Best moment on a tour.

[snorri]

This thread has been started as an antidote to the 'Worst moment' thread in order to reassure potential and experienced tourists that the good times on tour far outnumber the bad.
My best moment was when I was leaning exhausted against an electrical pole taking a photograph in a fairly remote location, my bike fell over and I felt I hadn't the energy left to lift it back up. Just then this man appeared from a camper van walking towards me carrying a plate with a generous portion of meat and veg. and offered it to me saying his wife had seen me from the van and thought I looked in need of a good feed.
How right that lady was!

 

[psmiffy]

What a wonderful person you are Snorri - The worst moment on tour thread was for a moment tempting me to post something to the effect of get real - serious incidents on tour are thankfully few and far between.

But strangely in over 50000 touring km there is nothing I can specifically say was "the best moment" - there are lots of incidents of people being very kind to me and going out of their way to do things for me, a lot of times when I have been spontaneously applauded topping out a hill or sometimes just entering a crowded village, the highs of being in the mountains or being driven along by a big tailwind, finding a campsite just before it gets dark, getting the tent down in the dry, getting off the plane in a new place or on to the ferry for a new tour, a cup of decent coffee in Scandinavia, picking up the Times international and learning that England has won the ashes - looking up at a dark night sky and being able to see the faintest of stars - it is all about the experience and that is what has got me hooked!

 

[dragon72]

Not THE best moment but a good'un nevertheless:

Riding hard into a headwind in Southern France in 35 degree heat at 2.00 in the afternoon, a car comes along side and slows to my speed.
The passenger window rolls down, an arm stretches out, hands me a Solero ice lolly, and the car speeds off.

 

[friedel]

I agree, it's hard to pick out a 'best moment' but usually they are simple things... the time 2 people stopped to give us 2 juicy peaches, right at the end of a 5 day trek through the middle of nowhere. Our first fresh fruit in 5 days after a long and dusty road. Heaven!

 

[TheDoctor]

The hotel that fed me on Sunday evening, even though the restaurant was closed and they were going out. Saved me a 12 k ride down and up a Cat 3 mountain.

 

[rich p]

Not the best maybe but in Slovenia a young dude in a souped up car screeching to a halt in front of me, much to my annoyance, only to get out of the car waving my wife's wallet which she had left at the ATM in the previous town!

 

[xilios]

Best moment of every tour is when our bikes are loaded and in front of our house ready to begin a new adventure.

 

[jags]

Best moment of every tour is when our bikes are loaded and in front of our house ready to begin a new adventure.

love your blog look forward to reading about your big sunshine tour around europe.btw what's this strict diet your on i could do with loosing a stone or two.

 

[Dayvo]

I experienced several 'memorable' moments recently in Australia with generosity, friendship and hospitality.

It was really a very simple act, but this stands out most from my trip.

I had just cycled a short, but demanding and hot 80 km and had arrived at the campsite knackered.

After struggling to get my tent up, a bloke in his mid-fifties strolls over to me from the caravan adjacent to me and says in a very heavy Aussie drawl 'Looks like you bloody need one of these, mate!' and gave me a cold can of beer.

Several hours later (it was dark) I had been given beers left, right and centre by him and force-fed meat and veggies by his mate and wife.

I had a rest day the next day to spend in their company, this time contributing to the (all day) party.

Aussies are the exemplary example of friendly and hospitable people.

 

[Cathryn]

Mine's more cycling oriented than road-angel oriented. It was the climb up the col de rousset a few years ago.

We left Die at about 6.30 am fuelled by pain au chocolat straight out of the oven and had this lovely flat, silent ride towards the col. The climb was our first big col and we had no idea what to expect. It just blew us away. A long but do-able climb up 5% gradients, curling round and round on switchbacks as the sun came up. I just remember being so happy because I was out on a tour I'd planned for so long and I was actually climbing an Alp and feeling good as well. I was actually disappointed to get to the top, but it brought tears to my eyes with the sense of achievement.

Since then, we've climbed higher, steeper, tougher mountains but this was the highlight of a fantastic tour for both of us.

 

[Beardie]

Good of you to start this thread, snorri, but we seem to prefer swapping horror stories. So far, worst moments has 21 posts and 472 viewings, as against 9 posts and 149 viewings for best moments. Sometimes it's therapeutic to get it off your chest.

If you think someone may be put off by bad news, make sure they don't ever visit any of the 'commuting' threads.

 

[Beardie]

Actually, I suppose I ought to contribute a 'best moment' of my own, just for balance.

It would have to be riding into Whitby at the end of a CTC side-to-side tour in September 2007, having done the roller-coaster ride along the Esk valley. Most of the hills are 1in5, and the rest are 1in4. I'd only had to walk up two of them.

Or perhaps the Callander to Killin section of the Sustrans ride in 2008, and particularly the Glen Ogle viaduct in the sunshine. Hard to choose.

 

[HelenD123]

My experience is pretty limited so far, but after fighting a head wind for a couple of days heading south on Route 1 I pulled into a campsite at Woodhall Spa to be charged the lowest fee for my trip (about £7 I think) and be told it included a free swim in the open air pool! I was in heaven! And if I hadn't been so tired I could have gone to the Kinema in the Wood.

 

[Kirstie]

Every year I go touring with three of my friends - 2 guys 2 girls - none of us are connected romantically, we all just get on. I have lost count of the number of bizarre things that have happened on our tours, which usually last between 3 and 5 days, and the number of times I have been utterly helpless with laughter as a result. We have shared some fantastic experiences together and have cemented some really excellent friendships. I can't really boil it down to one particular moment - there have been too many to count.

On my LEJOG I was particularly touched by the number of people who donated to my charity en route that I didn't even know. And I think the best touring day I have ever had was the ride from Stainburn (keilder) to Eskbank which was day 9 of the ride: 84 miles, 6000 ft of climbing. We thought it would be horrific, and I started out in the morning feeling sick and exhausted, but for some reason it was the best day's cycling I've ever had. It went like a dream - the roads and scenery were gorgeous. The best reward was summiting the final climb and having a panoramic view of the firth of forth, bathed in sunshine. It had been raining all day.

 

[arallsopp]

15 years ago, someone said this in a film, and it still summarises the finest points of my adventures to date.

My [touring] experience wasn't what I had planned. It bore no resemblance to the pictures in the brochure. But I'm not unhappy; I don't think any of us are. We got what we needed out of it. It's kind of like going on a vacation - you plan everything out but one day you make a wrong turn or take a detour, and you end up in some crazy place you can never find on the map, doing something you never thought you'd do. Maybe you feel a little lost while it's happening. But, later, you realize it was the best part of the whole trip.

Ok, so the original wasn't about touring, per se, but that still sums it up for me.