Spring tour

Trevor A Panther said:

I hardly dare think about it -- but I leave home on 24 April heading
for my sons home on Salisbury plain and then on to Portsmouth. On
the
evening of 1 May I leave England and arrive in St Malo next morning.
Then I am spending several weeks cycle touring/camping round France.

Any distinguishing marks / clothing / attributes? Then if I see you
I'll definitely give you a cheery wave.
Have a good trip.

--

Geoff

Trevor A Panther said:

I hardly dare think about it -- but I leave home on 24 April heading for my
sons home on Salisbury plain and then on to Portsmouth. On the evening of 1
May I leave England and arrive in St Malo next morning. Then I am spending
several weeks cycle touring/camping round France. I am heading South toward
Bordeaux and then East to the Loire before going down the Loire towards
Tours -- then a final meander round lower Normandy and Brittany back to St
Malo. I might even decide to go on to Spain instead but I am certainly going
to enjoy the trip -- whatever the weather might do to me. I just get the
feeling in my creaking bones that it might be a wetter tour than usual!

It has been a depressing winter for me which has seem to go on forever -- not
a particularly cold but seemingly wet and windy all the time.

It has made me eager to get out on the camping road again even though I am at
my least fittest for several years. As a "very grumpy old man" after this
winter I hope to return to England in late June with enough rejuvenation to
see me through another year.

With limited funds I save like mad all winter to be able to relax and enjoy
being on the road for a long time in Europe every Spring. It is just that with
advancing years I become more and more aware of the pleasure I get on my cycle
camping tours.

I shall make Italy next year in some way or other and do a circumnavigate of
the peninsula. I am aware that time gallops by at an ever increasing rate. If
I don't manage to do it then I suspect that I never will so it is next year or
bust!

Not quite a rant but nearly!

Not a rant at all, Trevor, but an inspiration to us all.

Quoted message said:

I just want to get away again and enjoy the freedom of the road and let it
wipe away this long winter.

Enjoy.

"Trevor A Panther" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
snip

Quoted message said:

I just want to get away again and enjoy the freedom of the road and let it
wipe away this long winter.

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

My sentimenents exactly. I'm limited to a couple of weeks in June as I
probably won't retire for a couple years. Going with EBE to southern France
for the 9th year. Wonder how many of us cycle campers travel alone?

Hope you get good weather and enjoy your trip.

Ken.

On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:40:22 GMT, "Trevor A Panther"
<[email hidden]> wrote:

[---]

Quoted message said:

I shall make Italy next year in some way or other and do a circumnavigate of
the peninsula. I am aware that time gallops by at an ever increasing rate. If
I don't manage to do it then I suspect that I never will so it is next year or
bust!

Oh rubbish ! If you've inherited your dad's genes, then you'll still
be on the road twenty years from now. But Italy is a great place, so
the sooner you see it, the better.

Trevor A Panther said:

I hardly dare think about it -- but I leave home on 24 April heading for
my sons home on Salisbury plain and then on to Portsmouth. On the
evening of 1 May I leave England and arrive in St Malo next morning.
Then I am spending several weeks cycle touring/camping round France. I
am heading South toward Bordeaux and then East to the Loire before going
down the Loire towards Tours -- then a final meander round lower
Normandy and Brittany back to St Malo. I might even decide to go on to
Spain instead but I am certainly going to enjoy the trip -- whatever
the weather might do to me. I just get the feeling in my creaking bones
that it might be a wetter tour than usual!

It has been a depressing winter for me which has seem to go on forever
-- not a particularly cold but seemingly wet and windy all the time.

It has made me eager to get out on the camping road again even though I
am at my least fittest for several years. As a "very grumpy old man"
after this winter I hope to return to England in late June with enough
rejuvenation to see me through another year.

With limited funds I save like mad all winter to be able to relax and
enjoy being on the road for a long time in Europe every Spring. It is
just that with advancing years I become more and more aware of the
pleasure I get on my cycle camping tours.

I shall make Italy next year in some way or other and do a
circumnavigate of the peninsula. I am aware that time gallops by at an
ever increasing rate. If I don't manage to do it then I suspect that I
never will so it is next year or bust!

Not quite a rant but nearly!

I just want to get away again and enjoy the freedom of the road and let
it wipe away this long winter.

:-)

It sounds great!

BTW, when you say "the peninsula", do you mean the Italian peninsula? If
so. I'm quadrupally impressed...

