Stat Attack!

You lucky people. Three blog posts in a week. A kind handful of you did get in touch saying ‘thanks for writing something Matt, but I won’t read the essay about bicycle choices’. That’s fine. So here’s something a bit more accessible.

I love numbers (yes yes, keep it accessible and light-hearted). I don’t love numbers as much as bikes. But Excel is where the magic happens. Sadly I’m without Excel currently, but I have been keeping track of some numbers as we go, the old fashioned way…

We’ve just passed our 50th day of cycling, and have rested up for four nights in Kotor – a stunning bay on the coast of Montenegro. We wanted a break; we needed a break.

Yes a chance to rest the legs but we most needed a gap in the never-ending planning, activity and decision making for a bit. So here’s some reflections, mostly in light-hearted numbers, that might help us make sense of what we’ve done and why if I wear my short shorts, it looks like I’ve been wading thigh deep in creosote…

We left Bicker (Lincolnshire) on the 10th April (Easter Monday), arriving into Kotor on 9th June.

Days passed: 60
Days active: 54 (including 4 days of gentle rides or sightseeing)
Distance covered: 4,192km or 2,605 miles
Altitude climbed: 27,916m or 91,586 feet

That’s enough climbing to go up Everest more than three times and enough distance (as the crow flies) to go from London to Baku in Azerbaijan. We definitely went the flatter but wibblier-wobblier way.

Weight of bike: I don’t know. I don’t want to know. The older I get, the more I realise there’s no point asking questions I don’t want to know the answer to!
Weight of the package we sent to the UK from Croatia: 4.5kg. Worth it.

Countries visited: 11 (UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro)
Passports checked: Twice. UK->Netherlands and Croatia->Montenegro
Currencies used: 3 (British Pound, Euro, Swiss Franc). Montenegro use the Euro but aren’t in the EU. Croatia moved to the Euro in January, just in time for us!

And this next one was painful to count, as we’ve crossed borders over ten times a day sometimes (such is how borders are ‘decided’)…

International borders crossed: 34.

Yep – 34 times we’ve crossed a border. 9 of those happened in one day due to the German/Swiss river border. And that was staying the same side of the river nearly all day!

I’ve kept a little black book of what we’ve done each day – things like distance, where we slept, etc. So of those 60 nights away…

Tent: 41 nights (40 in sites, 1 wild camping in Hungary)
Warm Shower stays: 3 (Suffolk, Konstanz and Regensburg)
Hotels/Apartments: 12 nights (3 including buffet breakfasts)
Other: 4 nights (Sarah’s parents x2, Posey’s holiday home, Ferry to Netherlands)
Good quality sleep had: Probably zero. Either disturbed by noise or bad sleep patterns when it’s quiet!

Of the tent nights, only in 5 places have we stopped more than 1 night. That’s a lot of pitching the tent, inflating the sleeping mats, losing my mug, finding my mug, losing the stove top, finding it, losing the coffee, finding it, losing… you get the picture. Nope, lost that too.

Following a route next to water (rivers and coasts) results in a lot of bridges and ferries.

Ferries caught: 21 (One overnighter from the UK, One across an Austrian Lake, and nearly all the rest were over the Rhine, Danube or Croatian island hopping)
Ferries not caught: 3 (Two during that day in sleepy Suffolk when the wheels fell off our plans. One in Montenegro due to a protest/middle-class rave). Had to go the long way round for all…

And spending this much time outside means nature is always with you. We’ve heard loads of cuckoos and never seen so many balls of mistletoe.

Squirrels spotted: Grey Squirrels, Red Squirrels and Black Squirrels
Massive snakes swerved round: Too many every day
Huge spiders seen: None. Yet.
Best animal sighting: A native Hermann’s Tortoise in Croatia
Unexpected animal sighting: Matt’s zebra stripe tan lines.

And of course the food and drink:

Best wine: Gewürztraminer in the Alsace. Obviously.
Best beer: A stein (1L) of dark beer for €5 in a Bratislava brewery
Best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth: I say this every day about something. But a banana dipped in Nutella is a frequent winner.
Most full I’ve been: An all you can eat Chinese in Slovakia. The fourth bowl of blancmange was arguably excessive.

And the cycling?

Best views: Riding round the Bay of Kotor was incredible
Most emotional moment: Seeing the sea again as we went over the Croatian mountains, after last seeing it near Rotterdam.
Most angry moment: Riding into a bitter and wet headwind for the 7th day in a row with no respite. Could have thrown my bike in the river.

Days I’ve regretted what we’re doing: Zero
Days I’ve found hard at times: Every day

Days ahead of us: Who knows. Here’s to what’s next.