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 Day1: We set off on the 1st of April on our bikes to Disley from Manchester. In Disley we got the train to Buxton, we told the inspector we were on a mission from God to get to Thailand without spending a penny. From Buxton we cycled through the dales and spent the night on the moor. Day2: Morning time we cycled to Derby, up and down hills, breaking our kneecaps. Derby, we stowed away again giving the inspector the same schpeel taking us to London Euston. After arguing together about sleeping on the street we finally sneaked through an open barrier onto a lucky train to Dover. We told the inspector we lost our tickets in the swiping machine and he laughed. We got on the ferry tired and that cost 8 pounds each (the only payment of the cycle-ride). Calis train station we jumped on the train hoping it was the right direction (south or east) but mostly hoping there was no inspector. There was an inspector so we made journeys of two stops ish all the way to Lille flanders. Off the train we cycled to Roubaix and because we were so shattered, crashed in the doorway arguing about taking turns on watching the saddlebags every hour. Day3: On our wake we continued east keeping the sun in our face all the way across the Belgium boarder -no passport control. We Cycled all the way to Tournai where there was a big castle called Notre-dame. We sneaked on the Train there to Brussels telling the inspector Pardon monsieur nous pas avec la assion pour le destination; but he spoke good English and understanding or predicament let us ride for free. He shrugged his shoulders and now were in Brussels writing this on someone's computer who let us stay the night they treated us like family. We're cycling to Maastricht 100 kilometres away so as not to feel like cheats. Day4: After deciding weather to travel on the train for a few hours we finally agreed to finish Belgium with a cycle ride to the Netherlands, We arrived in Maastricht and what a bland isolated poor place it was. We went to the train station from the city centre and were taken in by a lovely couple who fed us and gave us some food and stuff for or journey. Day5: In the morning we took the train to Germany where we thought it might be warmer, our plan to head south towards the equator. The train took us to Aachen, the train inspectors were very strict and good at their job, the people around us saw we were travellers and reported us to whatever authority they could every chance they could. This took our morale down. We made it to Cologne and on the way to Frankfurt were kicked out by a Nazi ticket inspector who called the police because of my rowdy travel companion who luckily had acquired a ticket. We were forced to sleep in a weird town called Aschaftenburg in the garage of a construction site. Day6: We were very pleased at our gas burner, as it had lasted a long time without running out. However our other equipment was letting us down, our cloths were muddy, dusty and smelly and this was clearly unacceptable in Germany where even the tramps had ironed shirts. A small design change in the Sleepcatcher was requested as they were getting wet through its usual container, new catchers would be created by the manufacturers in America more suitable for our climate. Regardless of the problems we continued to Warburg then Weiden where it became sunny. We cycled to the border of Czech republic filled our water bottle from a crystal pure water trough made a fire put the sleepcatchers up and slept in the beautiful mountain forest. This was a day and night I'll never forget. Day7: In the hills it was freezing, our sleeping bags and cloths had let us down and the forest had insulated the cold. Our journey was on pause as we left without adequate publicity, so the following journey was not valuable enough to risk our skin. We had reached our 6th country on our 7th day without spending a penny (apart from the ferry £8). We had run out of food and were eating nettles soup which was very nourishing but were considering using the Sleepcatcher bow for the first time. We had decided to head to Munich to get a flight to Minorca, which is where Chris now works until I can get adequate coverage, and enhance our equipment. If you wish to know more about the journey type into the box on the home page and click send (giving your contact information) daniel@sleepcatcher.com |
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