Category: Garry’s Blog

Garry McGivern’s Italian bicycle tour, Thursday 27th-May-2010 Metaponto to I haven’t got a clue! But it was 88 miles. I wasn’t really expecting to stop just yet. But when this campsite popped up, I thought, why not. And I didn’t get a receipt when I paid for my pitch. That’s how I usually find out where I spend the night!

There was a bit of a chill in the air first thing this morning. It was cool enough for me to have to put my fleece on. Although it soon warmed up, and I was back down to a t-shirt. It was also very damp this morning, so my clothes were still wet. I couldn’t pack my clothes away wet, so I distributed them around the bike. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anywhere to put my pants, so I put them on my head! To dry as I cycled along.

Watch Out For The Bugs

Today’s ride has been mainly on dual carriageways. And looking at the map, I think it might be the same for the next couple of days. As I cycled along today, there’s been a range of snow-capped mountains, which looked pretty spectacular. And as long as the mountains stay over there and not in front of me, everything will be fine.

It was a good decision to stop when I did. Tonight’s campsite has only cost me five euros. I’ve got the place to myself, there’s nobody else here, and it’s right on the seafront. Although being on the seafront turned out not to be so good. After eating supper and clearing up, I went to look at the sea. But whilst I was on the beach, something started to attack me. I haven’t got a clue what it was. But it was about the size of a bee and made a low buzzing noise. Needless to say, I made a hasty exit and returned to the safety of my tent.

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Garry McGivern’s Italian bicycle tour, Wednesday 26th-May-2010 Monopoli to Metaponto. 77 miles. It’s not been a good day, with things going awry right at the beginning of the day. When I left the hotel this morning, I thought I’d be clever. And instead of going back the way I’d come into town last night, to find my road. I thought I’d go my way to find the road, thinking it would be a shortcut and I wouldn’t be going back on myself. Some shortcut that was what took fifteen minutes to cycle yesterday took over an hour this morning. That just about set the tone for the rest of the day.

Once I’d found my way back to the right road. I then spent the next four hours trudging uphill. Then once I’d reached the top, I was enjoying the fruits of my efforts, freewheeling downhill. I took a wrong turn and had to turn around and cycle back up the hill. But thankfully, not as far this time. But it was still an unnecessary climb, something I could have done without having to do. I can’t say that it was entirely my fault. Some of the names on the signs are very similar. And unless you look properly, it’s easy to follow the wrong sign and end up in the wrong place. Well, that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.

Glad The Day’s Over

Many of today’s problems stem from partaking in a little too much of the local vino last night. I knew I shouldn’t have had that third carafe! It doesn’t matter now as I’ve found a campsite again tonight. So there’ll be no vino, just beer! Hopefully, tomorrow will be a lot better.

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Garry McGivern’s Portuguese bike ride, Thursday 20th-August-2009 Ribadeo to Santander. 12 Miles. I spent much of last night trying to find a way of getting to Bilbao so I could catch that ferry! After missing my train yesterday, and consequently my ferry home from Santander. And after a few hours of looking at train routes and timetables, I think I may have found a way. It’s not as easy as you think. A lot of trains don’t allow bikes on them. But with a combination of tourist trains and cycling, I should be able to reach Bilbao on Friday. Well, that was the plan!

My first train today was a three and half hour journey from Ribadeo to Oviedo. Then from Oviedo, I had a five-hour train ride on the old narrow gauge railway to Santander. It’s the tourist train that stops at every single station. Hence the five-hour train ride.

I arrived in Santander on time at 8.20 this evening, ready for my sixty-mile overnight bike ride to Bilbao. For some strange reason, just before leaving Santander, I decided to phone ahead just to make sure that there was space on the ferry. And just as well I did, they’d changed the ferry timetable in the last week or so, and the ferry had left today! But the good news is there’s now a ferry from Bilbao on Sunday! If I’d only known all this yesterday, it would have saved me a lot of stress!

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Garry McGivern’s Portuguese bike ride, Wednesday 19th-August-2009 Santiago de Compostela to Ribadeo. 114 Miles. Long day today, I was on a mission to catch a train from Ribadeo to Santander so that I could get the ferry home tomorrow, but I missed it!

I’d worked out last night with my magic piece of string that Santander is about 300 miles away and Bilbao 400, the two places where I can catch a ferry back to England. But the ferry from Santander leaves tomorrow, and the ferry from Bilbao leaves on Friday, so I had no chance of catching either one this week! And on the other hand, neither destination is far enough away for a week’s ride! Santander, I would have made it on Saturday, four days before the ferry leaves, and I would have possibly made Bilbao on Sunday or Monday at the latest, again leaving me four days to hang about!

Detour? Not Likely

Now I know I could go on a detour somewhere, but I’m really not very good at going out of my way. If I can get from A to C without going to B, then I will! But after looking at my Thomas Cook European timetable (I always carry the pages I need for the countries I’m travelling in), I saw that there was a train that left Ribadeo this evening. Which would have got me to Santander overnight, allowing me enough time to catch the ferry tomorrow, solving all my problems of having to go on any detours or hanging around.

Had I not made a beeline for Ribadeo, I could have cycled up to A Coruna and picked up the coast from there. That would have been a few more miles, but we are where we are. I’ll just have to have another rethink tonight.

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