Cycle touring in Western Europe

[hvelowade]

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Hey guys, just thought I'd post a couple photos from a trip I made from Scotland to the South of France on my bike. I was cycling for 7 weeks and 3819km, and spent 31 nights in my Dream Hammock Darien which was made shorter and narrower. I was using the tarp from my old Hennessy Hammock and a Ridgerest with a pad extender I made between the layers of the double layered Darien. Most nights it was very warm but I did sleep in the Pyrenees at 1300m alt where it was quite a bit colder!

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I spent eight days in Scotland. Don't let this photo deceive you, it was not actually very flat.

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I watched the Tour de France twice in the Pyrenees.

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Had some wicked naps.

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And some windy nights. (Will a hex tarp fare better with strong wind?) I think you can also see the toggles I was using with my whoopie slings which are toothbrushes.

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But the view in the morning was worth it.

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And saw some pretty amazing scenery.

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I don't have any more trips upcoming but this gives me the opportunity to look over my gear and make some changes. The first will be an underquilt, I'm thinking a 20* or 30*, and then a top quilt which can then be a lot lighter. I would really only ever be touring during the summer months. I wanted a foam mat with this trip so I could go to ground if necessary. I did so twice but it was only necessary the once. But even then it could have been avoided, I just didn't want to backtrack. The second is a new tarp, probably a hex, and probably cuben fibre.

I wrote a blog about my trip which you can read here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/europe2014. I also made some videos. Scotland: https://vimeo.com/m/99422748 and France/Spain: https://vimeo.com/m/104144070

[SLCpod]

What an awesome trip. I now have a new thing to add to the bucket list.

[Bannerstone]

Hey thanks for the awesome trip report, I'd like to know more about how you were able to find places to camp along your way.

David

[craige]

Great trip report, I've not been through all of it though, will have to get to a computer. Did you stick to the great glen way for most of the fort william - inverness section or were you mostly on roads? I walked the GGW in April and spent half the time thinking about how good it would be to cycle; maybe not the section just after Invermoriston though, that would be tough.

[OutandBack]

Very nice trip report and beautiful picts.
Did you write a blog on this trip? Would love to see/read more.

[HammockDreamer]

Looks like you had a great adventure Hvelowade, I would love to see some of the "Tour" myself.

Cheers,
Metz

[jolunder]

That looks like fun to me. Thanks for sharing the inspirational report. Always nice to see a good tour been done in your corner of the planet ;-)

[hvelowade]

Thanks for the interest!

David: Most of the time I didn't know where I would be finishing cycling. The distances I covered varied considering the terrain and weather, but also my mood. Some days I was happiest sitting on the bike for ten hours, others I just wanted to read in the sun. So I didn't plan out where I was going each day. Sometimes, like the photo of Sete from my hammock spot, I could see that town from a distance. It's basically a hill, and much of the hill was wooded. So when I got there, I went up the hill and found a walking track, headed in there and climbed up the hill out of sight a little. There was one stretch down from Royan where there's a bike path right through the forest, so that was also just going away from the path a little. If I couldn't see trees I would look at my map for the areas shaded dark green, which meant forest. A lot of times I was camping pretty close to houses or civilisation. Then it's just a matter of setting up at nightfall and leaving early in the morning. I slept across the road from a hotel and in an orchard in front of four houses that way. I did get caught once though.

Craige: I did some of the GGW but it was pretty slow going. I was on a rigid road bike and so my shoulders and neck were acting as suspension, which became tiring. I was lucky that the road was not too muddy though. At Fort Augustus I took General Wade's Military Road.
My blog has maps with the GPS tracks on them so you can zoom in as much as you like and it's 90% accurate of where I went. http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/p...id=375875&v=EJ is probably the relevant page.

OutandBack: Yes my blog is here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/europe2014.
I also made some short (3 min) videos. Scotland: https://vimeo.com/m/99422748 and France/Spain: https://vimeo.com/m/104144070

[K0m4]

Nice trip! I like to hear that you got by stealth camping - I have to overcome my rule-abiding Swedishness when travelling on the continent, because you show there's a world of opportunities for a great adventure that way!