Here We Go Again!

Horses make a change from bikes
The ground you cover's more,
But they can make your muscles ache
And leave you saddle-sore.

Yippee! The time has come to embark on our next bike trip, and this time we have chosen to cycle around the Baltic Sea. Not the entire coastline because that's about 8000 km and we're not that stupid! Our route will be about 3500 km, but this time I have a cyclometer so as long as I remember to put it on we should be able to see just how far we actually do cycle.
  

Countries Visited:   

Poland, Kalingingrad (Little Russia), Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Holland.
We should be following the EuroVelo 10 route, but from past experience it's not always that simple...

Kit:

We are taking the same bikes and more or less the same equipment as last time, with a few upgrades - new panniers; from Lidl, £10 each pair, (I'll let you know how they fair...!),  new tyres, side stands so we don't have to lie the bikes down every time we stop, and a couple of bags from the boy scouts jumble sale to replace the Sainsbury's heavy duty bin liners that we used before! 

Plan:

As you see, no expense spared this time. Training will once again begin when the trip does, (Steve badly sprained his ankle a few weeks ago and still can't quite get his shoe on) and we'll ease ourselves in slowly, especially as I believe we are remembering the last trip through rose-tinted glasses - after re-reading the blog I'd forgotten about swollen knees, aching everythings and terrible weather!
If all goes well we hope to catch a ferry back from Holland. That's the plan, but already the plan is not going accordingly; we were supposed to fly to Poland today, but had to cancel the flight as Steve's passport and visa still haven't arrived back from the Russian embassy. Mine arrived a few days ago, I'm obviously not as dodgy looking as him!

Reason:

We are still raising money for Lake Bunyonyi Community Village. Since our trip to Uganda we have continued to raise money and helped with emergency hospital fees, school fees and clothing.
Edison has been promised 1000 laying chickens from the local MP, with the plan that they can sell the eggs and create an income, but they need to raise money to buy materials to build housing for the hens. Let's help them do it!
You can click on the Go Fund Me link under Navigation to donate. 

So, that's all for now. We are checking daily for Steve's visa, and will book a flight as soon as it arrives. I'll be in touch...


 

Hair Care 2

Hello.
It's been 24 days since my last hair wash.
I feel OK. My hair feels OK too. Thicker than normal (which is no bad thing), and a little sticky to touch, but no unwanted smells or wildlife.
I have wet it a few times in the shower now, where a good old head massage feels great.
I bought a cheap Tangle Teaser brush before we left, and in the old days -when I shampooed and conditioned my hair and it was soft and fine - it's unforgiving (and unbendable) teeth would bring tears to my eyes. Now I find the scalp-scraping a rather pleasant sensation.
If my 6 week reckoning is correct, then I'm just over halfway, meaning my hair should be just about at it's most mankiest.

Now you make your own minds up, but I know I've had a lot worse bad-hair days when it was clean.
I will persevere...

Steve's Technical Talk

Without too much thought because of budget, and what we already had, decent hard tail mountain bikes seem almost perfect. Although there are plenty of smooth tarmac trails there are enough rougher tracks to warrant fat tyres and a bit of suspension. The stability is also good with the extra weight being carried.

Julia's bike is running 3×9 gearing, whilst mine has 1×10, which is proving fine, rarely needing more gears for uphills, as there aren't many (yet) or for going faster as you never seem to hit fast stuff either.

Although we've already replaced a tyre from a split, (I think it could have been there before we left), amazingly no punctures yet!!

Regular maintenance has been spoke tension, chain lube and checking free play in wheel bearings, bottom bracket and headstock.

To try to charge the phone I fitted an old fashioned dynamo with a handlebar mounted USB charge adaptor, theory being to charge whilst cycling. After fitting a second dynamo because the first one seized up, I'm still not getting a charge. Tried everything so far so rather frustrating.

