Cycling and camping from baby till 7 years (4).

Cycling with two children: one on her own bike.

It seems a lot; the eldest, in the mean time 6 years old, on her little bicycle with balloon tyres and on the back a big roll, the karrimats, no weight, but it looked impressive. We appeared to have forgotten the foldable watering can and we could not get one anywhere en route, so for the rest of the journey we had to carry a plastic bucket with us. Now there was one basket less and so we easily stowed it away.
So now something about small children who cycle themselves.

With thumb in her mouth up hill.

"Where shall we cycle to", we asked her when we were planning the route. The answer came quickly: "Along the amusements Parks".
Such a first trip should of course not be a long trek, neither should there be mountains in such a trip. One week of 50 to 60 kilometers is certainly sufficient for a 6-year old, especially on a normal children bike. For the parents it is more like a kind of bicycle-walking with the necessary pauses in between. And don’t forget the "anti-fatigue tablets", as she called them, the dextrose tablets, only the idea had already an effect on her.
When our madam went thoughtlessly up the first hills, with her thumb in her mouth, on her rather old creaky bicycle, we knew that she he was not overburdened!

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Three children: one on her own bike

In itself not so different from the situation with 2 children on the back, only the tent is not unlimited expendable all four of us did no longer fit in it. When we were packing - and despite the fact that in the last minute we had sown holdalls and bags to fasten at the front and back of the basket - but it appeared: it was absolutely impossible to add the second tent to it. Fortunately it was a very hot summer and it was decided that the master of the house would lie athwart down under the spacious tent canopy, on a karrimats and in an extra sleeping bag. With some extra cloths of tent material and zippers the canopy was closed. Mother and 3 children used the cross sleeper as a length way sleeper. Because of the extra luggage space of the Beetle this was possible (E.S). This appeared to satisfy the most, also during the colder nights in the Harz.
We thought that our daughter, now 7 years old, had earned a 10 gear racing-bike, which she could handle already quite well.
"Do I have to take all this with me", she cried in the morning of departure, when she saw her fully rigged up bike: a small nylon bicycle bag, the roll with karrimats and a sleeping bag. The bike did prance a little when she got on it and she was riding a little more uncertainly. "I don’t like cycling holidays, it’s not nice", she cried the first day when a barking dog came up to her and when she had to pass an enormous harvesting machine. This unfamiliarity was over soon, and a few days later she descended as professional cyclist down the windings in the Wiehengebirge.
We were both largely overloaded each had a child in a basket plus the luggage, I myself was approx. 40 kg and my husband approx. 50 kg.
Our third child, a six-year old son, only recently with us from India, was rather big for the basket, but he was still too weak and too inexperienced to cycle for long periods. He was able to take over the cycling of his sister for half an hour, who then sat beaming clamped in the basket burdening the bicycle to its limits with her 25 kilograms in the altogether. The advantage was that she could read maps and from basket behind me, point the way, which meant fewer stops. This alternate is a favourable situation but it is only possible with two children of the same size.
In this way we managed to cover a distance of at least 90 km in one day in a very mountainous area, the longest distance was 127 km, then it was flat again and we smelled home. Cycling at walking speed was out of the question, I could sometimes hardly keep up with her with a wiggling four-year old on the back of my bike!


Leg balls and muscle feet.

With the first steeper slopes we had to talk her up the mountain, but we were very surprised when she could cycle up to 8% quite well. We did have to tell her though as to when and to what speed she had to switch gear. Above this percentage we got off the bike and the two "basket sitters" were taken out of the baskets and in solidarity and for their own stiff muscles they had to help us push. What a sight and small talk this gave. "You are pushing too hard", "Don’t step on my heels", "Don’t pull so hard, ninny" "Mamma do I also get leg balls and muscle feet" the youngest basket sitter called, as a reaction to the praises the cycling oldest got.
Up to a height of 800 meters she managed to get through with a lot of ups and down in between. She cannot yet stand on the pedals and with every wild raspberry she got off her bike. Would you like to know whether she was fed up with all that climbing? "Mam, next year I want to go to the really high mountains, to the Andes or so?" (The next year it was not to the Andes but to the Alps we went).