Photos have been uploaded

We have arrived in Florence.  Blue skies. 21 degrees.  Bit of sunburn.  Also we found an internet cafe!  Photos have now been uploaded.  Go to photo link or on FB.  Also we have uploaded an icy video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEMDB7hy1Q4

Into the hills

James: Today was our best day so far in Italy. We pushed hard the day before logging 155 km to escae the industrial areas of northern Italy. I have never seen so many trucks on small back roads. It was quite scary at times! Today we plotted a new route which took in some great climbs and amazing scenery. The autumn colours were out and the hills and forests were spectacular. We also saw loads of deer.  And then the sun came out which made it 100 times better. If anyone is keen for an awesome ride with approx 3000 m of climbing over 132km. Start just south of Modena and head south via Sassuolo and Prignano Sulla Secchia before dropping into the valley and climbing out via Gombola to Pavallo nef Frignano and Fanano. From there head to Silla and then Porretta Terma before starting a 700m climb to Lake Saviana. Legs of Steel version 2. The lake is great but sadly the campsite is closed so we have had to forego a hot shower again. But we found a great spot on thelake shore together with a natural spring. Good times.

There have been requests for facts about, amoungst other things, our bottoms. Our bottoms are fine. Irish udder cream is doing a great job at keeping them in racing form. The legs are a bit different.After over 2000 km with one rest day they are tired. Rest day soon. Food wise we are eating like kings. On a self catering day its mueslie, banana, chocolate and coffee for breakfast, cappichino and cake midmorning, giant bagette for lunch, some cheaky snacks late afternoon with an evening meal of coffee and biscuits, big pasta/couscous dish with meat and veg together with a bottle of wine and chocolate. We usually get through two slabs of chocolate each a day and at least a box of biscuits each. Despite this all we have lost weight!    

Cold and wet in Northern Italy

Today has been one of those days you look back on and laugh about, but
laughing was one of the last things on our minds for most of today! We
woke up this morning in our tent (in the dense undergrowth of the
woods just west of Bergamo in Italy) to the dreaded sound of rain on
the flysheet. This was to set the scene for the rest of the day...

Unfortunately the rain only got heavier, and with temps hovering
around 11 deg C, and us in our summer cycling kit, it was unpleasant!
Lunch was spent shivering in a supermarket which was the only place
which seemed to be open and relativley warm.

And the cherry on the cake was getting to our destination 137km later
(Manerba del Garda on the shore of lake Garda) in the dark to find
that all of the roughly 10+ campsites were closed. Luckily after
pulling into the local old age home, the kind manager called all the
hotels in town to find us one which was open and had a room for us.
And no, another night of rough camping was not an option!

The good news is we are now warm and dry and slightly mellow fom
dehydration and half a bottle of cheap wine! The musty air in this
room from all our drying clothes is probably not helping the
situation.

Tomorrow we have a long ride (140km+) South towards Modena. The locals
tell us the weather will be better tomorrow, let's hope they are
right!

Tip of the day: don't try cycle touring in Europe in late October!

Mark

Bikes ready to go!

New wheel!

Success! New front wheel built up in just over an hour by a local bike shop in Aosta, Cic Lulucchina. Thanks Marco! Legend! We will be on our way soon just need to have some pizza first. Blue skies with only a slight chill in the air. James

Bike admin strikes 21 October

Well there we were cycling up to the Grand Saint Bernard pass to get from switzerland to Italy after having a night of minus 5 in Chamonix and climbing two cols already, when I noticed my front tyre was off the rim... Closer inspection confirmed that the locking edge of the wheel's rim had peeled off allowing the tyre to come off! Neither of us has seen this happen to a wheel before. And these wheels were supposed to be super tough! The temps were plummeting and we found out that the col itself was closed due to snow and the tunnel lower down was off limits to bikes so we decided to catch a bus for a 30 min bus ride to Aosta in Italy on the other side of the Alps. Broken wheel or not we could not get across the col by bike. We spent ages looking for a place to stay in Aosta eventually finding a hotel which was not 100 euro a room. Tomorrow we have to find a bike shop and fix this wheel. Hopefully it does not delay us too much. I have a few words I would like to say to Mavic about their wheels! James

Chamonix 20 October.

