Romanian George’s Tour.

Back in September ( http://anerleybc.org/thursday-ride-12-sept/ ) the Thursday Riders met up with a heavily laden cycle tourist. He was a Romanian named George Marcu and was on his way home after a mammoth bike ride from his home, around much of Europe going as far as Welsh Wales, and was now on his way back to Dover and onwards to home.

2013-09-12 12.45.43 (1)
He was invited to join our club riders for a cuppa and a chat about his adventures. When leaving to continue his journey to Dover and the ferry he promised to sent some information about his European tour. This he has recently done, including a map of his tour route which I have copied below.

map

The accompanying notes are from his Garmin created log, full details can be seen at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/390373830.
George’s total mileage for this European tour of several months was just over 6,985 miles. That is probably about 2 years cycling for many of us!
Naturally a self sufficient tour such as this requires a lot of luggage, as evidenced by his heavily loaded bike, in the first photo above. What these luggage bags hold can be seen in the 2 following photos, taken before he set off. The first being an assortment of clothing.

start

And the second, everything else!

paint1

The next shows his loaded bike at his first border crossing, the River Danube and thence into Bulgaria.

border

The Garmin log shows several large numbers. For example that George climbed a  total of 324,688 feet during his ride. The highest point being in the French Alps when he climbed up to a height of 8,638 feet, some ten times higher than the highest point of the North Downs at Botley Hill!

alp

I  don’t need to tell where this photo of George was taken!

And at the farthest point in his travels, or somewhere near to it is this photo taken along the Welsh National Cycle Route, part of which Tom Vaz and I cycled some three years ago.

wales

These are but a few of the many photos taken by George on his travels from the far east of Europe, and thru many countries to the west of the United Kingdom, and back via a circular route and many more places. His full photographic log can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/32068169@N06/sets/

So thank you George for sharing some of your travels with us.
Des.

2 thoughts on “Romanian George’s Tour.

  • November 8, 2013 at 7:50 pm
    Permalink

    Hi George,
    Thank you for sharing your photos, etc with us.
    I have done a write up for our club web site.
    If you did not see the original write up when we first met you in September see it here; http://anerleybc.org/thursday-ride-12-sept/
    The new item based on what you recently sent can be seen at
    http://anerleybc.org/romanian-georges-tour/

    Des of Anerley B.C.

    Hey Des!
    What a surprise in this morning! Recently, I’ve restarted my old job, sitting on a chair all day long, working with databases in front of a computer. What a stupid job 🙂
    But this morning I’ve started to smile, apparently without reason for my work colleagues. It’s your message.
    I feel flattered that you have written a story about my journey.

    It’s possible that next year or maybe two years from now to move in England. If that happen I would like to be present again between you, on a Thursday ride. And, who know, if you accepted people in your club outside of UK, maybe I’ll pay the tax to be a member :).

    I’ll send you the pictures taken at that rainy day when I get home.

    P.S. I apologize if I make too many mistakes in the language of Shakespeare, but I’m sure you understand what I’m trying to tell.

    Happy George

    Reply
  • December 7, 2013 at 9:58 pm
    Permalink

    well done George,nice to see you finished,that bike was so heavy,well done,be nice to see you back in England.

    Reply

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