worst moment on tour.

[psmiffy]

I have been very lucky in the 15 years that I have been cycle touring - a couple of incidents that left me bloody but still servicable - a few days that I have been incapacitated through illness - the inevitable mechanical failure that need to be overcome - there is always bad weather, heavy rain and being caught in snowstorms at 2000m a lot of nights wondering if the tent is going to be blown away.

Always been a lot of hairy moments but nothing that I would rate as a disaster -the more you do it the more confident and better prepared you are that you can overcome anything that is within your control

 

[Tony]

reading through these post's you would wonder ,what the hell am i doing riding a bike ?
no it ain't all laugh's.

The incident in my post above is both good and bad.
A fortnight later I watched the sun come up through serried gum trees, after a night with more stars thn I could ever have imagined.
Definitely the best way to travel.

 

[Crankarm]

I was on a CTC tour in 2006. We had to split up to various B&Bs at one overnight because there wasn't anywhere big enough for all of us.
Next morning, the leader turned up at the rendezvous point and had to tell us that one of the participants had died in his sleep. Worse still, his girlfriend was in bed next to him. He was only about 30 and the rest of the tour was a bit subdued without them and their two friends who accompanied her home.

...........blimey!

........did he die happy ?

Sorry had to ask.

 

[rualexander]

Cycling in southern India between Ootacamund and Mysore through a national park early one morning I saw what at first i thought was a deer or something come out onto the road about 200m ahead, as I got closer I realised it wasn't a deer, it was a Tiger! Brakes on, stopped, what do I do now? I got my camera out and took a picture! Thought that if I'm going to be dragged off and eaten at least my camera will tell the tale. I watched it carry on crossing the road, at which point a truck came along from behind me and I started pedalling hard alongside the truck using it as a shield. Passing the point where the tiger was, I could see it wandering off into the forest. A few miles later I came across a sign "Danger Elephants, Do not get out of your car"! I was glad to get to Mysore that day. I guess it could also be one of the best moments too.

 

[TheDoctor]

I was going to post about the time someone stole my bungees, and I had to hold my bag onto the rack with rubber bands and a length of rope, but that sounds a bit pathetic. Or the time at Vienna airport when my QR broke and I had to hold the front wheel on with tiewraps till I got to a bike shop the following morning.
I've not really had any disastrous disasters.

 

[jay clock]

(rather embarassingly I typed up a posting about the Nazi Cyclists Association and added it to this thread by mistake, and now cannot find a way to delete it!)

Suffice to say my worst moments on tour have not been anywhere near the mayhem above...

 

[Kirstie]

I just remembered one - a mate and I were once thrown out of a hotel we had checked into at 7.30pm - we had ridden 75 miles and had not had a proper lunch or had any dinner. The hotel had refused to store our bikes safely overnight, telling us to leave them in the garden, so we went into the garden and found a big container with some boxes in it. We asked the hotelier if we could leave them in the container and they threw us out. There were no B&Bs in the village (a remote place in scotland), and nowhere to get food. It was a 50 mile ride to the next place and it was getting dark.

By chance we happened upon a bunkhouse who let us stay, and we knocked on the house adjacent to the local shop so they could sell us some food. Luckily they did. So it all worked out, but we did wonder for a while...

 

[Tedx]

Climbing a steep hill on the coast of Spain, chain snaps (for second time). Put new one on and throw the old one in bin. Roll all the way down the other side then start to climb another hill only to find the new chain is slipping over the old worn cassette teeth. Can now only use about three gears. Cycle about 40 miles (in high gear) find Decathlon who do not stock the cassette I need. Next day carry on cycling in high gear, stop to have a crap in the woods, ride over a bush that leaves thorns sticking out all over my tires. After trying to fix the tenth puncture give up and walk bike to next town. Find bike shop, buy inner tubes, take tires and innertubes out, the valve is wrong size, have to put bike back together again as too far from bike shop to leave it. guy doesnt have innertubes with valves to fit my wheels. Find a motor bike shop that tinkers with bikes, he has my size. take tires off AGAIN, innertubes ok. Get back on bike ride away (in high gear).

 

[just jim]

We asked the hotelier if we could leave them in the container and they threw us out.

That's..baffling!

