Introduction
Well over 15 years ago, I worked in the city of London. And at some point, I'd grown tired of the commute by train from my home just outside London and so had taken to cycling to work (provided the weather was not too awful!) instead of walking, taking two trains and then walking some more. My cycle route involved a 34 mile round trip which today I would not consider far but back then it seemed like quite a stretch! I got fitter though and cycling became more and more an integral part of life.
I started a new job at a small company and found I was the only person who cycled to work. This made me a minor celebrity for a while! I got to know the new team bit by bit and one day was chatting with one of the team members and the conversation moved onto cycling which it turned out my colleague was a fan of. He quietly and modestly proceeded to tell me about some of the *amazing* cycling feats he'd accomplished. He'd cycled from his home in London to Athens in Greece. He'd cycled the length of Africa, north to south! He'd cycled north all the way through Norway. He'd had all sorts of amazing cycling adventures in fact and I was inspired by his stories.
About three years ago back in 2019, I decided I wanted to do something similar and chose cycling to Athens and then flying home as my adventure.
I discovered the Eurovelo network and used it to help plan a route from London to Athens which I thought I could probably complete in ten weeks. The route involved taking a fairly straight line across north-eastern France to Basel in Switzerland, joining Eurovelo route EV5 and crossing Switzerland and into northern Italy. From there I would head south-east, eventually joining route EV8 and heading south through Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and finally, Greece.
I researched weather conditions and other factors and decided I'd set off towards the end of Spring in 2020.
But then Covid struck and that was the end of that. As 2020 progressed, I made the sadly mistaken assumption that by 2021, Covid would be in the past and rescheduled the trip. But 2021 was not the end by any means. Having been vaccinated a couple of times, it looked more feasible to make the trip than before but border entry requirements for the 8 foreign countries my route passed through were very variable. Different countries recognised different vaccines and not others. How you demonstrated your vaccination status varied. And quarantine rules and requirements were in place everywhere I'd pass through. There was no way I could go in 2021. If nothing else, it would be too complicated and I risked being quarantined several times along the way and suffering substantial delays and costs. So once again, I postponed.
By 2022, border entry requirements and rules had stabilised and there was more consistency across countries. But things can change so there was still a risk of delays and that flight home from Athens started to look like a problem. Would I get to Athens in time or would I be stuck for weeks in quarantine in Albania for example? With this in mind, I decided it would be prudent to change my route and thus "Route B" was conceived.
Route B
My new route is circular. I start cycling from my home in England and I return by bike to my own front door. It has only 5 different countries on the route rather than the nine of the original route. Fewer borders to cross means fewer potential border control issues and a circular route means I don't have to worry about catching a flight home and have numerous options for shortening the route if I need to for whatever reason.
And on that last point, my philosophy has changed too. Route B is just one possible route. An idea. An aspiration. It's by no means fixed and if I need or want to change it at any point, I will. So Route B as currently defined is what I call "the aspirational route". I'd like to do it. But the goal is to enjoy, not to be locked into something which is no more than an idea on paper (or in fact a screen). So what does this aspirational route look like?
The Aspirational Route
The route follows my original route A to begin with, crossing south-east England, taking a ferry from Dover to Calais and then crossing north-eastern France in a fairly straight line. The route enters Switzerland at Basel and crosses the country by Eurovelo EV5 which is Swiss national cycling network route 03 to Lake Lucerne. From there, there's a massive climb up into the Swiss Alps via Andermatt then down through Bellinzona and onwards into Italy at Como. South of Milano I will join Eurovelo EV8 but instead of heading east, will head south west through Torino, dipping briefly back into France to cross the Southern Alps, back into Italy and then west into Monaco and France. I'll cross southern France and just beyond Lourdes, turn south to cross the Pyrenees into Spain. Within Spain, depending on how much time I have left, I'll explore some of the caminos and potentially get as far as the
Picos de Europa national park. I'll then head for a port such as Santander and catch a ferry back to Portsmouth in England where I'll spend a final two days getting home.
The route as described is about 2,300 miles (3,700km) in length but adding detours to get to accommodation could be a few hundred miles longer. It also includes three very obviously challenging sections. The Swiss Alps, the Southern Alps and the Pyrenees.
Attitude and Options
As I said, I'm not wedded to this route. The goal is to have a memorable and (give or take a few inevitable disasters) an enjoyable experience! I've trained hard to get fit but the fact is I have no idea at all whether I am strong enough to propel my heavy touring MTB and its load up and over some of Europe's biggest mountains.
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| Training session examples! |
I also don't know what the weather will be like or how reliable my bike will be. If it can go wrong, it probably will go wrong and so flexibility is the order of the day.
If for any reason, I think that cycling a particular section is going to be a major problem (e.g. I'm not strong enough or it's dangerous or whatever), I'll avoid the problem by changing my route or using other forms of transport if there are options. Switzerland will deliver important information when I get to the first true mountain section. If I find I can't handle the ascent, I know that there's a train service that follows the same route via the same mountain pass and I'll switch to using the train for some or all of that section instead. On a lesser point, I've read that the 30 mile road along the edge of Lake Lucerne from west to east is dangerous for cyclists so I already plan to use the ferry service for that section instead.
If the Swiss Alps prove to be beyond me, then I'll change the remainder of the route to avoid the other mountain sections. There are plenty of other enjoyable and more feasible options.
Accommodation
I'm taking a tent, sleeping bag and other camping gear so my intention is to camp most of the time. I'll use campsites often and may do a bit of wild camping where necessary and appropriate but am aware that this is not always legal or acceptable to locals so I'll be careful with that option.
But there's an interesting camping alternative I discovered for France.
HomeCamper is a bit like AirBnB except that rather than rent a room in someone's house for a night or two, you rent space in their back garden and camp there! Usually you're given access to toilets and showers in the house. There's often WiFi and electricity for charging devices available and sometimes breakfast is offered as an "extra". And of course it's a chance to meet French families at the same time. I like the idea very much and have already booked three places to stay using HomeCamper for my first week out across France.
Around once every week, I hope to take a day or two off and find myself an AirBnB apartment or similar. This will allow me to wash clothes, charge batteries and of course... rest!
To ensure I satisfy the French border control requirements, I've booked all of my accommodation across France in advance. This is an unfortunate constraint since it means I absolutely must get to my destination each day or risk losing the booking that day and the days that follow. But I didn't want to risk problems getting into France right at the start so that's the way it is. On my rest day, I'll research and book accommodation in Switzerland. Booking one week ahead at a time is likely to be the routine.
When?
I plan to set off on Thursday June 30th. I'll spend a couple of days crossing England and on the third day cycle one final ten miles to Dover, catch a ferry to Calais and start my journey in continental Europe!
Watch This Space!
I'll be blogging here with the intention that there will be a post per day. Availability of internet access and electricity will probably mean that I don't always post on the day but will catch up with multiple posts every now and again, whenever I can.
