It's January 2025 and our next opportunity for a nice long bikepacking trip suddenly seems very near! We have of course been thinking about where to go next and planning a route pretty much since we returned from Spain in 2024. So, what's the plan?
Early in the summer, we'll be cycling from home near London to the coastal town and port of Newhaven. From there, we'll take a ferry across to Dieppe in lovely France. We'll then cross France, heading for Mulhouse.
From Mulhouse we'll follow exactly the same route that M1 took in 2022, crossing into Switzerland, passing through Basel and then resting for a couple of days by Lake Lucerne. We'll then take a deep breath and tackle a fairly big alpine climb from the lake up to the ski resort of Andermatt.
After Andermatt, instead of continuing to the old Tremola road and on to Bellinzona and then Italy as M1 did in 2022, we'll swing north and continue to climb for a while, eventually finding the river Rhine at its source. There we'll pick up Eurovelo route EV15 and follow the Rhine across Switzerland, passing through Liechtenstein, then back across Switzerland to Basel again and then North West through Germand and the Netherlands to the North Sea coast. We'll take a ferry from the Hook of Holland back to Harwich in England and find our way home from there, possibly taking a train into central London and then cycling the final kilometres.
The route's about 1600 miles or 2575 km and promises to be awesome. We've booked our ferries and some of the accommodation for the first week and the rest we'll take care of as we travel. We can't wait.
Meanwhile, unable to wait until the summer, M1 is seriously considering a (relatively) short trip in the UK possibly in March or maybe April. Yes, a better sleeping bag will probably be required as it's likely to be chillier than usual.
The counties of Suffolk and Norfolk lie to the north east of London and M1 doesn't know either of them well. A route of 450 miles / 750 km has been sketched out and is being considered. It includes part of Eurovelo route EV12 which is the UK National Cycle Network (NCN) route 1.
This is very much a "maybe" at the moment.
Even more tenuous is an idea that has emerged for a 2026 trip, possibly with a friend rather than M2 but possibly solo. It's an ambitious idea and the route is not in Europe. That's all that can be said today. It almost certainly will not happen. But you never know. Research is proceeding so we shall just have to wait and see what the conclusion is on this one!
Here's to exciting times on two wheels in 2025 :-)
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