Dom & Phil's Bike Trip

…said Philip Ryan upon our arrival at Medjugorje.  Our friend Lucy from SPUC Scotland told us to look Philip up when we arrived, that he’d point us in the right direction.  And he certainly did!  He immediately sorted us with a really nice hotel for just 15 Euros each per night, including breakfast!  He invited us up the mountain with him too, but we slept past the 5.30am start.. to 9.30 – what a lie in!

The heat of Croatia and Bosnia really hit us both, Phil in particular.  (What a pansy!)  With highs of 40 degrees celsius (104 F) and mountains much bigger than we’d experienced in Italy, we didn’t make as much distance per day as we’d hoped.  We stopped half way from Split to Medjugorje in Gradac, and we found a campsite where you can stay in a caravan for just €5/night!  Fantastic, we thought – it even looked nice inside.  However, someone was waiting for us in there – with a ridiculous number of legs.  It was huge!  Phil to the rescue, although his scream was girlish enough when he realised that even after knocking one of his legs off, it kept running across my bed – that is, the leg, on its own!

We continued our cycle and met a lady who’d been cycling for two months all the way from Finland.  She told us her average mileage per day, we were put to shame.

We got to Medjugorje on Wednesday evening, in time to shower, go to Mass, have an amazing meal on Phil (thanks Phil!) – spaghetti, steak, and an ice cream.  Our second day, Thursday, we went to morning Mass, had a nice day relaxing, reading, washing clothes, and finally getting some rest.  In the evening, we went to confession, walked up Apparition Hill, saw the Statue of the Risen Christ, and had another good meal!  (Pizza this time – good pizza too!)  We met a man, John Codey/Cotey/? who’d fought in ‘Nam and every war since.  Many stories to tell, and better still, he bought us two pints of Guinness!  What a friendly man.  Another man who’d appreciate your prayers, I’m sure.

This morning – Friday – we were up at 5am for a walk up Mount Krizevac.  Hustling with tourists already – everyone knows to start so early to try to avoid the sun.  We were back down by 8am, and by 9am we were showered and fed and at the local radio station for an interview about our bike trip.  We did our best to advertise the sponsor page and the Youth 2000 website – hopefully we’ll reach out to a few more people!  (I’ve no idea how to find the interview on the internet, I’ll try next time.  Running out of internet time..)

Today we hope to get a bus back up to Split, to catch the ferry back to Italy and then start cycling again.  We can’t face those mountains again in this heat!

Finally, apologies for the lack of photos!  I (Dom) foolishly left my camera cable in the last internet cafe, so it’ll be a little while ’til we find another one.

3 minutes left, I’d better get this posted.  Thank you so much to everyone who has commented, emailed and texted – it’s great to hear from you all and feel your support.  Our prayers are with you all.

With best wishes, God bless,

Dom & Phil

Here are a few photos from our first week!

Dom and his boxed bike in Bristol Airport

Phil, Maria & Miriam in Vincenzo & Stefania's house

Dom, Phil, Maria & Miriam in St. Peter's Square

Nice view

Cave where St. Francis prayed

Dom

Giuseppe and Phil

Campsite in Francavilla

Leaving Pescara on the train

Tan lines

Hello Kitty icecream!

Also worth mentioning are Davida and Mike.  Davida we met just after a massive hill climb on the way to Francavilla-al-Mare.  While we weren’t sure quite what he was talking about, we followed him after he beckoned us and it turned out he wanted to buy us lunch – a pizza and Coke each – before leading us out of the town in the direction of Francavilla!  What a nice man he turned out to be.  Mike, a German we met here in the port of Ancona, has been travelling from the north of Germany for 13 months.  His travels included getting beaten up and stabbed as some Albanians tried to steal his German working papers, and then two weeks ago his bicycle was crushed by a forklift truck, so now he finds himself living in a homeless shelter in Ancona, eastern Italy, but amazingly, he seems in good spirits!  Sadly, the most we could do for him was share our food.  I think he could definitely do with prayers.

So far on the trip, we’ve cycled 191.4 miles since leaving St. Peter’s Square, Vatican, and achieved a top speed of 30.6mph.  (That was the speed at which Phil’s trailer started swinging violently from side to side, at least a ruler – 30cm – each way.)  And finally, top mileage for one day so far was 69.83mi on Sat 11th July.  All three records I’m sure we’ll beat in future!

Next update – who knows, hopefully fairly soon!

