Introducing our Tuscany Gravel Camp
A little backstory from trip designer Charlotte Inman about how our newest trip came to be.
Hey everyone, Charlotte here
If you’ve joined one of our trips over the last five years, the chances are it’s me that put it together, either after falling in love with a place after my own bike adventures there, or as a great excuse to go explore a place that’s lingered in my adventure bucket list for years. It’s one of my favourite part of what we do - having an idea and getting to tweak and bring that experience to life for a group of riders is a dream. We're about to launch our newest trip, a specially curated 7 day Gravel Camp in the heart of Tuscany, and we;ll be doing something a little different this time. Here’s a little story about why we’re ramping the experience and comfort level up a notch on this trip.
The early days of Sisters in the Wild were a proper DIY affair, bringing that spirit of my own bikepacking adventures to the trips I put together. But before the early dirtbag days of Sisters in the Wild, I earnt my guiding and trip design stripes in a very different set up, working for Backroads - an active travel company specialising in pretty fancy, high end bike trips.
Having gotten disillusioned with my old 9-5 life after returning from an incredible year bikepacking across South America, I happened upon a facebook ad recruiting for new Trip Leaders. It sounded too good to be true, but I threw in a wishful application and the next thing I knew, I was spending the next 4 years leading luxury biking trips all over the world. We rode fancy skinny tired bikes with electric shifting before it was really a thing, stayed in the best hotels in town, ate in great restaurants, but most memorably, really got to immerse ourselves and our guests in the places we ran trips, and the local people we shared experiences with. And yes, we wore full kit matching lycra cycling kits to do it all in!
If you’ve every joined me on a trip and witnessed my favourite trail snacks (pasta in a ziplock back, porrdge eaten with a bank card, dubiously aged sweets from the bottom of my frame bag…) it may surprise you that I spent many of these Backroads trips hosting wine tasting, fine dining, and incredible farm to table culinary experiences. I love both things equally - picnics in the dirt and the opportunity to immerse in local culinary experiences and enjoy a bit of the bella vita between rides.
Make it stand out
That’s why our newest trip launch is bringing something a little different. Introducing….Tuscany Gravel Camp. A region as famous for it’s strade bianci gravel riding as it is for it’s local culinary delights, unique agro-turismo culture, and it’s chianti and multpepiuccino wine.
Alongside comfortable poolside accomodation in an incredible setting, we’ll be incorporating a little bit of that Backroads experience, with unique local experiecnes such as wine tasting, olive oil sampling, Tuscan cookery classes, aperitivo, and an extra level of vehicle support to make it even more relaxing. Mealtimes will be a special affair, showcasing local ingredients and truly Italian in style.
This trip is a bit of a leap, but it feels like these two worlds I love coming together.
I hope you can join me there!
