Blazing Bicycle Saddles

This is a true story; a true adventure involving six colleagues – mostly retired – who, on a sudden whim, decide to embark on a 1 000 kilometre cycle ride down the River Danube believing it would be downhill all the way. None had cycled since childhood nor even owned a bike.
Their hilarious journey was so enjoyable that it led to a series of annual rides in Europe involving ten countries including England. Their story – reminiscent of Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat – is told by their not terribly good leader.
Four of the six were daily newspaper editors; the author is a syndicated humour columnist and the sixth man claims he only goes along with them out of curiosity. All live in Africa and their mission is “to explore Darkest Europe and bring back to Africa stories about the strange natives there and their funny customs.”