The Alpe Adria Radweg was originally intended to be the main summer tour but the difficulties with bike hire and logistics for a large group ruled it out and we chose the Tour of the Ardennes instead. For the late summer tour, there was not enough interest in the hilly Walney to Whitby tour, so the consensus was for the alternative Kent/Sussex tour that at least on paper, looked easier, and simpler to organise.

During the Ardennes tour in June, I mentioned about riding the Alpe Adria on my own in preference to the UK tour.  David and Vanessa asked to join me and we thought that this tour, in hopefully warmer climes, was feasible in a small group.  So we set about researching and then booking the flights and hotels - all done in a few days. Salzburg is an expensive city, but David got us a very good hotel deal there with his BA Avios points.  It was also difficult to find a hotel for the leg in the sparsely populated area between Villach and Carnia, and were fortunate to get the last three rooms available within about 20 miles of our planned overnight stop area. As David and Vanessa were wary of flying with their bikes, they arranged to hire bikes from Avelo in Salzburg. Despite the photos of modern disk braked touring bikes offered in the subsequent emails back and forth, the actuality when they collected the bikes was old but functional Vee braked touring bikes [I guess that David’s bike was about 20 years old!]

There were only four of us for the ride along the Purbeck cycleway, an extended version of the one we did early last year that now included a loop from Corfe Castle to Swanage and back. So after an early start, David, Mick, Vanessa and Alistair met up in Wareham at the Community café near the quay before setting off towards Corfe. At the junction of the road and the NCN2 at Stoborough, there was a bike traffic jam with four separate groups of cyclists trying to turn off the main road.  The cycle route through Ridge passed through the pretty Dorset heath on the southern edge of Pole Harbour before joining the main road beside the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum where there was nose to tail traffic queuing all the way to Corfe Castle where we turned off onto Sandy Hill Lane towards Swanage. Fortunately the traffic was sticking to the main road or trying to find somewhere to park to visit Corfe Castle, so the narrow lane was largely traffic free.

This tour was planned back in January with 13 participants travelling in four cars with bikes to Belgium for the start of the tour. Unfortunately, Len, Brian and Ray had to pull out close to the tour start. So now with SueP, SueC, Carol, Lin, Vanessa, Peter, Rod, David, Mick and Alistair we were able to fit into three cars for the trip. At the last minute, the hotel we were due to stay in at La Roche en Ardenne cancelled our booking due to the hotel refurbishment being incomplete, but fortunately we were able to secure other hotel rooms for that night at short notice.

So, with the problems behind us, we left Basingstoke early on Tuesday 13th June on a hot and sunny day and after a good run arrived at Dover just in the nick of time to get on an earlier ferry. The other two cars had left about 30 minutes later and had to wait for the next ferry. It was an easy run through France and Belgium to our hotel, Les Jardins De La Molignée, in Anhee where we were able to relax in the pool and hot tub before the others were able to join us. The cars were parked up for the duration and the bikes securely stored overnight. After a beer or two on the terrace in the shade, we had dinner at the restaurant next door.

With covid behind us, we once again had a day trip to France courtesy of the reinstated Brittany Ferries day trip offers. Twelve of us drove in four cars to Portsmouth on Monday 24th April to board the overnight ferry to St Malo. Whilst waiting in the queue to board the ferry, Peter got chatting to a touring cyclist – she had started in Inverness and was cycling to Gibraltar – this put our day trip into perspective!  After settling into our cabins, we had a convivial meal with the odd glass or two of wine in the restaurant before heading to the bar for the evening’s live entertainment – this year a duo singing and a unicycle riding juggling act. Some retired to bed to conserve their energies whilst the hardcore hedonists in the group danced the night away.

This tour was different, in that it was centre based and we were riding without carrying our luggage on the bikes, so more of a cycling holiday. After the long hot dry summer, the weather broke here just before we were due to leave on the trip, although it turned out to be warm in Belgium and France and we largely avoided rain during the rides.

This was a longer day ride starting from the West Meon and cycling down to the coast and back with Clive, Carol. David, Keith, Mark, Vanessa, GrahamB, Mick and me. We met up at the MVT car park and immediately headed up the climb to the top of Old Winchester Hill where we took in the extensive views over to the Solent and Isle of Wight – the last time we came this way we were riding into a howling gale so we were concentrating on not being blown over so some missed the views. From the top it was downhill for the next 11 miles to Hoe Gate with the odd climb in between.

Day 1 Keynsham to Frome

We were all very aware of what was about to hit us in respect of record temperatures so on arrival at “Claridge’s” ,  Keith and Jan’s  B&B – our parking location at  approx. 10.00 am in baking,  28 deg sun, we made  for the shade to load the bikes and apply our final layer of sun cream.

Ten of us set off for the trip, our group shot taken by one of the staff at the B&B shows nine of us, Graham, Brian, SueP, Peter, Vanessa, Rod, Keith, Janice and Mick ready for the off.  ‘Where’s Ray’ we all asked… in the bathroom to apply cream where the sun doesn’t shine.

When the covid restrictions were finally lifted, we updated the plans for the Black Forest and Alsace tour. The original plan was based on ten people taking our own bikes in two cars with some of the group travelling by plane to the start of the tour in Strasbourg. However, as a result of Brexit, the customs rules posed a risk that the unaccompanied bikes could be subject to import duties at the border, so instead we opted to hire bikes and travel by plane to the tour. Whilst we would have preferred to use our own bikes, the hassle of flying with bikes was too much for most and the two who normally ride ebikes could not take theirs so we all opted to hire e-bikes for this tour. The bikes, new Kalkhoff Image 3B city bikes with Bosch Active line Plus motors with 500Wh batteries and 7 speed Nexus hub gears were hired from Freiburgbikes that are based at the Radstation beside the main railway station in Freiburg. Rudi the manager was very helpful when we booked the bikes and also when we collected and returned the bikes. The bikes were heavy at 28kg + about 10kg for panniers, charger and kit.

Alistair, Brian, Carol, David, Graham, Mark, Mick, Peter, Sue C and Sue P were all prepared for our trip to France. Alistair had kindly hosted a bike maintenance session at his house before we went. This proved invaluable as brake pads, a brake disc, chains and cassettes were in need of replacement and or attention. Alistair had also planned and devised all the routes which were uploaded to Garmins accordingly. This made the fact that Alistair had to drop out at the last minute a real shame and of concern to us all – how would we cope without him.

On Sunday 24th April we all made our way to Portsmouth to catch the 20.15 Brittany ferry Bretagne. Everyone was on time for the 1800 hrs meet at the terminal. Three cars travelled down, Graham and Mark with Graham’s son and Mark’s wife who drove the cars back after the unloading of bikes and panniers. I was the only one to book the car park as others trying to book were advised that the car park was full. However, when we got there we discovered an almost empty car park!

To take advantage of the glorious weather, I planned a longer ride around the Purbeck hills for Tuesday that would also be a training ride for those coming on the upcoming french tour. So it was an early start from Basingstoke for David, SueC, Mark, Ray, Mick, SueP, Graham, Carol, Jan and me to arrive in Wareham for a 10:00 start. It was wall to wall sunshine as we got the bikes ready and whilst some struggled with paying for parking as the ticket machine was not working, Jan, Carol and I headed down towards the Quay and settled in the Community Cafe for coffee and toasted tea cakes until the rest of the group joined us. Suitably refreshed, we set off on the cycle route down some lovely quiet lanes through the heathland to Corfe Castle where the obligatory photo or two was taken.