Just a quick update. We have arrived in Chamonix. Awesome place but freezing cold. Expecting below zero tonight, better hope our plus 3 degree sleeping bags are up for it. Cycle here was amazing but bitterly cold. Socks make good gloves. Also ended up on the highway by mistake and had to get through a tunnel with trucks flying past. Not fun! We are heading up in Switzerland tomorrow if the road is open. The temps there are colder than here so we may head straight to Italy once there. Time for some freshly brewed coffee. The MSR coffee filter is a winner.

http://cascadedesigns.com/msr/cookware/cookware-accessories/mugmate-coffee/tea-filter/product

19 October. Big climbs and icy rain!

The last few days have been a bit intense! Yesterday morning we started our never ending climb up to the Col du Lautaret from Grenoble from where the infamous Tour de France climb over the Col du Galibier starts. It was 86 km to this point and it was a slog! At La Grave we popped into the tourism office and were told by the helpful lady that they were expecting snow the next day and the Col would be closed. So we took the decision to go for it and try and camp somewhere on the other side. It was 4 pm at the time.  We scaled the Col du Lautaret by 5pm and were on the top of the Galibier 8km and 600 vertical meters of climbing later just after 6. It was 2 degrees C and seeing that we did not have winter booties or windproof gloves we duct taped some plastic bags around our hands and feet for the icy descent. The snow on the surrounding peaks had us concerned about freezing ourselves to our bikes. I ended up with a chorizo packet. My left hand still smells like chorizo. The bags helped but a 20 km descent still froze us solid. We eventually hit the ski town of Valloire which as per usual was closed so we set up camp near the river and dined on coffee to defrost followed by fig rolls, soup and tuna. All separately of course!

Today dawned overcast and rain was likely. A quick ascent and descent of the Col du Telegraphe had us in the valley. Despite it being downhill from here we still struggled to go fast thanks to a head wind. And then it started raining. Icy rain. We pushed on eventually pulling into the wifi heaven of MacD's in Albertville. Over coffee the rain intensified and there were rumours of snow further up. Seeing that our kit was limited to lycra bib shorts and a few base layers we decided to find a cheap hotel. We found the Fast Hotel.... Our fast room is covered in wet kit and the heater is on full blast. Smells like a wet dog but at least the showers are hot. Chamonix tomorrow but first some wine! James

18 Oct 2011, Day 10 - Grenoble, France

We have officially crossed the 1000km mark! And to celebrate this momentous occasion we decided to pull over and make the biggest baguette sandwhich imaginable. Basically a family sized baguette (fresh from the boulangerie earlier in the morning)  with tomato, camembert cheese, french pate of some description and mustard. You probably wouldnt find a pre-made baguette like this anywhere if you tried,for obvious reasons, but it was good. Especially considering we were half way up a 10km climb and the sun had just come out to warm us from the frozen foggy morning chill of camping in the woods again.

Ok enough about the baguette. All in all things are going well. We have had a few tough days, the last 2 of which ended in us riding until after sunset trying to find somewhere to camp. Last night, as mentioned, was in the woods, but tonight we are living it up in a campsite in Grenoble so as to prepare body and mind for what lies ahead tomorrow. That is the Col de Galibier, one of the most feared climbs in the Tour de France.

In general the scenery has been fantastic over the last few days, changing quite significantly from very rural and sparsly populated forested hilly countryside, to the vineyards and now finally to the scary snow capped peaks of the alps which we caught our first glimpse of this afternoon coming into Grenoble.

Apologies for not yet posting any photos up on the website, but we have been desperately trying to find an internet cafe for the last 10 days but have failed miserably. Suprisingly its hard enough finding a Mcdonalds (free wifi) despite their being signs up for them all over the place. We will continue our search and upload some asap.

Tip of the day: if you want to buy tabacco or a baguette in France you can do so anywhere, any time. If you want to buy something to put onto your baguette, good luck the shop is probably closed!

Mark

After thought

Just been checking out all the comments! Keep them coming! Photos will
come soon once we find an internet cafe... The most internet we have
seen is the wifi at a MacDonalds, which would be great if we were
carrying a laptop. Give us a few days we will track a pc down.

ps we are way faster than any antelope. That guy has to man up and get
some speed!

18 October 2011 - Day 8

James checking in from a lovely but chilly campsite on the banks on
the River Arroux in the town of Touloun sur Arroux. Today is our 8th
day since leaving London. Its also our first rest day (don't pooh pooh
this Full Gas Cycling Club, our bikes weigh 38kg!). In this time we
have covered 777km, got somewhat fitter, have improved our French,
slept in a few forests, set about growing some beards and really
enjoyed the French cuisine and the wine. In fact we have just
travelled through the Burgundy region, which boasts the best wines in
the world. No blends here. We have also maintained our coffee intake
although it is from Sainsburys...Its nearly finished so we will be
buying some of the 'good stuff' soon as long as we can time our visits
to the shops correctly. Whenever we get to a shop its closed. Talk
about work life balance.

