Monday, July 30, 2012

Setting off for Switzerland

I set off yesterday morning for Switzerland, feeling like this is probably the most hastily organised and poorly planned trip of my life.

I threw some clothes, spares for the bike and other essentials into my new panniers, and headed out for the first time on a fully loaded bike.

I quite like it.

Once I got over the feeling thqt the panniers we're going to jump off the back of the bike with everypot hole in the road, I found the extra weight quite stabilising and made good progress to Tottenham, before picking up the Lea Valley Walk and heading north to Enfield Lock for my lift to Dover.

We made it to Lille for our first overnight stop at 11.15pm and will complete a further 8 hours drive to Andermatt in the morning.

A big thanks to my logistics support: Damian, for agreeing to drive me to Switzerland at such short notice, and my Dad (the self-proclaimed Fat Controller) who will be feeding me route information by email as I go.

If you would like to support the trip, please find time to make a small donation, or spread the word. If you would like to join me and cycle part of the route, email me at fretwell.mark(a)gmail.com and let's see what we can work out.

In return I'll try to write as much as I can inbetween truning pedals and sourcing calories.