Peddling ‘Head to Toe’

A few days ago, after four glorious years of student living, I graduated out of ‘the bubble’. In an ever more elaborate effort to forestall the inevitable job hunting frenzy, I have decided not to jump onto that particular manic bandwagon quite yet and instead take to the road, peddling my tent down through Europe.

Flying out later this week, and assuming my bike survives the journey across (if it doesn’t then I am fully out of ideas and will be back in Cheltenham within the week, you’ll probably find me at roosters..), I’ll be beginning my journey at the tip-top of Denmark. I have officially assigned Denmark ‘the Head’ of mainland Europe- bear with me on this one… The (very) rough plan is to travel down the West coast of Denmark, dip into North Germany — ‘the Shoulders’, across through into the Netherlands, Belgium, maybe see a bit of France and Luxembourg, before entering back into Germany and peddling the Romantic Road in Bavaria which will take me straight to the Alps- ‘the Knees’ (can you see where this rhyme is leading..?).

From a distance (and on my map without contour lines) hills and mountains look positively conquerable! During my Scottish touring mini-adventure last week I discovered pretty quickly that I’m not the best judge of gradient. It turns out Scotland is one bloody long hill after another. My mum and I rode just over 300 miles, tracing the East coast up out of St Andrews, round past Aberdeen and into Inverness, before heading down the Caladonian canal through Loch Ness and into Fort William. I’d like to say we battled gale force winds, torrential rain and still bear the scars of horizontal hail-storms, but most of it was sunny, slightly overcast and overwhelmingly pleasant, (though I did battle a one-eyed seagull for my fish and chips, and WON- so yeah, if you want to call me a warrior…). I’m proud to say that we did not walk up one single hill, biking our way to the top of each one.

Even I will acknowledge that the Alps look pretty steep, and if (when) I get there I’m sure that’ll be a fair challenge. So if (WHEN) I climb on through that range and hit Italy I’ll have reached the last leg of my tour and will continue down its East coast until I reach its big ‘Toe’ kicking poor Sicily.

And thus the nursery rhyme will come full circle. I’ll not attempt to attach any eyes, ears, mouths or any other orifices to my nursery-rhyme body superimposed onto Europe’s landmass, but I have quite enjoyed this lazy afternoon’s writing, mapping out the adventures to come.

I’ll be riding solo for the most part, and for no other reason than I never feel more comfortable than when outdoors and in moving to my own clock. So while this journey is a holiday for me and not a charity sponsored ride, if anyone is looking for a cause to donate to that really epitomizes the spirit of movement and mileage, take a look at www.1millionmilesforellie.co.uk a charity set up to raise money for those touched my cancer.