It's going to be interesting what sort of tyre wear we get, along with disc pads and chains. We've done about 500kms so far so too early to say. We're averaging about 50kms a day, which doesn't sound too much, but by the time you de-camp in the morning, fire up the old girl, cycle, lunch, cycle and start looking for a good place to camp, the day is done. With some better weather we may improve. I'll keep you posted...

Days 8-12

Some days when you sit, you're bits seem to fit,
Some days they sit just to the side.
On the days that they fit, you can comfortably sit,
On the others you get a raw hide.

 

Amboise to Sancerre - 236kms

(And remember, I'm giving you the official distance on our map. We've obviously cycled A LOT more what with detouring, searching for food and campsites, and losing the trail!)

The route continues to be stunning, with lilac and wisteria still scenting the air, and scenery so idyllic you could almost be fooled into believing that the world is a perfect place, and the motor-car has yet to be invented. Only the weather is letting it down, and you can imagine the swirling dandelion seeds really are snowflakes!
We've been quite lucky so far in avoiding actually getting soaked, but sheltering in bus stops and under trees is not much fun, especially not with an icy wind.

We arrived in the town of Blois, and stopped for lunch in the square where there were some big trees, (just in case), and bought some homemade cakes of theses lads who were raising money to enter the Muguet 4L Trophy. Its a race from here to Morocco in a Renault 4 (or similar old banger) and taking needed equipment for schools down there.

(The one in the fancy top is Moroccan, the others dressed like Frenchmen, were French.)
As we ate our cakes the trees came in handy because it hailed, yes HAILED on us! The boys made a hasty retreat in their car.

Our eurovelo 6 guide says that the city of Orleans is uninspiring, I beg to differ. The immense cathedral, built to commemorate the victory of Joan of Arc here in 1429 during the 100 Years War between England and France - is absolutely breathtaking. Did people in the middle ages do anything other than dedicate their lives to building numerous incredible cathedrals and châteaux?

Later, Steve decided to take us on a shortcut. It started out like a great idea...

...but the path got narrower, the camber got steeper, and as we went further off-piste my bike went off-path, and I went off-bike, and we both landed in a bed of thick brambles and stinging nettles!

Don't worry, nothing that my faithful salt water and calendula cream hasn't sorted!

Now, here is something pretty incredible (not just because it was our first hot, sunny day) - the canal bridge at Briare. Yes, that's right, a bridge built in 1894 to carry the canal over the river Loire! Quite a feat of engineering, by none other than that famous architect/engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel.

Today we are holed up again, waiting for the rain to pass. We did manage to cycle the 5kms uphill to the ancient town of Sancerre, the centre of the Sauvignon blanc wine growing region, and got to sample some very tasty regional wines.

Fingers crossed for some dry weather tomorrow.

Hair Care

Hello.
I'm trying out the not-washing-your-hair routine, so it can supposedly self clean.
It's been 13 days since my last hairwash.
I'm feeling OK about it at the moment.
In fact, I haven't even wet my hair under the shower, because it's too cold for wet hair and I didn't see the point if I wasn't shampooing.
I don't know if that's right or wrong, it's just what I've done.
It's looking pretty greasy...well, call it slick if you like, but the helmet keeps it hidden for most of the day.
The brush glides through it easily (not surprising) and I plait it everyday to keep it out of my way. There's no itchiness or bad smells, (not from my hair at least).
I've heard it takes about 6weeks before you get luscious locks.
I'll persevere for now...

The Route

The pilgrim father's left our shores
In search of pastures green,
How the hell did they arrive
Without looking at a screen?

So, yesterday we went for a test ride and ended up on the Mayflower Steps, where the Pilgrim Fathers departed from hundreds of years ago on their quest to discover the New World. (I wonder what they'd think of it now...)
It seemed rather fitting that they sailed off on their big adventure from Plymouth, as will we tomorrow night if we manage to jump on the ferry.

