Cycling to the Dolomites

Me and Mike awaiting the first bit of rain while running/cycling in Zimbabwe

Whilst going through some pretty testing times on my run across Africa, myself and Mike had to find positive things to occupy our minds and prevent us from killing ourselves or each other.  We decided to plan an adventure for the next year (2015). Our main priorities were that it had to be stress free, and focused around doing things that we love and make us happy.  Thankfully, me and Mike are both passionate about very similar things.  Coffee, cheese, wine, rock climbing, adventure, the great outdoors, camping, cycling etc.  It's a good job we aren’t passionate about diamonds, hotels and spas as we are both pretty skint also!

We decided that we should organise a climbing trip.  Considering that we are both very short of cash, it has to be a budget climbing trip.  As we are also after an adventure, what better way to get to a climbing destination than by cycling there.  I have always wanted to try via ferrata, and from what I have heard, The Dolomites is the best place to go.  So this is how our adventure has begun.  Many hours of planning, brain storming and dreaming while running/riding across Africa.

As it stands at the moment, there are three main aims of our trip:

• Cycling
• Climbing
• Coffee

We have a lot of planning still to do and we are by no means experts on any of the 3C's!  I am hoping that I will regularly update this blog with information about our preparation and also throughout the trip, that way we can get help and advice from more experienced folk.  

So far, the route we are thinking about taking will go to the Dolomites through Belgium, Germany and Switzerland and we will return to the UK going through France.  We intend to keep up our climbing endurance on the way to Italy by doing multi pitch routes and via ferrata, hoping this will prepare us for the 29+ pitch climbs we want to get up.  Then on our way back, head to some classic locations in France for bouldering and climbing.