The Journey

Or so I thought.

Lizzy and I set off from Tavistock on the 23rd of May 2024. Our aim was to reach Sagres in Portugal, the most south westerly point in Europe, in around 80 days. I had estimated the journey as being around 3000 kilometres. In reality it was a lot more, even though we were forced to cut off a big corner of Spain, the province of Galicia, due to time pressures. So when we set off from Tavistock we had no real idea how long it would take us or how hard it would be. We were dropped off at the Drake’s Trail, an offroad cycle way to Plymouth that crosses Dartmoor and follows the Plym river into Plymouth. At this point we were fully laden with surfboards, wetsuits, fins, camping gear, clothes and all our tech, as well as spare batteries for the bikes in case we were able to wild camp at any point. It was the first time we had ridden the bikes fully laden.

The first few miles were exciting and terrifying in equal measure. As we cycled along, not really knowing if our bikes, trailers or legs were up to the job, I listened to all the new noises my rig was making. The trailers clicked and creaked and banged on tree roots and cracks in the surface. We stopped at The Barbican for fish and chips before cycling the last mile or so to the ferry port and our ferry that would take us to Roscoff and the Eurovelo 1, The Velodyssee, the cycle route that follows the coast down the west coast of France.