(A Pootle
through Wine Country)
Trevor Panther on Cycle Tour
Plans for another French tour in 2008
(a Meander round France)
&
Nemours to Narbonne 2007
(A Pootle
through Wine Country)
&
The Rhein/Mosel 2006
and
Photos only of
My 2005 Danube tour
&
2004 Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
Index Of Pages
(and a bit about me)
Visitors
Last Updated :- 16 July 2008
Major update completed 15 July with details of my 2007 Tour
All the main links are at the bottom of this page!
The website contains an account of my :--
2007 cycling tour from Nemours to Narbonne. From 2 June to 2 July 2007 It is nearly 1000 kms shorter than last years tour. .But I was very unfit when I started. When I got back home I was at the weight I should have been when I started!
2006 cycling tour- the Rhein and Mosel tour. From 20 May to 25 June 2006 cycling on the Rhein and Mosel and I covered some 2353.4 kms from door to door
2005 tour journal, the Danube Tour has now been deleted and only the photos remain. Cycling the Donau Radweg -- it was intended to be a trip all the way to the Black Sea but I had a lot of trouble with my velo and turned about in Bratislava and cycled back to my start point again
2004 Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is also deleted and has photos only. It was a most life changing experience . I cycled 2340.4 kms from my front door in South Yorkshire to the square in front of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. I still have vivid memories of that whole trip -- but I can never go back to repeat trips. But it will remain a huge influence on the rest of my life ( and not a religious one). However I have retained all the daily route maps and the route index of my cycle journey from St Malo down the west coast of France then to St Jean Pied de Port and across Northern Spain. If anyone would like a copy I can send it to them. It is also available via CTC if you ask for it.
My name is Trevor Arthur Panther, born on 8 June 1937. Which makes me 71 years old now. I am a type 2 diabetic and have a heart murmur which gives me an occasional bit of pain but I am told by the Cardiac Consultant that I should last another 20 years without further medical procedures if I keep biking! I am heavily retired and wondering where all the years have disappeared to!
I try and cycle about 20 miles every day but it generally works out to about 100 miles per week. I am not a fanatical cyclist but use it as a means to an end. In the last 4 years I have covered some 18,000 miles but 2007 mileage was down due to injuries received from a blind deaf motorist ( "I didn't see him"!) in late 2006. Even now I still find sleeping to be troublesome to me 16 months later. Hopefully she lost her no claims bonus after the substantial payment to me made by her insurers This years weather is not helping either!
I am now riding a Thorn Raven Tour with the Rohloff hub and am very happy with it. I have done over 5300 miles on it since buying it November 2007. I find it a very smooth and comfortable ride but I have got it geared down for heavily laden touring where it performed totally trouble free on my Tour in 2007.
Looking forward again
I was hoping to be able to get to Italy by coach this year. Last year, in about March, I spoke to Bolero ( they used to do the Bike Express run to Venice until 2007) and they said then that they would still take bikes to Venice but no drop offs on the way. I had already arranged my trip down through France for 2007 but I had hoped to be able to use the service to get me to Italy in 2008.
Sadly it is not to be. Bolero have told me that they are now unable to take bikes to Venice. Pity
Spring/Summer Tour 2008
I booked with Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth to St Malo on the evening of 1 May and left on time.
I started and finished in St Malo!
It was a fairly disastrous trip from beginning to end as you will see when I write up the report!
Links.
www.bike-express.co.uk is a very good means of transport to areas covering France, Northern Spain, the Northern Mediterranean Coast It is a good low cost way to take you to all sort of places on the continent. Sadly they have no longer any real route that gets you anywhere near Germany or Italy -- that is a real loss.
You should be aware that it is run by a new company in 2007 and, while the journey there and back was OK, I noted some deterioration of service. The buses are showing signs of wear and tear. The bus I travelled back in had a huge crack in the front upper deck windscreen and the toilet area ( which is small in any event and to be avoided) was in need of repair. My seat on the return trip was also double booked ( but I was in it one pick up point before the unfortunate other guy). There was also confusion about drop off points on the return trip! They only have the two coaches ( ?) which seem to be on the road every week doing first one run Wednesday to Friday and the next Saturday to Monday which does seem to be a full schedule!
Doing a Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela? Visit the Confraternity of St James http://www.csj.org.uk for an immense amount of good information about a cycling pilgrimage.
CTC There use to be a link to CTC here but it has been deleted. I am no longer a member and cannot, in all honesty, recommend a camping touring cyclist to join.
You can contact me HERE at any time
1. 2008. A tour around Western and Central France including the Dordogne and the Loire
3. The Rhein & Mosel 2006 My journal and Photos
5. Brief details and a few Photos of my 2004 Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
6. Odds and sods ( and out of date now)