After a couple of walks in the Gran Canaria mountains, we decided it was time to do a bit of sightseeing and visit the Maspalomas Sand Dunes. The dunes are famous for being a ‘mini desert’, in certain places all you can see is hill upon hill of sand. We parked near Maspolomas and walked over the bridge towards the…
For the second half of the holiday, we stayed in the town of Agaete located on the north-west side of the island. Our house was part of a large apartment complex, but I thought the street looked quite scenic with the mountains in the distance and it was one of my reasons for liking the area. After settling in, we…
When you’re bombing it down the A30 into deepest Cornwall you are guaranteed to pass Halvana Plantation. It is situated near Altarnun and borders the edge of Bodmin Moor. The dark, foreboding mass of trees is bound to make you wary – something only an evergreen forest can accomplish. It covers 186 hectares and there are many well made tracks…
The initial idea of a summer cycling tour began a few years ago but never developed into a full plan. We knew we wanted to do it and that was enough. Then, last Christmas we started to discuss it more and dithered between two ideas: 1. Cycle the Baltic Sea. 2. Head into France and meander south. Idea 1 had…
We entered France at Lille and what felt like the worlds longest continuous highstreet. It went on, and on, and on. We spent so long on it that it started to feel like a timeloop. Every 10 minutes the same tram station would go past, and I would stare at it until I realised that it was ever so slightly…
I was initially excited about cycling through Belgium. I researched the best way home during the Dusseldorf break and found the Flanders Cycle Route. It’s a segment of LF6 that goes from Maastricht to near Dunkirk and so would have carried us nearly all the way back. In reality, it was useless and we ended up going more diagonally towards…
We approached Germany with some apprehension, everyone knows the German reputation for being strict and law-abiding so we thought they probably wouldn’t be so thrilled to find us camped in the corner of a graveyard or on their pristine football pitch. Our worries turned out to be unfounded as we made it across to Dusseldorf without any incomprehensible yelling matches…
Our final day of cycling in Lithuania ended with being interrogated by the Lithuania/Kaliningrad Border Police, so it was only natural that we hopped over the border when the road did pass near it for a few miles. The nearest guard tower was 5 miles away and the Russian side was wild woodland so it was a pretty safe way…
Lithuania was my least favourite of the Baltic States, that isn’t to say that we didn’t have plenty of fun though. We lost equipment and found it again, got waylaid by a super-social German and questioned by the border guard. Our second day in Lithuania was an unusually long one. Leaving the campsite at 9am and cycling until 7pm in…
The first part of the Latvian disaster is that my brother started to feel ill one morning when we were wild camping without water. He was then sick multiple times, I told him to toughen up and we cycled 45 miles until we found another suitable wild camping spot. He spent the rest of the day languishing in bed. On…