The Trip of a Lifetime? Quite possibly!
I'd wanted to make a big cycling trip for many years and finally I've done it! I explained the background to this trip in an earlier post.
I maintained a daily travelogue during the trip, posting an account of each day and photographs. I thought I'd round things off with a final review.
Highlights
I have been asked several times which place I liked best. That's a tough one as there were so many stand out places and so few places I wasn't keen on. So rather than pick one place, here are the highlights.
Northern France
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I crossed north-eastern France at the start of my trip and enjoyed the gentle agricultural landscapes, the villages, the excellent roads and ... the food! I met some really nice people here, as well. |
Crossing the Swiss Alps
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I crossed the Swiss Alps in a few stages, starting by cycling up to Andermatt from Lake Lucerne. I felt a great sense of achievement arriving in Andermatt after several hours of climbing. To be honest, it wasn't that hard but I'd really built this one up in my mind so was really happy when I made it to Andermatt! The next stage involved more climbing up to the very top via the San Gotthard Pass and then a totally brilliant descent down the old Tremola road with its amazing cobbles and tight, hair-pin bends. It was very exciting! |
The Birds of Northern Italy
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I spent quite a few days cycling through farmland in Northern Italy, heading west away from Pavia. The terrain is flat and the farmland is watered by an extensive network of irrigation channels. The irrigation attracts all sorts of fairly large birds like Storks, Herons and Egrets. It was a pleasure to see them as I passed through the landscape. |
The Ligurian Alps
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I'd never heard of the Ligurian Alps before this trip. I was forced to change my route due to a collapsed tunnel and ended up spending two days crossing this mountain range. The cycling was glorious and the scenery lovely. I really enjoyed this unexpected detour. |
The Camargue Region
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I cycled through the Camargue region in southern France which is a large area of wetlands and loved seeing the wildlife, mostly birds and including a surprising number of flamingoes and the biggest Stork's nests I've ever seen! |
The French Pyrenees
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I loved the French side of the Pyrenees mountains! I cycled close to and north of them for hundreds of miles as I worked my way west across southern France from Perpignan towards and just beyond Lourdes. The further west I got, the more I liked this part of France. It's green and quiet and it contains numerous Tour de France climbs of which I found myself cycling at least two in full (Col de Saint Louis and Col du Pourtalet) and part of another (Col d'Aubisque). Crossing the Pyrenees into Spain via Col du Pourtalet was definitely a high point. The 18 mile climb was wonderful and the scenery at the top amazing. Crossing an international border from France into Spain at the top of a mountain was kind of special too! And I'll never forget seeing a flock of Griffon Vultures. Amazing. |
Picos de Europa
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A range of mountains and national park in northern Spain, the Picos were just lovely. My first day in the park, cycling north for 40 miles towards Potes stands out as another of the best days of cycling I've ever had. Once in the park, I camped at three different locations and cycled quite a long way through it, getting to see various parts of this scenic Spanish jewel. I did some hiking too and walking the Cares Gorge trail in both directions was one of the most enjoyable hikes I've ever done. |
Food
I went into the trip, thinking about food only in terms of nutrition and performance. I knew I'd be burning thousands of calories each day and that my body would need protein for muscle repair. What I hadn't considered is what a delight the food might be sometimes as well! My favourite foods were:
1. Every pain au chocolat eaten in France! Fresh baked from the village boulangerie. My mouth is watering as I type this!
2. A salmon and broccoli quiche which I bought at a patisserie in Northern France. I've had salmon and broccoli quiche before. You can buy them in my local supermarket. But not like this! OMG it was amazing. I had to hold it in both hands from underneath as the delicate pastry threatened to fall apart. And the flavours! "Wow" is all I can say!
3. Pesto in Italy. Where else? I bought a couple of small, plastic tubs of pesto with peel back lids at a supermarket near Rosanna, picking them up more or less at random. The pesto was added to a bowl of camping mush, on this occasion based on couscous, tomatoes and tuna. The flavour was startling! Bright, potent, fresh! It made me realise how bland the pesto we normally buy in the UK is!
4. Pasta in Italy. Where else?! I didn't go in for eating in restaurants much on this trip. But on the one occasion I did (not counting campsite "restaurants"), I had Linguine Tricolore and it was amazing. No surprise given I was in Italy, I guess but it certainly deserves a mention.
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| The delicious linguine tricolore |
5. Spanish Cheese. Cheese in general to be honest, but the cheese I had in northern Spain was all fantastic and due to my complete ignorance of the food in northern Spain, a very pleasant surprise!
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| Spanish cheese |
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| A selection of French cheeses I had in Neufchateau |
People
I met lots of nice people on this trip. Sometimes encounters were short but memorable nevertheless. On other occasions I spent more time with people. I think every encounter I had was positive. I can't remember anything negative involving people I met at all.
The positive experience of meeting people started to register on my first day in France where a total stranger, whose house I'd paused in front of, offered to fill my water bottles. And the young man in his car who stopped by me at traffic lights and then had an enthusiastic conversation with me about cycling.
My favourite memories are of people I stayed with, however. I used Homecamper three times as I crossed northern France and so several times, camped in the garden of people's homes.
In Vimy, I met Irek and Elisabeth, who made me very welcome and went out of their way to ensure I was comfortable.
In Chuffily-Roche, I met Christian, a farmer and very interesting and friendly man, who showed me around the locale and chatted with me about all sorts of things as I camped in the garden of his beautiful house.
In Vassincourt, I stayed with a lovely family. Brice, his wife Aurore (hope I spelled her name correctly) and their two children, a baby girl and a "bright as a button", interested in everything, five year old boy who I regret not being able to chat with in French because he really wanted to talk with me! I spent a very pleasant time talking with Brice and Aurore in the evening. Brice made an excellent suggestion regarding my route for the next day and by following his advice, I enjoyed twenty miles of cycling along a beautiful canal.
Of course I also stayed at many campsites. These varied enormously. My favourite was Agricampeggio Monviso, which is first and foremost a farm but which allows some low impact, simple camping in one of the fields. I loved staying there and enjoyed meeting the family who owned the farm. Anna and her husband, Peio really helped me when it turned out my plan to cycle to Tende in France was impossible due to a collapsed tunnel. Peio very patiently helped my plot a new route which took me to the coast via the Ligurian Alps, which I would otherwise never have seen.
And then there was Michael and Laura who I met in a forest north of Milano. They cycled and chatted with me as I worked my way south on trails, before Michael volunteered to be my personal guide and cycled a further 16 miles out of his way, just to show me an efficient route through the forest towards my campsite. It was an incredibly considerate and helpful act.
I met lots of other travellers too and loved chatting with them about their trips, whether it was a bikepacking trip like mine or simply a family holiday.
And finally, special mention has to go to the many bar staff in Italy, France and Spain who always helped me out by giving me a bag full of ice cubes to keep my phone from over-heating! Thank you, whoever you were!
Books
I read a lot on this trip. After a hard day cycling, relaxing with a good book was a great way to spend time. I read four books in full and was about halfway through a fifth when I got home. All were by the writer Cormac McCarthy. In the order that I read them on this trip, the books I read were:
1. Suttree
3. Child of God
and I am currently close to finishing The Crossing.
Equipment
I took a lot of stuff with me. How did it do? I'll post separately on this topic soon!
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