I have the double-edged luxury of being self employed. I haven’t had a holidy (proper) for a good couple of years. The 20th of April to the 20th of May next year are now set in stone as Jamie’s Oddysey.

In my long departed youth, I spent huge chunks of my life cycling round the British Isles with naught but a tent, bag and Primus for company. I miss it and the oddesy is an attempt to redress the current situation – only, now, I can probably afford to go further afield.

Where would you go and why?

Come ride the South Island of New Zealand, ok the weather may be a tad cool in september but speaking from experience it was the most enjoyable 6 weeks i can remember.also we drive on the left, speak English and brew reasonable beer and make great wine. food is inexpensive,coffee excellent and people accommodating and interesting.
HTH

Oh May you say? yeah thats about the same as september, my bad.

Get the ferry to mainland Europe and just ride where ever the fancy takes you.

Or, there’s a waymarked long distance VTT trail that runs 600kms from the Central Massif to the Cote d’Azur.

speak English

Are you sure about that? 😉

long distance Oz there are a few that you could do. One from the Flinders to Adelaide in South Australia mainly off road and lots of singletrack and wineries or route
Mawson Trail

Ride GR5 fron Lake Geneva to Nice. 400km of alpine singletrack…

I’d be tempted to head to the US & do some of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route

I would go for the European option. In a month you could see many countries and cultures. Far more interesting than one of the colonies 🙂

eruope for sure. Too many choices.

Far more interesting than one of the colonies

don’t you live in one of the colonies TJ? 😛

But I agree, if you want variety in anything other than the scenery then avoid Oz and NZ- parts of the US would be interesting – well to me at least- west coast from California heading north, and the north east. Europe, or if that feels too familiar how about Vietnam or Japan. Actually Japan’d be a great ride I think- intersting culture, friendly people, lots to look and wonder at, low risk of losing bike/being mugged etc.

Bolivia … then you can tell me all about it.

agree with TJ.

Europe has more variety packed into 1,000 miles than you get in 3x as much space in the US or Oz.

http://pompinos.blogspot.com/
our 2.5 month “odyssey”.
Fantastic trip across Spain and France.

If I had a month “off” from wife and son (not that I’d want to of course 😉 ) I would pack a bivvy bag and a 40l rucksack and do a summer walk the length of the pyrenees or across the alps from west to east.

As it is, the family just load up the VW and disappear for a month or two once or twice a year. We’re off on Sunday for the month of May to Spain and France. Cant shake the wanderlust after that pompino trip.

I’ve got a trip planned that I’d like to do once in my life. I’ll take a van and a couple of bikes and take the ferry from Scotland to Sweden and basically drive and ride through Europe and get my way back here (San Sebastian) via loads of diffent riding in Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France. I reckon it’ll take a month or a bit longer.

I’ve always wanted to do Hannibals journey from Southern Spain, across the Pyrenees, southern France and down into Italy via the Alps. Although I reckon it would take 3 months.

doug – you’d definitely need longer than a month.

We’ve done a lot of “roadtrips” in Europe over the last few years and have found that it’s too easy to underestimate the amount of time you “lose” travelling, chilling and getting to know the best bits to ride in any given area. And it’s a very long way from Sweden to San Sebastien 🙂

Yeah Stoner, a month is really just to tell the girlfriend, I think I’d string it out for a bit longer 😀 It would have to be either after of before the season here so would need some planning to avoid the snow. At the moment it’s just circles on a map anyway but something to aim for before I’m too old…

Where are you off to in Spain and France?

How long would it take you to ride the GR5 do you reckon?

will be driving past you on Monday/Tuesday next week on the way to Luchon (AQR, sorry 🙂 )

A week with Ms Potter, then a week at th eothe rend of the pyrenees in an area I know quite well above Quillan, followed by a couple of weeks in the Cevennes.

I love the look of your stuff on Larun. Maybe next year 🙂

Of course, if you did want to stay at home, I’ll be doing 14 or 15 days riding from Fort William to the north coast of Scotland, almost all off-road, camping along the way, and I’m be looking for like-minded folk to come along…

Ha Ha! No prob’s, not touting for business I was just interested! 😀

I hope that you have a great week with AQR and enjoy the rest of your holiday!

will do – already demob happy 🙂

richc – about 3 weeks I think with a few rest days etc. I think Ash from Trail Addiction has done it.

Very High on the list of things I want to do.

just found the STW article online and they said 3 weeks as well.

Hmmm, definitely something to aim to do.

13thfloormonk – Member

Of course, if you did want to stay at home, I’ll be doing 14 or 15 days riding from Fort William to the north coast of Scotland, almost all off-road, camping along the way, and I’m be looking for like-minded folk to come along…

when?

Next May probably.

I postponed it from this year but am now regretting it, one of the guys from work is walking some of the route and i’m very jealous!

can send a memory map/gpx file if you’re interested.

Whoops – totally forgot I started this thread! Loads of grand ideas here and plenty to think on.

Pretty much every post makes me think, ‘Ah! That’s the one’, so it may take me a while to decide.

Europe might be best, as has been said, in terms of practicality and diversity of scenery. I’ve cycled fair swathes of Frnca and Spain, including the Pyrenees and loved every second of it.

Japan is certainly worth thinking about – my wife taught English there for two years (before I knew her) and reckons it’s a great place to be if you don’t have to work there 😕

13thfloormonk – I’ve done a few long distance walks in Scotland and spent quite a lot of my time thinking, ‘This would be fantastic on a bike’, so may well be up for that – have you got a route sorted already?