Nantes to Palermo tour 2009

former

Riding dozens of miles with something on your back is, imo, not a great idea.

I use a camel back type thing when MTBing and love it, however I do need to clean it regularly even though I only use water, I'd imagine it would be hard on tour.

It is totally flat against your back i have ridden well over a century with a camel back and had no problems it weighs nothing at all
and in terms of cleaning dont be stupid and put something sweet in and i have used mine for over 3 months with out a problem only filing and refilling it with water it will be fine

I cant reccomend them enough!

Just wondering what everyone did about insurance?

It is totally flat against your back i have ridden well over a century with a camel back and had no problems it weighs nothing at all
and in terms of cleaning dont be stupid and put something sweet in and i have used mine for over 3 months with out a problem only filing and refilling it with water it will be fine

I cant reccomend them enough!

I only ever use water in mine and it still needs cleaning at least once a week.

Just wondering what everyone did about insurance?

CTC insurance is meant to be good as is British Mountaineering council. Worth getting good insurance because repatriation costs even from from France are thousands of pounds and if you insurance does not cover you because you're touring rather than on a "normal" holiday, you or your loved ones would be might pissed off.

CTC looks good, think I'll be going with that. Cheers Tommy

I only ever use water in mine and it still needs cleaning at least once a week.

not cleaned mine since i got it tastes fine and not dead

Really? Mine starts to go black with mold inside the tube after amount a month hence why I clean it every time I us it.

It's always the tube that goes nasty. It clearly works for you it's just I've never spoken to anyone who does not have the tube go moldy after a while.

The best place to store your camel back is in the freezer, obviously this isn't going to help when touring (although I don't think carrying weight on your back while touring is a good idea) but it will ensure you don't need to clean it everytime you use it.

I'm planning a 2-3 month touring trip for next summer, I think it is a good idea to do a couple of shorter practice trips to check the suitability of your equipment etc.

Really? Mine starts to go black with mold inside the tube after amount a month hence why I clean it every time I us it.

It's always the tube that goes nasty. It clearly works for you it's just I've never spoken to anyone who does not have the tube go moldy after a while.

I've never had any problems with mine going mouldy. Always just used water and always hang the bladder by the bottom in the laundry so it can drip dry. I still wouldn't like one for touring though. Your back is very useful for loosing body heat during hot summer days and plenty of water bottle options that allow easy water access without loading your body up.

i must have been lucky :s i think im gonna clean it

In terms of loosing body heat i suppose that is true i do only have one of the 1.5 lil ones however and i am talking from experience of touring in wet cold england not sunny europe

2 days and counting, thanks for all the help, especially to bombadil as we've pretty much based everything we're taking on your itinerary

We are off in 30 minutes to get the train from Portsmouth! If we get to the internet we shall update with pics and mildly amusing anecdotes. Thanks again for all the help!

We immediately met some other tourers when waiting for the ferry, including Marc, possibly the most unprepared and incompetent person for the 180k he was expecting to travel in the next 2 days.

He couldn't and wouldn't speak any french, and had a sat-nav which he couldn't work. Had a trailer full of tinned tuna and toilet roll, and a tent which he couldn't put up because the instructions didn't state that you had to bend the poles!

We came searching for sun, but spent the first week in moderate rain so we decided to get the train
from La Rochelle to just outside Bordeaux and crash with Duncan just outside Cadillac for a couple of nights, needless to say we found the sun!

La Poncet TT is awesome, and ends in a hill climb. Possibly not one to rival the North drinks one though.

We've done about 350k so far, and are gonna head down a canal through mainland france to Soet, cutting out the south west corner of france to allow us more time in the sun down south and in Italy.

A few photos of the trip so far.

Yes I have moustache.

100_3425.flv video by ggthe3 - Photobucket

Get out of my pool you fuckers! ;)

After some much needed R&R at Chateau Donut! . . .

and some essential bike maintenance (we found another 8 gears between the two bikes, tightened some very loose spokes, and tweaked the brakes) the boys are now back on the road and heading south, following the Canal Du Midi down through Toulousse and heading towards the Med.

I jumped back on the bike for the first time in 5 weeks to ride them out and put them on the road south.

Good luck boys, Bon Voyage.

See you when you get back to Blighty.

Peas.

When you get to Palermo, go to via Orologio and look for a little alleyway full of patio tables. Some of the best food and vino rosso di casa ever, and extremely cheap.

Pit stop at Dunc's looks just the job.

Strong work lads, looks like a winner so far. Muchos envy.

Thqt photo of george is hilqrious qnd french keyboqrds qre hqrd to zork out

I would like to point out that even though looking a bit odd, I was actually trying to swat flies away from me! We are now in toulouse and about to go and try to find a bar to watch the tour final where Wiggins will magnificently triumph over Contador!!!!!

Staying at some friends in Montpellier (37'C in the sun) and thought I'd upload some more photos of our journey.
The tanned stranger who is in a couple of photos is a bloke called Luciano who let us stay at his mates farmhouse (see goat photo), he's been touring for over 22 years non stop!!!! Nicest guy in the world too.

Montech + Luciano and his sculpture in Montech l'eglise

Toulouse:

Frontignan on the Med:

Montpellier today:

A Bientot
George Angus

That's some quick riding chaps :)

Man I'm so jealous. Keep the pics and updates coming.

The friends we were/are staying with in Montpellier have been amazing. Fish is 61, and last year climbed Mt Ventoux without stopping! We went out for a pretty quick 70k before 11am, and he thought it'd be fun do a bit of a hill climb (See above photo! It's no joke) Bar the climb, we were constantly chasing him and he's still fncking fast!

Our friend Simon came to meet us yesterday, arriving with stories of how he'd ended up sleeping in the gardens of a convent the night before, keeping a beady eye out for the sisters who he was warned would probably do unimaginable things to him if caught.

Then another act of great kindness, which we have experienced a great deal of on our travels, Fish gave Simon a lovely little peugeot so he could travel with us further east! It's even got a lovely supercorsa on it! (Me and angus are still a bit jealous!)

We went diving in a lake yesterday, and I got some air off a BMX track jump, before landing in a massive panic that my bike had broken and can't decide if I've strained all my stomach muscles from all that, or the incredible amount of laughing we did last night!

We are going to explore Montpellier a bit more today before heading NE towards Nimes in our new flying V formation.

:)

Back in England now, had to come return early due to landlord/sub letting problems.
Any rides coming up soon? i've got my touring legs on and they want a long one