Bikelife Bram

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Trouble shooting

My time in Italy has been great and absolutely demanding so far! A couple of days ago I woke up and all the energy left my body. A truly scary feeling, because the day before I had a great day on the bike.

It must have been a combination of the intensity of long bike days in a row and the heat, above 35 degrees Celcius sometimes. My body decided I needed to rest, but it would’ve been nice if it gave me a hint before… I rested the whole day on a bench, went to tent early an the next day I could ride again – altough I didn’t had much power to conquer the bigger hills.

This ‘jour sans’ is now a few days ago, and still I didn’t got all of my power back yet. It teaches me, again and again, that it’s not me who’s in charge of everything, I just have to follow the rules of nature.

Also, last week I felt lonely for the first time. I missed longer conversations, I missed company to share my daily life with. That’s why I went to a camping, where I met two Dutch couples. We had a great evening together and it cleared my mind. I called the days after with my friends and family, which also helped me a lot. 

Then there was this week when everything broke down, twice my bike, my sleeping mat is useless now, a cycle bag lost a bolt, my credit card stopped working. Riding a bike is riding from problem to problem.

 At the positive side: the landscapes are great, my routing is amazing – I’ve been on tiny roads without traffic in the mountains, weather is great, I feel comfortable while camping and I’m having the best nights of sleep. 

But there’s something in my mind that tells me that I should think of a date when I should stop this tour for a while. It will put things more in perspective and that could be very helpful.