Bike Hippies The adventures of two UK cyclists on a bike and a trike Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 1 0 14 4228

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Packing List 2007-12-14 06:12:00 The following is a list of items carried on my trip to France. This has changed quite a bit since we started touring - on our travels last year there was no cooking gear, dgym was carrying the tent and I had a much bigger and heavier sleeping bag. We also had laptops on us, and I carried a smaller camera. Somehow, and it still doesn't entirely make sense to me, the weight losses more than outweighed the gains, and the bike felt lighter on this trip than it had done on any other. Most days, anyway...Clothing - on the bikeWhat I wear on the bike on a daily basis3/4 length cycling trousersMerino t-shirtSports braTrainer socks, 3 pairsFingerless glovesSunglassesShoes with SPD cleatsClothing - extrasFor when the weather demands a little moreSweaterBuffAwesome hatThermal base layerArm and leg warmersWoolly glovesRaincoatClothing - off the bikePottering around town once I've finished riding for the dayLight cotton trousersUnderwear x 2Flip flopsCampingStaying warm, dry and comfortable at ni ...

Links 2007-12-10 07:58:00 Some links relevant to my recent France tour:Photographs from France/Corsica tripCherbourg to Marseille route on Bikely (warning: it may be slow to load as there are a lot of points)Ile-Rousse to Ajaccio route on Bikely ...

Since 2007-12-02 06:26:00 I've been back from France a while now. My family and I spent a nice week in Normandy before returning to England, and everyday life has been resumed.Coming backIt's always a little bit hard coming back from a tour, it's nice to see everybody but nothing is quite as exciting as being out on the road, riding through beautiful scenery, seeing somewhere new every day, living out of a few bags, and getting bucketloads of fresh air and exercise. The pain-au-chocolat withdrawal didn't make it any easier, I was hoping to wean myself off them during the week in Normandy but they are just so tasty I couldn't help it, and had to go cold turkey upon arriving back in the UK (You can get them here but they are not as nice).RepairsThere was no easy DIY fix for the dynohub problems, so it had to be taken out of the wheel and sent off for examination by skilled repair technicians, who informed me that not enough glue had been used in the manufacture, the stator had come loose, and they had "never ...

Sunday October 21st - rewind 2007-12-01 04:51:00 It was the last day. Apart from a couple of short trips across town, the cycling was over and I just had to get back to the north coast.As I arrived in the breakfast room of the Monte Cinto, one of the crew took me aside and gently broke it to me that England had lost the rugby final last night. I couldn't really give a stuff about rugby but played along and feigned disappointment.Once in Marseille, it was easy to find St. Charles station, and I set about dismantling the bike. I succeeded in turning the handlebars, which had been the greatest source of concern, but was unable to detach the pedals. I'd learned that my pedals could be detached with a 6mm allen key instead of a huge pedal spanner so had just brought the allen key, unfortunately I couldn't get enough leverage. It turned out not to matter too much as, once I'd put the wheels on either side of the frame, the pedals didn't stick out so much.I felt like some kind of street performer, passers by occasionally stopping by to ...

Saturday October 20th - thunderous 2007-11-30 05:40:00 As promised, the weather took a turn for the worse. The sky was still blue when I left, but it was distinctly colder than it had been, and dark clouds were in the distance. Convinced it was going to rain, and no longer having any waterproof clothing, I pedalled harder than usual.The road clung tightly to the coast, and was quite flat between Cargese and Tiuccia. As I began the climb up to Col de S. Bastiano, the sky darkened and I felt a couple of drops of rain. Dark clouds cast their shadows upon the sea. As I neared the top of the col, past Calcatoggio, thunder rumbled around me. It's not the best of ideas to be out on a bike in a thunderstorm but I was in the middle of nowhere with no shelter in sight, and had very little choice other than to go back the way I came, or carry on.I reached the top and began the descent, flying down the mountain as fast as I could, bolts of lightning flashing on the horizon, and found my shelter at a small bar on Col de Listincone where I ordered a co ...