Sounds great looking froward to reading about it.

"GeoffC" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Trevor A Panther said:

I hardly dare think about it -- but I leave home on 24 April heading
for my sons home on Salisbury plain and then on to Portsmouth. On the
evening of 1 May I leave England and arrive in St Malo next morning.
Then I am spending several weeks cycle touring/camping round France.

Any distinguishing marks / clothing / attributes? Then if I see you I'll
definitely give you a cheery wave.
Have a good trip.

--

Geoff

If you see an old bloke,in shorts, wearing a red h*lm*t ( it at least hides my
mop of white hair), towing an overloaded Carry Freedom Y frame trailer with a
tent sitting on top of a stuffed red bag -- there's a fair chance it might be
me! If he is pushing the bike up a steep hill then there's an even bigger
chance it will be me {especially in the first 2 weeks while I am working off
the winters extra inches!)
-- I certainly have been known to curse my trailer load but never ever my
velo ( a Thorn Raven Tour suitably geared down for loaded touring)

Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Ken said:

"Trevor A Panther" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
snip

Quoted message said:

I just want to get away again and enjoy the freedom of the road and let it
wipe away this long winter.

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

My sentimenents exactly. I'm limited to a couple of weeks in June as I
probably won't retire for a couple years. Going with EBE to southern France
for the 9th year. Wonder how many of us cycle campers travel alone?

Hope you get good weather and enjoy your trip.

Ken.

I'm heading down to the South of France via EBE in the second half of
June. To Bordeaux, back from Orange. Not camping but hotels/B&B.

Hope the weather is good for you Trevor. The only trip I've ever
abandoned was to Brittany last year. Forecast was unrelenting cold &
rain for as far as the long-range forecast went :-(

Pete

Peter Grange said:

Hope the weather is good for you Trevor. The only trip I've ever
abandoned was to Brittany last year. Forecast was unrelenting cold &
rain for as far as the long-range forecast went :-(

Indeed, it was the wettest Paris-Brest-Paris in living memory.

--
Dave...

"dkahn400" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Peter Grange said:

Hope the weather is good for you Trevor. The only trip I've ever
abandoned was to Brittany last year. Forecast was unrelenting cold &
rain for as far as the long-range forecast went :-(

Indeed, it was the wettest Paris-Brest-Paris in living memory.

--
Dave...

I cycled from St Malo in 2004 on a similar route - to the mouth of the Gironde
on my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 2004. I was travelling a month
earlier than this and although I had many frosty nights I had excellent sunny
weather all the way down right to within 1 day of the Spanish border. Warm
sunny days and a following wind nearly all the way. Mind you a very
wet/cold/snowy trip through Northern Spain made up for it!

I can't hope for such excellent weather again and indeed on all my recent
tours I have had spells of cold wet weather -- I remember on my trip down the
Rhein wearing just about everything to keep warm as I left Koblenz in heavy
rain on 1 June to side track up and down the Mosel.

With the time being my own, if it is tippling on a morning when I am due to
break camp --- well I just don't break camp --- and stay an extra day and
just do some local cycling and sightseeing! If it starts raining while I am on
the road, I motor on and perhaps take a longer coffee and sticky bun stop! I
carry all my tools and spares and my over waterproofs in a single rear pannier
where they are easy to get at -- everything else is in the big red Ortlieb bag
on the trailer.

I have a long stopover planned for when I get to the Dordogne where I am
spending a few days with friends who own a couple of gites in the area -- and
have a bath in which I can soak off my green knees. I have promised to take my
old friend Françoise out to dinner -- providing she will sit on the rear rack!

I am already reviewing the weather on a daily basis. I must get the prayer mat
out!!!!!

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

dkahn400 said:

Peter Grange said:

Hope the weather is good for you Trevor. The only trip I've ever
abandoned was to Brittany last year. Forecast was unrelenting cold &
rain for as far as the long-range forecast went :-(

Indeed, it was the wettest Paris-Brest-Paris in living memory.

When I went to the Ventoux last July I only had two days without rain.
Both of them at the Ventoux. But at least I wasn't at home when the
floods happened.

Trevor A Panther said:

I hardly dare think about it -- but I leave home on 24 April heading for
my sons home on Salisbury plain and then on to Portsmouth. On the
evening of 1 May I leave England and arrive in St Malo next morning.

Trev, drop me a mail, I'll be in Portsmouth all day on the 1st May. We
could have one for the road by the ferry port!