Vaucluse Dreamer

This year, it has felt as if we’ve been living our life on permanent ‘fast-forward’.

How on earth are we already in mid-September? It really is quite ridiculous.

Yet here we are, and in a week’s time we’ll be on a train, heading to Madrid, before starting our ride back through Spain, to Sete, covering about 1150km on the way. The last few weeks have been a whirl of visitors and other commitments, and we have spent every possible moment in between, out on the bikes, turning the pedals to make sure we are able to do the ride that we’ve planned.

It isn’t as if we are having a gentle run-in over the next week before starting the trip either, as we’re just driving to Marseille to drop Andy at the airport, for a quick visit to the UK. He’ll arrive back here on Sunday and only then will we really be able to fully focus on the final bits, making sure that we have everything ready to be packed. The house-sitters (who will have spent a week cycle-touring round Provence) arrive with us on Wednesday to meet Millie & Pusscat and then we’ll be off.

Having looked forward to this latest adventure for a long time, it now feels as if it will be on us before we really have time to think. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think that’s a good thing. In the back of my mind, I’m still worried that after the unmitigated chaos of the last year, something will happen in the next few days, which means that we will have to cancel the adventure. In fact, the busier we are, the less space there is in my brain for all the catastrophising that it wants to do. So the more we can fit into the next few days, the better.

We’ve been doing as much cycling as we can here,  following our favourite roads, and just strengthening our legs a little before we go. I have also had new gears fitted to my bike, so have been doing what I can to make sure I’m happy with the changes, although I’m not sure it will make the climbing we have to do, any easier.

Of course, we’ve been starting to watch the weather too. Here in Provence, the last few weeks have been a little unseasonal, to say the least. Normally, we would say that September is one of the best times to ride here, but over the last 2 weeks we’ve had a couple of dramatic storms, some torrential rain and a week of a fiercely strong and bitterly cold Mistral. Cycling into the wind has been hard work, although we’ve scooted along, hardly having to turn the pedals on the few occasions that it’s been in our backs. We know there’s nothing we can do about the weather, but we will wait until the last minute to finally decide on what clothing to squeeze into our carriers.

After last year, when we made the ride up as we went along, it does seem a little odd having all the routes planned and hotels booked, but in many ways it is also a relief. We have the routes drawn onto my maps and have actually loaded them all onto Komoot too, so my ‘Mission Control’ system will be slightly upgraded from last year’s list of roads and junctions on a scrap piece of paper, tucked in front of the map. If all goes well, we’ll simply follow the route that I’ve  uploaded and get to where we want to be and you’ll be able to follow our trip Here. Although I will still have the map on my front carrier, just in case!

We have already tweaked the route, having changed a couple of hotels. One, meaning that we do a slightly longer ride on the day we leave Madrid, but shortening the next day, when we ride into the mountains to our next stop at Beteta. The other change was made as we really didn’t fancy staying in a hotel above a Burger King, so we have found another place in the countryside, which is also very bike friendly too, a real win-win.

The plan is to spend a little over 2 weeks cycling through the north of Spain back to Sète, taking a route from Madrid, through the hills to Zaragoza, where we’ll have a day off the bikes and explore the city. Then we head on through Caspe & Igualada towards another rest day at Girona, which looks to be an incredibly popular cycling area. Followed by a day’s ride up into the hills above the coast, before dropping down to Collioure, a town that I’ve wanted to visit for years. After another day off by the sea, we’ll ride into the Corbières hills, behind Perpignan, and finally into Sète.

On paper, it looks to be a lovely route, taking us through some pretty countryside and passing through some lovely villages and towns. There will be a few challenging days in the hills, especially over the first few days, but we will just enjoy cycling somewhere new.

There is such a simplicity in travelling really light, with just the basics of life in our little packs. All we need to do each day is get from one place to another, with no other demands on our time. After the chaos of this year, that really does sound rather nice!

I’ve been doing my best to learn a bit of Spanish with Duolingo, but my skills are rather basic, or more honestly pretty much zero. I hate the idea of not being able to converse or really understand, but will do my best. All I can do is apologise in advance for my abysmal pronunciation and stuttering attempts to ask for something.

Like last year, we will be doing daily updates on the ride & our progress through the blog and on Instagram   &  Facebook too, so hope you’ll enjoy following our little adventure again.

We’ll also open a donations ‘cagnotte’ to raise money to support our local Restos Du Coeur in Apt. This is a superb association that supports those most in need through a food bank and other valuable services. They also link with HAPA, an association established in the town to support and offer temporary accommodation to homeless people in the area. Last year, thanks to everyone who donated, we were able to pass on almost 250€ to support their work, and hope to be able to do the same this year.

I will post a link to the ‘cagnotte’ once we’re on the train and the trip has actually started, as I really don’t want to tempt fate. There is still a week to go until we get underway and who knows what still may happen to throw a spoke in the wheel of the trip?

So keep everything crossed and all being well, this time next week we’ll be putting our bikes together at Madrid station and riding through the city to our first stop, overlooking the city’s main square.

I have a feeling the next 7 days will fly by!