The bikes, and our bodies, all seemed to be working nicely, and the few miles we managed to cycle was enough for one day. We didn't want to wear ourselves out before we start!
Below is the basic route that the EuroVelo 6 takes.
Check out their website for all the EuroVelo trails across Europe.
http://www.eurovelo.com/en 

Countries Visited:

France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria.

Official Distance:

3653km. 
This, however, seems debatable. The EuroVelo maps show the route splitting often, traversing both sides of the rivers it follows, and the eastern section seems to have a couple of different options going through either Bulgaria and/or Romania.

 
We downloaded the free app - La Loire a Velo - which gives you stage maps and kilometres, but doesn't give information on campsites, it is more designed for day trips. Hard copies (which we would prefer) are expensive to buy, not often found in English and bulky to carry, as there are 6-8 separated maps for different parts of the route.
The information I can gleam from the net about others who have done this trip is that up until about Hungary it's pretty easy to follow the signs...
As France is the cycling capital of the world, I'm reckoning that the 1300km or so to get across it will be good training for the trickier sections to come. 
We bought the EuroVelo 6 guidebook, volume 1, which comes as a download and appears to be quite useful so far, but we have little faith in our technical apparatus, ie one android phone, so the back-up plan is to follow rivers flowing eastward...
As you know, phones today need constant charging, so we have fitted an old fashioned type of dynamo to Steve's bike that runs on the tyre and is wired up to a handlebar mounted USB outlet, which will hopefully charge the phone up as we pedal along.
It would be nice to see on a map where campsites, or areas for possible free camping are so we could plan our daily distances, but we are assuming through France it will be pretty well set up. 

Kit - Clothing:

 Julia                                                                                Steve

3x shorts (2 padded)                                                        3x shorts (1 padded)
3x breathable T-shirts                                                      3x breathable T-shirts
1x top 1x vest top                                                            1x normal T-shirt
1x trousers with zippable shorts                                      1x trousers with zippable shorts
1x cycle leggings                                                             1x hoodie
1x fleece                                                                          3x boxer shorts
2x long tops (I feel the cold)                                           3x pairs socks
1x bikini and goggles (I like swimming)                        1x lightweight waterproof jacket 
4x pairs knickers                                                             1x pair trainers, 1x pair flip flops
3x pairs socks                                                                  1x helmet, cap, sunglasses
2x sports bras 
1x waterproof jacket
1x pair trainers, 1x pair flip flops 
1x helmet, cap, sunglasses

Camping gear:

Quickhiker, ultralight 3 man hiking tent 
2x sleeping bags
2x self-inflating roll mats
2x travel pillows
1x single burner camping stove
Camping pots/2x plates/2x cups
Swiss army knife
String for washing line, and pegs

Tool Kit:

Leatherman
Bike multi-tool
Chain splitting tool
2x tyre levers
Spare gear cables
Spare inner tube
Puncture repair outfit
Selection of cable ties
Small selection of nuts and bolts
Roll of duct tape
15mm spanner for pedals
Chain oil

Medical Kit:

Salt (I'm a GREAT believer in salt water!)
Calendula cream
Antiseptic cream
Various plasters/dressings
Ibuprofen

Toiletries:

Toilet paper
Flannel (for washing in the river)
Biodegradable soap
Razor (for Steve's face and my underarms)
Hairbrush (I'm attempting to see if my hair will self-clean. Never got past the 2 week mark without shampoo!) 
Toothbrushes and toothpaste
Deodorant
Face moisturiser
Suntan cream


We are taking some porridge oats, nuts and dates, and a bag of pasta and sauce for an emergency dinner, but are planning to buy food as we need it.
Providing the tent arrives tomorrow (yes, I know, it's a bit last minute but was a lot lighter and more compact than the one we've got) we'll be on the night ferry from Plymouth to Roscoff tomorrow evening. We plan to cycle 30kms to Morlaix then catch a train down to Nantes, where the journey begins...
Didn't really fancy the 200 mile warm-up ride to get to the start, think of all that extra food we'd have to take...