Be Careful What You Wish for....

Well being Brits we're going to be talking about the weather a lot. But when you can only carry 30 odd kilos of stuff for 3 months of travelling and sleeping rough, it seems too little when it rains and you want to get out your trvael tumble drier or have less demanding hopes of perhaps a dry set of clothes. But that 30kg seems far too much when the temperature is 34 degrees and you've been grinding uphill in the beating sun for 40 minutes.

So, we've had it all so far, tough times, elation, rain, the biggest thunder storms known to either of us and a lot of sun.

We left you good readers in Belgium, probably two weeks ago. Since then we have been all the way through Germany and are currently in just in Austria, on the shores of lake Konstance. We're at a lovely campsite for the fist time in a week and enjoying the feeling of being clean, having water to spare and being able to charge all our gadgets. Since then we've sought lodgings at a monestry in Luxembourg, been through the hilly Eiffel region of Germany and enjoyed the hospitality of a random family of 3 generations on a farm, where we were given Home-made Cake and Beer in the evening, then Breakfast and more cake when we commented how nice it had been. The Braun family's kindness was excellent and a taste of what we could expect in Germany.

We pedalled along the Mosel valley to the Rhine and then headed South, having two nice nights camping on little beaches on the Rhine. Then it was Heppenhime which included a 1ltr bottle of wine at a wine festival, Heidelburg where we played Ultimate Frisbee and got to meet Yanks and other English Speakers.

We've headed south through the Black Forest where in Wildberg, we ended up at a Macadonian truck drivers 50th Birthday BBQ. His local friends insisted we eat with them, drink their beer and would not accept any money. They must have thought we were tramps as we were extatic to take their empties which you get 25 cents each for recycling. In the end we went to the Supermarket the next day, really looking like down and outs, with carrir bags full of cans attached to the panniers. We got €5 for our troubles though..........

In all, too much is happening, that we can barely remember everything that happened a couple of days ago. The scenary changes eery day and the only things that are constant day to day is that we'll ride a lot and end up sleeping in a tent.

So now the tough riding begins, but we'll be rewarded with the best scenary we have seen so far. From Lake Konstance we can see the Alps all around and they look huge, we'll be climbing up to the Innes valley and be in Italy within a week. All is well and we're having a ball.

Doug and Kate

All the photos

We´ll be popping all the photos from the trip here........

First batch uploaded now....


https://picasaweb.google.com/117459221141239300610/DunkirkToIstanbul02?authkey=Gv1sRgCJqb29aB84PwkQE&feat=directlink

The Athletes and the Route

Doug "Lovehandles" Arnold

Doug hit an all time low weight of 63kg last year, working as a cycle courier and did excellently in a triathlon. After that summer of riding he was sick of cycling and sat around eating bisuits and cake whilst doing a lot of uni work. The once athletic cycling road racer now weighs in at 74kg and is the heaviest he has ever been, Doug has enough fat to last him till Malaysia, never mind Istanbul. Will riding a bike that weighs more than a baby giraffe fully loaded (that´s the bike not the giraffe thats fully loaded) help him return to his days of athletic glory............?

Kate "Let me eat cake" Freeman

She may struggle to see over chairs and tables but this girl really packs a punch. An ex 200m track runner and netball locamotive extrordiner, Kate has a big power to weight ratio. She once tried on a Heart Rate Monitor, which told her she had no heart and was cold blooded. She demanded a 2nd opinion, and it told her that at rest (all her details programmed in), she burns 50% more calories than Doug!!!! Will foreign climes provide the right conditions for Kate to find suitable cake-like bargains to keep her fuelled?

Rain Rain Rain

Ok progress has been slow. On good days we cqn easily knock out 50 miles, but with 6 days of rain we´re a bit behind schedule, but this is our holiday and we´re going to enjoy it. It was glorious weather in blighty as we camped on the White Cliffs of Dover.

We´ve been eating really well, courtesy or Kate´s excellent food choosing and cooking skills and we´ve mastered the art of semi-discreet wild camping (if we´d slept in today we would have been woken up by the noise of chainsaws 5 meters away!!!)

Anyway, we´re progressing well through Belgium, which is an amazing country. We went round Tournai and saw its world herritage site. There are lots of lovely small roads here, but anything that is a little busy has a cycle lane, right upto 90kph dual carriageways which we try to avoid.
Off to the Ardennes and Bastogne next and then Luxembourg.

We LOVE Belgium and the Belgians. Right now I´m using a computer for free in a Belgian Tourist Office in Cerfontaine, and the lady just given me Coffee and a Belgian Chocolate for FREE. The French on the other hand refused to serve us after 2pm, overcharged us for Peaches and got all arsey when Kate demanded a refund in her best sign language. As the queue grew behind her they gave her the 1.34 Euros without fully understanding what the problem was.

Anyway, some photos of so far. (in reverse chronological order)

View from the tent, Mauberge FR

Tournai BL

A rare bit of sun in Dunkirk.




Kate in Dover.

Off we go!

Ok, it's 9pm on the day before we travel and we are just getting ready to pack. However the last few days have seen us doing some very important stuff. Doug has been fettling with the bikes, whilst Kate has been doing research into every pair of shorts, available to purchase in a 20 mile radius.

And the bikes. Kate is bigging up the North East, with her Caygill 631 tourer, build by Arthur Caygil Cycles in Richmond North Yorks. This guy was a local road racing legend, and we saw in the shop clippings of cycling weekly from the 70s showing he'd done a 100 mile TT in less than 4 hours! Remarkable, considering that no aero equipment was available at the time.





And Doug's bike is the trusty Dawes Horizon. Steed of my first 100 mile ride, Liverpool Century Club Run and 200km Audax.