dxp@pyuxhh.UUCP (D Peak) (07/19/84)
In August of 73 a friend and myself planned a cycling tour of Northern
Spain And the west coast of France.
The itinery called for us to catch a ferry from Weymouth,England to
Santander ,Spain [ the ferry takes 36 hours so you get a mini cruise
included] . Then to cycle eastward towards the french border,through
the Bordeaux region up into Brittany and catch another ferry back to
England from Cherbourg.
For the month before we set off each weekend we were averaging 130-150
miles per day as conditioning.On the trip we were planning to do between
50 & 100 miles per day.The entire trip was of 3 weeks(23 days including
before and after weekends ) of which 2 days were allocated for getting
to & from the ferries.2 days on the ferries[total=4].10 days of cycling
from town to town[total=14], which left us with 9 days for stopping off
along the way. In reality this number would be more as at least 4 days
were less than 60 miles from town to town.
Accomodations were "catch as catch can" ,we carried pup tents for
camping out but planned on hotels etc in case of rain.
To cut a long story short we only got as far as a french fishing
village called St Jac de Luz (just outside of Biarritz).Two things
contributed to this
1) The first two days (in Northern Spain) some of the hills got the better
of us(we were not prepared for hill climbing),and we used up 3 of our
"stopping off" days in Bilbao and San Sebastian.Both only 60 mile trips.
2) We enjoyed the hell out of the little fishing village we found.Side
trips to beaches & the surrounding countyside for picnics.We decided
that if we wanted to stay then our plans would have to change,otherwise
the last week of vacation would be spent pedalling our butts off.
So we just took it easy and returned the way we came and had an
excellent time in doing it.
The Moral ???
Be flexible,be prepared & be sure to enjoy yourselves !!!!
--
Dave Peak (pyuxhh!dxp)
Rev Jim - "What does an amber light mean"
Bobby - "Slow down"
Rev Jim - "What........does.......an.......amber..........light........mean ?"
Bobby - "Slow down"
Rev Jim - "What............................does.........................."