Our Best Worst Idea

Day 21 - Running on Fumes

Much of the first half of the day was spent battling our usual nemesis, pedaling hard just to move downhill. Only today we were having some serious fueling issues. Perhaps because of the sprint finish yesterday or potentially the inadequate pot noodle dinner, we were both down on energy. After

Day 20 - Continually Generous Turkey

It was chilly this morning before the mist burnt off. However, despite cold fingers slowing down the process, we got on the road at 8am as planned! The sun did not, however, manage to burn off the smog and it was pretty grim going into a dark cloud on the

Day 19 - Ben's Search for Food Inspiration

Another big breakfast (chips AND onion rings), route planning phaff (trying to avoid cycling in cities/cycling in cities late but there's not many roads here basically) and we were pedalling again! Forgot what this trip was about for a few days there! The morning was hilly, and

Day 18 - Ferry and Phaff

0:00 /0:15 1× After another great breakfast we were ready to catch the ferry to Bursa (another town nearby) in order to skip out 100km of riding through some of the most polluted industry in Europe. Only we hadn't checked the schedule. 11am or 3pm. It

Day 17 - Chips for Breakfast! (Rest Day 2)

Waking up and not having to leave immediately is luxurious while touring. Waking up in a comfy bed in a fancy hotel is even better (even if it is to your restless touring partner washing clothes in the sink 😆)! Breakfast at the hotel was awesome, and we did some serious

Stats Update 1

As we leave Europe, here are the current stats: Since Switzerland * 104h 50m moving time * 1499miles (2412.4km) * 15 days cycling (16 days total) Since the UK * 153h 15m moving time * 2258.5 miles (3634.7km) * 21 days cycling 📊Which all means we've done 16% of our proposed

Day 16 - We made it to Istanbul!!!

We woke up expecting to spend another night before reaching Istanbul, but half way through breakfast we realised it due to rain hard the day after and it was actually "only" 205km to the city. The threat of cycling through the road spray in a city which hasn&

Day 15 - Holy Headwind

After waking up in our rather beautiful campsite we had what felt like a rather relaxed morning, but one that was somehow also very efficient. Our systems are definitely getting slicker! The good news continued when we started with...with...with a tailwind!? Feels strange to say. We knew it

Day 14 - Just Slogging

We had a slow start. Lots of phaff and just enjoying not racing off. Got a parcel of Emma's souvenirs sent home and her loose cassette fixed before we were moving again. The parcel sending was a bit of a mission, to start with you're supposed

Day 13 - Oh well hello there new legs!

We could definitely tell we'd had a rest day, as despite the headwind rearing its ugly head again, we were over half way with 90% of the elevation done before we'd really looked at our Garmins and had barely stopped. "Can you believe we'

Day 12 - Our First Rest Day

When Anna offered for us to stay another night we couldn't refuse! We were a) having a really nice time, b) very tired and c) had a lot of admin phaff to do! We had a lie in. A lie in?! Can you believe it?! Then did admin,

Day 11 - Our First Time Zone

Sofia has been our first main mental target on this trip, the first checkpoint and so waking up on the day, we were tired but highly motivated and managed a really efficient early start from our slopy, but dry and mosquito-free campsite. The first hills passed easily and we were

Day 10 - Late Lunch

Long day today (time wise) battling more headwinds and trying to chunk off distance so we arrive at my friend's place in Sofia at a nice time tomorrow! When finishing lunch at 5:30pm we realised there was going to be some cycling in the dark...and there

Day 9 - Headwind Part 1 of 3

We knew from the moment we left the BnB that today was going to be a slog. Just so much wind. It's not even how much it slows you down it's just being in the wind all day. Arriving in Belgrade was therefore a welcome break

Day 8 - Goodbye EU!

The morning started as yesterday ended, going along an endless row of houses lined one deep almost unbroken for 100km!!! We realised last night that we had 600km to do until my friend's place in Sofia, and so decided early on to book an Airbnb for tonight so

Day 7 - Mission Accomplished!

We said we'd aim to do 200km a day in Europe. We know the customs and the roads are good so we planned to blast through and get as many days as possible in the far away places where it would be slower and we'd want

Day 6 - Touchdown Croatia

After a bit of a route change thanks to Rok's local knowledge, we had a banging start of the day riding through misty, winding roads, more great cycle paths and observent drivers (interestingly, apparently only a more recent mind set change from drivers, because apparently more and more

Day 5 - Super Slovenia!

We left our very comfortable accommodation this morning feeling deeply refreshed and very clean! Almost immediately we crossed the border to Slovenia, where the cycle paths don't just end and the drivers and very aware of the cycle crossings! The wind however, after three days of blasting tailwinds,

Day 4 - Beeline for Slovenia

After we'd said goodbye to our lovely hosts we did some important maintainence, namely oiling the chains and attaching Tigre's (Emma's Tiger companion/mascot/valued member of the team) fake eyelashes for a 30minute delayed 08:30 start. We absolutely flew along averaging 21mph

Day 3 - Split up already?!

Not 3 days in and we've already fallen out and gone our separate ways! 😉 Emma realised a good friend was base jumping at the other end of Lake Garda and so diverted for a day on the train to go and watch. So after a great sleep (second

Day 2 - Accelerating is hard

Our systems are definitely still setting up I'd say as we gave ourselves another 30minute extension on the leaving time this morning, but thats okay, there's plenty of time to get to military levels of efficiency in the next days/weeks/months. All being said we

Day 1 - Finally Out the House

After 10 days of endless jobs dawn to dusk (and beyond!) trying to get the life, house and bike in good order before leaving, a period when the lists got lists of lists, we finally left today! Felt good to be rolling and the bikes felt even better. Should have

Day 0 - The Preparation

Suffice to say that beautiful stock image is not what our packing looks like. There seems to be a million things to do before we leave from visas and vaccinations to cleaning and tidying to moving out to route planning to actually packing. Oh and the bike work - don&

What's going on here?

After a series of unfortunate life events, including, critically, being made redundant at the same time, Ben and Emma had a lot of time on their hands and two fancy new road bikes to play with. So they decided to leave those bikes at home, rebuild their old ones and