Two Wheels To Chamonix
Well, we asked for adventure writing and this is certainly it! One of our members, Ali Mahoney, decided, with little experience, to cycle from Pontypridd to Chamonix. We recommend getting hold of a copy of our very own 'Cheryl Strayed's' self published book 'Two wheels to Chamonix - 767 miles of blood sweat and gears'
'Hi Andy
I'm Ali - one of the women who joined you on the waterfalls walk on 21 Dec. I was with Amy and it was her birthday! Plus your dog Mali tried to take a dip in the river...
So you asked for posts to share on your website and I thought I'd share my cycling adventure of riding from Pontypridd to Chamonix in the French Alps on a very old mountain bike. The idea came from a Women's Adventure Expo in Bristol and it triggered a few months of planning before finally taking the plunge and setting off on 'Alpy' my bike. I can safely say that I was wholly unprepared in terms of both mental and physical fitness for an adventure of this scale, but what I lacked in these areas I made up for in enthusiasm and determination.
A pic is attached from one of the back-breaking hill climbs. My route took me from Pontypridd to Bath then onward to Southampton and Newhaven before catching the overnight ferry to Dieppe. A further two days took me to Paris where I played a football tournament over the weekend - seemed a good idea at the time, totally different story when I got there! Then it was a further 5.5 days to Chamonix.
My adventure was way beyond my comfort zone, but it's amazing what you can achieve by being bold and exploring what you're really capable of. Once the adventure was over and a couple of years passed, I decided to self-publish a book about the adventure. My aim was to inspire others to do something challenging, by giving my own personal insight into the highs and lows of riding 767 miles with very little long-distance experience.
Here's a link to my book - also available as an ebook on Kindle.'
https://themahojos.com/product/two-wheels-to-chamonix-767-miles-of-blood-sweat-and-gears/
Do you have any tales you'd like to share? Email Andy at welshlamb@me.com with your story!