cycling: video action

I’ve often toyed with the idea of trying to put together a kind of ‘documentary film’ of my bike rides around the New Territories, particularly the long and winding road. However, it was just an idle fantasy, until a few months ago, when Paula decided to buy a suitable video camera. She was not prompted by my idea, which I kept to myself, merely by the fact that it was an old model at a much reduced price. And it took me more than three months to get around to purchasing the necessary mounting device that would allow me to attach the camera to my bike and thus record footage ‘on the go’.

To cut a long story down to manageable proportions, last weekend marked the first trial of the new camera, and I recorded a dozen short clips, some of which I’ve subsequently uploaded to YouTube. I should point out that this is ‘raw’ footage that has not involved any editing, apart from chopping off unwanted footage from the end of some clips.

I’ve included a still from each video, the first four of which feature Paula riding in front. This seems to me to be the best way of conveying what it’s all about. The first involves a typical narrow alleyway, which I originally documented in Serendipity #2:

Next is a short clip that involves a high-speed run through an alleyway that forms part of the long and winding road. It ends with ‘the spiral ramp’, the most exciting few seconds of the entire route:

The third clip features a recent discovery that is part of my efforts not to come back from a ride the same way as I went out. I haven’t yet written about it. There is a signpost near the entrance to this alley to Tung Yuen (‘East Garden’), so I’ve decided to call it ‘oriental garden’:

The fourth clip featuring Paula is also of a short section of the long and winding road. It includes two narrow alleyways separated by a Drainage Services access path. The ramp near the end is quite tricky, especially if you don’t know it’s there (as when I came this way the first time—it’s steeper than it looks):

I’ve also uploaded two clips that I shot while riding by myself. The first shows a journey through the village of Fu Tei Pai, a short distance from where we live. The alleyway that I documented in Fruity Pie starts at around 3 minutes 51 seconds:

The final clip shows part of an area several kilometres east of Fanling that I started to explore just a few months ago. I haven’t written about any of my discoveries in this area yet, but as an indication of how much fun this one is to ride, the path that I’m following towards the end is less than 2 feet wide, with a drop of several feet off one or both sides:

It will undoubtedly take me quite a while to master the editing software that will allow me to join clips, and add still photos, commentary and/or music, so unless I succeed in capturing something completely unexpected in the meantime, I don’t plan to post more YouTube links here. However, I will probably continue to upload videos to YouTube, so if you want to keep up with my latest explorations, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel here.