Two days to go now until we depart on our ride to Greece. We are finalising our packing, what to leave in, what to throw out. We are fairly confident we’ve got it about right because we had a trial run in mid-Wales a few weeks ago.
Rehearsal cycle camping in Wales
Our trial week reassured us that we were capable of the mileages required and that we had more or less the right gear and could carry it on our bikes and get up steep hills.
We practiced the concept of pop-up cafés i.e. stopping on a remote mountain road, getting out our stove, boiling the kettle and having a cup of tea.
Amazingly every time we stopped the sun came out, the wind dropped and the views were glorious. This is not normal Welsh behaviour.
2 min tea procedure
Optimised for speed and to preserve fuel and decent tea bag supplies in lands that don’t understand the importance of a good cuppa.
Fill kettle. Add one teabag to the cold water (controversial). Bring to boil on stove. Immediately pour tea which has brewed while boiling. Add spoonful of powdered milk.
It tastes remarkably like tea.
Camping
The nights were cold. Our tent was easy to put up and fine for space, but we were barely warm enough in our lightweight summer sleeping bags. They should be more than adequate for the European summer though we agreed to invest in a comfortable double mattress.
The friendliness of strangers
Cycling on heavily laden touring bikes seems to bring out the friendliness in people.
Peddling very slowly up steep hills we ended up in conversation with farmers leaning on gates, people leaning out of the windows of passing cars (and even lorries), people leading horses. When we found ourselves in the middle of Ludlow races we had a warm and interesting conversation with a chap called John who told us about how he had grown up with his mum in a house we could just see in the distance. This while helping us place a bet on the race.
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