Flat ride in flat white heaven

The coffee theme runs strongly through our rides, and the blog. So here’s a real treat, a short, flat circuit great views and some of the best flat whites you’ll drink anywhere.

The only possible snag is you have to start at the Te Papa museum in Wellington, New Zealand, and ride south around the harbour. The chances are you will either be battling your way into a gale or speeding along with the pedals idling. They don’t call it Windy Wellington without good reason.

Heading south around the harbor - its always windy

Keep south till you come to Lyall Bay where the wind will certainly be making its presence felt, turn right and a short way along, park up by the Maranui, one of Welly’s classic indie coffee houses where the food is great and the coffee strong.

 

At the Maranui - great coffee here

Caffienated up? Well, keep riding along the coast and keep going until you see the Bach. It’s only about 10k, raised up above the road, with a terrace overlooking the sea. It’s a bit rough and ready, but that’s the mark of the great Wellington café tradition. Here the full kiwi breakfast will set you up – along with another flat white.

 

"The works" at the Bach 

Did you have a horror of a headwind? Smile because you now head back to Lyall Bay but after passing the Maranui, keep straight on towards the airport. If you are in need of a quick caffeine lift, you will pass the Spruce Goose before running parallel with the planes taking off and then ducking beneath the runway.

There’s a little hill as you leave the airport but that’s about as tough as it gets. The coast road around Worriser Bay is a delight but look out for the sign that says watch out for penguins…but seriously, watch out for the penguins.

Watch out for the penguins crossing!

As you come back towards the city, there’s another top stop at the Chocolate Fish. It’s easy to spot because there’s a host of old bikes for children to belt about on while the oldies are downing another great coffee. There are some pretty gory looking cakes here too.

Pass the other end of the runway and keep following the bay beside the collection of wind driven sculptures. At the giant needle, turn right and before you know it you will have clocked about 45km and at least three flat whites.

If you aren’t on a high, you’d better order an extra shot in each coffee next time around.

Back in the city centre, the DeLuxe is another stop for a caffeine infusion

Great coffee, great volume too when its served in bowls like this

Cuba cycling - hurry, it's not too late

A bike ride in Cuba? What would that be like? Well, how about having  the chance to ride safely along a motorway. The opportunity to pick up hitchhikers (seriously!).  To ride with hummingbirds at your elbow and chat with a cigar-smoking cowboy on a horse as you progress side by side.

All that was a few years ago. December 1999, the very end of the last century. I can’t vouch for the same experiences today – though I doubt things have changed very much. But it will soon, now the atmosphere between Cuba and the US is thawing.

I flew with my bike into Havana with Cubana Airlines for some local colour en route and stayed a few days in Havana, my Roberts Clubman safely parked and locked to my bed. Then off along the Malecon, the beautiful road curving round the bay, lined with tall white buildings, once casinos and classy hotels. Before long, things go wrong and I am on the ramp down to the motorway. There’s a soldier at the bottom, bound to stop me. But no, he’d like a lift on the rear carrier – so would the other people waiting there.

 

People waiting for a lift - even the back of my bike will do

Off down the motorway, not a car to be seen. The local bike club joins me and we chat as we cruise along. They show me my exit – unsignposted but it is the right one. The lack of signposting everywhere means regular map reading, and the frequent need to ask the way. I am heading west, towards Viñales. The road is pretty good, the views great. People wave, whistle and call out as I pass.

Diary entry from Bahia Honda: Now I am sitting in a rocking chair in front of my Casa Particular (b&b). The bike is in the back yard with the cooking pot. In the street in front of me the neighbours are noisily playing dominoes. There are pigs, chickens and dogs all around. The sounds from neighbouring houses drift into the evening air – there can’t be many secrets here. The family chat away and I keep smiling and nodding though I haven’t much of a clue what they are saying. I guess this is the real Cuba.

 

Señor and Señora, my first Casa Particular hosts

The smooth road from Bahia Honda to La Mulata was one of the loveliest I had seen at the time and still is. In the distance, hazy blue mountains as the road wanders between palms and trees whose huge limbs form a canopy over the road. Among them are small homes and farms growing tobacco, coffee, sugar, melons, grapefruit, bananas and rice with oxen dragging ploughs through watery meadows.

I pass a coffee plantation and only when I stop, hear the laughter and chatting of the pickers at work. At a house round the corner beans are being roasted, the smell…ahh, the smell!

 

En route from Bahia Honda 

One of the loveliest roads I have cycled along

At every junction there’s a crowd waiting for a lift and every time I stop to ask the way, I have to turn down the opportunity of picking up a passenger. Not all roads are smooth, I cover extra kilometres dodging round potholes but as the traffic is scarce and generally noisy, it’s not a problem to be on the wrong side.

Heading back towards Havana, a guy on a chinese Flying Pigeon bike (like the Model T Ford, they are all black) ducks like a racer into the tuck position and sits on my wheel for miles as we head into wind. Now we’re passing a guy with a chicken hanging by its feet from his handlebars quietly clucking away.

