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London
to the Adriatic by Tandem, 1995
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| Who
in their right mind would cycle by tandem, twice over the
Alps, down to the Adriatic coast, and back up to Prague by
tandem, in the rain, and sleep in the hedge for tHree weeks?
Sound like someone you know? Read on ....
The cycle expedition
was conceived in order to raise money for and awareness
off the suffering caused by conflict int he former Yugoslavia.
We cycled unsupported from London, with everything we needed
in our panniers and that crazy little trailer ... |
Click on any photo
to get a fuil-size shot.
|
26 May 1995
And they're off! |
After much faffing
around we eventually left from the flat at 1700, Jirí’s
waterproof bag bunjeed on top of the trailer. We managed to
fit everything in, including all of the rations and chocolate.
I over-tensed my right pedal spring just as we set off, so
we had to stop again, after Pete had shot some very 'steady'
camera work of our departure, complete with running commentary.
The A2 was packed; when we got to the intersection with the
Blackwall Tunnel i.e. the start there were two, then three
lanes of solid traffic. Surprisingly, after we had suffered
the fumes of the A2 on its initial stretch, the traffic thinned
out dramatically, surprisingly so since this was a Friday early
evening on a Bank Holiday weekend. The first big hill was the
climb out of Rochester into Gillingham; there were no other
large climbs on the road until we rejoined the 3 and 2 lane
stretch of the A2 past Sittingbourne by when we had begun to
navigate by just making out the white line in the middle of
the road. Stopped at Tesco’s to stock up on (more) food. |
| About 12 km out of Dover one of
our spokes snapped on the front wheel, right at the top, inside
the nipple. Jiri dissembled the wheel and rim under a street
light. A gentleman driving the other way stopped to call across
the central reservation to us to ask us if we were all right.
We explained that we were just fixing the wheel. Within twenty
minutes we saw a police car - lights lashing - zoom past in
the other direction. He then reversed to ask us if we had seen
an "RTA" - Road Traffic Accident. Shortly after we saw ambulance,
paramedic, police and fire brigade go past the other way, commenting
that some poor sod was in the middle of a serious traffic accident.
Then the vehicles came back the other way and pulled up beside
us. The fire brigade explained that it must have been us, the
incident. Well, someone overly conscientious had caused all
these people to be dragged from their sleep. I suppose it is
reassuring to know that the emergency services react so comprehensively
to an accident report. |
 |
Due to the spoke repair
not being completely perfect we had to cycle slowly down into
Dover, missing the opportunity to bomb down the steep hill
to which we had been looking forward all day. The ferry tickets
cost us £8.00 each as the £1.00 day returns were
not available during the holiday weekend. So, we boarded with
the other vehicles and parked our tandem in the bike park and
tried to find somewhere quiet to lie down. Kids kept on coming
up and asking "are you going to sleep there, mister?" or saying "good
morning" and the like. Thanks, kids. When we did arrive in
Calais we got off the ferry, didn't have our passports checked
and decided that as it was still very early (0530 or so) we
would find somewhere to sleep until a bicycle shop was likely
to be open. So we stopped in the docks area right beside the
ferry ports, very run down and dilapidated, finding a quiet
corner amongst
the huge cranes and their rotting spare tires. |
| Due to the spoke repair not being
completely perfect we had to cycle slowly down into Dover,
missing the opportunity to bomb down the steep hill to which
we had been looking forward all day. The ferry tickets cost
us £8.00 each as the £1.00 day returns were not
available during the holiday weekend. So, we boarded with the
other vehicles and parked our tandem in the bike park and tried
to find somewhere quiet to lie down. Kids kept on coming up
and asking "are you going to sleep there, mister?" or saying "good
morning" and the like. Thanks, kids. When we did arrive in
Calais we got off the ferry, didn't have our passports checked
and decided that as it was still very early (0530 or so) we
would find somewhere to sleep until a bicycle shop was likely
to be open. So we stopped in the docks area right beside the
ferry ports, very run down and dilapidated, finding a quiet
corner amongst
the huge cranes and their rotting spare tires. |
27 May 1995
From Calais to a few km short of
Frévent.
121.8km, max 62 km/h, pedal time
6:25h.
|
After getting the
spoke replaced and the wheel trued in Calais, as well as buying
some aerobars to afford me a few more hand positions, we headed
off once more. Getting out of Calais was a bit difficult as
all the non-minor roads looked like motorways. All teh new
roads not marked on the rather antque map didn't help either.
We took a cross-country route through beautiful, rolling countryside
with small villages scattered along the roads. At?? we took
a wrong turn
and ended up cycling down the Vallée du Source / Route du Champs d'Or,
not at all as planned.
Not that I'm complaining. The road was very quiet,
and after some initial climbing through pleasant forest followed a small river
most of the way and passed by many large houses, excellent property. We stopped
at E'stre for a dip in the river and were passed by
a British classic car rally. |
| We
cycled on and as it neared stopping time we got to a stretch
of the road where, every time we thought we were far enough
out of a settlement to find a perfect field, the next sleepy
villge rolled into view. Eventually we just took aa right turn
in the middle of a village and almost immediately found a pleasant
field with a woostack to which to fasten our poncho for the
night. |
 |
| 28 May 1995 |
Sore
knee begins to develop. At Doullens we were somewhat diverted
by the fact that our map was some 20 years old and that the
French, unlike the Brits, like to periodically renumber roads.
The diversion took us along the N19 / N25 towards Amiens, where
a hotel owner was kind enough to write down a list of the villages
through which we should pass to get us back on the correct
route. |
| So
we cut across country to Acheux, through flat, open farmland.
We saw our first war-time cemetery and stopped to have a look.
Shortly afterwards we entered the
Département du Somme which was very flat, with long, slow hills. From
here we rejoined our route at Albert, passing the Franco-British monument to
the fallen of the Battle of the Somme on the way. Seeing signs for the monument
to the 36th Ulster Division just a couple of kms off the route I had to have
a look. |
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