Welcome to Staunchy! Here I document my travels on a bike through Europe. Find out how I prepared for the trip, what routes I took and what I learned on the way.

I'm Katharina and I built this website. But more importantly, last year I caught the cycling bug. I decided to go on a long-distance bicycle trip, with just a little bit of a plan and no date when I would need to be back. The journey led me from Italy to the Shetland Islands and back to the Alps, in total more than 11.000 kilometers. And I loved every single kilometer, even when it was hard at times.

Eventually, I returned. The big elephant in the room was the question, what next? I didn't feel like going back to another job, in another startup. I had done this before and it felt like getting just another job would be a too easy answer, and one that would not make me necessarily happy. I decided to keep on cycling and exploring.

The North Coast 500 was one of my highlights on my trip! The nature is stunning and once I got used to the RVs, cycling on the little country roads was fabulous.

The majority of nights I camped on campsites, and many of them were great! While Google and Komoot were great starting points for finding places to stay, I found that many reviews were written by people with camper vans. That motivated me, to review the campsites I stayed on from the perspective of a cyclist.

During my long-distance bike tour in 2023, I stayed at almost 80 different campgrounds. In France, England, Scotland, Italy and Germany. Many of them were great, few not so much. During the trip, I thought a lot about what actually makes a great campground, specifically for cyclists. Here are my main criteria:

Once I got my Surly Disc Trucker, it was time to think about the bags that I would take on my bike trip. The first instinct were Ortlieb bicycle panniers, but it came differently. I got all major panniers from Brooks England, which proved to be a great choice. Durable, almost all of them are fully waterproof and great looking.

I returned safely from my first long-distance bike tour in late Summer 2023. You probably know this, as this site talks about nothing else. Right now I'm sitting in cold and dark Winter and I really want to get going again. In 2024 I won't be able to do such a long trip, or rather I decided not to do one, as I have another project planned, setting up a garden. That means I can be away for a month, max. This makes the planning quite a bit different than for this year, I have time constraints.

The night before I started my bike trip, it dawned on me, that the days of knowing exactly where to sleep were gone. At least for the time of the trip. Every night I listen to True Crime to snooze away. That might not be a good idea on the trip. Looking back on the six months I spent on the road I can say, that I managed to find every single night a safe, though not always dry, place to get a good night's sleep. Here is how I approached one of the most important tasks on my tour.