What I love about Gravel in general is that when I 'discovered' it 3 months into Covid it appeared to be everywhere, and riding it gave me a feeling I only felt much further out in the woods. I had no idea that my town, like almost every neighbourhood on the outskirts of other towns, had that many small and relative underused unpaved paths. Path partly covered with branches, the kind of paths I played on from 4 to 9 and since had ignored or missed completely.
During Covid gravel riding contributed massively to my mental and physical wellbeing. When Covid stopped, the joy of riding those lesser ridden unpaved paths stayed. And travel picked up.
What I liked about gravel in The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg during Covid appeared to exist in 100x fold a bit further. Already in France, Germany and Spain the number of gravel roads, paths and climbs appeared to abundant to a level that made me think 'how did we – riders – ever forget that these paths are such fun to ride?'. The answer doens't really matter. Like many others, I found them – again -, and that's the only thing that matters.
On a few occasions I travelled abroad to ride selfmade gravel routes. Each ride, especially the multi day ones, reminded me that being outside – on gravel – with my bike, really is one of the most favourite things I like to do.
I hope you've had similar experiences by bike, or in life in general.
I'm closing this post with two lessons I'm happy I learned at 32.
1. Adventure really starts by leaving the front door.
2. It's incredible how quick I feel free when riding a gravel route in a different county.
Took these photo's while riding a Gravel loop over the Western Highlands of Uganda with 2 friends and 2 people we met on the ground. Photographers might say they are to bright or green, but I really couldn't care less. It was just a ride, and it was awesome.
What does gravel riding give you?
by LPPM