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BETWIXT: Europe

I’ve just received an email from a couple who are about to embark on a similar journey to ours.
They are walking from Bath to Venice and are leaving in just a couple of days. They are in their 50’s and they are walking in support of RUH Bath Breast Care Unit. I don’t know the detail of how they are doing it, but they asked for a few tips.

Here are a few tips from France and Italy.

• During August, nearly every campsite, hotel and bed is booked up in France and Italy. So you will have to be flexible about where you sleep.

• Sundays need to be planned; shops are closed, restaurants are shut and accommodation is hard to come by.

• The first two weeks are amazing, then the reality of what you are doing will hit. The distance will start to feel huge, the days will start getting noticeably shorter, blisters will be in full swing, and basically life will get hard. So, make your targets shorter. Don’t worry about Venice yet, aim for Paris or similar. When you get to your ‘short’ target, stop, relax, and celebrate. Then set another one. You will then end up celebrating right across Europe!!

• Even if you are feeling good, make sure you rest regularly. You can’t walk all day every day. Take hours off during the day, and days off during the week. Again use targets. We stopped in Amiens for three nights. It was the end of one of our sections, we needed to rest and it is a fabulous city!

• This reminds me, make sure you enjoy the places you pass through. This might sound strange but unless you actually stop and look around you won’t take advantage of the speed you are travelling. So, again stop regularly and be flexible, if there is a festival, fair or any other event going on, check it out, the distraction are always the best.

• We kept in touch using French ‘pay-as-you-go’ SIM cards in our mobile phones. You will have to get your mobiles unlocked first. You can get a SIM card from any French network mobile shop. Get the shop assistant to make sure the phone is topped up with some credit and that the SIM card works.

• The French GR long distance footpath system is as brilliant as the Italian footpaths are awful. To get to Venice you have to cross the Padua plain; there are no footpaths and the traffic is horrendous even on some minor roads, Italian drivers have no time for walkers on roads. So please be very careful.

• It is a similar story with maps. The French IGN maps are very good; the Italian maps are poor and inconsistent, other than in the Alps, which are covered by Kompass maps.

• Everywhere we went, we met amazing people who either helped or entertained us. We especially found that French butchers were brilliant.

• The most important thing to do is to have fun and to keep smiling!!

If you have any advice you would like to add then please comment on this post.

And, if anybody else has any questions, on anything really, please don’t hesitate to contact me via the contact page.

So, best wishes to you both in your adventure and we would love to hear how you are getting on, if you get the chance.

I’ve started to put some of the photos on the website.

The Alps II album covers all the time I spent walking over the Alps from Bergamo in Italy to Thusis in Switerland. I was lucky enough to be supported by Michele, John and Rob, all at different times. So please go and have a look.

I’ll add some more soon, might even manage a few clips.

After 12 weeks of walking and biking I arrived back in Odcombe. The support was fantastic. From meeting Michele and my Mum and Dad in Dorchester on Friday night, to the ’support cyclists’ and the reception committee at Odcombe church on the Saturday afternoon, the support you have all given me has helped me so much in the final few miles.

So, now i’m back in Odcombe I can finally get some more of the pictures on the website and try to write a more interesting account of my journey.

This is also the time I’m sure you have all been waiting for, it’s time to actually dip your hands in your pockets and donate to the charities we are supporting. ALL the money you donate will go to the charities. To find out more please go to the Charities link on the main nav bar.

Those of you that saw me over the weekend will realise that I was a bit spaced. I don’t know how I was going to feel getting home. Beyond getting excited at being with Michele, my family and friends, I really don’t know what I was gonig to feel. Well, I can tell you now, I feel like I’m on holiday !! that’s right, I keep waking thinking that I’m going to get back on Gertsey at the end of the week, so I aught to make the most of my time here.

Reality is slowly infiltrating my world. I need to find somewhere for us to live, I need to find some sort of way of making money and I have to sort all those other things that I should have been thinking about while away. Oh well, i think the first thing I’m going to do is chill, relax, take it easy and let my body recover a bit.

Anyway, Andy’s here and I’m off to the pub.

We’re in Rotterdam, preparing for the final part of the Journey. Gertsey and I have been making fine progress up the Rhine. We’ve been lucky to have had many ‘visitors’ along the way and have met a fab collection of old friends, new friends, passing friends and complete nutters. More on this later.

