People, places and pedals in bucket-list cycling odyssey

There’s an abundance of scenery to process when traversing 14 countries by bicycle, but this Motueka couple says that it was the fleeting but unforgettable encounters with local people that were the special gems in their nine-week adventure.

Doris Lindegger and David Renwick began their journey through Europe in the middle of last year. They set off from Doro’s native Switzerland, and travelled next to Germany, and then Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia.

Their budget was limited, so most meals were cooked next to their tent, and they would camp on farmland or forests, stopping at a campground every few days to shower and wash their clothes. Many times along the way, locals would invite them to stay at their properties.

The couple travelled an average of about 65km each day, and at times they would not even notice that they had crossed a border from one country to another.

Occasionally they took trains or buses to reduce the tedium of the repetitive countryside, but most of the time, they managed to soak in the scenery despite the physical nature of their journey.

“There’s some decent hills,” David remembers. “Some days we’d have to climb 700m, and do a lot of wheeling, a lot of walking.”

“You build fitness as you go,” Doro says.

They carried about 25kg of weight each, in front and rear paniers, and that added to the physicality of their trip. Romania and Hungary were 38 degrees “in the shade”, and Doro laughs that she has never sweated so much in her life.

David reckons that the couple relishes a physical challenge, as well as the simplicity of self-sufficiency and “bare essentials” travel.

They learned how to say good day, thank you and water in six different languages, and felt safe everywhere they travelled – “apart from the traffic in Eastern Europe,” David laughed. “Bloody awful.”

A European cycle trip had been on the radar for David for a long time, but the plans took a back seat after he met Doro at Riverside’s Inakord choir in 2013.

David says that they have spent the last decade raising Doro’s two teenage daughters, and “kept our eye on our health in the meantime”.

The couple encountered a wealth of characterful people on their bucket-list trip, and were touched by the help that they received along the way.

“We really loved the interactions with the people, and the hospitality was great, wherever we went,” Doro says.

Her main message to people was to not give up on their dreams as they got older, pointing to 70-year-old David as an inspiration that age need not make their world smaller.

“If you have a wish, something you really want to do, I really want to encourage you to go for it,” she says.