ANOTHER EMAIL REPLY (maybe useful)

What kind of tent did you take? Also any essentials you recommend taking with you?

for camping, we took a North Face Tadpole 23. Very light and pretty quick to pitch, as well as being solid in strong winds, it also has the option of just pitching the inner, which is nice on warm clear nights so you can look up at the stars before you sleep. Light one season sleeping bags were warm enough for the coldest nights, and we also brought sleeping bag liners which were good when it was too hot for the sleeping bags. Essentials... hmmm...
- big water bottle holders (taking standard supermarket 1.5 litre plastic bottles) attached to your bikes. We found these pretty handy.
- a Trangia camping stove running on meths/alcohol - sometimes you'll want to eat something warm.
- Sporks! they're made by Light My Fire, and they are pretty much indestructible plastic fork/spoon/knifes all in one. Really quick to clean as well. Useful for eating yogurt in the middle of the day from those big pots, or spreading jam on delicious french bakery bread. Keep them to hand in the top of your panniers.
- Waterproof map holder which attaches to the handlebars of one of your bikes. Really really useful, and for me, an essential. Means you don't have to stop and dig in the bags whenever you need to look at the map, which will be very often!
- Light raincoats. It rains in France in summer sometimes, especially in the North.
- Some long trousers. Good to protect against mosquitos in the evenings. Also to fit in more when you get to Morocco. Moroccans almost never wear shorts, except on the beach. Unfortunately if a woman you will probably get a lot of unwanted attention from Moroccan men if you don't have a top with a high neck and long sleeves to wear in the streets. A scarf to cover your neck is also useful (you shouldn't feel forced to wear it as a headscarf, though). Apologies if you've already been to a muslim country and know all this already!

SOME INFO FOR POTENTIAL CROSS-CONTINENTAL CYCLISTS

Hi!
We've had a few emails recently from folks who've seen our blog and contacted us for more info. I'm just gonna post my replies on the blog from now on so that people might be more likely to have their questions answered before having to ask them. So here's the first one..




Thanks for your email, I'm glad someone else is taking up the challenge! Here's some info.

HOW LONG WOULD IT TAKE?
Claire and I took four and a half weeks to cycle from Cheltenham to Gibraltar. This included two days off. Except for a couple of exceptions, we covered at least 60 miles a day, and often we did a bit more. One day we did 100 miles. You might want to set aside a few more days as off-days. Our original plan was to take one day off every week but that plan changed after we got itchy feet on our first day off. We found it uncomfortable to be stationary for an entire day, but on the whole I think it is healthy once in a while! Sundays are an ideal off-day because things don't open early in the French and Spanish countryside, if at all, so it's hard to fuel up one the road.

IDEAL ROUTES?
It may be hard to work out our route from our blog, so I'll briefly explain. Approximately, get a map of Europe and draw a straight line between Caen (Normandy), and Perpignan (Languedoc-Roussillon), then bend it slightly to the left to avoid the Massif Central mountains in south central France. We didn't cross the border at the coast, but further inland on small roads south of Amelie-les-Bains. Once in Spain we kept to the Catalonian mountains to avoid the crowded and industrial coast. We hit the sea just before leaving Catalonia, at the Ebro Delta. We then kept to the coast until just before Valencia, from where we went inland on a trajectory including Albacete, Alcaraz, Jaen, Baena, Campillos, Ronda, and finally Gibraltar.
It turned out to be a very beautiful route, and fairly quick, especially the French bit which avoided mountains altogether until the Pyrenees. The Spanish bit was pretty much unremittingly mountainous, but I think that's hard to avoid in Spain.
Possible variations which I'd do if I had more time... - staying on the coast in Spain rather than going inland, taking in south Valencia and Murcia (I've heard their coastlines are incredibly beautiful).
-Going straight throught the middle of the Pyrenees for some epic mountain cycling would take in gorgeous Aragon and leave out Catalonia, which I found a wee bit industrialised and free and quiet country roads.
-Following the Atlantic coasts of France, Spain and Portugal all the way would take a lot longer, but would, I think, be the most beautiful way of doing it. If I had eight weeks or so free this summer, I'd be off like a shot.

THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR?
-Sundays: hard to buy food if you're only going through villages. This applies to France and Spain.
-Spanish mountains: bigger and steeper and denser than you think. All over the place.
-Brake pads: carry plenty of spares. They can get worn down very quickly on a lumpy day.
-Rain in Northern France: common and comes without warning.
-Cycling from Algeciras to Tarifa, so as to reach the southernmost point of Spain: the only way is along a very busy motorway. Believe me, we tried to find alternatives for two whole days, and failed. You could do it if your coming from the West.
-Ferry to morocco: From Algeciras or Tarifa, I wouild recommend getting a ferry to Ceuta (the spanish enclave in morocco) and then goin over the border by road. This avoids Tangier altogether, which is great, because it's not a nice city, the ferry terminal is full of nasty people, and the customs process is a long-winded waste of your time. Basically walking over the border at Ceuta is a nicer introduction to the country.

GENERAL ADVICE?
Plenty more to tell, but I'm not sure what would be useful. If you need more info, feel free to email me.

Matt