I’ve been playing around with the following idea in my head for the last couple of days; don’t cycle from Athens to Cadiz, cycle from Morocco to Gibraltar / Cadiz, i.e. a full circumnavigation of the Mediterranean sea by bike. How cool would that be? Clearly it would take me a lot longer – 4 months? – and I would need more time to save up and prepare (2014?), but it would be a real adventure and just a little bit dangerous. I read a book by Paul Theroux a few years ago describing his journey around the Med – The Pillars of Hercules (the name given to the pinnacles of rock that “guard” the Straits of Gibraltar) – which I think I shall dig out and re-read. Not that I would be the first person to do such a ride – a quick Internet search takes me to the website of two guys who did the cycle back in 2007 – but if would be a challenge to beat cycling from Reading to Brindisi… Here is a map;
Categories: Cycling
HELP!…am i being dumb, or is finding n online map of velo 8 really hard? im interested in a short trip through andalucia….any help gratefully recieved!
Hi Julian
No, you are not being dumb. Like most of the Eurovelo routes, detailed route maps don’t really exist. When I cycled the EV5 last year, I just piggy-backed upon local or regional routes or just made it up for myself. I imagine I will do the same when I cycle number 8 in a couple of years’ time. There is however one document you might find useful. It has been produced by the European Cyclists Federation and it sets out in quite a lot of detail (although not quite ‘turn left, turn right’ etc…) the Eurovelo 8 including details about the route through Andalusia. You can download it by visiting the homepage of this site and scrolling down a bit. It’s in the vertical bar on the right of the page.
Good luck with your trip. Let me know how you get on ๐
Best wishes
Andrew
That would be quite a trip.
The current Guiness World Record holder for circumnavigation of the world passed through a few on those Northern African countries. You can read some of his early weeks of diary which cover that here:
http://www.greatbikeride.com/diary.htm
He was forced to have a guide in one or two countries through his visa conditions. Maybe because of what he was attempting rather than just being a bog standard cyclist?
26″ wheel bike? I wouldn’t know. I bet the roads are quite rough so whether a 26″ or 700c I’d learn how to sort a wheel out and carry spare spokes on such a big trip. I’d make sure they were hand built rather than factory too. Think the thing with a 26″ wheel is that spares are common in remote countries where 700c wheels are not that available.
Go for it.
Now that sounds like a plan!
Lots of planing and at least 2 passports for the border crossings that don’t like you to have visited thier enemies country.
Instead of turkey for Christmas- Christmas in Turkey!
Some very dry bits and a lot of rough road would probably need a tougher 26″ wheel bike with a bigger water carrying capacity.
Check out these 2 for cheap cycling
http://www.2010tillwhen.com/
Might give a bit of inspiration!
Jim