 

[jags]

That's..baffling!

yeah i found that one a bit strange,if i had the room paid for it would take the manager and all his relations to get get me out

 

[onlineamiga]

Worse one I had. though it was just a day trip. What that I learned very quickly and the hard way about how temperatures can change with altitude and time. It was a nice 20c, so dressed lightly. Cycled up to a place called ronda in southern spain taking the mountain roads. It took me longer than I was anticipating. With 50km still to go and at altitude on top of a mountain, the sun started setting. And the temperature dropped significantly to freezing temperatures, with a wind chill in the minus numbers. And there I am cycling in t-shirts and shorts with no other warm clothes packed. It was a day tour, i had no tent, and I was knackered. The route I had chosn was far more than what I was capable. Just started out. So what could I do? With no food left, I just had to carry on and make it. I was just past half way on the circular route I had planned. So continued. Coming down the mountain towards San Pedro back to the coast was the worst. With one big goal in sight! OpenCor! A chain of convenience stores open till 2am every day even sundays. The 10km downhill back off the mountain was great. Apart from the minus figure wind chill i was plasting through. I could not feeel my fingers i started loosing the ability to use breaks. (bad thing when going down a mountain!) Anyway i did make it to opencor. Got some supplies to give me the energy to do the next 20km back across to estepona.

I have never felt so cold in my life. I sat in an alley to have food and was shivering so much.

It was also amazing just how the body will continue to give when you have no other choice. With 50km to go, and more hills to deal with I was done. But if I'd have stopped with no shelter in those subzero mountain winds, no mobile signal, no tent, no warm clothes and no food I'd have been stuffed!

Still gives us more to talk about than sitting infront of the TV.

 

[Tedx]

Worse one I had. though it was just a day trip. What that I learned very quickly and the hard way about how temperatures can change with altitude and time. It was a nice 20c, so dressed lightly. Cycled up to a place called ronda in southern spain taking the mountain roads. It took me longer than I was anticipating. With 50km still to go and at altitude on top of a mountain, the sun started setting. And the temperature dropped significantly to freezing temperatures, with a wind chill in the minus numbers. And there I am cycling in t-shirts and shorts with no other warm clothes packed. It was a day tour, i had no tent, and I was knackered. The route I had chosn was far more than what I was capable. Just started out. So what could I do? With no food left, I just had to carry on and make it. I was just past half way on the circular route I had planned. So continued. Coming down the mountain towards San Pedro back to the coast was the worst. With one big goal in sight! OpenCor! A chain of convenience stores open till 2am every day even sundays. The 10km downhill back off the mountain was great. Apart from the minus figure wind chill i was plasting through. I could not feeel my fingers i started loosing the ability to use breaks. (bad thing when going down a mountain!) Anyway i did make it to opencor. Got some supplies to give me the energy to do the next 20km back across to estepona.

I have never felt so cold in my life. I sat in an alley to have food and was shivering so much.

It was also amazing just how the body will continue to give when you have no other choice. With 50km to go, and more hills to deal with I was done. But if I'd have stopped with no shelter in those subzero mountain winds, no mobile signal, no tent, no warm clothes and no food I'd have been stuffed!

Still gives us more to talk about than sitting infront of the TV.

Every man should learn how to start a bow drill fire, one day it could save your life!He should also grow a beard at least once in his life.

 

[Alan Whicker]

Kirstie - you should name and shame.

 

[rich p]

I just remembered one - a mate and I were once thrown out of a hotel we had checked into at 7.30pm - we had ridden 75 miles and had not had a proper lunch or had any dinner. The hotel had refused to store our bikes safely overnight, telling us to leave them in the garden, so we went into the garden and found a big container with some boxes in it. We asked the hotelier if we could leave them in the container and they threw us out. There were no B&Bs in the village (a remote place in scotland), and nowhere to get food. It was a 50 mile ride to the next place and it was getting dark.

By chance we happened upon a bunkhouse who let us stay, and we knocked on the house adjacent to the local shop so they could sell us some food. Luckily they did. So it all worked out, but we did wonder for a while...

That's awful.

It has reminded me of arriving at a small town in N France, soaking wet and cold and being turned away from the hotel because we looked too scruffy! Fortunately there was another hotel which turned out to be the worst one I have ever stayed in but at least they welcomed us!

 

[Kirstie]

It was the Lochaline Hotel in Lochaline, on the Morvern Peninsula in Scotland.
The hotelier's words were 'get on your bikes and f*ck off'. It worked out OK though. I have posted the odd bad review, but from talking to some of the other locals the bloke was a tosser anyway. They also told us 'he was a very good shot', so we were well rid.

The only explanation I can think of was that there was something VERY dodgy in his container - ref. those stories of heroin being smuggled into the country on remote parts of the scottish coastline. Lochaline is pretty remote. He definitely didn't want us to know about whatever it was in that container.

Oh yeah and the last time I named and shamed an odd place I had stayed, the proprietor found it on this forum and sent me loads of PMs, also posted unpleasant responses on the thread too.