With Thanks To…
22nd December 2021
A cycling tour is made by the places you visit, the stunning rides, but it would be nothing without the people you meet along the route. Here’s a massive thanks to the people who made it what it was.
The timeline
| Name/Business | Location | Why We’ll Always Remember Them… |
|---|---|---|
| Our friends & family | Mostly Shropshire | Writing each name of our wonderful friends and family who have supported this journey would be too many to write! This includes all friends, all family – near and far, old & new, work colleagues, school friends etc. You know who you are. |
| All who donate | Various | Thank you all so much for donating to a wonderful cause that means so much to us. A full list of donations can be found here. |
| Bicycles by Design | Shropshire | After a fantastic experience hiring a tandem for Zoe’s 26th turning to Bicycles by Design for support on the trip was a no brainer! Bicycles by Design refined our bike spec, fit our bikes then taught Stew how to build the bike from scratch! We’ve already relied on them for technical support and at the time of writing this it’s been 7 days! |
| Shropshire Star – Lucy Todman & Jamie Ricketts | Shropshire | Lucy Todman wrote a lovely article which ended up on the front page of the Shropshire Star! Read here. She later wrote a piece in the Shrewsbury Chronicle.Jamie was the photographer – not only was he lovely, but he took the winning shot!! |
| Shropshire BBC Radio – Jim Hawkins, Eric Smith, Clare Ashford, Mark Elliot & Andrew Broxton | Shropshire | Zoe contacted Jim Hawkins to tell him about the bike ride. Shortly after she went on the radio!Zoe was supported by the presenters and Andrew Broxton who is the manager there. Full interview here. Zoe now updates BBC Shropshire regularly and joins Matt Elliot fortnightly for Active Shropshire (Tuesday 7pm – 10pm UK). |
| Ludlow Advertiser – Adrian Kibbler | Shropshire | Adrian has been kind enough to raise awareness for Cardiac Risk in the Young before. We understand this is a charity close to his heart. Thank you for running the world tour story Adrian – front page again! |
| Kate Carney | Cheshire | Zoe used to work for Kate and is forever grateful for the opportunity Kate provided in Zoe’s career. This relationship blossomed from a meal in York of all places! Kate was the first person to very kindly support the trip itself with a donation to us. |
| Gemma from Rab! | Bewdley | Jemma spotted us in Bewdley on our first day – we had a natter over lunch and days later Jemma kindly bought us a bottle of wine to keep us going! |
| Caroline | Evesham | Our AirBnb host in Evesham, a lovely lady who appreciated the value of living life to the full! |
| Peter & Mo Farnfield | Dorking | Our first experience of warmshowers.org! An interesting person who kindly put us in touch with a contact in Kyrgyzstan. |
| Hilary and Barry | Charing | Hilary & Barry – AirBnB hosts who went the extra mile! Lovely to chat to, clothes washed, meals cooked and a poorly knee put right with some good first aid! |
| Eva-Rose | Dunkirk | Our first french breakfast – most adequate for a day of cycling! Home cooked pancakes, croissants, fruit and chocolate. A perfect start to the day! |
| Arnaud Boisleux, Luc Brunet, Caroline Brunet & co! | Arras | In Arras it feels like we made friends. Arnaud was our warmshowers.org host and he introduced us to his friends. We enjoyed wine, dinner and cheese with this group. They helped us tremendously while we nursed a bad ankle – and they even gave us cycling kit to help us on our way. |
| Raphael | Livry-Gargan (near Paris) | Our AirBnb host in Livry Gargan. We stayed with Raphael for a few nights – he allowed us to post a back light to his house. Typically the light arrived the day we left! Raphael kindly posted it to Baptise in Carpentras. |
| Ursula | Chartrettes | Ursula was a brilliant warmshowers host! She could speak 3 languages!! She gave us a bed, a meal and a shower! We hope to stay with Ursula again |
| Ouiza | Chevillon-sur-Huillard | We stayed with Ouiza for one night, we had full access to her home! She cared dearly for her husband and made sure we had everything we needed. We’ll hopefully stay with Ouiza again! |
| Valerie | Decize | When we arrived to Valerie’s AirBnB it was COLD! Our room was so warm and cosy and the next day she set us up with a brilliant breakfast! |
| Veronique | Paray-le-Monial | Veronique has an AirBnB. On our way we realised we had no food for the evening…and everything was closed as it was Sunday. Veronique kindly cooked us a 3 course dinner and a breakfast for a small price. |
| Patrick & Claire | Lyon | We were connected with Patrick and Claire via Luc in Arras. What a wonderful stay! We had such a fantastic time in Lyon! We were so lucky to meet such wonderful people. |
