What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
Vorpal
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by Vorpal »

mnichols wrote:I'd like to do an end to end of Norway next year, maybe Shetland if time allows

I've still got one more tour this year in September, then I'll probably plan next year's trips over winter. So, I'll probably put up a thread about that before xmas

I'd love to do an end to end, but I will struggle the next few years to get the time to do it all in one go. I haven't looked at routes, but it's at least 2500 kilometers, and a coastal route has to include some ferries. So, I think I'd need at least 3 weeks.

Because of other commitments (kids going to summer music school, helping my dad with some things) that would mean no family holiday.

That probably won't be feasible until the kids don't want to take a summer holiday as a family.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
durhambiker
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Joined: 6 Jun 2010, 12:59pm

Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by durhambiker »

(I sometimes wonder why there aren't more people cycle touring. It would be interesting to know what started people on the (bike) road. )
Cycling is seen as odd ball in the UK.Cycling with panniers is v oddball.Plus tent is mind-blowing for most..Reasons are numerous..UK cycling infra structure is appallling.Car drivers attitude and behaviour is appaling.Many are lazy in this country.Most would rather boil their head than cycle in their precious holiday time.fair enough..
I love cycle touring but my wife is not as keen.Having tried the carbon frame /skinny tyre/lycra/head down backside up brigade that does not appeal to me really.like all questions in life,the answers are multi factorial
johnnymac1965
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by johnnymac1965 »

Just did my first cycle trip with my other half along the ViaRhona. We loved it and are definitely hooked and keen to do lots more!
willem jongman
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by willem jongman »

Welcome to the club. You will indeed be hooked.
Chat Noir
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by Chat Noir »

Our first cycle tour was in 1978, in Ireland, on old single speed bikes. West of Galway we spent a day cycling into hurricane force winds, thinking ‘proper’ cycle tourists would think us feeble for finding it so hard, before turning round and being blown back to Dublin. We still have one pair of panniers from that trip, old Karrimors, made of duck cotton, and we still use them.

The following year we bought Dawes Galaxys and a Trangia to cycle from Roscoff to Santander (we still tour with the same Trangia and one of the Dawes is hanging in the shed – the other was stolen in London). Toured Ireland again the next year, but then less as careers, house DIY, children, etc came along. But we still managed tours of Normandy, down the Dordogne from Limoges (and back), lovely trip but we were puzzled why my partner struggled on the 80 mile days (discovered she was some month’s pregnant several weeks after we got back ..), stuff in the south west, the south east, Chilterns, Scotland, quite a lot in France, bit all over really. Climbing took me over for a while, and then MTBs, but I drifted back to more road cycling again and touring. This has seen tours in the Dolomites, northern Spain, from mid-France to Tuscany and back, several tours in Brittany, along the Loire, a Pyrenean Raid, a MTB trip in the Caucasus, lots of riding / touring in UK, whether along routes like some of the Coast to Coasts, a LEJOG or two (and even a double), North Coast 500, trip round the south west coast (which I must write up, as a South West 600), whatever takes my fancy. I seem happier doing longer rides but am getting out less – so, the other week cycled back from London to York over 2 days. Somehow being retired hasn’t seen a reduction in other demands on my time, now including care for grandchild, but maybe we’ll get the balance right again!

Someone mentioned a campervan – get one (there are even campervan forums that have the same comfortingly familiar characters as the CTC forum). We’ve had one for 20 years now, first a VW T4 and now a VW T5, starting off as a people carrier for our family of 5, taking 5 bikes / surf boards / climbing gear, enough for a 3 week tour on the continent. Now there’s just 2 of us, and my partner has (mostly) retired, we can go off when we want. We keep it simple, a roll out bed, small cooker, swivel seats at the front, a small drawer fridge and a diesel heater to extend when we can go away. We sleep as often in the van as in a tent (for some reason, we take 3 tents with us), happy to stay off-grid or in a camp site, and carry 2 bikes on the back, although sometimes we take 2 MTBs as well, and they are as easy to stow in the back behind the front seats. If I’m doing a big ride or an event I can arrive, sleep in the van and be up and off early. If we go away with our family it is especially popular with our small grandchild, perhaps less so with us when the little one wants to come in at 5.30 in the morning...
Dawes Galaxy 1979; Mercian 531 1982; Peugeot 753 1987; Peugeot 531 Pro 1988; Peugeot 653 1990; Bob Jackson 731 OS 1992; Gazelle 731 OS Exception 1996; Dolan Dedacciai 2004; Trek 8000 MTB 2011; Focus Izalco Pro 2012
gregoryoftours
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by gregoryoftours »