I normally start my ‘what happens next’ type statements with ‘well, the current plan is …’ knowing full well that my plans haven’t always been the most reliable. However, this plan is hopefully a little more accurate.

[Sorry, got to cut in on myself, anyone reading this that met me on the journey, has now scrolled down to the bottom of the page to see if they were one of the nutters !!!]

On Saturday 15th July we’ll be cycling from Dorchester to Odcombe Church, and you are all invited to cycle along with Gertsey and I.

We shall be following Route 26 of the National Cycle Network. leaving at noon from Dorchester West train station and arriving in Odcombe some time in the afternoon, or maybe early evening, there are some great pubs on the route.

To get to Dorchester, you can either cycle down in the morning, with those training for the Ironman in Sherborne, or you can catch the train from Yeovil Penn Mill at the following times

You might want to check out the ‘Cycles’ advice given by First Great Western

The route goes through the following villages.

• Bradford Peverell
• Grimestone
• Frampton
• Wynford Eagle
• Maiden Newton
• Cattistock
• Rampisham
• Halstock
• East Coker
• West Coker
• Odcombe Church
• The Masons Arms

It would be great to have some company on the last section of the journey. We will not be going fast, Gertsey is an old girl and I think the route is quite hilly; (Rampisham hill ?!) I think there will be an alternative start point for children and anyone else who just fancies the ride into Odcombe. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but Odcombe is the centre of the known universe ………..

Anyway the invitation is without exception, open to everybody, friends and strangers alike, so don’t stay away, come and give me some support. Even the nutters can come along.

If you have any questions or queries contact Michele or I through the Contact us page, I don’t know the next time I’ll be getting web access, but i’m sure Michele will be able to pass on any questions.

I’ll talk about the people I met in another post.

PS. Forgot to mention on the 15th May we are in an article in the Daily Mail Weekend Magazine !!

We have a ‘new’ member of the FT team, she answers to the name of Gertsey. As you can see she is a fine steed of high breeding and has carried me with fair speed from Thusis in Switzerland to Worms in Germany. Ok, now those little complaints have cleared up, I’m off to meet Michele and continue the ride up the Rhine.

I’m in Zurich at the moment, feeling a bit sad after everyone has gone back home.

So how are things going ?

At the last update I was suffering with foot problems, with the prospect of a lot of walking to be done with John. The night before his arrival my thoughts were on alternative entertainment for the week, I was in a lot of pain. All I could come up with was sitting in a bar and talking poo, so I’m glad that when I awoke my feet were almost completely pain free. They still had chunks of meat hanging off, but they didn’t hurt.

John and I have been hiking/walking/drinking together pretty much every year for the last 10 and this is easily the hardest week we’ve ever had. There really is too much to write.

We walked over the two mountain passes that Tom took to get over the Alps and onto the River Rhine.

First was the 1995m Passo St Marco, in the Italian, Alpi Orbie, pre-Alps. A hard walk made easier by the stunning scenery and mountain wildlife. Near the top of the pass, there was reputed to be the only reference to Tom’s travels on the actual route. A plaque thanking Tom for writing down the original Latin inscription on the last building in the Venitian Empire. Near the top we asked about it in a mountain restaurant, only to be greeted with confused frowns. Then a chap who had good English suddenly jumped up and said, “I know where that is”, I’m going to check it” and off he went. Quickly John and i grabed our bags and headed off in hot pursuit.

We walked over to an isolated mountain refuge and joined the chap looking up at the side of the building. There it was, the latin inscription and below it a note about Tom. I bristled with excitement and emotion. This really was a milestone of the adventure. Tom had walked this path, he had stood infront of this building, he had been here.

The chap who showed us the plaque actually ran the refuge. So he then gave us a guided tour of the old parts of the building including a very old looking fountain. Tom must have drunk from here. We left the refuge and headed up the last section of the path to the top of the pass. This was a section of the original pass road, completed around 1590, Tom must have walked up this path.

We got to the top and I have to be honest, I blubbed a bit. A few pictures then onto the long road down the other side of the mountain.

I only have 5 minutes left so I will have to continue later. I’m off now to catch a train to Chur, to buy a bike and continue the journey alone the Rhine bike path.