| Benjamin | Beausemblant | Benjamin was a fantastic warmshowers host. We enjoyed pizza and travelling tales, we had breakfast the next morning then as we had such a short day planned we ended up staying for lunch too – asparagus, lamb and potatoes and strawberries – a delicious Easter Sunday dinner! |
| Genevieve and Francois | Saint-paul-trois-chateaux | Here we had a lovely night and morning full of giggles and sharing stories despite the language barrier. We left with some excellent food-tips thanks to Genevieve and Francois. |
| Baptise | Carpentras | Basptise was great! He took the delivery from Raphael so we collected our bike light! The evening was spent chilling! |
| Anissa | Manosque | Another AirBnB room – Anissa drove about 2 miles to find us as we couldn’t find her home. We cooked in her kitchen then in the morning we were offered a generous breakfast – she then gave us her homemade brioche to take with us. |
| Islabikes & Steve Champman | Shropshire | Zoe’s first proper bike was an Islabike and she fell in love with cycling on this bike. She also did JOGLE on it. Without the Beinn29 we wouldn’t be doing this trip today. When Islabikes shared our journey to raise awareness for CRY we were so happy! |
| Cristina and Ghulam | Genoa | A wonderful AirBnB stay – we slept well, had a shower and washed all of our clothes! Breakfast was generous and Cristina sent us on our way with extra croissants and fruit for the road. |
| Sharon | England | Sharon kindly sent £10 to our PayPal account – she asked we spend it wisely – on a beer to be enjoyed! |
| Marko | Sezana | Marko was an AMAZING warmshowers host! We were so happy to stay with Marko as we hadn’t stayed with anyone for DAYS! Of course we had a shower, a bed and a meal, but what really made the stay was that we left with a whole new itinerary for the trip! Marko rerouted us through Slovenia, and visiting Croatia, Bosnia… instead of Hungary / Serbia. |
| Samo Mesac & Rok Mesac | Planina | We were so grateful for a roof over our heads on this day as it was incredibly windy and cold! We contacted Samo on warmshowers.org. It turned out Samo was not at home, so instead connected us with his son, Rok. |
| Barbara | Vrhnika | We stopped at a cafe to get some comfort and a hot drink. Barbara who served us in the cafe gave us the most perfect service! The hot chocolate was the best we’d had – Stew tried a white one and a milk one! In the background she was playing some 90s music which I enjoyed and she spoke English very well too! |
| Jernej | Vrhnika | We started talking to Jernej at Barbara’s cafe. He cycled and was part of a cycling group who toured. He spotted our bikes outside and we got talking. This year he was hoping to cycle in Iran. When we told him we were heading to Croatia he offered us a place to stay- unfortunately we weren’t going past his home! This wasn’t the last of his offers … as we were saying our goodbyes and I was just about to step onto my bike Jernej asked us to wait … he came back from his van with a gift for the road, some chorizo! |
| Gorazd Kalan | Skofja Loka | We found Gorazd on warmshowers. We arrived to his home later than expected and we had been in the rain ALL day – we were soaked!Gorazd and his family have been in for many years and Gorazd knows a lot about the area – the history, the town and the good places to eat! He took us out for pizza! |
| Dana | Cres (Croatian Island) | We booked an place on booking.com and it just so happened to be with the sweetest host! Dana was lovely! She left wine, snacks and a Cres magnet. She gave us a kiss and a hug before we left. A huge language barrier, but still we managed to say a lot. |
| Bija | Bar, Montenegro | Another AirBnB stop that happened to be more special than we expected. Bija, I think was the manager at this holiday home. On arrival we were presented with coffee and cake. The next morning, although breakfast wasn’t listed we sat with Bija and her friends and enjoyed a light breakfast before we headed out. |
| Alion | Bajram Curri, Albania | Alion waved us down as we looked confused. He spoke great English as he’d lived in London before. Alion became our tour guide, he helped us into our hotel, then later than evening took us for a stroll through town helped us with our shopping and food etc. |
| Abdullah Jupa, Shkelzen Tupa & co. | Has, Albania | Abdullah came to our rescue when Stew had his crash in Albania. He organised for a van to take Stew to a safe place. He took us to a restaurant/hotel where we stayed of 4 nights. The staff in this hotel were amazing!The next day he introduced us to Shkelzen who gave us a tour of Has that we will never forget.