Friday October 19th - Beaucoup de fourmis 2007-11-29 09:57:00 The climb from Porto to Piana was one of the hardest of the trip, seven miles of up, rising from sea level to 443m. I left behind views of Porto and its bay, and passed through the alien red rocky landscape of the Calanche, featuring Tête de Chien (a large rock which from the right angle looks like a dog's head), les Roches bleues (not actually blue, just less red than the others) and the Heart, a heart-shaped hole in the rocks.After Piana, there was a little more uphill and then a lovely flying descent for a few miles. After that were a couple of short but tough uphills to Cargese - it was rather hot, and the scenery wasn't that interesting.I was just about ready to stop, and everything seemed to be telling me it was time to. At some point in the last couple of days my raincoat had mysteriously vanished - I thought it would be impossible to lose things when camping, and clearly I was wrong. My torch had broken the previous night. My front hub was making some very dodgy noises, whi ...

Thursday October 18th - Corsicows 2007-11-28 05:36:00 It's amazing how noisy pots and pans can be at 6am on a campsite where the only other campers kept you up by talking until 1am.I left Galeria and headed up into the mountains which form the divide between the two departements of Corsica, Haute-Corse and Corse-du-Sud. Some of the peaks in this chain rise to over 2500m but the D81 only reaches an altitude of about 400m - nevertheless, it was a tough morning. After crossing the border I dropped down towards the Golfe de Girolata, the red rocks of the Scandola Nature Reserve visible in the distance.The road wound its way slowly through the rocky landscape, narrow threads of tarmac clinging to steep pink granite cliffs. Cows wandered around in the road. Corsica is home to a particularly small breed of cow, and the babies are tiny, possibly even tinier than the mini-moos we found in Dorset on our last trip. However, they are not the smallest cows in the world - that privilege goes to an Indian breed called the Vechur cow.Having, in the not ...

Wednesday October 17th - woodpeckers 2007-11-27 06:04:00 I woke at midnight, hungry. I'd cooked my own dinner again, unidentified ravioli, and throughout the course of the meal had become increasingly convinced that the unidentified white tasteless contents were tripe, though in retrospect I think it was probably sheeps cheese. I munched on baguette and goats cheese until I was able to sleep again.At 6:30 I woke, packed and left. Despite not having to travel so far in Corsica, it was still nice to get it all out of the way before the afternoon sun set in.The coastal road between Calvi and the village of Galeria was wiggly, quiet and mostly devoid of civilization, aside from the occasional hotel or snack bar, most of which had closed for the winter. The section around Pointe de la Revellata was particularly beautiful, the blue sea contrasting with sandy-coloured rocks and green shrubs. After that the road turned inland for a while and the road surface became very bumpy and poorly-maintained, making for some quite hard riding.Galeria was ver ...

Tuesday October 16th - L'Ile-Rousse 2007-11-26 04:56:00 It was barely light when the ferry arrived in L'Ile-Rousse, and I could just make out silhouettes of the numerous mountains that make up the island of Corsica. I didn't fancy riding in the dark, given that my dynamo had turned dodgy, so I stopped in a rocky area between the port and the town and climbed up onto a small outcrop to watch the sun come up. Dawn is a great time to arrive somewhere new, you see everything slowly come to life, and of course you have all day to get your bearings and find somewhere to stay. Rays of sun fanned out from behind one of the distant mountains, the rocks around me glowed a beautiful reddish-orange colour, and suddenly day had arrived and the sun was up in all its dazzling Mediterranean glory.Ile-Rousse is one of those rare Corsican towns which actually has a French name - the island belonged to Genoa for several centuries and, as a result, most places still have Italian names. The name itself comes from the rocky islets of red porphyry upon which I ...

Monday October 15th - Marseille 2007-11-24 05:36:00 I was very nearly there. I left the hotel at sunrise in the hope of getting away before the traffic started up. It was still heavy but much better than it had been the previous afternoon.Heading into the city, the suburbs reminded me of parts of North London, lots of immigrants in headscarfs (presumably mostly from North Africa), and streets of shabby looking buildings housing dodgy kebab shops and pizzerias.It should have been a straight down-the-road kind of deal but somehow I must have veered off in the wrong direction as I ended up quite lost and going round in circles. A nice chappy in a car stopped to offer help, and we decided that I was way too far east of where I should have been. After that, I started relying on compass direction only, and soon was following signs to le Vieux Port.I was there before I knew it. It took a while to sink in that I'd finally reached the Mediterranean, and was staring in the face a whole different sea from the one I'd started on.I'd arrived at a ...

