57. Sarajevo
A well-earned rest day today…in the lovely old town of Sarajevo….now - it seems - fully recovered from the war. Blogging, washing etc etc Andrew headed off to a bike…
56. Pljevlja (Montenegro) to Sarajevo (Bosnia i Herzegovina)
A whopper of a day! My longest ride ever! And a day containing the scariest moments on the ride so far! We had decided to make a bee-line for Sarajevo…to…
55. Berane to Pljevlja (still Montenegro)
A relatively short…and relatively easy…day today…relative to our adventures of yesterday. As soon as we left town….we were straight back into impressive scenery… …..and then……roadworks! A full 30km of half-formed…
54. Gjakova (Kosovo) to Berane (Montenegro
Our fifth border crossing in just seven days! Sadly…only the one full day in Kosovo. And so to Montenegro. What a great day of riding… To Peja (source of Kosovan…
53. Gjakova (Kosovo)
Sadly…only the one full day in Kosovo. I believe it ranks well bottom of all European countries in terms of GDP…yet somehow if feels much more civilised than - say…
52. Peshkopi (Albania) to Gjakova (Kosovo)
Before I start on today’s journey….a few photos from Peshkopi last night. The Albanian Giro!! It happens everywhere in the country…between around 6 and 9 in the evening. Everyone goes…
51. Ohrid (North Macedonia) to Peshkopi (Albania…again!!)
Alas…we did not spend long in North Macedonia…as today we were crossing back into Albania….for the second time in just three days! And today was the biggest Google error of…
50. Trpejca to Ohrid
Fiftieth day!! OMG…where did that time go? And to celebrate? The shortest EVER ride……! Not all roses however…for we first had to push the bikes up around 50 steps to…
49. Erseke (Albania) to Trpejca (North Macedonia)
Monday today…it must be North Macedonia! Haha…like some whistle-stop bus tour of Europe! Three countries in two days! But nothing whistle-stop about cycling. Only the one night in Albania…but we’ll…
48. Ioannina to Erseke (Albania)
I (usually) like to break in new companions a bit gently! But today was not one of those days!! A big triple-tonner for Andrew’s first day!! But compared to Iain’s…
47. Ioannina
A day of breakfasting and wandering…… Ioannina has a fascinating and complicated history…Hellenic, Byzantine, Ottaman….and has only been part of Greece since 1913….after the ‘first’(?) Balkan war. The history of…
46. Ioannina
We had arrived into Ioannina a day earlier than originally planned…to allow Iain to leave on the Friday….and get to his cricket game on the Saturday! ….which meant that he…
45. Neraidochori to Ioannina
Iain’s last day! Alas! That came around quickly! But we made it a day to remember!! Simply….the biggest day ever! My first ever quadruple-tonner! Who would have thought!!? I remember…
44. Karditsa to Neraidochori
A relaxed day today……if you can call a 1,300m ascent relaxed! We are planning a crossing of the highest pass in Greece…and Neraidochora is the last place I could find…
43. Tymfristos to Karditsa
What a fantastic day of riding! Well…..75% of it! I’ll let the pictures tell the story really! But what a gorgeous landscape…climbing to over 1,500m… …and this is one of…
42. Glyfa to Tymfristos
The sun was out again this morning…good news…for today we were heading back into the mountains! It was a lovely start to the day…sort of following the convoluted coast of…
41. Glyfa
After our busy holiday on Skopelos..today was a very chill day! More of this… Yesterday was really the first sweaty-hot ride of the trip so far! It’s been warm enough…
40. Skopelos to Glyfa
Departure day!! After such a good week it was a bit of a wrench…particularly so early in the morning after a late last night! But Iain and I were on…
34-39. Skopelos
What a great week we had!! Family time at its best! This is where we were staying…Agnontas…one of the smallest villages…sort of like Greece used to be!! Just perfect! I…
33. Prokopi to Skopelos
The reason for the big day yesterday…is that we were on a mission to catch a ferry to Skopelos….and we did not want to spend last night on the wrong…
32. Tinos to Prokopi (Evia)
Yesterday was a wonderful big day! Today was just a big day! Of the above mileage…we cycled ‘just’ 133 km. And all of the ascent of course! Not an abnormally…
31. Tinos
Tinos is not tiny!!! And not a tiny day on the bike either…as I set out to explore!….rather than the let the grass grow….as this Tinian cyclist seems to have…