God bless, Dom

            So! As Dom has already mentioned just below – things got off to a tricky start. Rome didn’t want us to leave and she certainly made it difficult for us. Its a crazy driving system. (Even crazier, it works! Much better than in England…) the cars pull out and weave all over the road, its all really fluid, but it doesnt make an attractive prospect for cyclists.

            The hills as Dom mentioned were, well, hilly.. it left us feeling slightly demoralised at the end of the day. We had expected a great start but instead were forced to bite the bit and plough on sluggishly. At long last we pulled in to Rieti where we maanged to find the location of a community of Fransicans. One local pointed us in a vague direction behind him and told us it was 800 metres away. Fantastic, we thought. On rounding the corner and seeing what we had to climb it became apparent, however, he had meant 800 metres UPWARDS – not in metres cycled. Hmmm! We dug deep and hit the road. About a kilometre later we dismounted, our sweaty resolve utterly depleted and we treked on foot up the “hill” arriving about 40 mins later at the Fransicans. We were unfortunately too late to stay the night with them, but we noted that they said Mass first thing in the morning and pitched our tent in their car park. It felt pretty good! The car park was like a small plateau on this mountain and we were surrounded by pine trees and various forest foliage. The most beautiful thing were (bizarrely) these little insects Dom found - there were hundreds of them all over the place and they emitted little bright lights from their tail – floating in the air – flying here and there.  

            The next morning, after a beautifully sung Mass we were invited to have breakfast inside. We were seated with two other lads – a couple of years younger than usm – doing a sponsored walk. I really wish I could remember where to and from… However – they were both from Spain of all places, the younger of them, 18 I think, was applying for the priesthood.

            We were then lucky enough to get a guided tour of the monastery with a young novice. His name I think was Fabio – not much older than us. Dom has the photos of the tour which he will hopefully be able to upload after this post, we both felt really privileged to encounter the place where St Francis had written his rule all those many years ago to ‘rebuild’ the Church. It felt inspiring.

            The plan was then to head from Rieti to L’Aquila (either one ‘L’ or two…) We set out as soon as we could (They even gave us a bag of biscuits to munch on whilst we travelled!) After our gruelling ride the day before we were given mild relief in the form of some down hill glides. We also discovered that we couldnt glide too fast…our trailers would otherwise wobble horrifically. First Dom and then I had a nasty moment when we both thought our trailers would send us careering off of the road at 30mph. We lived and learnt!  Whilst taking a short nap under a tree by the side of the road – we met another well seasoned cyclist with just as much baggage on his panniers as we had on our trailers. His name was Giuseppe Orlando – he provided us with much fun for the next few hours. We were able to offer him some of our biscuits from the Franciscans and we agreed to cycle together for a while. We lost him downhill (he was able to travel far faster) and assumed we’d never see him again. On arriving at L’Aquila we stopped at a cafe for ice cream where lo and behold we met him again! Of all the places and out of all the cafes… We parted with the promise of seeing each other again in Francaville on the easternmost coast of Italy, just below Pescara, where he recommended to us a very good campsite. Just hours later we decided to stop for the night and pitch our tent (for free) outside a very hospitable motel style building. You’ll never guess who was already there? Giuseppe! A lovely surprise for us and him. We shared some fresh cherries and then parted ways the next morning. Alas, despite making it to Francaville we didnt meet Giuseppe again - we did however meet his ex-pupil, one of the ladies running the campsite we stayed in…! Bizarre coincidence!

On that note I gotta go – times a wasting and Doms about to post another – hopefully with pics etc. Tonight we hope to board a ferry to Croatia, fingers crossed.  Please keep Giuseppe and the Franciscan community in your prayers,

God Bless,

Phol

Our first post from the trip!!

On Tuesday 7th July 2009 we flew to Rome with the bikes to start our great adventure!  After lugging the boxes and bags from the airport across Rome, we stayed the night with two friends of Fr. Stephen Langridge’s – Vincenzo e Stefania.  Also staying there were Maria (Phil’s sister) and Miriam.  After a very pleasant evening, great food, enjoyable company and our last civilised sleep for a few weeks, we all headed into the Vatican for a photo, an ice cream, and the start of our trip!

We left Rome late afternoon Wed 8th, and not surprisingly, didn’t make it very far at all.  10 miles, in fact!  We slept in Rome Tiburtina train station – one at a time to keep an eye on bags – and got the first train in the morning to Fara Sabina – just outside Rome.  (We weren’t cheating – we simply couldn’t work out a route out of Rome without using a motorway!)

