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September 2010

This trip is no more than an idea at the moment; my idea more than Ken’s.  The plan, as it stands, is to travel from our current home in Malaga to our home town in the UK, Nottingham, starting around the middle of April next year.  We will take a direct route there through Spain and the west side of France but a more indirect route back to Málaga, ending the trip some time between the middle and the end of July.  Our total experience of cycle touring is a couple of cycling holidays with an organised tour company, one in Cuba and another in India, lasting a couple of weeks each.  Not much to go on really!

I’m in the ‘planning’ phase – Ken’s in the ‘worrying’ phase.  Situation normal.

December 2010

Well – the rain stopped and we went out for our first run together on our new touring bikes.  I wanted an easy route so my first experience would be a positive one.  Of course, where we live the choice is hills, big hills or mountains.  Having selected the least hilly option, I still felt like I wouldn’t get to the next ‘pueblo’ let alone to the UK and back!  Still – this is all my idea, so I have to convince Ken that it really isn’t a problem.  Fortunately, we did a little better as we went on because we realized that we were just trying to go too fast.  We slowed down and took our time and it all went a lot better. 

Now I’m a bit concerned about how many kilometres we will be able to cover in a week.  I have been working to the plan that we would cover 100 km a day with two rest days off each week, giving a total of 500 km a week.  We might need to reduce the weekly distance which would mean extending the time away or changing the route.  I think I’m going to have a few more trial runs before making a decision.

February 2011

The route has been decided and all 6697 kilometres, or 4161 miles if you prefer, plotted on the maps.  Santa brought a map-holder for the bike handle bars (along with loads of other bike stuff) which will come in very handy.  So, that’s it, we’re all set to go.

We’re on about Version No 99 of the packing list and we’ve moved from light-weight credit card touring to fully loaded expedition stuff, but I think we’re finally sorted.  The original idea was that we would travel light, with just the bare essentials in rear panniers, and stay in hotels, B & Bs or hostels.  However, knowing Spain as we do, we have become increasingly worried that we might have problems finding such accommodation as and when we need it, although I suspect we would be OK in France.  We envisaged cycling a full day and finding ourselves in a some small place with nowhere to stay and no time to cycle to the next place.  So our solution is to carry the tent, sleeping bags and sleeping mats.  The obvious downside being the extra weight, but the upside being the certainty of somewhere to sleep and, of course, it will be cheaper.  Fortunately, we already have the camping equipment that we normally use when we are trekking.  However, we do now need front racks and panniers.  We can get all the stuff on the back racks, but we think the bikes will be ‘back’ heavy and unbalanced as they are, so I’ve just ordered racks and panniers over the internet.  We’re nearly there – a good lesson for those new to bike touring – always give yourself several months to prepare.