The Badger Divide

 

 

Our adventure in the Alps was still fresh in our memory, and with a few days of holidays waiting for us I came up with the idea of cycling the Badger Divide. I really didn't want to fly to the continent again for just a few days, and the prospect of testing ourselves in a local challenge sounded appealing. We watched a video in youtube about this route, and read a few blogs, but frankly we were not much prepared for what it would involve (I did get the general idea in between the lines though...). It's described as “a 321km off-road route from Inverness to Glasgow that offers big adventure”, doable in 2 to 5 days. We didn't spend much time checking the profile and route description, however we figured we could do it in 4 days. We waited until Thursday for the last weather forecasts and then booked the train ticket to Inverness (still can't believe there was space for the bikes, I have the feeling nobody trusts the trains any more nowadays...) and accommodation. It was a crazy idea but I don't regret it at all (my legs do).

 

Turin to Nice cycle

“Heureux qui comme Ulysse a fait un beau voyage”

Truly one of our best trips so far. We got to know this route via the rally that takes place annually around this time of the year. There is not a n official route, but most cyclists would take old military roads, and cols that zig zag between Italy and France via the Alps. It has been in our back minds for a while, but it always felt too much for us, then we thought we may as well give it a go and test ourselves. I'm so glad we went for it!

While La Route de Grandes Alpes was unique in its own way, this one had the additional touch of taking us out of the beaten track. On top of that we were blessed with good weather and we always felt physically well (no trip to the pharmacy for random ailment this time!). We haven't met many foreigners, but we met unique characters and just chatting to locals who looked intrigued by our presence added to the charm of this route.