30. Naxos to Tinos
I must admit to never having even heard of Tinos before planning this trip. But it was on the way. So why not!? Or maybe it was my subconscious anagrammatical…
29. Heraklion to Naxos
Having been staying in tiny and largely empty places for the last few weeks….it was surprising to arrive at our ferry to find hugely long queues of folk waiting to…
28. Rethymno to Heraklion
The main road along the North coast of Crete…is big…and fast! So we opted to detour inland…and onto the ‘old’ road! Great decision…as we biked up and down all day…
27. Loutro to Rethymno
It has been a bit of a mission to get to Gavdos…lots of ferries…lots of not-a-lot-of-cycling! So….after a very relaxing day in the gorgeous bluetro Loutro…we were pleased to get…
26. Loutro
Blue sea…blue sky….no vehicle access….perfect!! (…to be fair…today was one of those days when the sky was hazed by the dust from North Africa…but hey…it meant we did not burn!)…
25. Gavdos to Loutro
After all the bike-pushing and climbing yesterday…my legs were sorer this morning than after any of the rides to date! So it was a good job we had nowhere to…
24. Agia Roumeli to Gavdos
The short cycling days continue…as we fart around on ferries to get to our ‘destination’…..well, the start point…of Gavdos. So today…our ferry leaves - hopefully - at around 11.30. But…
23. Kissamos to Agia Roumeli
Martin left this morning….good and early…too early of course….but we did make sure that he would not have to wait for more than an hour at the dismal bus yard!!…
22. Avlemonas (Kythera) to Kissamos (Crete)
Our ferry across to Kissamos does not leave until five, so it was a happily lazy start to the day! But I was thinking that I had maybe been a…
21. Neapoli to Avlemonas (Kythera)
It was a nice relaxed start to the day…as we only had to roll down the hill to our 9am ferry. I had booked the trip on line…but had never…
20. Kyparissi to Neapoli
A bit sad to be leaving Kyparissi. A real gem! And I vowed to myself to return within two years or so! It was a fairly daunting start to the…
19. Kyparissi
A day to chill. The perfect place to do it! And…..that road? I made no progress really….except - apparently - that the original plan was to carry on North to…
18. Tyros to Kyparissi
With only 70kms to go today…it was a relaxed start to the day. Muesli in mugs (which Sophia had nicked from the next door restaurant…to allows us to make ourselves…
17. Levida to Tyros
After our big day yesterday…today/tomorrow’s rides are now a bit shorter! And they needed to be! I woke up in the night…and some bloody numskull (the Beano, remember..?) had turned…
16. Andravida to Levida
Did I say something about a big day? Well…today was one! Martin’s first triple-tonner…and his second longest ride ever! Straight through the mountains of the north Peloponnese…which rise up to…
15. Ithaca to Andravida
A bit of a bitsy day really. It was just the way the ferry timings worked. So a 9am ferry over to Kefalonia….but then no ferry onwards unto 14.45. So…
14. Ithaca
I do love this is island! With a population of only around 3,000….it is raw and beautiful. The mythical home of Odysseus. A nominal rest day today….but having got my…
13. Lefkada to Ithaca
It turned out to be a surprisingly big day today! Three islands. Two ferries. And a heap of climbing on the bikes in between! There are two routes between Lefkada…
12. Parga to Lefkada
A shorter ride today! By ‘mad’ standards anyway! But still a surprising amount of climbing….as we took the coast road, on the advice of our cycling fanatic host! Not as…
11. Ksamil (Albania) to Parga (Greece)
It was an early start….for we had organised a bike shop stop to hopefully fix that spoke, straighten the wheel and replace some brake pads!! (..all Martin’s braking…hahaha!). And with…
10. Ksamil
Both Martin and I have streaming colds!! So it was a good decision to stay an extra night!! A very lazy day! A wander around town. A visit to the…
9. Dhermi to Ksamil
A great start to the day! Hard as a rock! My tyre, I mean! Such a relief! Today was hard….but beautiful. It must go down as one of the great…
8. Berat to Dhermi
A big day! Have I said that before? But the graphic above gives an idea about how the day panned out! A first…after all my rides…..100km of riding…..wobbling up and…
7. Berat
A rest day! So no great excitement today. Except my tyre is flat again! Pumped it up and took it to the one bike shop in town…but no ability to…
