Bikes Not Bombs
Cycling to Aldermaston for ‘The Bomb Stops Here’ CND Demo
It’s nearly a couple of years since I cycled from Parliament Square in central London to a demo at Aldermaston. It turned out to be further than I’d anticipated, mainly because the map I’d very stupidly assumed was 4 inches to a mile was, in fact, 8 inches, so everything was twice as far as it looked. That, combined with a relentless headwind which made the virtually level route feel like a steep hill all the way, and my cycling mate Karl’s borrowed bike, which proved to have only one usable gear and very poor brakes, made what should have been a pleasant summer’s ride into a waking nightmare. After about eight hours we had completely exhausted our energy resources and resorted to sleeping in a field in bivi-bags about 6 miles from Aldermaston. This bit was not as bad as it sounds. After two nights under tarps in Parliament Square, with tubes rumbling under us and sirens wailing all night and being attacked by drunk revellers, sleeping in a peaceful field was pure bliss. Day dawned dewless, clear and calm, but by the time we’d re-packed and cycled the last few miles, the demo was all but done. This time round I was determined not to make the same mistakes.
