Random cycle tours - Part 1

It was Doug's idea to climb Cotopaxi. Helen and I just went along for the ride. Turned out we needed a guide, and an ice axe, and crampons, and training - and $80 each.... and nerves - and thighs - of steel. Ten days of hard pedaling to get to the meeting point (you'll need the altitude training the English woman turned feral in Quito said) - needless to say we dropped like flies on the way up.

First to go was the Australian - threw up at base camp and never got out of his sleeping bag... We didn't know him anyway. Next was me. Having been dragged out of my bunk at 4am, force fed strawberry milk and then pushed up a vertical mountain in the pitch black wearing pink boots - I never stood a chance. Not that it stopped Manuel my guide from trying to taking advantage of a poor swooning woman with strawberry flavoured altitude problems....

Helen was next - but did manage to get up to 5700m - a superhuman effort in snow up to her thighs. Doug came back with Helen - only a hundred metres or so from the top. Turned out no one made it to the top that day - or the week before or week after - the avalanche risk was too high. - And with that - we high tailed it down to the Amazon basin just in time or Christmas in the jungle.

How to choose a pedal pal and get to the starting point

Several years and cycling trips later, someone said, over dinner, 'you should have a blog - get those pedal stories out'. But who would read it? 'Your mother would... '

The deal was done. This is for my mother - and potential pedal tourers everywhere. The last trip was to Cuba - on a whim - on my own - to learn Spanish - with the bike in a bag - and a map ordered on line from Stanfords. This time its different.

To implement this lesson you must first be a couch surfer (join at www.couchsurfing.com). Having joined - and notched up a few references (you need not only to let strangers stay in your house, but be nice to them too) - you can then start shopping - for friends. Your aim is to find a pleasant stranger to go cycling with - in the country of your choice, at a time of your choosing. This is not difficult - took me all of ten minutes (through one of the 'groups'...).

Two emails later, two phone calls later (one with aforesaid stranger's mother, the other with the stranger himself) - a plan is hatched. Meeting in Santander, Northern Spain on 1 September - at the ferry terminal. I'll be the person with the wee blue bike. He will have a red carpet. That was the easy bit.

For the next stage of the lesson - you need patience, time and money for phone calls. and the ability to work with 7 internet sites at once. Edinburgh to Santander with a bike can be done by plane (2 changes, lots of carbon, lots of hassle with bike bags and charges, £340), Eurostar (seat61 - 4 changes, even more hassle, over £250 and how do you get a bagged bike on the Paris metro?) - or simply by train from Edinburgh to Plymouth (£100 return), ferry to Santander (£188 return) - roll on roll off and no bike bag required.

Hot tip for the uninitiated - you need to talk to a real person at Brittany Ferries to get a bunk in a shared cabin - this is only £40 more than a reclining seat - which doesn't actually recline - according to my sources. Apparently it takes around an hour to unload the boat (for when you are booking your 'connecting train') but you should allow a bit more for the captain to fiddle around a bit at the pier.

And finally, a few days to find a couch in Plymouth (because of course there is no train from Edinburgh that connects with the ferry and you get a new pal into the bargain) and another couch in Santander (for local knowledge and a new Spanish pal).

Now its time to start training - because, although one is already superfit - aforesaid stranger will have been pedaling for a month before I arrive -