From Fara Sabina our journey really started.  Off we went towards Rieti, and hit an incredibly mountainous road.  This carried on the whole way, and for our first day of cycle touring, we really were put to the test.  On and on and on we pushed ourselves, and there seemed to be far more uphills than downhills.  After a hugely tiring day, we finally made it to Rieti, with enough light left to find somewhere to pitch our tent.

Sorry there are no photos to accompany this post!  The internet café computers won’t let me plug my camera in..

Phil continues in the next post!

Thank you all for your prayers!  Whenever we find ourselves starting to feel depressed with different challenges, things always seems to start to look up again.  God is definitely with us, as Phil will write about shortly..

Please do comment on this post or the next – we’d love to hear from you!

The next café we find, I’ll add photos.  (I’m afraid, Miriam, the video interviews you wanted us to take are simply too large files to put on the internet!  Sorry!)

All the best, Dom

The quiet before the storm…

Our time is quickly running out and at long last nearly everything is prepared!

Our inventory includes:

• Passport/ money
• 2 x bikes
• 2 x trailers + baggage
• 2 x people (Phil and Dom)
• Maps of Europe
• Bumbags – because it makes us look cool AND it stores our valuables – wallets/money/passport etc
• 12 x Cycling shorts and tops between us, roughly…
• Lots and LOTS of socks.
• 4 x Drinking flasks
• Puncture repair kits galore
• Inner tubes
• Pumps
• 2 x mobile phones
• Non-lycra clothes for looking acceptable in public
• Toothbrush/toothpaste/mouthwash/soap/shampoo/razors/flannel/pyjamas
• A generous three man tent. (I hope its generous enough, we’re both going to stink )
• 3 pairs of shoes between us
• A couple of sleeping mats

Doms teddy bear “Mr Sparkle”

And, lastly, the colossal  intercession of prayers on  YOUR part for our safety and for the Youth 2000 festival this August.

Thank you in advance for it, we really do need that most of all )

That about covers our list of ingredients, I think, so do keep donating (already donated? Heck – do it again!) via the webpage linked on this site and we’ll keep you guys updated as we travel, as and when we get the chance to.

Prayers,

Phil and Dom

Phil & Dom

I’d planned to post my next post – this post – once our fundraising reached £1000.  It took a while longer than expected, hence the past quiet month.  But at last, you’ve done it!

Thanks so much to all our supporters so far.  Including gift aid, the total raised at the moment is £1,230.76.  Not bad!!

Phil flies out to Rome with his bicycle on Wednesday.  I’ll spend a week with him and some other friends, having a guided tour and pilgrimage with Fr. Stephen Langridge.  I then fly home for a few days while Phil waits in Italy and I walk up Snowdon, then I rejoin him and we set off on Tuesday 7th July.  Exciting times!

It’s never too late to sponsor us!  We really do appreciate anything you can give, from the smallest amount upwards.  We’re putting a lot of effort into organising and doing the cycle, and to have your financial support for the charity would be great.  Here’s the link to the sponsorship page.

Youth 2000 are putting on a summer prayer festival retreat and hoping for 1,500 young retreatants.  It costs over £80,000 to organise and so we’re only able really to provide a fraction of that cost through sponsorship, but it all adds up.  Please also see the sponsorship page of six year-old Maria Toone, who’ll be completing a sponsored swim on the 4th July.

God bless, Dom & Phil

After some research into how best to carry my tent, clothes and other essentials, I bought one of these in February: an Extrawheel trailer.  It clips onto the back of my bike incredibly easily and makes luggage easier to carry than panniers.  (My bike, being a mountain bike, isn’t set up very well for panniers.)

After a few months of use and a couple of long trips testing it across different terrain – from off road tracks to London rush hour – it hasn’t let me down.

Phil was so impressed by it when he visited that he’s ditched his panniers from the last two expeditions – his new trailer arrived yesterday from Poland!

Welcome everyone to our blog!  Croeso i bawb i ein blog ni!

We’ve started this blog to keep all our friends, family and sponsors up to date on our progress, both in the lead up to and then during our cycle.

Please do check back frequently, or maybe set this as your homepage!  The address is www.catholicbiketrip.com – please do tell your friends!

For information on our trip, click the link to the ‘About the trip’ page to the right.  And to sponsor us, there’s another button a bit further down.  We’re raising money for Youth 2000 – yet another link further down again, where you can read all about their good work and get involved yourself with the retreats they organise!

So, stay tuned, we’ll be writing frequently enough!

God bless, Dom