If you have landed here after a search, click here to read my review only about the Surly Long Haul Trucker. Below is a ride report too so if you don’t mind the extra do read on :)
A little prelude :
This is a shake-down ride, review of the Surly Long Haul Trucker and write up of our attempt on the DunRun, so bear with me, but hey you get three stories in one :)

The story :
Over the last few years we have read and heard so many wonderful stories about people’s journeys on their bikes, riding across a continent or just around the local dales. And especially over the last 8-9 months the “being out there riding and enjoying the freedom” really has pulled us in.
We also both loved camping over the years and cycling. So why not join these two things? If others can do it and enjoy it, so can we.
So after a lot of asking around and reading up we settled for the Surly Long Haul Trucker.
The last few weeks has been full of mad online shopping, we got nearly everything ready. Though I fecked up and got the wrong front dérailleur for Peli’s bike and …

Description: (From their site) Lodges, Caravans, Touring, Camping and Self Catering accommodation, we have something for all. Situated in the County of Suffolk we are nestled between the seaside Towns of Southwold and Aldeburgh.
Site visited: 5th of July 2009.

As seen on the blog: Meet my little tank – Surly Long Haul Trucker 2009
As part of the Dunwich Dynamo, we were looking for a campsite very close to the beach were the 116 miles ride from London would end up. After the ride (with 1000+ others) and a dip in the sea in Dunwich, we cycled the one and a bit mile over to Cliff House Holiday Park.
Too bad that we were only staying one night and were very tired, so we didn’t get to enjoy this realy beautiful site.

We enjoyed a brilliant pub lunch/dinner in the pub in central building of the site, where also the mini shop is located. I picked one of the signature dishes of English pubs: bangers and mash and Peli had the mixed beans and veggies casserole.
The chef hit my stomach with some home made (I’m sure) Suffolk bangers and mash that was made just as I like it. New potatoes, boiled …

26th of April.
We woke up again early because even nature doesn’t sleep in on a Sunday. While we had our breakfast we were listing to the “next doors”, a group of young kids doing their Duke of Edinburgh. Their leader had a hard time getting the lads out of their sleeping bag and they got on their way 30min late.
Peli decided to have a little spin at nine am, around 8miles, while I lazed around in the sun and tent. Just after we packed our tent up, we had our second breakfast in the sunshine, ain’t life great.
I had a little walk around the farm and had a look at the livestock, and honestly I can’t say they are cute but they are good fun to look at. The turkey (where is my cranberry jam ?) came right up the the fence and made itself as big it would and ruffled its feathers, which sounded like someone going through their stuff in a plastic bag.We then headed out for our longest leg of the weekend a whole 9.9 miles!!! Along the way we rode through some more beautiful countryside. The locals didn’t get annoyed with our slow speed, I’m …

Saturday the 25th.We slept until the rain woke us up in the early am, it continued for around 2 hours before it started to die out. The tent kept the water out and we woke up nice and rested around 8am, these down mats are soooo worth it.We cycled for around 20min before we arrived at Headley for our brunch at the deli. I was served a sausage, bacon and egg butty and Peli had a cheese and pickle butty both with a salad that in themselves could have fed a starving cyclist after a loooong ride, read 4 miles ;)Fueled up we headed out again and arrived at Mayfair Farm Stables, where Peli could do some horsing around. This little ride was my birthday present to her, which I tried in vain to keep a secret. But even with her knowing what was on the agenda she was all smiles and bouncing around as a bouncing thing, so I think I made the right choice ;)Setting of for our next long ride, 2 miles, to the next camp site we took a wrong turn. But the 50 yards detour was well worth it as we came upon a ice …

24th of April.Work, rush hour and aiming to get a train out to our destination in one go meant that we took off at bit late. And the Great South whateveritiscalled trains had a 5 minute delay one stop before ours. Boy ain’t that annoying when you just wanna get there!

After a short ride out of Liphook we arrived in the dark at the Deer Hut pub, which has a little camp site attached.
As we were parking up at the pub a gentleman stepped out of the pub for a smoke. Had one look at us said “You camping?” “Yes please,” we said.
“I might not look it, but I am the owner” he said with a smile as he showed us to our spot.
Eleven other groups were already there but we got a side paddock all for ourselves separated from the others by a tall hedge.
The site has a toilet, one for the ladies and one for the gents and one 20p hot shower. Pretty much all you need when camping next to a pub. A little noise from the A3 and I think Gatwick, but that was nothing compared to what nature could muster, at 4:30am.
I’m still well surprised …

Since I had today off and we were thinking of something to do, a ride was the order of the day.
Split between FNRttC or testing out our new tent and mats which was screaming use us, use us.We then decided to ride for 17 odd miles into a beautiful sunset and found a campsite. We rode out through Richmond Park and saw the deer’s there and did talk about doing wild camping there. But decided that we would like to have a little ride out and also the risk of getting woken up in the middle of the night by the deer’s or the park warden.We managed to arrive with enough light to pitch while fighting off mossies, oh the joy of camping.
We went to the pub next door to kill some time before bed time. The said pub took a bit of time to find since we couldn’t find our way out of the campsite. Because we where paying more attention to the beautiful full moon than the route to the pub.
We got woken up around an hour after we fell asleep to a very disturbing noise and Peli must have been deep in dreaming land. When I asked …

Description: (From their site) This lovely, riverside site is to the south west of London. A train ride away from the capital, it has a rural feel and is visited by foxes, squirrels and many river birds. Canoes can launch from the Site, which regularly hosts events by the Canoe-Camping Club.
Site visited: 28th of March 2009.

As seen on the blog: Just one night
We managed to arrive with enough light to pitch while fighting off mossies, oh the joy of camping.
We went to the pub next door to kill some time before bed time. The said pub took a bit of time to find since we couldn’t find our way out of the campsite. Because we where paying more attention to the beautiful full moon over the river and all the caravans on the site than the route to the pub.
We woke up around 5am, who ever coined the phrase “the countryside is quiet and peaceful” has clearly never been in the countryside. Though it was nice to hear the sound of birds we managed to get a few more hours in. The nearby M3 and Heathrow can be heard, but living in London, this is not the biggest issue.
We arrived …

We are planing to fly down to Dubrovnik and then cycle up to just north of Split to a town called Trogir along the coast, as our dry run in September for a week.
Though the tent will be tested out next weekend, and we will be doing a few S240′s before hand to test out the bikes, panniers and mats.
I was in what was called Yugoslavia 3 times around 20 years ago, and absolutely loved it. I pretty much got the route, well there is only one way up the coast along the water, it can be busy. I have read many write ups on crazyguyonabike.com, and everyone who have done it do not see it as a big problem. I do not think we will have any problems with finding campsites on-route, from what I can remember they where like pearls on a sting (ok well basic, but flat and runing water with a hole in the ground in the worst case) but and also it will be in the low season.
We will take around 4 days to cycle from Dubrovnik to Trogir around the 50miles a day and then spend 2 days in and around Split, Trogir and …