My tours so far are

JOGLE,
co. Cork and Kerry,
Normandy,
C2C Whitehaven to Tynemouth,
Newcastle to Edinburgh,
Suffolk/Norfolk coast,
Provence,
Galway/Mayo
Turin to Nice (following recent cycle rally route),
Skye,
North Albania /little bit of Montenegro and Kosovo.
Andalucia
Going to Georgia soon and hopefully Iran.
I'd also like to cycle Uk to Indonesia and cycle to Nordkapp
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Xilter
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by Xilter »

Reading this fills me with despair. I’d LOVE to do a tour. But there is no way my wife would be remotely interested. So I don’t think it will ever happen.

Closest I have ever done was when I was 19 a friend woke up one day and decided to ride to another of his friends 140 miles away. Asked if I would go. I didn’t have a bike at the time. So we packed some trail mix and a tent. Went to a pawn shop picked up a second hand MTB ( bad choice!) but it was $40

Then we ride for I think it was 22hrs straight. Got to his friends at silly O’clock in the morning. Pitched our tent in his front garden. After sleeping the rest of the morning. They didn’t know we were comming. So didn’t have food. We ran the 4 miles round trip to the grocery store for lunch.

Spent the rest of the evening there and then early next morning set off home.

It’s all I have. And it was getting on 14 years ago. I need another adventure.
My poor poor bottom
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Xilter
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by Xilter »

johnnymac1965 wrote:Just did my first cycle trip with my other half along the ViaRhona. We loved it and are definitely hooked and keen to do lots more!



A good first post.

Welcome
My poor poor bottom
ossie
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by ossie »

Xilter wrote:Reading this fills me with despair. I’d LOVE to do a tour. But there is no way my wife would be remotely interested. So I don’t think it will ever happen.



I've been married for 30 years and have been touring for the 8.....alone :D

I try to encourage her to come along (no really) but the good lady refuses.

As for tours , I've done several tours of Southern / SW England. Two longish tours.
Spain back to the UK over the Pyrenees in 2011
Dorset - Harwich - Hook of Holland down the Rhine to Switzerland - back up Loire to Angers - St Malo -2400 km /1500 miles
Various tours of Northern France.

All fully loaded with a tent / cooking gear. Nothing this year as life got in the way. Although the longer tours were challenging in their own different ways I find a week or so in France gives me the same buzz without the hassle of being away from the family for extended periods.

Its a balancing act.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

ossie wrote:
Xilter wrote:Reading this fills me with despair. I’d LOVE to do a tour. But there is no way my wife would be remotely interested. So I don’t think it will ever happen.



I've been married for 30 years and have been touring for the 8.....alone :D

I try to encourage her to come along (no really) but the good lady refuses.

As for tours , I've done several tours of Southern / SW England. Two longish tours.
Spain back to the UK over the Pyrenees in 2011
Dorset - Harwich - Hook of Holland down the Rhine to Switzerland - back up Loire to Angers - St Malo -2400 km /1500 miles
Various tours of Northern France.

All fully loaded with a tent / cooking gear. Nothing this year as life got in the way. Although the longer tours were challenging in their own different ways I find a week or so in France gives me the same buzz without the hassle of being away from the family for extended periods.

Its a balancing act.

What does she do while you are cycling?
Entertainer, juvenile, curmudgeon, PoB, 30120
Cycling-of course, but it is far better on a Gillott
We love safety cameras, we hate bullies
ossie
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by ossie »

Cyril Haearn wrote:What does she do while you are cycling?


