This blog is a map of sorts, a compendium of the journeys we make on our bicycles. These paths are often exploratory and come about from a need to get from A to B via F. Destinations are haphazard and come to us in a variety of ways; Ioan always wanted to cycle to India, so in 2016 we set off to India.

Our latest adventure in July 2018 came about because Liz was missing her friends and family, so she plotted a dot-to-dot through Spain, France & Itlay.

The routes we take are rarely straight forward, if there is a hill to climb Liz will invariably set our course over it. Ioan is forever amazed, and often exasperated by, her seemingly unending ‘search for unicorns’. (See Adventures in Route Setting for an idea of how we chose our routes.)

We do not use an App to record our rides, so these Maps (most of which are still ‘under construction’) are a pretty accurate approximation of where we went. To us the distances, the times and speeds are not so important as the places we see and stories we collect. If anyone knows of a good mapping tool that will help us plot our journeys, which often combine bike, train and bus, we’d be most grateful for any tips. Until then we will suffer Google Maps with its frustrating glitches.

Huesca, Spain to Pau, France (July 2018)

 

 

 

Romania to India (April 2016 –  2017)

In April 2016 we set off from Bucharest with the vague hope of reaching India. We had no fixed route and we did not limit ourselves exclusively to pedal power. Ideally we did not want take any flights, using instead trains, buses or boats if we needed to.

Below is the very random route map that we plotted as far as Tehran to give you an idea of what we thought our journey might look like. In reality we only got as far as Armenia, passing through Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia before reaching Yerevan. From there time, money and weather constraints meant we chose to fly to Delhi. From there we took to our bikes once more for a 6 month adventure that tooks us up into the Himalayas, across Rajasthan and down the Maharashtra coast to the beaches of Goa.

It is 3,616 km from Bucharest to Tehran by this random, wiggly line. Apparently it will take 49 hours to drive… Is a wiggly line that will change due to our will, fate, geo-politics, weather, terrain and a zillion other factors!