Sunday October 14th - shouting at cars 2007-11-23 05:23:00 Going south from St. Remy, there were some lovely views of the Alpilles, a small mountain range.I started to cross the mountains. I wasn't having the best of days, despite having taken a day off. It felt like I'd accidentally hitched up to somebody's caravan when I left the campsite. There were fewer cars and I was passed by a lot of cyclists on skinny road bikes. I politely said bonjour to each and every one but really wished they'd all go away and leave me the road to myself - I was missing the space and emptier roads of earlier regions.Near Aix-en-Provence I was pleasantly surprised to find another fabulous aqueduct, the Aqueduc de Roquefavour. It was bigger than the Pont-du-Gard and much newer (mid-19th century) and very impressive, although the setting was not as nice.Shortly thereafter, I rode under the TGV Mediterranean line which would be carrying me home in a week's time.Close to Calas, I was approached by an elderly cyclist in lycra, who talked incomprehensibly at me and ...

Saturday October 13th - St. Remy 2007-11-22 05:43:00 I didn't go anywhere on Saturday. It felt like a good time to have a break, take a day off, get some stuff washed and use the campsite's internet facilities.Being about a day's ride away from Marseille, it seemed like a good time to book some ferry tickets. At the start of the trip I was hoping that maybe there would be time to see both Corsica and Sardinia, but with only one week left before I needed to be back in Normandy, it wasn't going to happen, and Sardinia would have to wait until another time. So I booked a Monday night journey to Ile-Rousse, with a Saturday night return from Ajaccio. That would give me five days to cycle 120 miles down the coast - fairly easy going, but not too much so, given the mountainous nature of Corsica.I spent a few hours in town in the morning. In 1503, Nostradamus was born in a small house in the back streets of St. Remy - it still stands today, but like Descartes' house, it wasn't much to look at! Van Gogh spent a couple of years at a mental h ...

Friday October 12th - Pont du Gard 2007-11-21 04:22:00 At 7:30am, the Pont du Gard was deserted and bathed in golden sunrise light. The occasional walker or jogger went by but apart from that I had a Roman aqueduct to myself for an hour.I consulted my leaflet as to where to go next and decided upon the Abbaye de Saint-Roman, the remains of a 5th-century troglodytic abbey. It was quite a long climb up to the abbey site, at which I found that the abbey itself wouldn't open for another three hours. I decided to walk up to the hermitage instead, since that can be visited at any time. I bumped into a group of joggers, one of whom recommended riding my bike up the hill as it would be easier. He obviously hadn't taken into account the difficulties of riding a fully loaded touring bike up cobbles, steps and gravel paths! I locked up at the first opportunity and walked the rest of the way.The hermitage was pretty cool, a set of rocky caverns and tunnels at the very top of the hill, inhabited by a couple of hermit goats, and with marvellous views ...

Thursday October 11th - Herby breezes 2007-11-20 03:59:00 My legs were tired after the Gorges so I decided to take it easy again, and this wasn't too hard now I was out of the mountains. The real challenge now was to keep things interesting after the high of yesterday's incredible scenery, but at least now I had a handy leaflet to help me. I'd had some thoughts about visiting Avignon, on the advice of my lunch companions the previous day, but there was a lot of traffic around and I didn't feel like going into a town that big. Pont du Gard looked like a better bet, a Roman aqueduct spanning the Gard river, so I headed straight south.I crossed the Ardeche river into the Gard departement. Huge cliffs faded away into vineyards and gentle forested hills. It was a sunny and cloudless day and warm herby breezes filled the air. There were a couple of small foresty climbs, mostly to keep me away from the bigger roads, as the traffic had started to get quite busy.Bagnols-sur-Ceze was a bit of a trafficky hell-hole, I got there around mid-day and c ...

Wednesday October 10th - Ardeche 2007-11-19 05:13:00 If I had to do any section of the trip again, it would be the Ardeche Gorges.Unlike some of the more spontaneous sightseeing, I had planned to visit the Gorges from the outset, and over the last few days had been making sure my route was aimed towards the northern end.The TV weather forecast told me it would be rainy on Wednesday, and I wasn't impressed, as I'd been hoping for good weather along the Gorges. Fortunately, the rain held out until the evening and the day was quite sunny with only a little cloud.A couple of miles before Vallon Pont d'Arc, I noticed what could only be a disembodied fox tail at the side of the road. Not really wanting to know the story there, I carried on. Unfortunately, a mile or two later I encountered a disemtailed fox body. I wanted to know even less.I saw a pair of recumbent touring cyclists coming the other way near Vallon and waved frantically, what with seeing another touring cyclist being such a rare event. They waved frantically in reply.The gorg ...