 and 2021 digital diaries for the word ‘wrist’
It’s not every day that you meet a motorcycling electrician called Graham eating chips and gravy in the sunshine at a village tearoom in Northumberland. In fact, I’d say that it’s only ever happened to me once in my whole entire life. Just once. Last Sunday. I was about 470km into my 560km ride from … Continue reading Round Britain Twice: Graham Eating Chips And Gravy It’s then that I realise who we are: two men, strangers, telling each other how we fall apart. And how we might put ourselves back together again
And welcome to Egremont Castle, in the shade of the ruined keep, where Amber has freaked herself out playing hide and seek and started first crying for her mama, before shifting up through the gears of shouting, yelling, screaming and now finally shrieking. Amber’s mum walks up the steps towards me, wearing big shades and … Continue reading Round Britain Twice: From Egremont Castle The faded card leaves me thousands of miles richer and, daily it seems, on the edge of new life.
This morning, I decided to take that hoary self-help motto to heart: Do something for yourself first thing in the morning. You won’t get a chance later. I went for a run along the beach. About a kilometre in, I heard the heavy foot-slap and raspy breath of a long distance runner coming up fast … Continue reading ‘Hi, I’m Dave.’ No shame. Do something for yourself first thing in the morning. You won’t get a chance later.
Today’s story isn’t even a story. It’s a silly game, born of the ocean-inspired collision of three things floating on the waves in my mind. The number twenty-four. My two shelves’ worth of unread books. My inevitable mortality. (Or at least, a busy summer wherein I shall do little reading.) 1. The Number Twenty-Four This … Continue reading The Number Twenty-Four (And My Inevitable Mortality) There comes a point in every reader’s life when they realise that the number of books on one’s shelf vastly outnumbers the number of allotted hours for reading that remain on their own mortal shelf-life
Here’s a thing: I’ve been writing about the crisis of borders for ten years. What’s mad is that my first story on the topic, written after staying in an abandoned chemical factory in Calais, rings as true today as it did then: Do We Need Borders? The question is, of course, rhetorical. According to the … Continue reading 10 Years Of No Borders I’ve been writing about the crisis of borders for ten years. My first story on the topic, written after staying in an abandoned chemical factory in Calais, rings as true today as it did then: Do We Need Borders?
A friend once blew my mind with his story about a friend from the States who’d spent twenty-plus years picking up lost playing cards — you know, the ones you see littering the streets? Keep an eye out, you’ll see ‘em — until he completed a whole deck. Fifty-two unique cards, plus jokers. If that … Continue reading The Secret Society Of Lost Hats
Thanks to everyone who shared and messaged about last week’s story, The End Of Doomspreading — it’s already my sixth most-read edition of this newsletter. My drive is to help us develop more effective ways of connecting with people who start on the other side of an apparently deep divide and turn difficult conversations into … Continue reading Doomspreading In Saunas A previous iteration of David Charles would have felt threatened by this man’s speech and seen him as an enemy to be fought and defeated
Summer feels like a loooong time ago, eh? It’s dark outside and the windows are misted up with rain. Our tans have faded and even our steely thighs have turned to jelly. As all but the freshest or most cursory reader will know, I’m one of the infamous community of cyclists that make up Thighs … Continue reading Make Space For Others To Shine Last summer, our 93 cyclists not only rode 5,428km from Glasgow to Athens, but also raised a record-breaking (for us) £114,632 in solidarity with grassroots refugee projects through charity MASS Action.
A warm welcome from a squatted perch overlooking the ocean. Following on from last week’s appeal for healthy habitual alternatives to any form of knee-based self-care, I have started using a squatting desk. Inspired by a 2017 article by physical therapist Carrie Williamson, this is an almost certainly marketable term for ‘swapping my chair for … Continue reading How I Learned To Enjoy Wild Squats I’ve been amazed at what a difference this investment of 1 percent of my waking time has made to my flexibility.
I’d like to begin by saying thank you for having me. 2022 was a year of unprecedented growth for The David Charles Newsletter — there are 67 percent more of you here today than there were on this day a year ago. Hello! 👋 For this humble director of a one-person media empire, that’s pretty … Continue reading A Short Tour Of The Forgotten Elses AKA: 2022 shareholder review
MIGRATION The Nationality and Borders Act of 2022 was passed in April after the Commons rejected a series of amendments proposed by the Lords that would have protected compliance with the Refugee Convention. Heavy. In January, with the help of paradox, I tried to understand our part in all this, because we all have a … Continue reading 52 Things I Learned In 2022 We shall not cease from exploration so don’t ask us to compromise our beliefs because we still have NO IDEA what wonders we’re capable of. And other lessons from 2022
🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵🔵 Friday 9 September I’d spent a pretty sleepless night trying to discourage the local dogs from chewing up our cyclists’ helmets that’d been left scattered around camp after a long day’s ride. We were all still feeling pretty tender from our brush with some kind of Montenegrin lake-bourne vomiting bug. Considering that, only two … Continue reading Intrinsic Adventure The Days of Adventure project has made damn sure I protect time for my priorities. It’s taken me outdoors when outdoors seemed a long way distant
September 17, 30 degree heat, Akropolis in sight. The culmination of seven months’ hard preparation and two months’ hard riding. It was a spectacular summer, filled to the brim with vivid experiences and vital friendships. But, as I reluctantly turned my handlebars back northwest, I felt pretty empty. So, as our ferry chugged inexorably across … Continue reading Winter Wins And in one year’s time I’ll be opening the freakin Palladium! (Or maybe I’ll just have sustainable momentum in the direction I want to travel)
