Archive for May, 2010

Po river riding

Monday, May 31st, 2010


Po river riding

To get quickly across Italy to Florence we chose to cycle along the pancake flat Po valley for a couple of days. From a campsite at Alba where we ordered replacement sleeping mats to be delivered in Florence, we descended from the last of the vine covered hills with their views of hill-top towns on each peak and into Italy’s agricultural lands. – Posted by Emma

Italian impressions

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010


Italian impressions

Our last day in France saw us hoping for an easy ride across the Col de Braus and into Italy through a small pass to the north of Nice. However after a roadside chat with local cyclist Patrick, we were a little more cautious. He said we would never make it on our heavy bikes to Italy on that day as we had 3 passes and at least 15km of climbing ahead. – Posted by Justin

France by numbers

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010


France by numbers

Entering France to sunny skies and 24km of downhill we thought our endless summer of cycling had truly begun. It quickly turned unseasonably cold, but camping in the snow, cycling through prehistoric gorges and learning how to make bread were all things that made us forget the weather. – Posted by Emma + Justin

3000 kilometre photo

Friday, May 21st, 2010


3000 kilometre photo

Make sure you turn off ‘smell-o-vision’ and put away your ‘real-life-touch’ pads if you’re viewing this from the future. This photo documents 3000 kilometres in the saddle, taken on 21st May in Val de Chavagne, France just before the second downpour of the afternoon. – Posted by Emma

Wine valley off-season

Thursday, May 20th, 2010


Wine valley off-season

As we’ve travelled through the Rhone Valley and Provence, we’ve been passing through some of the vine-rich regions of France. The sun has been out, the hills have been small and sometimes the wind has been behind us, but it feels like we’ve caught these places at the wrong time of year. – Posted by Emma

Free Camping Thoughts

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010


Free Camping Thoughts

At the start of this trip our closest experience to free camping had been asking for permission from a farmer to use one of his fields while cycling LEJOG last year, so basically we had never done it before. Since our very first night on the road in the UK we have had to embrace free camping whether through choice or necessity. – Posted by Justin

Gorge(ous) riding

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010


Gorge(ous) riding

After we left Yves and Ingrid on a bright Thursday morning we had a rough route planned that would take in the Gorges du Tarn and the Gorges de L’Ardeche both of which had come highly recommended by Ingrid. Travelling through the two gorges would also align us to continue further East towards Italy. – Posted by Justin

Food Diary: France

Saturday, May 15th, 2010


Food Diary: France

In France we swapped chocolate filled mini croissants for regular ones and traded Spanish bread for baguettes and many types of cereales filled bread. Influenced by what we experienced when staying with Yves and Ingrid our cooking has become a little more French as well. This is what we ate in one day in France. – Posted by Emma

Fresh Bread & Blue Cheese

Thursday, May 13th, 2010


Fresh Bread & Blue Cheese

We arrived at Yves and Ingrid’s beautiful home after days of camping in snow and rain. They had contacted us by email offering us the chance to visit them and as we tried to resolve the problems with our tent their offer seemed to good to be true. Before we arrived we had decided that we would stay 2 nights giving us the chance to recover a little and make plans for our route ahead. – Posted by Justin

Snow cycling and tent crisis

Thursday, May 6th, 2010


Snow cycling and tent crisis

Following our hibernation from the snow we really wanted hot showers and hot food. Instead we had a freezing ride, brought cold paella thinking it was hot and I had a freezing cold shower. And that was before we found the holes in the tent. – Posted by Emma