This trip was my first tour, so you could say that I really dived into the deepend with this one. Without any prior experience of solo camping or cycle touring I venture off across France enduring 10 days of rain to a village called Chateauneuf de Galeure, just inbetween Lyon and Valence. Here I made a retreat at the Foyer de Charity which lasted about a week. After the retreat I felt inspired to cycle over to Austria and meet my family who were visiting friends and family in Übersbach, a small village near Fürstenfelt.
It took a further 18 days to cycle over to Fürstenfelt (which almost straddles the Hungarian boarder). The route took in the Jura, the whole of north Switzerland, Bodensee See, Bavaria, Innsbruck, Mariazell, Wien Neustad (nr Vienna) and Neusiedler See before meeting up with the rest of the family, who had arrived a day or two before - so timed down to near perfection!
A week later, I made my way back home with the intention of exploring Switzerland a bit more. A kind friend let me stay in Zürich for a week where I spent most of the time being a tourist.
From Zürich I made my way through the Jura and into France, where I made rapid progress passing through Beaun, Auxerre, Chartre and Dieppe (where I caught the ferry back Newhaven). At the time there was the fuel blockage, and I found that the roads were totally empty - it only took me four hours to cycle back to London, a time I have not bettered since, not even on the racer!
As for punctures, I had none whatsoever but by the time I reached Austria the rear wheel developed a crack half way round and after a total rebuild it lasted till the Jura where the spokes started to break. One by one they went until in the end, seven were missing. Apart from that my front rack ended up being held together by zip ties. From the whole experience I learnt that you need to use top quality equipment.
I must have been a powerful cyclist then as I did the whole journey using a racing gear ratio (38/48x12/27). I would never even dream of using the same again.
In the end the tour was 5481Km and took just over 40 days to complete - thank God for student summer holidays!
Here is a list of where I stayed each night, most were campsites (except two in Switzerland where I had to do a bit of stealth camping!). Anyway, here is the list, the places in bold are where I had rest days:
London
Newhaven
Bourg Achard (entered France)
Verneil
Arrou
Chaumont sur Loire
Preuilly-sur-Claise
Dun le Palestel
Chatelguyon
Chalmazel
Chateauneuf de Galeure - Rested for a week
Verieu le Grand
St Claude
Somewhere SW nr Estavayer le Lac (entered Switzerland)
Football pitch nr Aarau
Wil
Beuren (nr Isny)
Camped near a lake Elbsee (nr Marktoberdorf)
Reutte (entered Austria)
Schwaz (nr Innsbruck)
St Johann in Tirol - Rain stopped play for a day!
St Johann im Pongau
Putterersee
nr. Leoben
Mariazell
nr. Gloggnitz
Forchtenstein (visited Hungary for the day)
Hartberg
Übersbach (nr Fürstenfelt) - Rested for 9 days
Frohnleiten (nr Graz)
Rottenmann
St Johann im Pongau
Waginger See (nr Laufen)
Seeshaupt (on Starnberger See)
Beuren (nr Isny)
nr. Bischofszell (crossed Bodensee and entered Switzerland)
Zürich - (Rested for 5 nights)
Biel/Bienne
Lac de Joux
Salins-les-Bains (entered France)
Beaune
Auxerre
Bellegarde
Senonches (via Chartres)
Bourg-Achard
London (entered the UK)
To view slideshow, click here.
