Sitting in our cozy little tent wrapped up in my feather sleeping bag with my hands curled around a hot mug of freshly brewed coffee I feel very excited about my first day off from cycle touring.
It is nice listening to the sprinkles of rain on this cold wet spring morning. Gary on the other hand has prepared himself for another day of cycling minus the trailer so he has packed up 3 e-bike batteries, dressed in all the wet weather gear he has and set off on another adventure.
We are in Devon, a beautiful part of the South of England camped high on a hill in Sidmouth overlooking the ocean. It is so stunning here that not even the weather can dampen our feelings about this place.
The countryside is dotted with small medieval villages joined by high hills and green rolling pastures with cows and sheep grazing contentedly. In the distance overlooking the valley towards the ocean there are small farmhouses with puffs of smoke escaping the chimneys and blowing towards the sea below.
We have only been on the road cycling and camping for 8 days now and covered over 550 km but this is my first experience of cycle touring.
It is very different from the 4/5 star services we received on guided cycling tours that we have done in the past. There are many things I have to adjust to but I can already see how addictive it can become.
I have always had an adventurous spirit but having 20 more years added to my age my body is not like it used to be. I have chronic lower back issues but my theory to maintain good physical strength is to do a regular routine of palates and yoga stretches every morning as well as eating lots of healthy food and keeping fit by cycling.
At the end of each day we cook up a feast on our camp cooker and wash it down with a bottle of good wine!
The days pass so quickly because from the time we wake up each morning, stretch, eat, pack the tent and trailers it is usually close to 9am. We cycle until mid morning and eat fruit, have a cuppa and later in the day have a picnic lunch somewhere along a scenic route.
The next part of each day’s cycling is to reach a new campsite for the night where we can re-charge our batteries as well as the bike’s for another days cycling. It sounds simple but around every corner there is a new adventure.
Some days, as the crow fly the distances seem quite short but the cycle path could wind up and down hills and take much longer than planned. Our bikes are around 23kg, trailers 5kg and our luggage another 25-30kg each so the load is heavy especially when standing still.
Surprisingly though, when cycling in eco mode you can’t even feel the trailer. There have been times when I have turned around whilst cycling to make sure my trailer was still attached because the load seemed so light.
On the other hand when we have reached busier towns I have had to learn how to handle the weight of the e-bike and trailer at traffic lights. Once at a red light on an incline I lost my balance because I used the front hand break and power propelled myself forward onto the handlebars.
Instinctively I tried to stop my e-bike from falling onto the road, but trying to hold up a load of up to 50kg of a fully loaded bike was the wrong thing to do and I ended up straining my back and shoulders.
I am now starting to master my bike both on and off it, fully loaded and at the same time trying to conserve power. The e-bikes are amazing to ride with the 4 levels of boost and the 27 gears to assist whilst you pedal.
Don’t think for one minute it is not hard work because it is. Whilst cycle-touring you have to maintain a balancing act of being in the right gear to maximize the amount of battery power left to gain as many kilometers as possible.
People mostly use their e-bikes as commuters for recreational purposes and when they are finished just plug them in on their return home from their daily ride. Not in the case in long-distance cycle touring.
There are many lessons to be learnt when cycle touring and another one is using your orienteering skills. We are following the English National Cycling Routes to be on minor roads as much as possible and spotting the numbers on sign posts that some people deface or remove is very frustrating and on one occasion added more that 20km to our daily total.
Whilst camping we are now developing a nice routine where Gary does the lifting and I do more of the preparation of setting up and packing up of our tent and cycle gear. It is working well.
Our preparation for the trip has worked out well because we seem to have brought the correct type of clothing even though it was hard to leave many items of clothing at home. Good quality cycle clothing is important because it is light and dries quickly.
After cycling hard and sweating even in cold weather there is always dirty washing. Our light weight waterproof Gortex jackets have been life savers too with their zip out polo fleece body warmers.
As a Queenslander used to living in a hot climate I sometimes feel like I am an astronaut in my layers of clothing, but is necessary to be able to peel off the layers because in England the weather changes by the minute. Not to mention wearing tights, two pairs of cycle pants, scarves, helmets, glasses and gloves!
All in all we are a great team together and get on really well even in confined spaces. Today is my first day alone.
Apart from writing this blog I plan to have a few luxuries. With our food supplies stocked and my laptop fully loaded I now plan to slip back into my sleeping bag and watch a few movies and later listen to some music until Gary comes home to share his new adventures with me.
Life couldn’t be better for a first time long distance cycle tourist, until next time.
Cheers Rachel