Hi Duncan
You asked me to let you know how my plans went for my cycling camino - and I'm happy to tell you that is was great. I flew into Pamplona and put my bike together at the airport. I'm really happy I did this as it was only a 6km bike ride to town. I had booked a cheap hotel to stay at the first night as I was unsure if the albergue would be full or not and didn't want to risk it when I was arriving at 6pm. It turns out it wasn't full as I walked there later that evening to buy my Camino passport. The next morning I took my bike to the bike shop called Tienda Mundoraintxe on Nueva Street. The man's name there is Eneko Astigarraga. He was great and confirmed for me that I'd put my bike together ok. These are the details of the bike shop if anyone is interested:
mundoraintxe@mundoraintxe.com
http://www.mundoraintxe.com
Nueva 123 - 31001 Pamplona
Teléfono: +34 948 213033
I looked around the city and then took two easy days to bike to St Jean Pied de Port on the road. In St Jean Pied de Port I again visited a bike shop (It's situated in a sports shop called Maya Sport on 18 Av du Jai Alai, ph 0559371598 email
maya.loisirs@wanadoo.fr) where Jean adjusted my gears for me.
I then started off on my cycling trip from SJPP to Santiago. I did not want to cycle on the road I'd already been on from Pamplona so cycled on the walkers path to Roncesvalles and I'm so pleased I did. The views were spectacular and it didn't matter that I had to get off and push my bike at times. I only cycled between 30km and 70km a day on the Camino as I liked to relax in the afternoons. I left my bike in Santiago to walk the last 90km to Finisterre and then took the bus back to Santiago.
I had difficulty buying a guide book in English for the Camino del Norte but I was able to buy Michellan maps which were great. I then I biked from Santiago along the coast to France. This route I did completely on road as I couldn't find the camino path going backwards. I stayed in albergues most nights on the Camino del Norte although on a couple of nights they were full so I stayed in cheap pensions/hostals. Incidentally I never had problems finding accommodation in albergues in July on the
Camino Frances. After finishing the Camino del Norte I then decided to extend my trip and biked on the French side to SJPP to stay in the albergue in which I'd started off my Camino (L'Esprit du Chemin). I then kept cycling on the Pyreneese to see the scenery on some of the Cols and finally had to bike to Toulouse to fly back to Timor.
I had two punctures during my trip - one on the first day going to Roncesvalles and the next leaving Pamplona a few days later. For the next few weeks I didn't have any mechanical problems which was lucky as I'd never changed a tube before this trip nor had I ever put my bike together.
I really appreciated all the help and support I received from this forum from people who had done the camino before - so thanks for this.
Cheers,
Rachael