At the start of the summer of 2023 I was in a bad place. Well actually I was in Newcastle, and then Bristol, both of which are lovely places and well worth a visit. They were, however, places filled with memories. I felt trapped there. Big changes had happened around me, and I needed one of my own, which I could control. Also I was feeling fat.
So I started thinking about what I usually do when I feel confused or trapped: cycling really, really far. I did this for the first time in 2020, riding on my battered old school bike from Newcastle to Bristol, fully embracing the new freedom from a repealed (and never to be put in place again) lockdown. It was fun. It was therapeutic.
I therefore did it again in 2022, when my then girlfriend moved to a different continent. This time I weighed about three stone more than I had in 2020 (dissertations do that to a man), and I took the scenic route. Scenic routes have mountains. It took me eight days rather than five.
Eight days. Long cycle. In 2023 I surpassed it elevenfold. Like I say, I was in a very bad place, so I had to cycle really, really, really far.
Also relevant was that fact that a friend from university had invited me to visit him in Greece at the end of the summer. Everyone else would be flying out around the 18th of August. Did I want to book a flight? No thanks.
It was the start of July. Plenty of time for a little cycle on the same £200 Halfords bike.
I set off from Bristol on the overcast morning of July 2nd. New panniers, a Beeline Velo navigation system, and a ferry ticket for the following day were the extent of my pre-planning.
I had around fifty days to make it to Patras in Greece. Easy peasy. What followed were three months of solo cycling along rivers, over mountains, up and down rugged coastlines, through cities, and over endless borders (mostly legally). I pushed myself quite hard, but I did have some fun on the way. So much so that I ended up going a little further...
I didn't post anything about the trip, not even on social media, until it was almost over. This was a trip for me. But now that time has passed, I want to share it... because it was pretty cool. I kept a daily handwritten journal the entire trip (I always do when I travel). My intention is to upload these entries here, along with other little articles and thoughts about the trip, every day for the next three months, six months (or a year...) to the day(ish) since they took place.
There is a lot of very personal soul searching in them, and some mundane stuff too, so they will be slightly edited, and I will add comments in [red] from an older and wiser Max.
"[...]" means something has been edited out. Mysterious. I hope you enjoy as much as I did.
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