A piece of advice I once received before embarking on my first tour cycling holiday, was to: get out all the items you’re going to need – then take half!
Fourteen years later this adage returned in spectacular fashion as our family stood gaping at the pile of clothes, toys, school work, tools and other camping accessories intended for bike panniers but resulting in glorious overloaded failure.
So back to the fluffy duvet cover we went; bags were emptied, the trailer unloaded and we channeled our magic powers towards a mountain of clothing in the hope of shrink-raying its larger garments -or at least running them through a hot wash.
Questions volleyed off the Spanish apartment’s interior: do we really need three pairs of socks each? is a trowel necessary? will two thermal tops be enough? and most importantly, would we be bad for taking a coffee plunger instead of the kids favourite toys??!!
Probably. But who can live without caffeine these days.
Adding to this was the concern, voiced from our eldest boy, that Santa’s delivery of padded cycling shorts reminded him of being in a nappy -perhaps we didn’t need the trowel after all.
But such are the joys of tour cycling. After several more attempts we finally managed to click the panniers shut. Bags were packed, the trailer was sorted, adult clothes limited, and as for the plunger? well that was packed too – back in the kitchen..
It’s only COFFEE, we reasoned.
Besides, who really needs a caffeine fix when you’ve got the buzz of tour cycling with your family…
popping the bubble 