6. Durres to Berat
It was a wakeful night! Trying not to snore! Hahaha! The boat was late arriving. So it was not until 10.30 that we raced off the boat. First in line…
5. Nocera Umbra to Ancona and beyond
I had originally hoped to get a bit closer to Ancona yesterday but there is a bit of an accommodation vacuum on this route…so we risked the night in Nocera…
4. Orvieto to Nocera Umbra
It rained. It rained a lot…. …in the night! But we woke to blue skies!! Well….they were a bit blue! Actually mostly cloudy….but IT WAS NOT RAINING!! And it did…
3. Civitavecchia to Orvieto
My prayers did not work! (Do they ever?). It is hosing down!! But we have a long way to go…..and with our ferry leaving Ancona in 57 hours time….we just…
2. Ferry….to Civitavecchia
Not much to report today! On the ferry……very relaxed…..and not a bad boat at all! I was a truckie for a lot of the trip!! Whilst us mere mortals are…
1. Collioure to Barcelona and beyond
The team are ready! Back at our favourite bar for a last coffee before setting off…for a very relaxed first couple of days! (We’ll be near Rome tomorrow!) Given the…
Prologue
Why…”The Stone Ride”…? Simply a catchy acronym to hide the madness of the proposed bicycle ride from the Southernmost point TO the Northernmost point of Europe!! Roughly……: And that does…
Epilogue
And so ends another epic Mad Bike Ride!! We cycled further than ever before….430km more than last year. We climbed more metres than ever before….68,067….but only pipping last year by…
85. Puigcerda to Collioure
We started the day…by leaving Spain….entering France…then a few kms later…we re-entered Spain…into the enclave of Llivia! A very strange bit of history really…as Wikipedia notes: “Following the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659),…
84. Cannolich to Puigcerda
Whilst yesterday was a bit of an unknown…today was relatively easy! All day on tarmac…but taking us across the highest pass in the Pyrenees! A great breakfast…was followed by a…
83. Llavorsi to Canolich (Andorra)
Today was simply an epic day!! During these rides….there are some ‘planned’ days…which generate significant levels of anxiety…simply because you can find no information about the proposed route! Other than…
82. Llavorsi
A rest day. The last rest day of this journey! Not much to explore…but at least the rain held off….and the sun came out…..! …..so it was just a rest…
81. El Pont de Suert to Llavorsi
I woke at around three in the morning…to the sound of rain! Alas!! Rain! Spain! Pain! No rush to leave once again! But it did ease once again at around…
80. Ainsa to El Pont de Suert
We woke to the sound of no rain!!! Yeeha! And the views from the back of our guest house was spectacular! Overall…a lovely day of riding. Best just to let…
79. Jaca to Ainsa
In Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen”. This is true! “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain”…is simply not true!! Indeed…as the plains remain parched…and we…
78. Pintano to Jaca
I woke at seven. It was still raining. Thunder and lightening…albeit some distance away! When we went to bed last night…we had asked our host if the rain was going…
77. Pamplona to Pintano
The first 40kms or so today was a cruise down a fairly deserted main road. Whereupon we happened upon Lumbier…simply time for a coffee stop! But we were in for…
76. Pamplona
Poor old Nae did the running today…to the toilet! No bull…! No Bulls either…! We are of course six weeks late for the annual fiesta…but I did walk the route.…
75. Zegama to Pamplona
What a start to the day! Wordle in ONE! A 3,500 to one probability! Screenshot And Liz…would you believe….has done it five or six times! She should probably buy a…
74. Bilbao to Zegama
A lovely day!! The first part of the day…getting out of and away from Bilbao was not great. We were following the same road which we have used on and…
73. Bilbao
A day off! And…another off day!! The sun apparently rose around 7.30…but it remained dark and brooding….and then heavens opened once again. Thunder and lightening…very very frightening! Well, not really…just…
72. Somo to Bilbao
I think that can count as another double-tonner to finish this stint! Lots more climbing today….and the hills seemed bigger! But we rarely got above 150 metres…before plunging down to…
71. Pechon to Somo
