Hello everyone, I know it seems Santiaciclo’s project was on halt, but I started this September 21st in Roncesvalles (between Spain and France) and finally got to Fisterra (NW of Spain) on October 29th, more than 900km of the official St.James’ Way pilgrimage and more than 980km in total.
It has been a bit difficult because I’ve done everything alone and my backpack was 13kg, even 16kg on some stages, along with 3kg for everything I was wearing and 8kg of a KH29 with 3,5 pressure, mudguard, lights, reflectants and a HS33 brake.
Anyway it has been amazing, I had a wonderful time and however I got many accidents and I was nearly runned over plenty of times, because in many places I had to cross roads with no roadside, fog, storms and even at night.
But I had survived and here I am, not bad for an amateur unicyclist who started last year’s march. I hope you’ll like my chronicles and the website http://www.santiaciclo.com, the photos on the Picasa’s site https://picasaweb.google.com/109397563325289191792 and the 3D videos as soon as I have time for that.
Thank you very much and please remember it’s has been done for 3 NGOs, please donate or tell your friends and family to do so. Next year I have more adventures waiting for me, so stay tuned
I rode the Camino de Santiago when I lived in San Sebastian, 1990-91.
Did you start in St. Jean de Luz?
What hostels and churches did you stay in? I especially enjoyed the old monastary just over the Pyrenees, those slanted floors are funky, definitely gives you a sense of the age of the place.
I rode a bike, it rained a lot, colder than you’d expect for Spring.
Do you remember the Roman calzada as you leave the Pyrenees? Just wild thinking that you’re riding on a road built over a thousand years ago.
Thanks I started in Roncesvalles, the first town in Spain. That place where you stayed was surely Roncesvalles also.
There are many Roman calzadas along the way. In fact, many of the roads in Spain are old roman paths transformed. Just below where I live there are many roman and arab ruins. Strangely no old civilization ghosts came to haunt the building
During the journey unfortunately I had an accident just the first day falling from some stairs in the middle of a forest (wtf) so I didn’t take many photos the first 2 days because I was a bit worried with my leg. I rested 1 day in Pamplona and everything was far better then.
I stayed in many places, mainly youth hostels and even one day I was riding alone in the middle of a storm with 100km/h winds. It was really cool/dangerous/stupid to cycle in the forests while trees were falling but hey, I had to try that.
That is some impressive distance on an ungeared and relatively small wheel, with no handlebar! Helps to remind me that amazing things can be done without all this extra crap I’ve accumulated for riding…
Well, I have a lot of extra “crap” at home 5 Unis, 8 saddles, T-Bar, Shadow handle, lights, cycle computers… but for this journey the best set-up for me was a 29" without handlebar.
If it were on roads I would have used a 36 with handlebar for sure, but it was mainly offroad so using a handlebar was a bit dangerous (just look at this uphill part)
I also had a LOT of extra stuff with me, 3 cameras, water sensors, air sensors, 20 batteries for all my gadgets, solar battery, trekking pole, monopod… Here you can see me with all my gear.
And this was my 29" muni “Holmie” at the end returning home, it looks like a war muni
