1. DO IT! Leave as soon as possible, don’t
put it off, book the time off work and go A.S.A.P. It could change your life,
who knows!
2. Don’t plan too much, you can make the
most detailed plans but you will have a much more enjoyable time if you ‘go
with the flow’. Your bike may malfunction, you may take a wrong turn and end up
miles from where you had planned to be. Remember, Europe as a whole is a
civilised place and it’s unlikely you will starve or freeze, it’s an
adventure after all!
3. Take a friend, and a good one at that.
You will be spending every minute of every day with this person so make sure
it’s somebody that you can tolerate and spend time with without wishing to
wring their neck.
4. Bring a good knife with you, you will
need it for preparing food, whittling a stick when you’re bored and stabbing
your intolerable companion.
5. Cleanliness is next to godliness so
make sure to shower and wash your clothes every night. You will be sweaty and
gross after a long day in the saddle, so for the sake of your health and for
those around you, stay clean. Campsites in Europe have all the necessary
facilities for you to do this, however some showers are better than others.
6. Pack light. I cannot emphasise how easy
it is to take with you a whole load of bonus stuff you will never need. On John
O’ Groats to Land’s End we took a monstrous amount of junk (Jamie packed a
large hardback book). For this trip we thought we had mastered the art of
packing light, however we were wrong. By the halfway stage we managed to fill a
bin liner with unnecessary items that were doomed to landfill.
Whatever you take has to be lugged around with you and when you’re trying
to ascend a Pyrenean climb the weight really makes a difference.
7. Water is necessary for human
survival and you will need a lot of it. When cycling in 40 degree heat you tend
to dry out pretty fast, so make sure you stock up with plenty of water. Before
we left I attached two extra bottle cages to the front fork of my bike but
took them off because i thought they looked stupid, I really regretted that. We
ran out of water on three occasions, fortunately most French villages
have drinking fountains.
8. The French don’t do much on Sundays,
all the shops are shut so it is vital that you stock up the day before so you
don’t end up huddled in a ball in you’re tent after a long days ride imagining
how good a Big Mac would be right now.
9. Have faith in people,
about 1000 miles into the journey we had both broken four spokes each (probably
because of over packing) as a result our rear wheels resembled pringles and the
bikes were virtually unridable. We spent hours in a Decathlon store trying to
get the wheels fixed however the staff there managed to make the problem worse,
to the extent that they gave us 20 euros to get them fixed elsewhere. It was at
this point that we met Clive an English man with a French family, they put our
bikes in their car found another bike shop, took us out for lunch and drove us
to a campsite. We picked the bikes up the next day and continued on our journey
but without them it could never have happened, cheers Clive!
10. Wear Sunscreen.
Honestly though, it’s hot out there kids,
don’t get burned. A cycling cap also helps keep the sun out of your eyes and
off your head.
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