Plans, ideas and thoughts#
A week has passed since I pre-registered, and my head is already full of plans and ideas.
I know there is a long way to go before PBP, but I could not resist to look up on the web for articles, blog posts, etc. I’ve read plenty of blog posts about PBP experiences before and I went through them again, taking notes, learning from valuable hints and advices. I found some more content, as people is writing about their previous experiences during a PBP year like 2023.
With my brain already in full-planning-mode, I talked to those friends of mine that pre-registered a few weeks before I did. Turned out, they had a group in Whatsapp and they added me to it. They already have some plans as a group, and they even booked a hotel for the first longer-sleep stop!
They plan is to do a long initial stretch, near 500 km, then sleep in a hotel for a few hours before arriving in Brest.
That’d be ok with me, but when I looked for accomodation for myself in their hotel… all booked up. Other hotels/hostels in the area? all booked up. The closest room available I could find meant a detour from the main road of near 20km, and then there is the “little detail” of them having their departure time 2 hours before mine.
And there it was, my poor brain, going through options, trying to see how to fit into my friends’ plans, when a couple other randonneur friends got in touch, telling me they had signed up for PBP too… and with the same departure time as me!
Without a plan decided yet and no hotels booked, we chatted for a while about options and ideas, just to decide we should discuss about it in person, during the first Brevet of the year (in a couple of weekends from now).
Meanwhile, my brain don’t stop. Plans, ideas, what to bring, how to package everything on the bike, strategies for stops, when to sleep, and how much, how to keep track of time…