Visual Narratives Field Trip - MASSIVE learning curve

Despite expecting to be back home at around 4-5 just as it goes dark, I am sat here typing at 2:40 having got home around 45 minutes ago. Needless to say, today's field trip was a mix of very good, and well, not so very good. 

Basically, I didn't make it to Drax Power Station, or Eggborough Power Station, or Kellingley Coal Mines...or even Ferry Bridge Power Station, the first stop planned on my consumption tour of Yorkshire. I made it about 12 miles away from my starting point, not even half the way to Drax. I ticked none of my pilgrimage destinations on my list, and in that respect, today was a failed mission. 

So, what went wrong:

• Destinations - The places I wanted to visit were simply just too far away to reach via my chosen mode of transport in the time I had given myself. Maybe if I had made a concerted effort I could have visited them all, but that would have been without time on the way to create or observe or record what was happening. That would also not have been taking into account having to cycle all the way back either. 
• Time - With the winter in full swing, there just isn't enough day light hours in a day to fulfil the trip I had planned. Well, at least that was a big concern on my mind the whole journey. The sun started dropping at around 12:00 when I was in the middle of a random field in what felt like the middle of nowhere and miles away from Leed city centre. I was very conscious of having to get back before dark and didn't fancy trying to navigate my way back with no daylight to aid me. 
• Transport - Don't get me wrong, I love my bike. Fixed gear bikes are great for commuting and training and bombing round the city, but for cross country, boggy fields, rocky river paths and dicey woodland floors? Not so ideal. I'm fairly sure I wrecked my bike today, at least I definitely put it through it's paces and pushed it's limits. At one section I was going sideways more than I was forward and had to continually stop to unclog the build up of mud basically stopping my wheels from spinning. 
• PLANNING - All in all, this is what it comes down to, INEFFECTIVE PLANNING. I put way too much trust in google maps, which not only constantly failed me on the actual ride, but also highly overestimated how quick it takes to cycle the suggested route. I didn't look at all into the terrain I would be covering, or the gradient. I didn't take into account how long it would take having decent conversations with people, or drawing every pylon I passed on the way. I didn't consider the time navigating would take, or any buffer time for getting lost. I certainly didn't schedule enough time to spend at my actual destinations either, had I actually made them in the first place. At the end of the day, I just didn't research enough about my plan to make sure it was a successful and useful venture.

Approach

Another thing that I am dwelling on after today was that my approach to this field trip and this project was wrong. I feel like I made it more about the actual trip, more about what I was doing than what I was going to discover on the way. This project isn't about me and it shouldn't be about me, it's about the people that I meet and the things I discover in my research and in my trips. Yes what I am doing will come into it inevitably, maybe the mode of transport is relevant and the places I choose to visit are paramount, but the journey itself doesn't matter. It amounts to nothing, it is worthless and a waste of time and energy if I get back from it and have discovered nothing, or collected nothing, or created nothing. I needed to focus less on what I was doing, and more on what the world and everyone else in it were doing around me.

Was it a waste?

No. Not at all and far from it. If anything it was a learning curve, it was a slap in the face as to how not to conduct a research trip, or maybe more how not to conduct this specific research trip. Because it wasn't a total fail and it didn't all go wrong, and maybe more would have gone right on the exact same trip had I planned better and prepared more.

I did create a series of drawings I am happy with and can explore further and develop. I gathered more conversations and spoke to strangers and made possible friends and took reference photos. And if anything got a good workout and a lot of thinking time, an escape from the city and explore of the countryside surrounding Leeds.