Europe

Picos De Europa - Our first mini adventure was cycle tour from Santander in northern Spain. This seemed like a good idea as we met in a cycling club!! We ferried to Santander, we then cycled with full camping gear to the Picos. We had a few days on the north side of the Picos and some on the south. It was relatively uncommercialised at this time with a few campsites and limited facilities. We had some wonderfully long days out and nearly got lost in the mountains one day attempting to get back via mountain trails.

The scenery is stunning, the roads were reasonably quiet and for some strange reason all Spanish fisherman appear drive mercs!! The rides up into the mountains were hard but rewarding with superb views and excellent descents.

Cares Gorge, Fuenta De and Covadonga were the highpoints. For a real "high point" the old footpath straight up the mountainside to the old village of Sortres is well worth seeing and walking if you have plenty of time and water.

Pyrenees - As if we hadn't had enough mountains the first time we did another cycle tour through the bottom end of the Pyrenees. We cycled from Girona airport up to Ripols in the mountains. We had several days excellent cycling which culminated with a trip to the top. 15 miles up hill through winding hairpins. It was just before the Tour de France and we saw one of the national teams training as they went flying down whilst we were slogging up. They then caught us up going back up, passed us and were sat under parasols at the top with their team drinking juice. We did manage a big cheer from the team when we hit the top!! The ride back down to Ripols was superb. I also recall the ride back to the airport via a night camping on the coast involved a 70 mile pretty much down hill bike ride all the way. Super holiday even though we got off to a bad start as the plane was delayed and we ended up putting the tent up in the dark after 10!!

Corsica - Another cycle camping tour, this time we bit off more than we could chew by attempting to get right round the island by bike. We set off up the east cost which was pretty boring (no offence to any Corsicans) we ended up in a campsite near the mountains in the centre top of the island. We decided to get a train over the mountains which was a great idea. However the French guard directed us with the bikes and camping gear to a sort of guards van. We got in with the bikes to put/leave them there then the train set off with the door open. Well, there were packages and parcels heading for the door which we managed to rescue. We then managed to close the door to see the guard looking through the windows of the carriage in front of us waving his arms about. We arrived at a station and were escorted to a carriage "without the bikes to finish what was a super trip through the mountains. Once off the train we had to cycle down to Ajaccio and I was having tyre trouble. Dropping down a hill with a drop off to the left my tyre finally blew and I came to rest just on the edge. We were 20 miles from Ajaccio and all out of tyres. Apart from a long walk we were stuck!! Then a car stopped with a German couple in it, in the back were a couple of mountain bikes. We explained our problem they to helped to try to make a temporary repair, sadly unsuccessfully. He then offered me his back wheel to get us down to Ajaccio where they were staying. They took my dodgy wheel and we arranged to meet the following day in Ajaccio and change back, what a good Samaritan!! We met the following day exchanged wheels had a drink and a chat then went on our way. The ride down the west coast of the island was superb scenery, good campsites, pretty villages and coffee shops. We flew in and out of Figari airport which has to be one of the smallest we have been through, what a place.

In addition to these we have cycled around Majorca, been trekking on La Gomera, seen plenty of Greek Islands and Lynn has done trek through Cappadocia in Turkey.