We both had an awful night’s sleep! Shennae has cricked her neck…and just could not get comfortable. Whilst I had a sever bout of the shits. About 1.30 in the…
70. Colunga to Pechon
A much better day today!! Lovely riding. The sun shone! We had breakfast in the wee town of Ribadesella… …and then made a small detour to a bike shop! My…
69. Cudillero to Colunga
Yet another double tonne!! And a fairly memorable…or unmemorable….day’s cycling. It was cold. Sometimes cold and wet. Occasionally biking jackets were removed…only for them to be put back on again…
68. Cudillero
A lazy, lazy day! Probably helped by the fact that it rained for most of the day!! (Always better than when riding!) Washing, blogging, reading…and accommodation searching! On this latter…
67. Ribadeo to Cudillero
Flat tyre once again! Alas! Tubeless tyres are usually wonderful…except when they are not!! Temperamental things! We got away quite early (a relative term for here it does not get…
66. Portomarin to Ribadeo
I had to wear my biking jacket every single day of the first three stages of the ride…including all the way through Morocco. I then left it in Santiago…and have…
65. Santiago de Compostela to Portomarin
How about a triple-tonner to start! (Just!) Hahaha!!! Not intended at all! But these things happen. And this after Shennae arrived in Collioure fresh from Belize with a lurgy….chesty cough…and…
64. Santiago de Compostela
Two months to the day since John and I left! John to NZ…..me to Milan, Skiathos and Skopelos (to meet Liz and Jude), and on to Evia (surely the most…
63. Cambados to Santiago de Compostela
Alas….our last cycling day on this segment of the trip! A short hop to Santiago and the end of our wee camino together! It is still cold! But it was…
62. Cambados
After five days on the go…(around 550km and 8,500m of climbing!)….today was a welcome rest day! So time for washing, blog and a wander. Funny little town really. Alternately very…
61. Valenca to Cambados
We had planned a slow start today…to give time for the rain to clear. But shortly before we were due to leave, the heavens opened once again! Alas…no T-Rain option…
60. Guimaraes to Valenca
Our last day in Portugal! And we covered some distance!! And a surprising amount of ascent! Alas…..woke to rain! Lots of it! Guimarain! And the forecast looked bleak! The cloud…
59. Pinhao to Guimaraes
We left today with a little trepidation…fearing a third triple ton day! We were both still knackered after our last two days! And if Google was averagely inaccurate…it could well…
58. Sabugueiro to Pinhao
OMG…two triple tons in two days! Before yesterday…I had only ever done one once! That great ride through Albania last year…when Iain and I arrived at a village in the…
57. Monsanto to Sabugueiro
Over a few beers…John and I hatched a plan. To take a short cut! In between Monsanto and where we are going is Portugal’s highest mountain. Torre (tower…not bull!) in…
56. Monsanto
A magic day in a truly magical village. This is our house on the right… ……and the views from our balcony! There would be few more photogenic places on the…
55. Fratel to Monsanto
It was cold when we started out. And got a lot colder as we climbed a few hundred metres…into the clouds!! Fog! But thankfully a very quiet road. Down the…
54. Santarem to Fratel
We planned an early start today…for we were not quite sure how much climbing there might be! But…the gods were against us! Or against John’s batteries to be precise. He…
53. Prison camp to Santarem
We were not sorry to leave our overnight prison! A weird place really….albeit clean and comfortable! But it was a fairly non-descript ride today…as we took the fastest on-road route….to…
52. Evora to Setubal + a bit!
A long but stress-free ride. Funny though that Google advised us that there would be a total of only 200 metres of climbing on our route today! So…wrong by a…
51. Monsazar to Evora
Short on distance but big on adventure today, as we spent almost the whole trip on off-road tracks….half of which were indeed quite tricky! Lots of solid stratified rock, loose…
50. Monsazar
A very lazy rest day today….after just two days riding! I thought John might need one after yesterday’s 140km!! That is the door to our perfectly located house…the red one…
49. Mertola to Monsazar
If yesterday was about altitude…today was about distance! By the end….John is now confident he can handle everything! Haha! But not as enjoyable a ride. The hills have largely flattened…