Dave cycles south

I have booked the ferry from from Plymouth to Roscoff on 9th May 2014 so it looks like I will have to go. My wife, Gilly, has been fantastically supportive and my daughters have been bemused…..as usual.

The plan is to cycle the Velodyssey, otherwise known as EV1, from Roscoff to Hendaye in Northern Spain and then onwards to Castellon De La Plana near Valencia to visit my daughter.

You can follow my progress here or by clicking on the archives tab on the right of the page. You can also click on the thumbnail photos for the full pictures!

I will be using a Pedelec, made by Ansmann, for the trip. 3 knee operations mean that I will be unlikely to manage without some support for the hilly and windy bits but the bike has a full 27 gear-set and, in what I laughingly call training, I have been able to cycle without power for about 25% of the time in the saddle. I hope that this proportion will increase as the journey proceeds.

This is not an endurance test! I am taking a tent for camping when required but will also be planning to visit hotels, Gites, Chambres d’hôtes, hostels and Warmshowers hosts along the way. I have already taken the precaution of joining the Youth Hostel Association so that I can stay at the three international hostels along the route. I am confident that I will win the award for the oldest youth to stay in each of them this year.

I am giving myself 6 weeks for the trip so that I can stop off when it suits me and so that I can take rest days which will coincide with any evidence of wind or rain. I also plan to take trains from Hendaye to the Med coast and do a bit of birding in the Ebro Delta. Then onwards to Castellon by bike following the coast and possibly to Moraira to visit friends. I will leave the bike and return to the UK by plane in time for my 63rd birthday. Leaving the bike will give me an excuse to drive out and pick it up in the campervan with my wife in the autumn.That at all seems very straightforward then!

When I own up to planning this I am often asked if it is for Charity. The frank answer is no. Sometimes you do things just because you can. This is one of those times. However, if you feel that you would like to make a donation to a worthy charity in acknowledgement of their fantastic work, you can do so by following this link to The Chestnut Tree House, a children’s Hospice in Sussex.

In the time-honoured tradition of blogs I have read on sites like http://www.crazyguyonabike.com, I will start with a page about about the bike.