*Derby to Preveza: highlights and lowlights from two months of cycling
A pretty good place for an airport!
We are, however, very much looking forward to seeing friends and family; particularly our nephew, born the day after we left! Eating something other than pesto pasta (pasto) is also a very exciting prospect, and after being too hot for a couple of weeks, we will try and appreciate the cooler temperatures and even rain.
Whenever Rhys and I have a fun trip with friends, we always ask: "what were the highlights and lowlights", so here are some of ours, along with other reflections on our trip.
Highlights
Staying with interesting people: we've mentioned a few times how great our WS experiences have been, but it's really been one of the highlights of our trip. We've stayed with 20 year olds, and 70 year olds, and every decade inbetween, with differing life experiences and viewpoints (the one common factor being a love of bicycles and sympathy for the UK given the realities of Brexit). It's fascinating going into people's houses, hearing about what they do and the trips they've been on. Everyone has been so generous, sharing meals with us, or trusting us in their homes whilst they're out for the evening. Our final hosts, at a lovely bakery in Zitsa, Greece, even trusted us to look after their lovely bilingual four year old for a few hours, and help out at their sheep farm. These are all experiences we wouldn't have come across by ourselves. This helped to make our trip so much more than just about cycling, as we connected with people far more than just on a conventional holiday.
2. Slovenia, Albania, Bosnia: (basically all of the countries ending in Nia it seems!)
We cycled through England, Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania and Greece. All of the countries were different and had many enjoyable features - in England we loved rolling through Suffolk and in the Netherlands it was fantastic experiencing their cycling infrastructure. However, the most exciting countries were probably those in bold above. Slovenia has the most dramatic and beautiful scenery, Bosnia was so rural and quiet, whist Albania was incredibly friendly and we learnt some of its history.
3. Swimming: swimming and cycling go incredibly well together, especially when it's warm. We've swam in pools, rivers, lakes and the sea, and it's been so refreshing and a great way to relax and cool down. The water quality in much of Europe greatly exceeds that of the UK, but we hope that the UK ups it's game!
4. Simplicity: there's a wonderful simplicity to cycle touring and your mental to-do list is so much shorter than in normal life. Every day you know you're going to cycle, and you just need food, water and somewhere to sleep at night; it's very freeing, rather than thinking about cleaning, DIY, work, plans and all of the usual things that occupy your thoughts. Cycling also gives you a great sense of satisfaction and feeling of productivity.
5. Being outside all day: not much more needs to be said, but it's wonderful not staring at a screen all of the time, and being in the fresh air. That said, my wellbeing phone data shows my phone usage went up considerably this trip! But as it was my only screen time, it's probably not too bad overall. We enjoyed the very occasional sunrise, and more frequently some beautiful sunsets.
Lowlights
1. Insect bites: the downside to being outside all day. You can be in the most beautiful of places, but if you've got multiple mosquitoes biting you, it's far from relaxing. On a couple of campsites we ended up having some very early nights to avoid these pesky insects.
2. The occasional dodgy overtake: overall we've felt very safe on the road, and the majority of our cycling was on cycle paths or quiet roads. The mainland coastal road in Croatia was probably the worst road we cycled on - a bus overtook us by sounding their horn, and then not moving out at all as they passed inches from us. There was also a police car in Italy that didn't fill us with confidence. We were pleasantly surprised by Albanian drivers, I think because they're used to dodging herds of goats and appear quite happy driving on the wrong side of the road, so actually give you a lot of space.
3. Falls: thankfully we were limited to a small fall each and they weren't very serious. Mary's slip on old tram tracks resulted in a few grazes and a broken watch, whilst Rhys' slow cycle into a car that had stopped in the middle of the road led to some drama with the police that had witnessed it, but thankfully no serious breakages to Rhys or bicycle.
4. Dog chases and being barked at - we had heard some pretty scary things about dogs in Albania and Greece, but they were not as bad as we expected. We had one dog chase, and lots of being barked at, but it was okay. If we cycled slowly, or got off, and shouted "stop" authoritatively, they did seem to stop. We also carried a couple of stones, just in case, but we didn't need to use them.
5. Finding out the ferry from Split to Korkula was fully booked. We didn't have many moments on the trip where we felt dispirited, but this was certainly one of them. We'd cycled for over 110km and were pleased to make it to the ferry in good time... only to be told there were no seats left. We really didn't fancy a night in Split, as it was pretty busy, with only expensive accommodation available. After a small amount of moping, we decided to jump on a ferry to Hvar, and we instantly felt happier.
Things we'd do differently next time
We were very pleased with what we took and how the trip went, but with hindsight, here are a few tweaks we'd make:
1. Have small flags on our bikes to show where we're from! Just a small fun addition that we enjoyed on other people's bikes.
2. Not take running shoes... we weren't sure if we'd do a few days cycling, then a few days off the bike. As it was, we mostly just cycled. We did a parkrun in Amsterdam and a short trail run in Slovenia, but that was the extent of our running over two months, which made carrying our trail shoes around a little unnecessary.
3. Invest in a better Garmin. Our Garmin bike computer is pretty old and not always reliable. Initially we used Mary's Garmin watch to also navigate from, but this was trickier after the screen smashed in a fall.
4. Wildcamp a little more. We didn't do a lot of wildcamping, partly as it was so hot, and we wanted showers before we went to sleep. In the early days along the Rhine there were lots of WS hosts so wildcamping didn't feel necessary. But there is a great freedom with wildcamping.
5. Eat more fruit and veg! We were a little lazy in buying food and snacks each day, and it was very easy to load up on biscuits to fuel our rides. It was only slightly more work going to a veg shop, but for some reason it was a blocker to us eating more healthily. It's strange, cycling itself and being active are so good for you, but we should have fuelled a little better. Lessons learnt for next time!
Our trip:
- Distance: 4,500km
- Elevation: 45,000m
- Countries: 13
- Days of cycling: 56
- Rest days: 5
- 21 nights at WS (3 in a tent), 21 nights camping, 14 rooms, 2 wild camps, 2 family and friends, 1 ferry
- Jars of pesto eaten: 25 (approx.)
- Falls: 2 small ones (1 each)
- Punctures: 6 (5 for me and my Gravel Kings, 1 for Rhys and his Marathon Shwalbes)
- Average daily spend: 54 euros
Having never done anything like this before, we were unsure how we'd find it, and doubted we'd actually get to Dubrovnik. It definitely exceeded our expectations and we'd love to do more tours in the future, though we are not sure when we'll get the chance to have such a long trip again. It's been fantastic stepping (cycling, really) out of our normal lives, and having some headspace to think about how we'd like our lives to be when we get back. It's such a wonderful way to travel, rather than just arriving in the middle of a city, or at your accommodation, you experience the gradually changing environment. People are so much chattier when you arrive by bike and are interested to hear about your trip. Even at Preveza airport, lugging our giant boxes around, people asked where we'd been cycling, and were surprised to hear we'd cycled from Derby. Starting from our house was another thing we loved this trip, and seeing a gradual change all of the way to Greece, with the help of a few ferries, of course.
It was also a pretty fantastic start to married life! Spending all day together has been really nice, and not too intense; if we're cycling at slightly different speeds we end up having some quiet time. There were challenging times, of course, and we learnt that when we're hungry and tired in the afternoon, we need to be particularly patient and not snap! It's been lovely cycling together and working as a team to plan the trip.
Now, onto the catch the plane, and see what conditions are bikes and belongings come out in Birmingham.
Any questions about our tour, please let us know!
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