Blokes and Spokes

The finish line! We've made it. After a 27 hour sprint from Paris to London, it was with great relief that Will and I made it back to London yesterday morning. A 180km day from Paris to Dieppe, an overnight ferry arriving in Newhaven at 4am, and a cycle through the night, experiencing a beautiful sunrise through Sussex, we arrived back in London at 10am yesterday morning. It's been a mammoth two weeks from Ljubljana to London, which would not have been accomplished without Will's unending ability to smash every hill and keep me going. Many thanks to all those who have showed us that humanity still exists with their total kindness and generosity to two very hairy, smelly strangers arriving in random towns and villages. For some reason Facebook won't let me tag you, but Haus Erika, Lesley Behringer, Cathy and Jean Hermann, Robert Keller, Renate Juhasz, Liesbeth Heinzle, Jerneja Mevselj, and all the others who allowed us to pitch camp in their gardens, use toilets, gave us water and food, Benjie, Will and I are eternally in your debt! To all our followers, if ever a random bloke on a bike turns up on your doorstep a word of your language, please consider giving them something to eat and drink and offering them a patch of grass to spend the night. It's been an incredible journey and we've met some wonderful people, but it's now time to try and remove the mass of hair from my face, let the bottom recover, and hang up the panniers until the next adventure!

The Sprint Stage:
Continuing through the Alps we climbed up to the highest point of the tour so far, 1800m at the pass over St. Christoph above the popular ski resort of St. Anton. We then descended out of the Alps and what we thought would be the last of the hills (wrong). So began a 24 hour period during which neither of us have felt such generosity and hospitality from complete strangers. A day of torrential rain slowed our progress as we worked our way over the highest mountain pass in southern Germany, taking refuge in a pub for afternoon beers and doner, we were saved by the hospitality of Haus Erika, who took us in, washed our clothes, warmed our bones and cooked us a delicious meal. With the worst of the weather behind us and spirits revived (other than two broken speedometers), we crossed the border into France over two national parks. A Romanian BBQ, a delightfully French evening in the home of Cathy and Jean Dominique, and a night in the garden of a guesthouse and we were 200km as the crow flies from Paris. To cut the story short, a Sunday spent cycling along canals and French motorways, a wheel of Brie, four baguettes, 10 pain au chocolat, 230km later and 11 hours in the saddle later, we were sat under the Eiffel Tower with beers and chocolate! We're having a rest day in Paris today before the final sprint home begins, with the aim of being in London by Thursday evening.

We've left Ljubljana and put Slovenia behind us, heading into Austria and hitting the Alps hard. Unfortunately they're hitting back harder. After 2 and a half days, we've covered 300km with a shed load of hills. We're currently lunching in Mittersill, heading up through Kitzbuhel and camping somewhere just outside the town this evening. Once again we've forgotten it's Sunday and all the shops are shut so it's rice, curry sauce and haribo for dinner.

In other news was great to see Lucy and Pip very randomly in Ljubljana!

Gratton has arrived!

The Mountain Stage: Having waved goodbye to Benjie in Ljubljana it's been a very weird transition cycling alone. I still point out all the big pot holes in the road and am forever waiting to hear the crunching noises of Benjie's truculent gears. However, I've spent the past 3 days having a wonderful time climbing mountains in the Triglavski Narodni Park, the Julian Alps, just north of the Lake Bled. The highlight of this has to be the round of applause I received from a convoy of Harley Davidson bikers who'd expended considerably less energy on the 1611m, 15km, 25 hairpin climb to the summit of 'Vrsic'. Thanks go out to the elderly Slovenian couple who allowed me to camp in their garden, set up a table and chair for me including a box of chocolate biscuits, and even brought me a morning coffee after a very cold night! I've spent two nights on the shores of Bled, enjoyed more than my fair share of its famous cream cake and taken a compulsory dip in it's refreshing waters.

After 3 wonderful yet challenging days in Slovenia we've made it to Ljubljana. On our first day here the bolt holding peter's saddle in place snapped, resulting in 10km cycling standing up as we headed to a 'bike shop'. Upon arrival we realised this wasn't actually a bike shop, but a random blokes garage stacked with shoe boxes of sprockets, ball bearings, screws and chains. 2 hours in a garage with 3 Slovenians who didn't speak any English and we'd fixed the saddle and were on our way. Having scaled our first mountain, rising to the heights of 1600m we camped by the river Sava. At 1am we were awoken by the sound of our tent pole snapping in half and piercing through the side of the tent, yet thankful the weather was so mild and peaceful. 2 hours later torrential rain and a huge lightning storm struck, requiring us to readjust the tent in the dark using rope and empty bottles to keep it water tight. Having made it to Ljubljana a substitution is being made as Benjie flies home. It's been an epic 4 weeks as we've travelled from London to Budapest, across 8 countries, 2500km and over 10000 metres of climbing, into Slovenia, through 40 degree heat and lightning storms. Now I (peter) will be going on a 4 day solo mission to Lake Bled as I await the arrival of Will Gratton as we embark on a two week dash to get as close to London as possible!

Bikeception

Just a short one as we've stopped for lunchtime beers at a Slovenian bar having failed to find a shop to buy food. Made it to Budapest on the 25th August where we spent 4 nights bringing in Pete's 21st in style. Having left there on Saturday, we cycled down the coast of Lake Balaton in the blistering heat, with one day peaking at over 40*C (we're not complaining as it's not raining). After two days down the lake going for leisurely swims and evading payment at campsites, we've crossed over the border into Slovenia which is absolutely stunning. We're now heading towards Maribor from where we'll go onto Ljubljana.

1700km down. Having left Prague on the 16th August and cycled south through the Czech Republic, joined the Danube river just east of Linz, stopped off for a night in Vienna, pedalling for 4 days through Slovakia and Hungary, we've now arrived in Budapest. The Czech Republic was beautiful but unfortunately rained for 3 days straight which kind of put a downer on things. As a result we sought refuge in a very creepy, what felt like ex-soviet holiday camp where you can book a double room for a fiver a night. Overcoming some technical issues with benjie's tyres and gears we climbed steadily into Austria, peaking at a ski resort on the Czech-Austrian border. Cycling the banks of the Danube has been wonderfully relaxed, with long flat stretches of well paved cycle paths taking us through the beautiful Vienna and pretty much all the way to Budapest. We're now here for 3 nights to bring in my 21st in style, before changing direction and heading South West to Zagreb.

Having spent two nights in Frankfurt seeing the sights and enjoying German beer, we took a train (cheeky) to Prague where we spent another 2 nights sightseeing, resting and eating meat. Left Prague on Sunday morning and after the Czech Republic has endured a 2 month drought, it has rained none stop for the past 2 days. Cycling and camping has as a result been pretty grim, cold and short, and we've now caved and paid the princely sum of £6 to stay at what feels like an old deserted soviet holiday camp. Fingers crossed the worst of the weather has passed and we'll be back in the sunshine by the end of the week. Heading in the direction of Linz in Austria to join the Danube, from where we'll follow the river to Vienna.