No Idea - I'm touring :wink:
nirakaro
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by nirakaro »

Xilter wrote: I’d LOVE to do a tour. But there is no way my wife would be remotely interested. So I don’t think it will ever happen.

No, come on, that's no kind of excuse at all. Every healthy relationship needs space and time apart – if you can't do that, you're both trapped in co-dependency. Negotiate. Isn't there something she'd like to do that doesn't much appeal to you?
I know my wife's glad to see the back of me for a month or two every spring. And then she's highly pleased to see me when I get home. If we had to be together every day, I'm not sure which of us would kill ourselves first. :oops: :D
Vorpal
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by Vorpal »

Mr. V isn't really interested either. He's come along a couple of times to make a family adventure out of it, but usually it's just me.

Mostly I just take weekends, or long weekends, but as the kids get older and more capable of looking after themselves, I hope to be able to do longer tours.

The main problem with that idea is holiday time.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Pendle Hill
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by Pendle Hill »

UK to the following places - Vigo via Portugal, Lithuania, Trondheim (Norway), Kosice( Eastern Slovakia), Croatia, Hungary, Finland , Santander, Narbonne. Also shorter tours in S.W. Ireland, Outer Hebrides, Normandy, Wicklow, Southern Scotland, Welsh borders.
Slowroad
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by Slowroad »

It's taken me a while to work out what I have done when, and I'm certain there's gaps early on. I was surprised at the big gap when I wasn't cycle touring (in using the bike to get from place to pace) but I was using it for day rides and on holidays - and I toured by motorbike for a while. And life got in the way a couple of times, sometimes for years... I decided in 2013 when I was 50 that I'd treat myself to a couple of tours abroad at last, and now I just want to do more and more, but taking more than a week off in summer is tricky when you are a self-employed community gardener!
Some of these tours were only a long weekend, the longest was 2 weeks. All solo with one never-to-be-repeated exception! The way I do tours has changed a lot, in the 80's I'd head off with a couple of maps, cycle to where there was a campsite symbol, and there would be a campsite. Now I enjoy weeks of planning! You'll see in the more recent tours that I do like a theme.

80’s
East Anglia
Cotswolds to Salisbury
South West Highlands
Orkney
Skye and Western Highlands
Cornwall
Shropshire and Welsh Marches
North West Highlands
Durham & Yorkshire
Arran and Kintyre

90’s
Somerset
New Forest
Kent
Normandy x2
Shropshire & Herefordshire
Norwegian Fjords
Then started motorcycle touring…

00’s
Bike taken on 6 months camping round Europe – but in Skoda estate!
Motorbike sold 2004, car sold 2006
2006 cycle-tour round Somerset, visiting gardens
2007 Tour rained off
2008 Lincolnshire x 3, S Yorkshire
2009 West Country Way - NCN route 3 Bodmin to Bristol

10’s
2010 Staffordshire/Derbyshire; Somerset & Devon; Cumbian Cycleway
2011 Somerset & Devon (I have relatives there…)
2012 West Country; ‘Magnesian Limestone Trail’ Notts to Durham
2013 Nord pas de Calais and Picardy; The Netherlands; Somerset & Devon
2014 Cheshire; River Trent Nottingham to Humber; South West again
2015 Peak District circumnavigation; Trent Nottingham to Source; Rhine #1 – Hoek van Holland to Nijmegen
2016 Rhine #2 – Nijmegen to Cologne; Tour of ‘Mercia’
2017 Rhine #3 – Cologne to Speyer; River Ijssel, Netherlands
2018 5 Countries in 7 Days (Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France); Somme Valley (WW1 family history)

Tours on my ‘list’
Finishing my Brommie tour of the Rhine…
Edinburgh to Glasgow & back
East coast of Scotland
The Danube
Western France – in fact, almost anywhere in France
Denmark and southern Norway and Sweden, if I can work out how to get there without flying
North East Netherlands
The Mosel/Moselle
The Meuse
Zeeland (Netherlands)
“My two favourite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything. The perfect day: riding a bike to the library.”
― Peter Golkin
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