"When I wheeled my bike off the ferry at Roscoff, northwest France, in the summer of 2024, the furthest I had ever ridden was the 99-mile Devon Coast to Coast route over two days. And yet here I was, about to embark on an epic journey, unsupported, towing a trailer with two wooden surfboards, a tent and wetsuits strapped to it."
"My first attempt at a mountain pass, in the Pyrenees some years before, hadn't started well. I threw a hissy fit at the first hairpin, demanding of Lizzy: what's the point? As our route out of Roscoff took us down a narrow, overgrown track with brambles brushing our legs and panniers, I started to wonder what we had got ourselves into. Would we have to ride on paths like this all the way? What were we thinking?"
The narrator began an ambitious unsupported cycling and surfing journey from Roscoff in summer 2024, despite having previously completed only a 99-mile two-day route. He and his wife Lizzy, 62, rented out their house and lent their campervan to remove any option to turn back. Both towed trailers: he with two wooden surfboards, a tent and wetsuits, and she with two belly boards and camping kit. Lizzy brought long-distance riding experience, including a crossing of the Andes. The narrator feared whether his 57-year-old body and spirit could cope with mountains, rough tracks and nightly tenting on the roughly 1,900-mile route to Cape St Vincent.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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