February and March in Europe

[Boojie]

Hi folks,
Been lurker for a long time, and finally have something to post.

I'm in the UK, and have the opportunity to head off for a couple of months on my bike, without a huge amount of money.

Cos I'm camping, I'm thinking Spain then slowly east, purely for the weather.
I dunno whether to find somewhere I really like, and base myself there, as I've a lot of reading and writing to get on with, or to have a couple of days per stop, and just bimble about.

So there, ultra tight budget, camping, europe, bike, feb march.

I'm open to any suggestions, anyone done this sort of thing, hints and tips , all welcome.

I can hardly sit down I'm that excited

Thanks a lot

[Walkabout]

Boojie,
You could do worse than take a look at what this guy is up to:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...d-europe-61328

BTW, I see this is your first post in here.

[Wildman]

If it were me, even if money was tight, I'd maybe take the ferry down to Santander or Bilbao to avoid the slog through France in cold weather and then please myself around Spain and Portugal. I'd probably head towards Andalucia.

[Boojie]

Thank you very much, I've bookmarked his blog thing, and am watching with interest.

Google maps is very addictive , apologies for my slow reply.

[pecha72]

I once rode home from south of Spain in early February... or actually I didn´t ride all the way to Finland, I took a ferry from Travemunde, northern Germany. In Spain it was somehow tolerable for the most part, but when arriving to France, the daytime temperatures were around 2-3 Celsius. And it rained on and on and on, almost 1000 kms non-stop. My riding gear wasn´t quite up to the task, so it became one of the most unpleasant riding experiences of my whole life (now it just makes me laugh, but it certainly didn´t back then!!!) ...And I was very lucky: just 2-3 Celsius colder, and it could have all come down as snow, that´s when I would´ve been screwed! In Germany it was actually below freezing, but luckily the roads stayed dry.

I did get some proper winter weather, when I rode the final 15 kms home from the ferry port in Helsinki... and duly managed to finally go down in the snow, when I was turning it to my home yard, but luckily nothing too serious, just a few scratches!!

(.....for riding, I´d stay well in the south during those months!)

[Boojie]

Riding in the cold doesn't bother me, I quite like it. I'd rather be cold than hot, easier to fix.

It's sleeping in the cold. I like peace and quiet, in fact, I crave peace and quiet, but although I'm an experienced camper, I've never slept in a tent other than March-October.
Maybe I should take a hot water bottle

[backofbeyond]

Hi Boojie. Don't underestimate the difficulties of long winter rides, particularly if you're camping at the end of a day on the bike and can be marginally hypothermic. If you're heading south at that time of year France can be brutally cold and my advice would be to find a few extra Euros for a cheap (F1 or similar) hotel until you make it past somewhere like Barcelona.

Virtually all French campsites will be closed in any case and the ones that will be open tend to be a bit more expensive so the extra for the hotels will be less than you think. You'll probably only need them for two or three nights in any case.

[nablats]

i fancy spain in about 3 weeks time
remote trail riding/camping
suzuki dr350
low budget
lots

[markharf]

OP, the advice given so far is exactly on target. Being comfortable with riding in the cold is one thing, but a single patch of black ice (or one bad decision following a full day of borderline hypothermia from riding in cold rain and sleet) will ruin your trip in a hurry. Slowed reaction time and bad decision-making are the hallmarks of early hypothermia, and we're all prone.

The ability to take a room to dry out, warm up and generally collect your wits is crucial as well when riding distances in the winter wet. It's hard to appreciate this part until you've actually tried camping out after a full day at 3 degrees and driving rain.

Also worth keeping in mind: warm weather is not just a function of north vs. south. You also need to watch for even low mountain massifs or passes on your route, since even something too minor to appear on many maps can mean the difference between chilly sunshine and brutal cold with snowcovered roads. Couple of times in December and January in southern Europe I've been slowed by surprise altitude changes which brought snow. Slowing down, it gets dark without reaching planned destinations, and once dark it gets terrifying: whiteout, ice and snow, closed shops and few points of refuge. This needs to be built into plans and budgets.

If you already know this stuff, please feel free to ignore. In any case it might not apply if you're just trying to get to Andalucia in a hurry, then find a beach town to hang for a while with your fellow countrymen. On the other hand, if you need to learn the lessons yourself, up close and personal (as many here do, myself included), try to arrange it so that you learn the applicable lessons without getting in too deep. In other words, have a backup plan.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

[snoopy]

Tons of hostels around Barcelona, some really excellent as well. Did that area last March for a couple weeks and loved it.

Can't go wrong with following the coast. Monaco, Nice both worth a visit.

Zagagoza has a great hostel very biker friendly.

Go to Andorra on your way up. Again, there is an amazing hostel for £15 a night. You've seen nothing like it. Pretty dead at night but everyone goes to only a couple places. In one bar we had a competition singing Wet Wet Wet on a karaoke against a local. We won, turned out he was a sort of mafia character who owned lots of places including a strippers which he invited us too. Said we'd be well looked after haha Sods law we had to be up early though (and were a bit apprehensive about the offer tbh).

If you need rough locations let me know. Me and mate had a fantastic time in Barcelona trawling the bars late hours. Get to know a few ladies and they'll let you tag to the proper stuff. The Spanish stay up ALL night.

We were real lucky on the weather side of things, didn't rain once. I was only cold when in the UK.