This is a photo of Mike from the U.K. and his beautiful bicycle he had painted by the master lorry painters of Pakistan. I was very envious….
I had heard about Warmshowers from Chris and Haz who had found it sometimes very helpful as long-term, long distance cycle tourists on a budget. I liked the community oriented spirit with no pecuniary benefit and decided to offer space in my home for passing cycle tourists.
It was a good experience. I had 9 or 10 guests, many of them Germans. All were camping and all had done incredible trips of thousands of kilometers.
Through some guests I found out about WhatsApp groups for different geographic areas of the world for cycle tourists. I wish I had known about that before I went to Pakistan. I could have used some of the valuable shared information.
Reviews on Warmshowers are important especially for hosts and the idea is good but it is odd to read such glowing reviews about yourself in the public domain…..Readers of this blog don’t believe a word of it.
It was interesting to see how these hard-core cycle tourists had set up their bicycles. Very impressive how much thought they have put into their cycles- some interesting handlebars, though no drop bars- and often Roloff hubs, or the other German alternative. Well, these were mostly Germans, and 2 Swiss, what else would you expect?
I couldn’t quite believe how much stuff these guys took with them. I can see why they might avoid hills, but really, do you have to take tyres with you? Needless to say, my ultralight set-up is a world away, but they have in some way more freedom to stop and camp wherever they want and I do have to stop in a place where there is a “lodge” of some sort.
Another observation- my Warmshowers guests were either coming from south India going north toward Mumbai or the reverse. Although I recommend going through the Western Ghats going south, avoiding NH66 along the coast, most followed the highway. To be fair, most had time constraints and other considerations. At least I tried to give my Warmshowers guests a feel for the wonder that is Goa.
Thank you to all my interesting Warmshowers guests.
