Day 18: Salses-le-Château to Montpellier (166km)

General 1 Minute

Je suis arrivé! The day started on nasty roads that I had to share with a lot of trucks. It took me quite a while to finally find the Eurovelo 8.

Around noon, I reached a landscape that was very comparable to the Camargue. A lot of water, swamps, little rivers and small roads without much traffic. Really beautiful.

It reminded me of the first day of this trip, when I cycled through a beautiful and totally empty national park which begins South of Lisbon.

Because of the many detours the route was a little longer than expected. However, I was pretty determined to make it to Montpellier today.

Despite of the weather forecast, it did not rain and I had a also a little bit of tailwind.

Since I am now 1,000km more North than Gibraltar, the sunset is about an hour later. Isn’t that amazing? I arrived by 8pm with daylight feeling a little tired but very content.

There were times on this trip when I doubted that I would make it. My left ankle caused problems at one point and I was surprised how quickly it healed. The level of donations was below my expectations which was and is a little frustrating for me. Around midway of this tour, my mental and physical energy felt pretty much depleted. It was not always fun.

There were times, when I even secretly hoped that someone could have stolen my bike forcing me to rest and fly home comfortably.

But another part in me was always determined to just hang in there and carry on. Little steps, hour after hour, one day after the other. It is amazing that if you carry on for enough days in a row you can actually cover huge distances.

Insight of the day: We are capable of so much more than we believe!

Published by Karsten Drath

About 30 years ago, two zis scholarships helped me to broaden my horizon, expand my understanding of what is possible, and develop more self-confidence. zis is a non-profit organization that has been awarding scholarships for study trips to young people between the ages of 16 and 20 for more than 60 years. Today, the word we use for tenacity and grit is resilience - and I've made it my profession, to help managers around the world to develop more of this inner power. In retrospect, the experiences I've had on these trips to Scotland and Iceland have been priceless for my development. After having had a childhood with some challenges, I learned that I could cycle 1,700km on my own and get wet every day without despairing. I have learned that I was able to get along with only 300 € for 4 weeks and still had a good time. I have learned what it's like to be threatened with deportation and how to get an interview with the President from such a crisis. I have understood that limitations are primarily constructs in our heads, and I want to make these insights available to as many adolescents as possible.

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3 thoughts on “Day 18: Salses-le-Château to Montpellier (166km)”

  1. Herzlichen Glückwunsch! Was für ein super Projekt, was für eine tolle und wahnsinnige Tour… und ich habe noch Respekt vor meiner zweifachen Rentner-Alpenüberquerung in ein paar Wochen… Hut ab! Und ein gutes Runterkommen vom touring Modus.
    Kette rechts, Torge

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  2. Mensch Karsten. Da schaue ich mal einen Tag nicht in den Blog und verpasse glatt Deine Ankunft. Congratulations!!! You did it! Again! Vielen, vielen Dank für all deine Beharrlichkeit.

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