You Woke Up Where??

[richie thornger]

I don't know if anyone else keeps a log of where they stay each night, kms done etc etc. I'm sure some do.
I was just looking back through mine which goes back to my very first trips.
On my first proper tour, a 70 day trip from Liverpool to Istanbul, the stats of where I woke up each day were very easy to digest.

Tent 53, House 13, Hotel 3 (only 1 paid for), Airport 1, Potato Shed 1

I started to tot up my last tour and had to stop pretty quickly as I ran out of descriptive columns.
New places included : A coach, A School, A Security Hut, The Headquarters of the Yazidi religion, Petrol Station Prayer Room, Police Station in a Forest and of course an Iraqi jail.
I'm looking forward to go through the rest of the trip to see what other crazy places I've slept in.

What places have other people woken up in??

[jags]

none of the above 

[AndyE]

I was only thinking about this the other day, and yes there have been a few strange places. I have found if I am reasonably dry, warm and horizontal I can sleep anywhere!
So that's, caves, bushes, mountains, mountain huts, mud huts, snow hole, snow drift, shrubs, trees, door step! trench, shell scrape, barns , dry stone wall, Guard room cell,  (Guard Commanders privilege) 90 minuet flight on a Boeing CH-47 Chinook and dead to the world for the whole flight, on, in, and on top of tanks, trucks, trailers and shipping containers. jungle, rain forest and deserts. Had a power nap on the fore deck of RFA Sir Bedivere (L3004) waiting to enter Liverpool docks  in a force 6 gale. Airport lounges, train stations, park benches, bus shelters all on many occasion, and after one very very long night in corporals Mess in the N.A.A.F.I.  a roll top bin at the back of the cook house in full dress uniform! My comrades in arms were helping me back to the accommodation block and dropped me of en-rout as I was a bit heavy, so they claimed.  Luckily it was full of dry waste in polythene bags, more by luck than judgement.  But the best one is always your own bed at home.

Andy

[richie thornger]

Interesting list Andy I may be wrong but I meant whilst on a bike tour 

Of course you may well be referring to that??? I thought getting a lift on the back of a Peshmerga troop carrier was cool, but you've really raised the bar if you hitched a lift on an Aircraft Carrier

I don't think this is the correct platform for "other" places I've woken up 

Yes Bushes on the little Islands in Vienna. I haven't done much snowy cycling yet. It's on the list. I don't think I've camped in a cave either which is pretty poor. These are all going on the list of MUST SLEEPS

So to add to my list
A Military Base at the Iran/Iraq border for a few days (not my choice). The house of a Peshmerga Officer who's boss had just interrogated me and a month sleeping in the store cupboard of a soon to be demolished office in Tehran.
Like you Andy I'm pretty happy most places

[AndyE]

Sadly not from a bike richie mostly from my army service and climbing and mountaineering before that. I will be putting in some miles on touring the west coast of Scotland late spring before the midges become too biblical. Well that's the plan.

Andy

[Danneaux]

For me, many places similar to those listed above, plus snow,elevated rock ledges just wide enough for my one-man tent or a bivy and many, many abandoned houses and structures. Yes, the occasional cave as well; a few pictured below. Can sometimes be a bit difficult to get the loaded bike in...and out again, but well worth it.

Variety -- especially in sleeping places -- is the spice of life!

Best,

Dan.

[richie thornger]

So glad I started this...I've been filling in the gaps of my daily log by cross referencing against my gps/photos/hand written diaries.

I've just found out my Police appointed bodyguard (Jamal) slept in my room two nights in a row in my traditional house in the Kalash Valley on the Pakistan - Afghanistan border.
The Kalash wine had wiped those particular details from the memory banks. Always keep a diary

[cycladelic]

What places have other people woken up in??

Here are some pics of places I've got some sleep while touring.

The first shot was taken in India, near the border with northern Bangladesh, on a street outside a shop. I arrived late at night and was dog tired. I really could have slept anywhere.

The second photo is at a school yard in Taiwan - that's my wife packing up.

The third shot is also my wife packing up. We camped in a village market in Taiwan's mountains.

The blue skies in the fourth photo are in Morocco, where I pitched my tent beside a shallow river. It was a damp night.

[richie thornger]

Cycladelic I'm really pining to be back on my bike now:) Enjoying looking at and hearing about other peoples sleeps so much

The first ever travel blog I read was a guy on a 1950's British Triumph motorbike riding to the factory that now makes them in Chennai, India. **Edit Royal Enfield motorbike. Considering I rode one round India myself on my trip I really should have got that right

The feeling I get when I think about reading when he camped at a mosque in Iran still gives me goosebumps, it sounded so unbelievable to me, so exotic, and exciting.
It was such a massive kick up the bum to get me out of my comfort zone. My ex girlfriend (now best friend) loves to point out to me all the time , before I met her in 2006 I had only ever camped at music festivals.
Just having that idea of something different put in your head is all it takes sometimes.

Edit 2**
Having written this I felt the need to go and find that man on his Enfield and thank him for planting a seed in my head.
It turns out since then he has ridden a BSA bBntam to Egypt and is about to set off on another Royal Enfield adventure to South Africa
http://www.overlandtosouthafrica.co.uk/index.html

[cycladelic]

Enjoying looking at and hearing about other peoples sleeps so much
Just having that idea of something different put in your head is all it takes sometimes.

Ritchie - here's another photo of a camp spot.

This one is a beach on India's west coast, not a million miles from Goa. Get out there...

And the other photo is of my tent pitched in Norway, on the country's fjord-lined west coast . Not a bad place to wake up in.

[richie thornger]

Fantastic. I need to go and reduce the size of my photos before I can put them here.... I'll be back

[richie thornger]

Iran. Shoe shelf of the local mosque. Suggested by the locals

Iran. Met these Iranian guys whilst cycling, split with them when I was tired and they said I wouldn't find a good place the direction I was going. An hour later they found me camped up at another mosque

Iraq. I'd asked to sleep at the Police Station but they turfed me out. Not far up the road was a petrol station. Most of them have prayer rooms. As last prayer had finished I was allowed to camp inside

[ipswichcycler]

In fat Linda's caravan in the back of a working mans club in hurworth. 

[richie thornger]

She still there

[richie thornger]

Sometimes a situation presents itself and you just have to take advantage. All over Iran restaurants have these raised carpeted platforms for eating or smoking the hubbly bubbly. I just knew I had to convince someone to let me stay the night.
The grate thing is with this is you can have a good old smoke and then just roll into bed