My name is Steve, but a lot of my friends call me Chopper, Chops, or Chop, hence the name of these pages! This came about when I played football (soccer) a few times a week and was rather “assertive” in my tackling. It stuck, and many years later here we are!
I live in the south of England, and love to explore new places both here and abroad, by foot or by cycle.
These adventures have taken me to some interesting places and I’ve met some wonderful people. Enough to fill a couple of books (as below), which are work in progress until I have some more time.
I hope you enjoy coming along on a few of my adventures!
In the forthcoming book “Single Speed to Budapest” you can join me as I undertake a special challenge, to cycle a folding bike with no gears, solo through 4 countries, following the Danube. This adventure saw me travelling the 1000km between two towns twinned with my own (Aalen in Germany and Tatabanya in Hungary). It was a great journey through some of central Europe’s greatest cities and folklore.
In “American Revolutions” I take a 2 speed Brompton bike camping, solo 1000 miles down the east coast of the USA. The story follows the American War of Independence, from the initial shots in Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts, down to its conclusion in Virginia. When I get to Virginia, I take part in one of the world’s wackiest races, in a suit and tie as part of the UCI World Cycling Championships in Richmond, VA. Along the way I stayed in very generous people’s homes and met some fabulous characters
In “Pilgrimage“, I follow the world famous pilgrims route, the Camino de Santiago, or “The Way of St James”. Instead of the usual route from the south of France, I start my solo ride in the most southerly part of Portugal, near the town of Lagos and cycle up the Atlantic coast, via Lisbon and Porto. It was a fantastic journey to the cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, site of the body of St James and one of the major medieval pilgrim routes. It’s now become very popular, both for Christians and for people with other faiths (or none) who take part in this journey for their own self learning. By collecting the stamps at the pilgrim hostels along the way I was rewarded with the Camino certificate, illuminated in Latin
In “Full Circle“, I do a trip around the coast of Gran Canaria, an island just off the coast of Africa. Being volcanic and an almost perfect circle, I take an anti clockwise journey through its many terrains and sub-tropical micro-climates. It has some of the highest mountains in Spain so I also travel inland and up its highest roads to Artenara and stay in a cave.
