It's Showtime! Interviewed on the Radio!

How incredibly exciting - I was interviewed by the fabulous "happy coach" Steve Twynham on Blog Talk Radio this evening about this cycle tour across Switzerland and France, subsequent book and then complete life change post-tour. 

It's just half an hour long and, if you fancy a listen, the link is here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stevetwynham/2013/07/31/helping-you-live-the-life-you-really-want

Happy listening!

Andi x

E-book now also available in paperback!

Hi Everyone!

I'm delighted to let you know that my e-book has now also been published as a paperback and is available on Amazon around the world.  For Amazon.co.uk customers, the link to both the paper and electronic copies is:

http://tinyurl.com/d9epswu

Thank you all so much for your wonderful and supportive comments both on the blog and the reviews that have been written on Amazon.  I can't wait to do my next tour!

Happy pedalling everyone!

Best wishes
Andi

Follow my cycling exploits on Twitter!

Hi Everyone

I've set up a new Twitter account specifically for cycling and fellow cycling enthusiasts: @CyclingAndi.  I'll regularly post feeds of my club rides, mini cycle breaks and any further cycle tours.

It keeps it separate from my business one although feel free to follow me on @AndiLonnen too if you want to be kept up to date with business finance training courses I'm carrying out around the UK and all things finance director related!

Happy cycling everyone!

Best wishes
Andi

E-Book Now Available on Amazon!

Hi Everyone

The e-book of this cycle tour has finally been written and published - hurrah!!  Find it on Amazon:

http://tinyurl.com/c8duk4k

This books answers so many of the questions that I had before, during and after the tour as well as answering all the questions I was asked by others.  It also includes lots more stories from my time on the road.

It is available to buy in the Amazon Kindle Store for £1.99.  10% of all sales proceeds are being donated to the British Lung Foundation.  Not only am I a chronic asthmatic, other members of my family suffer with various lung conditions.  Please help me "give something back" in order to ensure this great charity can continue its groundbreaking research.

This cycle tour has been an extraordinary and a life changing experience.  I hope all those of you who buy the e-book enjoy it hugely.

Thank you all again for reading and keeping me company on this blog.  I hope to be with you all again on the next tour!

Very best wishes
Andi

Welcoming Committee & Home!

Despite my reservations about this trip being truly over, I couldn't have had a better day! From waking up to the perfect English Summer's day, to my morning mug of tea, to meeting my 1st fellow female solo cycle-camper, Karen, and this was all before I even went to meet the Welcoming Committee at our favourite cafe in Boroughbridge.

And here are the gang! Starting from the back left and working clockwise: Bri, Phil, Robert, Chris, Alan, Ramsey, Captain Ken, me and Janice. Thank you all so, so much for welcoming me back with such a super day out on the bikes. Although it was your easiest ride of the year, today I achieved one of my fastest average speeds of the trip simply by making it into double figures!! Chris commented on how strange it must look to the public seeing all these guys (& Janice!) on lightweight road bikes and me, a female, lugging all these panniers along! My spirits were high and I worked as hard as I could to keep my pace up. My legs are very tired tonight!

I couldn't have asked for a better welcome home. And a big thank you to all of you who have wished me a welcome home but couldn't be there today for various reasons - at work, away on hols, etc.

And I want to add that Ramsay, after hearing about my trip & watching the Olympics, did his own cycle camping tour in the Lake District over the Summer which was hugely exciting to her about. Good on you, Ramsay!

My big moment of walking through my front door and the trip being over didn't happen quite as I anticipated. First, I met one of my neighbours & had a good catch up with her. I was due at my friend, Debby's, within the next 30 minutes & definitely needed a shower as well as some food, I was starting to "bonk" (for any of you not familiar with this term, ask any cyclist/runner & they will explain!). I threw my panniers through the door, had to take a water meter reading before I turned the water back on, I'd got a potential leak identified only when my monthly direct debit suddenly trebled for no reason, I hadn't even got off the loo (sorry, I share everything on this blog) before another excited neighbour was at my door, I then had the fastest shower of my life, quickly heated up & ate some filled pasta, peas & pesto, printed off a voucher that Debs needed for her holiday and raced up to see her and my favourite 3 year old, Grace Ruth Jackson (pie) who was rather hyper! Happy holidays Debby, Jim & Grace who jet off to sunny Spain early tomorrow morning!

I think I got back home by around 8pm after I'd met some more neighbours en route home. My panniers are still dumped by the door, all my post is still untouched & I've decided to leave everything until tomorrow. It can all wait!

So I've had a fantastic day and I can't tell you how happy I am to be back home. As soon as I did walk through my door, my flat was looking fabulous and the views over the moors were as stunning as always. I love Ilkley, I'm so lucky to live here. And I love my gorgeous little flat. I have so much to look forward to, so much to catch up on, so many exciting things to do.

