And take it to the limit, one more time

I drastically underestimated just how far it was from Holyhead in Wales, down to London. I also drastically underestimated how many hills there would be. I spent half of the three hour ferry ride with an older woman named Elizabeth. She turned out to be a little nuts. Within a half hour I learned the lion’s share of her background - born in Scotland, now living in Liverpool. And, I was also treated to a front row seat as she received a call from home saying that the canal boat she lives on had broken loose from its moorings and was in the middle of the canal. To top it all off her dog was also running loose throughout the area. She didn’t quite seem to understand the phone and was making liberal use of the speakerphone function to manage her affairs. I got into Holyhead a little later than anticipated - it was after 7 when I set off from the ferry terminal in search of a place to camp for the night. Pickings were slim as most of the forested area was covered in thorny vines. I did manage to find a not-so-hidden wild campign spot on the edge of a cycle path through a big marshland area. My two days of cycling through Wales were tough. I knew that the route through Snowdonia would be more difficult than going through the South, but had not been mentally prepared for the punishing 15% + gradients. I’m not sure I ever climbed higher than 300m, but the constant rollercoaster of high gradient hills takes all your energy and all of your spirit. I also managed to trigger some serious discomfort in both legs on this part of the journey. After stopping to eat an apple on the 4th I got back on the bike and had a pretty uncomfortable pain in my left ankle. I think that came partly from babying my right calf on the way into Dublin. It might be a good idea to take some time off the bike next week to rest my overworked lower body. I bolstered my first day effort of 170km with a second day effort of 150km. This put me clearly out of Wales and back into Southern England on my way South East through Bath and on to Stonehenge. I made a quick (and expensive) stop at Stonehenge to see the site up close. I was pretty apprehensive about leaving my bike unattended on the edge of the parking lot, but didn’t really have any other options. There is a rope line that separates tourists from the stones themselves - it was pretty crazy to think about how a group of people with no real written tradition were able to create this circle of balanced stones that stood in line with the trajectory of the sun at certain times of the year. I didn’t really stick around too long to read all the information because I was a little worried about my bicycle! I spent my last night of this trip wild camping on the side of the road around 100km from London. It was bittersweet to know that the cycling portion of the trip was coming to the end so quickly. Well, I suppose it’s not all that quickly, but still a full four days before my flight. The ride into the city wasn’t great, but cycling through cities never is. The hostel I had booked was able to accommodate my arrival one day before I had anticipated arriving, but were unable to facilitate storage of my bike. I had a tense night of leaving it on the street before taking it down to a friend’s apartment in the south end of the city. I’ve spent most of my time in London just walking around! I haven’t really put all that much thought into truly debriefing all my experiences and how I feel about returning home to Canada. It’s going to be different. I managed to pick up a box at a local bike shop and I should be all set to head down to Lisa’s apartment tomorrow (10th) and pack up all my things before making my way down to the airport in the evening for a night at the airport before my flight out in the morning of the 11th! Here are my final stats for my entire bicycle trip around Europe! 85 nights of wild-camping 71 nights at paid campgrounds ~23 nights at friend’s homes/Warmshowers Countries visited 34 (United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czech, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and Ireland!) Time spent on the bike (total) 987:07.49 Number of days on the bike 191 Total distance travelled 20,323 Kilometers (12,628 Miles) That’s over halfway around the Earth at the equator! - I can now say that I have cycled halfway around the world, while halfway around the world! Distance per day 106.40km Average Speed 20.59km/h Average time per cycling day 5:10.05 Superlatives Longest day 9:41.61 - July 20 9:33.37 - July 13 9:23.54 - June 25 Furthest Day 242.61 - June 25 209.59 - July 13 207.89 - July 20 Fastest Average Speed 26.7 - June 29 25.8 - June 25 25.4 - January 9 Top Speed 79.1 - September 4 74.7 - January 27 74.4 - April 2