Sustainable Transport
Bikepacking
Adventure
Planning:
I was wondering what to do at October half-term holidays and the idea formed to have a go at an off-road bikepacking trip where I carried all of my camping gear, stove and food on my mountain bike. Two friends that I had completed my silver DofE kayak expedition down the River Wye were up for the challenge too. We spent the next couple of weeks planning our trip. We devised the route- using the maps on Komoot and found a suitable spot to camp for the night near a river so that we could get freshwater if needed. We took water purification tablets with us. We thought about food, how to carry our equipment on our bikes (splitting the tent into 3 sections.) We persuaded our Outdoor Education teacher to lend us a stove for the trip.
Our Routes:
Day 1:
19.8 Miles
Day 2:
20.4 Miles
Checking the Weather:
Most importantly, we checked the Met Office Website for the weather. There were only 2 days that we were all available so we didn't have much choice. Unfortunately these were at the end of Storm Babet and there was an amber weather warning for torrential rain in Somerset. We assessed the risks and looked at our route and the riskiest bit was where we were going to camp by the river. Our route would take us past the spot earlier in the day so we knew we could check it then to see that there would be a spot that would be high enough over the river. We decided that we would be OK to continue with the expedition as planned.
How it went?
It was an amazing trip. We were slightly delayed the first day so we were still cycling in the dark but we had multiple torches. We put the tent up and cooked in the pouring rain and dark and it was good to get into the tent finally with some dry clothes. One of the tent poles snapped in the night. We did have some duct tape with us so we could have mended it but we weren't too keen to get out in the torrential rain! We survived the night, cooked breakfast and packed up and set off on day 2 (it was still raining)! We had chosen the route to go past a cafe for lunch and then it was just a few more hours cycling to our pickup point. We can't wait for our next trip when we plan to go for longer and hopefully we might get better weather!!