Thank you, thank you, thank you all again and again for your wonderful company on the blog, email & text whilst I've been on this journey. Your amazing support has helped me through the good days & the grumpy ones & I've enjoyed hearing about what's been going on at home, especially the Olympics. I loved Charlie's latest blog post, that was a lovely thing to say, thank you. I'll have the e-book out in time for the Christmas rush!!

And, I didn't dare say this before, but...NO PUNCTURES!!!! No mechanical problems with the bike at all, just my broken tent pole. I have a Ridgeback World Voyage, what a trouper.

For the stats lovers out there, early indications are that I covered nearly 1,400 miles (over 2,200km) on a mostly mountainous or hilly route. In summary, I cycled across the Swiss Alps, in the French Alps, the Swiss Jura & then through France via the Vosges, Champagne & up to Calais. I encountered everything from heatwaves to violent mountain storms to severe gales to torrential rain to snow covered ground. What a trip!

I'll let you know when the e-book's out!

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2

Waking up to a Perfect English Summer's Day

Did I bring the good weather with me?! I awoke to blue skies, fluffy white clouds & lovely warm sunshine today, fabulous! Even the birds sounded really happy!

I slept so well last night. I loved being back on a real, sweet smelling, springy grass pitch. I knew it would be a relaxing morning so I ate breakfast in bed (well, sleeping mat & sleeping bag) & even had enough gas left in my canister for a perfect mug of tea (see photo - hope it's worked, it's gone blank on my phone screen).

And then it happened - I met my first female solo cycle-camping tourer of the trip! Karen has cycle toured for many years and is currently touring from Mansfield to Sunderland (she admitted the route was slightly unusual!). I'm so pleased she came over to say hi, we had a wonderful chat & I was so delighted to meet a fellow female enthusiast. Karen said she'd only met one other solo female cycle camper in Cornwall - the famous Josie Dew! I hope you have been able to log onto the blog when you get home, Karen, it would be great to stay in touch and swap stories!

I wasn't due to meet the Welcoming Committee until around 11.30am so I sat in the warm sunshine pondering how I felt about going home. At the time, I actually suddenly felt very sad that when I opened the front door of my home, this incredible trip would be over. I didn't want it to be over.

As always, I then started to think positively. A new beginning, finding an exciting new job, seeing my friends & family again, planning future cycle camping trips. I'd booked various things in for the rest of this week knowing I'd need to keep busy. This includes a full body massage (what bliss!), a facial - a big thank you to Contis again for both of those as a voucher for the Devonshire Health Spa at Bolton Abbey was my incredibly thoughtful leaving present - and a much needed haircut! And, yes, I had to admit I was actually looking forward to my 1st big supermarket shop and restocking my fridge, cupboards and fruit bowl rather than only being able to buy what I could squeeze into my panniers every day & wasn't likely to go off in the heat.

But I still didn't want this to be over....

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2

Back to Britain with a Bang!

I thought I'd fill you in on the rest of my bike bus journey and day now that I'm finally cosied up in my tent listening once again to the patter of British rain.

The rain actually started approx 2 minutes after leaving Dover this morning. It occasionally stopped en route and then started to really batter down. Those on the bike bus found it most amusing that I would be camping in such conditions tonight. Hmmm!

Originally, we were due into Boroughbridge around tea time. Unfortunately with the delays due to bad weather, I didn't leave the bus until around 8.15pm. I didn't realise it was dark here at this time, it gets dark an hour later in France. So I'm trying to locate the bolts to put my handlebars back in place in the dark & the rain & load all the panniers on. I'm in normal clothes not cycle kit so was frantically pulling my waterproofs out of various panniers. Helmet lights on, rear flashing lights on, headtorch on...oh, battery dead. No headtorch. Never mind, the streets are lit.....

Not the ones I needed to cycle on. Great. My little front helmet light is so others can see me not for me to see the way. Off I pedalled and, after a mile, somehow found myself back in the same place. What?! Ok, I'd been up since 4am UK time, on a ferry & bus all day, now it was dark, raining, my headtorch wasn't working at the worst time & I seemed to be really disoriented and clearly not thinking straight. STOP!

Call the campsite from somewhere sensible. The owners guided me from a big obvious roundabout and so I continued. I then had to call again when I ended up in the next village having gone too far & down the wrong road. They gave me the clearest instructions you can give to mankind (Boroughbridge isn't very big, by the way!) & they stood outside the campsite in the rain flashing a torch to guide me in!! What service!

Best of all, they'd saved me some milk for my brekkie tomorrow, the wonderful, wonderful people!

Now the fun part, getting the tent up in the rain and the dark and, oh yes, a bit of a breeze without destroying my broken tent pole. I literally coached myself through every step as you would a child and did most things by feel since sight was barely possible. Tent poles are quite slippy when wet as well. Incredibly, my tent has remained dry inside so I'm grateful! I'm actually more proud of myself for this than most of the trip! Particularly as I did it from a position of stress having cycled in the dark and got lost, much as I'd remained as calm as pos.

The adventure never ends!

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2