 

Strange rock art along the road near Viñales

Rocky landscape and homes near Viñales

Tropical nights with downpours, exotic trees and plants, noisy birds and hungry mosquitoes, “son” music drifting in the warm, humid air, the sound of chattering voices in the distance. Hotel staff fast asleep in easy chair in the reception area – ah! Cuba!

Riding into Havana, I am hot, gritty, sticky, stinky. A motorcycle cop on a Moto Guzzi stops me. Speeding? No, he’d like my sweaty mitts. In Havana I swopped some water bottles with the bike taxi guy in exchange for a chance to drive his bike with him as passenger.

Cuba, a place to go cycling? Well it was great when I went. Havana is amazing. The countryside stunning. The people totally friendly and always after “souvenirs”. The food (then) pretty awful – lots of rice. Would I go again? Yes, certainly. However, on the way home I wrote: “the next bike ride should be in the first world, not the second or third. Austria has to be the number one cycling country”

 

Taxi guy with my water bottle - I gave him a ride in his taxi

Log

505km

Route

Havana, Quiebra Hacia, Bahia Honda, La Mulata, La Palma, Viñales, Pons, Cabezas, Piñar del Rio, Candelaria, Soroa, Las Terrazas, Meriél, Havana

Coffee

Everywhere, bold, black caffeine in tiny cups

You said it!

Condemn me. It is of no importance. History will absolve me – Fidel Castro’s self defence speech before the court in Santiago de Cuba, October 1953

Friendly people everywhere

Grimming - gorgeous not grim

The Grimming, 2350m colossus

Riding round the Grimming, a huge colossus of rock, 2350m high lording it over the Enns valley, is a circuit we have never left until so late in the year – but what a spectacle!

It wasn’t promising at first: 2^oC and a thick blanket of cloud. No sign of the Grimming. But soon the giant began to make its presence felt, the cloud broke up within minutes revealing snow-capped peaks and grey, bare rock above a riot of golds, yellows and greens on the lower flanks.

The circuit follows tiny roads  with little traffic. The Enns valley is around 600m and the route climbs out of Irdning to 850m in sharp stages through woods. It runs through the meadows of the higher valley to Bad Mittendorf then swings left down to the Salza Reservoir.

The Salza Reservoir a blaze of colour

“Reservoir” sounds pretty bland. The Salza river once ran through a steep narrow gorge now flooded behind a 50m high dam. The water is so clear and still, that peering down, you could be looking into a tree-lined abyss. The reflection of the autumn trees doubles the impact of the sun on the glowing golds, browns, reds and green.

A barrier blocks the way. The route is marked as a bike route but signposted forbidding traffic or hikers. The road surface is sometimes broken, rocks sometimes tumble from the towering cliffs on one side of the track. On the other side, the water, with a fence often broken and rotten. But you can ride through – probably at your own risk.

 

The water so clear - it's like peering into a tree-lined abyss

A couple of short, dark tunnels bring the track to the dam and from there, after a short sharp climb its back to the Enns valley in a winding, steep descent.

As you ride round the mountain, there are views of the Grimming from every angle. This is no mountain for a Sunday afternoon stroll. But from below, its grey walls, topped with a dusting of snow against the blue sky, and the colour spectacular on its lower slopes, make it a great autumn circuit.

 

Coffee on board - in a flask in the bottle holder

Log

64km 721 altitude metres. Start and finish: Pruggern

Coffee

In a flask in my bottle holder

You said it!

 As a kid, I had a dream – I wanted to own my own bicycle – John Lennon

(I had the same dream but had to wait till I was 30)

The Grimming  from the road towards Bad Mittendorf

Near Bad Mittendorf - the mountain is ever present

Profile of the circuit clearly shows the steep climb out of Irdning

Autumn riding

Kitzsteinhorn from the far side of the Zeller See

5^oC. Feels even colder. Gloves, beany over the ears, over-the-knee shorts. Setting off on a crisp morning, cranking up the speed to get warm. Chill wind gnawing at the cheeks. Autumn riding gets you going.

Classic autumn picnic spot beside the Pillersee

As the day warms so do the extremities – or is it just the blood racing up and down? Ease up a little. Enjoy the view. Mountains flaunting their craggy cliffs in the crystal air. Sugar-coated tops glisten against the bright blue sky. Dark green evergreens on the flanks are spiked with gold flashes as the intermingled broadleaf trees turn.

As the cycling season draws to a close and the snows gather in the distance ready to close the bike routes altogether, there is an urgency in the air. Just let me get a few more rides in. Almost any weather will do.

But it is becoming less likely we will manage much more – last year’s totals remain unchallenged. We’ve had some great runs. Thoughts begin to turn to winter sports…and where we will ride to next year.

At the end of the ride, it is still chilly but we are warm, content, feeling the benefit of those endorphins that tell you, it’s great to ride out on a cold, autumn morning.

Coffee

Back home. Espresso Exclusive beans roasted and blended by Teekorb. Zell am See. Dark and bold.

You said it!

Nothing compares to the simple pleasures of a bike ride - John F. Kennedy