Cycling with no brakes or steering

On Christmas Day in the evening I found myself cycling down a hill in London towards a T-junction. I had no brakes or steering.

I just had to trust David, who was sitting just in front of me on his tandem. It was quite scary: I'd not sat at the back before. Had there been an emergency I would have been powerless. Thankfully the situation did not arise and we cycled down to the Thames at Greenwich.

Moments before, we had been on Point Hill looking at the London skyline.


Down by the river the waterway seemed devoid of movement. Then a patrol boat came downstream. To get sufficient light into the camera I opened the shutter for four seconds - hence all you see of the boat are the streaks left by the navigation lights.