Last summer I cycled 7,600km (4,722 miles) along a route called the European Divide Trail , which runs through nine countries, all the way from Arctic Norway to the Atlantic coast in Portugal, mostly camping out along the way. The idea was sparked by an article I saw on the internet – on a website called bikepacking.com . I slowly went from thinking, “That looks cool,” to, “I’m going to do it.” It seemed a bit crazy, but somehow a few months later, in June 2022, it was happening! I was heading off for three months – and I’d even persuaded my friend Max to come along for the first three weeks. The Norwegian border with Russia
I’d done some bikepacking trips in the past, but usually only a couple of nights. Once I did a nine-day trip, cycling from my house in Pembrokeshire to the top of Snowdon and back, but I had a really bad and lonely time on my own. Somehow that didn’t put me off … Also, it was an amazing stroke of luck that I met Anna from Sheffield, who was cycling the same route, on the first day of the European Divide trail. Jacob (centre), with Anna and Max I had a mountain bike and a basic bikepacking setup, and aimed to cycle an average of 100km a day. With just 90 days in Europe to do the trail – all that my post-Brexit UK passport would allow – I figured I […]
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