The last couple of days has taken us through some amazing scenery. The
best wehave seen (the route from Dieppe to Fontainbleau is somewhat
dull!). Things kicked off when we hit Auxerre,which used to be an
important trade link along the great Roman highway between Lyon and
Boulogne. From there we headed up the Cure River to Vezelay, a world
heritage listed village perched on a rocky spur and crowned by a
medieval basilica. This was our entry point into the Parc Naturel
Regional du Morvan. The Morvan, which is the Celtic word for Black
Forest, extends over 700 sq km and is thickly forested with beach,
oak, hornbeam, birch and conifers. The route we selected took in the
villages of St Brisson, Chateau Chinon and Luzy and was restricted to
backroads which rarely had numbers. Linking these villages took us
through forests where we saw nobody, up steep 5-10 km long climbs
which had us panting for breath but we were always rewarded by a long
swooping downhill and then another climb. The area is interspersed
with lakes the most spectactular was Lac des Settons. The lake and
the surrounds were deserted and we got to enjoy the silence amd soak
in the views. We spent one night camping in a forest largely because
the campsite we were supposed to stay in was closed. We found a great
spot in an oak forest with a very soft leaf and moss covered floor
which made it very comfortable. The next day dawned clear skies. A
treat indeed seeng that it had been overcast since London and i was
cursing the heavy sun tan cream weighing down my pannier. We left
Morvan on an awesome downhill which took us to Luzy at 40km h plus.
Unfortunately Luzy's only campsite was closed so we headed south
residing ourselves to another night of rough camping. But luck would
have it that 20 km down the road we came across Toulon sur Arroux
which has a lovely campsite with hot showers. The decision to take a
rest da was quickly taken although we think we may need some more
clothes as at 4 am the temps hit zero. Not fun when your sleeping bag
is rated plus 3 degrees!

We are now off to find some beer. We have not had an since Friday the
7th! Long may the sun stay out!

Day 5

Day 5. And we have passed the 500km mark. So far the French roads have
been great and the wine cheap and plentiful! The sun, however, has
been in hiding until 5 pm today when it showed itself for 5 mins and
we actually saw our shadows on the road as we flew along at 30km h.
Enough about the sun or rather lack of. We woke up this morning in the
bouldering (really hard rock climbing on boulders with no ropes gear
etc. pure form stuff) mecca of Fontainbleau. The campsite was packed
full of climbers from Germany and Switzerland. We followed them into
the forest to sample some of France`s best routes but alas our
climbing skills, left to rust over the years as cycling took over,
were not up to scratch. Or maybe we just found the hard boulders!
Still its a great place and I vow to come back. The joys of the forest
did not stop there as we decided to cycle through it. Problem is the
tracks are so sandy and we ended up pushimg our heavy bikes for ages
trying to follow a photocopied map from the campsite . It took forever
but good practice for lake turkana in kenya. We soon hit some gravel
and we started to emjoy the forest. A really special place.

On leaving Fontainbleau it was another 90 odd km to our overnight stop
near Joigny. We were not up to it but pushed ahead stopping at the 60
km mark for a feast from the aisles of the local Aldi. With food in
our bellys the power came back and we motored towards Joigny.

Our overnight spot turned out to be closed so at about 630pm we
started looking for other options. We found a great spot near the
river which looked like an abandoned campsite. Problem is other than
river water there was no water you could drink without treating it so
we put our trust in the dead and headed to the local cemetery which
always has a tap. Water sorted we cooked up a storm and eased our
aching muscles with a bottle of wine.

Tomorrow we start heading south to the Alps. We hope the weather
improves as we dont have much warm kit!
Thanks for all the generous donations to the Wildlands Conservation
Trust. Really appreciated it.

James
Disclaimer. Written on a kindle which must have the worst keyboard in
the world and a screen which you have to turn sideways to see your
email. So please accept my apologies for any spellings mistakes.
Especially the overuse of 'm'

Day 4

Its been a tough 440km from London to where we are now, Fontaine
Bleau, a world famous bouldering (type of rock climbing for the
ill-informed) spot. Tomorrow we plan to take it a bit easier as we are
currently a whole day ahead of schedule, due to some hard pushing over
the last few days. So we might attempt some climbing before aiming to
do about 60km on the road.

Generally the going has been pretty good, but the lack of training is
starting to take effect! We are both pretty certain we'll get into the
rythm of things soon though.

We've decided European campsites are a rip off so the last two nights
we did some experimental bush camping. Its not as easy as it seems
though to find a decent spot. Night 2 we settled down in some pretty
dense woodland next to the road before hearing gunshots going off not
far away (pheasant hunting was our guess). Night 3 was quite similar.
So its quite nice to have had a shower and have some nice flat grass
to camp on tonight!