There were other people at the crash who I wish I could thank again. |
| Pharmacist | Has, Albania | A wonderful pharmacist gave Stew treatment for his knee free of charge and dressed his wound so he could get back on the bike. |
| Konrad & Brooke Benjamin | Prizren, Kosovo | We met Brooke and Konrad in a hostel in Prizren. An Australian couple travelling the world. We found them inspiring and fun! We’ve been following their travels on Instagram. W love what they do and how they travel! |
| Scott and Sof | Bulgaria | We bumped into Scott and Sof during a walking tour. We ended up going for lunch together. We sat in a restaurant in Plovdiv, Bulgaria for hours chatting away. |
| Anna Hegeneberg | Turkey | Anna shared a few miles with us on the way to Istanbul. She carried on all the way into Istanbul and arrived very late! We decided to “play it safe” and called it a night hours earlier. |
| Behiç Çelebi & co. | Kastamonu, Turkey | Behiç was a warmshowers host who was such a gem! He met us in the rain, took our baggage so we could cycle to his house weightless. We had a shower, a bed for the night and Behiç pushed the boat out by introducing us to his wonderful friends and taking us out for dinner. |
| Phillip from Germany | Along the Black Sea, Turkey | We cycled a few miles along the Black Sea with Phillip who was heading to Georgia then Russia. |
| Mustafa | Rize, Turkey | A warmshowers host who gave us more tea than we could drink! A great host with a lovely cafe who were well accustomed to meeting cycle tourists. |
| Ozgur & Co. | Ordu, Turkey | Ozgur came to our rescue as we were looking for a hotel in Ordu. He took us for tea and introduced us to his friends. We spent the evening together and ended up staying in the home of Onur who happened to be a couch surfing host. |
| The people in Turkey – just everyone | Turkey | Turkish hospitality is better than we could ever imagine! To the gas stations who plied us with tea, the man who bought my fruit at the market because I was a guest, the cafe that let us fix our bike there. Just the people in general – thank you for stopping to talk with us no matter how difficult the langue was. |
| Alex | Batumi, Georgia | Thank you Alex for sitting with us, ordering food and teaching us some Russian than has and will come in very useful! |
| Tati, Nino & co. | Saghrasheni, Georgia | We took a wrong turn into a village and stumbled upon wonderful people. Within half n hour we had a crowd of 10-15 people around us an invite to dinner and a place to stay. A night we will never forget. |
| Cyclists | Goderdzi Pass, Georgia | David from Czech Republic, Sam from the UK and Joseph and Karel Repa also for Czech Republic. Thank you for the chats, the advise and exchanges of money! |
| Naib Nebiyev at Seki Qonaq Evi | Sheki, Azerbaijan | Stew and I checked out of Seki Qonaq Evi and left behind the cable for my Garmin I was gutted! The staff kindly organised for my watch to be sent to Baku where it was collected b Tofiq who owns a bikeshop on warmshowers. |
| Tofiq | Baku, Azerbaijan | We started to talk to Tofiq on warmshowers before we arrived in Baku. When I lost my Garmin charger Tofiq went above and beyond to help! He collected the charger, paid delivery fees and got it back to us in one piece. We were so grateful. |
Post written by: Zoe Ashbridge
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