A Summer Across the Channel
23 July 2022 — 18 August 2022
The big adventure of summer 2022! First, I plan to head up through England, Wales and finally Scotland to discover the Highlands and the mysterious Lochs. A short boat trip should then take me to Ireland, to explore the vast and magical west coast of the country.
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It’s time to take stock of this great adventure of summer 2022. Beyond the whole palette of emotions that the trip gave me, I must say that I’m relatively satisfied with the sporting performance itself.
I would have liked (but isn’t it always the case?) to go further, faster, pedal longer. I sometimes pushed my physical and mental limits, sometimes decided to take time, to rest, to visit.
In the perspective of the NorthCape4000, a great race connecting the north of Italy to the North Cape in Norway in which I want to participate, this training has been beneficial to me in many aspects. I now know where my limits are in terms of time spent on the saddle and comfort, especially when bivouacking.
These ferry crossings are a true pleasure, ever renewed. The beer isn’t very expensive, I love watching the coast recede, then approach the next day, you sleep well on them. Well, that’s if you booked a cabin. Me, I just have a reclining seat and a neighbour behind who’s a kickboxing champion.
So at 10pm, as I’m about to use my loudest voice to tell her to go see if I’m in Scotland, I notice the poor old lady seems a bit… disturbed. So I keep my bad mood to myself, grab my sleeping bag and go sleep in the corridor.
As expected, the night was cold and damp. At 6am, I wake up freezing, a quick glance at my phone tells me the score: it’s 5°. I prefer to get up rather than continue fighting the cold in my little sleeping bag, which is only rated for 11° and anyway, is soaked.
Long hot shower and coffee in the kitchen, I warm up slowly. Around 7:30am, a French family I met yesterday comes to join me and we chat over breakfast until 9am.
Today, visiting Cork on the programme. The night was restless, the wind blew terribly hard, lifting the tent and whipping my face. I managed to sleep, but less peacefully than usual and I was a bit cold.
Early rise, breakfast with lots of peanut butter (need to lighten the bags!). I walk down to Blarney to take the bus and thus avoid dragging my cumbersome bike around all day.
The weather lied! An incredible sun brings me out this morning (I couldn’t resist the little photo under the tent). I spread everything on the fence during my breakfast; tonight, I’ll sleep in a dry and comfortable tent, it’s a rare luxury. I cobble together a route that will take me to a campsite very near Cork.
Thank you for all the end-of-route suggestions you gave me on the blog or privately. Nevertheless, none mention “go around all the local passes just like that for laughs because you never get enough”, too bad.
It was so beautiful yesterday that I don’t bother setting up the tent. I throw the mattress in the grass, the sleeping bag on top and it’ll be a night under the stars.
As I’m loading photos for the article (yesterday’s, still), I’m interrupted by the very friendly campsite owner. He asks about my trip and I end up telling him that Ireland is very beautiful, but really they don’t have the coasts of Wales and even less of the Lake District.
The alarm goes off, I look at the time: 6am, I turn it off, go back to sleep, then wake up 1h30 later. In the end, holidays don’t change me much from the office!
I chat a bit with old touring cyclists sleeping next to me. As I marvel at the fact that one of them sleeps sheltered by a simple bivy, his colleague replies, rolling his “r"s under his big beard, “don’t tell him he’s hardcore, you’re quite hardcore yourself”, pointing at my camp over my shoulder.
What a beautiful sight the sunrise over the dune this morning. From my perch, it’s a magnificent spectacle. I prepare quickly, this time it’s the perfect opportunity to make some kilometres.
I know my planned route doesn’t make a full loop of the next peninsula, so I can add quite a few miles if I feel up to it.
I had planned to treat myself to two or three slices of English cake, I eat the whole thing, plus a yoghurt and a fruit (tough, this morning appetite!). It’s already so mild that I leave in shorts and t-shirt, what a joy!
“He adored Ireland. He idolized it all out of proportion…no, make that: he - he romanticized it all out of proportion. Yeah. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a country that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of the Dubliners.’ Uh, no let me start this over.” (Good luck finding where this comes from, which I’ve mangled once again).
I wake up grumpy this morning. My phone battery decided to die during the night and so it didn’t ring this morning. It’s not like the first days, with accumulated fatigue I no longer wake up at the first light of dawn.