One country down! We have left rainy england and are sipping a coffee
on the ferry after a sad goodbye to my (mark`s) girlfriend Jo and
John, our escort for the England leg.

Day one went pretty smoothly, apart from some pannier issues on the
way to trafalgar square,and doing 30km more then planned thanks to the
Full Gas Cycling Club (i.e. Peter de Wit)taking us on the scenic route
out of London!

So after 152km we arrived in Seaford, ever so slightly concerned at
our lack of fitness and heavy bikes! I have also realised my Brooks
leather saddle still needs some wearing in.

A big thank you to everyone who woke up at an obscene hour to give us
a proper send off from Trafalgar square (although the rugby match at
6am probably helped a few to wake up).

Also a BIG thanks to those who have donated to the WCT charity, please
keep it coming!

Now its on to Dieppe. We are going to try and put in a few miles extra
today just to stay ahead of schedule while the legs are fresh!

We are finally packed and ready to go. It only took two days. We don't look forward to unpacking and packing everyday from now on!! Total kit weight is 22kg. Bikes are around 14 kg. Add some water and we are looking at 38 kg or something! We have to cycle this for 15000 km.... Sore legs are guaranteed. Some pics below.

The chaos in the lounge.

James' steed. The Tank....German quality

Mark's steed. The brokeback....with John's behind it...

Warm up.....

One day and a bit to go!

Our start time is confirmed.... We are rolling out of Trafalgar Square at 8am (BST) this Saturday. If you feel like popping through to give us a shove off the starting blocks by all means do so!

Our objective for the day is to reach Newhaven 120 odd km away from where we will get the ferry to Dieppe on Sunday. We will be joined by John Pattinson for day one and we will meet up with the Full Gas Cycling Club at 830 at Roehampton Gate in Richmond Park. From there we head out to Dorking, via Hampton Court Palace, Epsom and Cobham, before heading south to the coast.


Now to pack our panniers... again.

The Malaria Debate

If you pop down to your local pharmacy or travel clinic and mention that you will be travelling anywhere between north Sudan and north eastern South Africa, the doctor (or nurse as the case may be) will tell you that you are entering a high risk Malaria zone. Usually this zone is painted bright red and if you spend any prolonged period of time here you are pretty much guaranteed to get sick at some point, if not from Malaria then from a whole spectrum of other diseases and viruses all of which can leave you in a rather bad way. Luckily, a series of painful jabs will give you the upper hand in most cases but with Malaria things are a little different. Some Giardia in the system is another African experience to remember but we will leave that for another post. Usually on short trips you would take a course of malaria prophylaxis and you would be fine but taking these drugs for a longer trips is not always ideal.

The typical long term prophylaxis is Larium. You take it once a week and you can take it for ages (up to 12 months or something) but the problem is it does not agree with everyone and tends to induce vivid dreams and mood swings. I have taken Larium before and while I did not suffer any serious side effects I did feel somewhat depressed and irritable for at least 24 hours after taking it. I recently read that the veterans of French Foreign Legion are suing the French Government due to long term effects of being forced to take Larium when on operations.

An alternative to Larium is a popular prophylaxis called Malarone, a proprietary drug from GlaxoSmithKline, which is taken daily. It has very little side effects in most people but it costs a bomb and is more suited to short trips. It has an added benefit of being and effective treatment for malaria.

Other prophylaxis include doxycycline and the combination of Paludrine and Chloroquine. Doxycycline is essentially an antibiotic. It works well but it makes your skin very sensitive to sun light, which does not help when you are very close to the equator and don't have the luxury of being indoors. The Paludrine/Chloroquine combination used to be really effective until P.falciparum, the malaria prevalent in West, East and Southern Africa, built up a resistance to it and it has become effectively useless. Strangely enough the NHS and Boots still prescribe it.

So what do you take? Well you can take your chances with Larium or take out a loan and have a large(!) box of malarone or go colonial and drink tankards of gin and tonic and hope there is a enough quinine in the local tipple. Or you can not take prophylaxis and rather try and avoid getting malaria in the first place, and if this fails, have the necessary drugs to treat malaria. We have decided to go with this latter option.

Our preventive strategy is simple and involves wearing long sleeve shirts and trousers at night, sleeping under mosquito nets as well as the liberal use of DEET based mosquito spray. Should this fail, and there is not a clinic or hospital in sight (Plan A), we have a whole bunch of malaria test kits, a stash of plan B malarone for treatment purposes (4 tables daily) as well as a malaria treatment drug called Halfan, which is effective against P.falciparum and was develop by the US military following lessons learnt in Vietnam. There are mixed reports on the potential side effects of Halfan so this is our Plan C.