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Namaste from Nepal

2009-10-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

Bathing with elephants, trekking in the Himalaya, visiting temples, enduring torturous bus rides and bargaining on the turbulent streets of Kathmandu - our three weeks traveling in Nepal has been fantastic! Nepal is a country of highly diverse and rich geography, culture, and religions....an incredible place to end our year long journey.

After an over-night stopover in Bahrain, we were stoked to be met by Tom at Kathmandu's very basic International Airport. We had a bit of a fiasco getting our entry visa (the money-less ATMs were a primer for Nepal's frustrating lack of infrastructure) we headed to Kathmandu's bustling tourist area - Thamel. The chaotic dirty streets immediately reminded me of my time in India - rubbish everywhere, mangy dogs, dodgy wiring, pollution, with taxis, rickshaws and pedestrians all vying for space. Despite this we were struck by the friendly, warm vibe of Nepal. Tom had already spent several days in the city and was buzzing at being out of New Zealand for the first time and experiencing such a radically different culture.

We spent our first day catching up with Tom, exploring the city and visiting the Swayambhunath stupa (Monkey temple). Religion is an intricate part of Nepalese life with Hinduism and Buddhism existing harmoniously and at times merging. At the temple we were entertained by the resident troop of monkeys until Kate was attacked by one!

The mountainous north of Nepal contains eight of the world's ten highest mountains, while the south is relatively flat, fertile and tropical. We headed south first - to the Chitwan National Park - famous for its elephants, rhinos and tigers. This was our first experience of Nepalese public transport. Typically it takes 9 or 10 hours on a bus to cover 120-150km in Nepal. It is quite hard to describe just how horrible these trips were...but in Tom's words "Shitty roads, shitty drivers, shitty overloaded buses". Each bus journey left us in a state of 'post-bus depression' that was only cured by a few Everests (the local brew).

On arriving in the chilled out village of Sauraha our memory of the rough bus trip soon faded - tame elephants lumbered along the streets, locals greeted us warmly and we soon found a cool riverside hostel. We really enjoyed Chitwan - the highlights were playing with 11-month old twin elephants at the Elephant Breeding Centre, bathing with the elephants in the river, and delicious Nepalese food at a restaurant called 'Sweet Memory'. We also went on an elephant safari in the jungle and were lucky enough to spot a rhino lolling in a mud pool, and some crocodiles. The experience was made a little more nerve-racking by the knowledge that a tourist had been trampled to death by an elephant there the previous week!

From Chitwan we caught another bus to the town of Pokhara - a lake side town that has grown with the popularity of the Annapurna circuit trek (the most popular trek in the world!) We were in Nepal during two of their major religious festivals (Dasain and Tihar) which was interesting and made things more vibrant...but the downside was that the roads and buses were much busier than usual with people traveling to their villages. This resulted in extremely busy road conditions, lots of head-on collisions blocking the narrow windy road and us being squashed beneath a pile of locals and their luggage for nine hours!Unfortunately our time in Pokhara was marred by grey skies and rain and we only managed to catch tiny glimpses of the spectacular Annapurna range, with its 8000m peaks soaring toward the heavens. We made the most of our time though, hiring crappy pushbikes that constantly stopped working, visiting the idyllically located Buddhist Peace Pagoda, Tom getting his first barbershop shave (complete with unwanted massage!) and spending a day exploring the area on motorbikes. Kate and Tom mastered the art of driving on Nepalese roads, which involves a lot of tooting, weaving and sharp awareness of oncoming trucks!

As we saw more of Nepal we were struck by the widespread poverty and the abysmal conditions so many people live in. Nepal remained isolated from the Western world until the 1950’s when its borders were opened. This saw a boom in tourism and many of the economic benefits that come with this. However, this has been coupled with massive population growth (the Nepalese population has more than tripled to 28 million since 1950), increasing dependence on foreign aid, pollution and continual political instability. Nepal has been troubled by a periodically violent Maoist insurgency for more than a decade, along with constant coups and changes of government, a Royal massacre and finally the dissolution of the Royal family in 2006. We spent many long evenings discussing Nepal’s social and economic problems and how these might be solved.

Following our time in Pokhara we headed back to Kathmandu to arrange things for trekking. Many people organise guides, porters and permits through the hundreds of trekking agencies in Kathmandu, but we decided to go it alone. We spent a frustrating day navigating our way through vague answers and Nepalese bureaucracy to eventually come out the other side ready to head north to the Langtang National Park for a week of Himalayan trekking.

Our bus journey to Langtang nearly broke me…..as the hours wore on the bus became more and more overloaded- local people, chickens, computers, sacks of onions were piled in and on the roof of the bus. We were also held up by mechanical problems. As the run-down bus crawled over a fresh landslide, precariously teetering on a cliff, hundreds of meters above the valley floor below, I made the decision to hop off. Much to the embarrassment of Tom and a lot of Nepalese shouting Kate and I chose to walk the last few kms to our destination.

Part of the dodgy road...

Trekking in the Langtang was a very different experience to tramping in New Zealand. The trail is an ancient route linking the isolated villages dotted up the valley with the outside world. There are plenty of ‘tea houses’ to stay at along the way- so there is no need to lug tents, sleeping bags, cookers or even food up the steep valley- a blessing at altitude! We were very close to Tibet (only 5km at one stage) and there was a strong influence of Tibetan culture. We had seven days of perfect weather, spectacular views of the surrounding 7000m peaks, lots of encounters with beautiful but intimidating yaks and even saw a black bear!

We spent lots of time chilling out in the peaceful villages, playing epic card games and meeting other trekkers. Walking at altitude with heavy packs definitely takes it out of you and this was made even harder for Tom who had a bad case of 'green apple splats'. Although the environment initially appeared pristine, the Himalayas have suffered some of the worst deforestation in the world and we saw sad examples of locals throwing bags of rubbish straight into the river and children smashing glass bottles. Kate and I loved travelling with Tom and the constant banter, antics and jokes made it felt like we were on school camp! Buddhist prayer wheel

Hanging with the local kids

After our painful bus journey to Langtang we opted for a slightly more expensive jeep trip back- worth every last rupee!

We spent our last few days in Kathmandu visiting Durbur square, shopping, enjoying delicious food, packing our bags one last time and getting very excited about heading home!

A few more photos....

Elephant dust showerCycling near ChitwanShopping in KathmanduTerracing of the land
And now we are back home in beautiful, clean, organised, peaceful Aotearoa! It is sooo awesome to be home catching up with friends and family. Everything seems so luxurious- having a hot shower whenever we want, sleeping in comfy clean beds, having a fridge, microwave and carpet and not having to worry about all our gear getting wet when it rains!

Kate and I have leant so much on our trip and I think it will take months for all our adventures to really sink in. But two lessons stand out more than most. Firstly- that we as New Zealanders are among some of the luckiest in the world. We live in the most incredible, well-run country and the opportunities we have from birth are immense. I think we often forget just how lucky we are and fail to appreciate the privileged lives we lead. The second is that overpopulation, the careless way people overuse resources and human greed is putting the earth under a massive strain. It has made us think a lot about the way we want to lead our lives.

So, the adventure is over! It is hard to believe. Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to read our blog and follow our travels- we have really enjoyed sharing our stories.

Egypt

2009-09-27T02:06:00.000-07:00

Although a bit lost without our bikes, we have had an amazing few weeks diving in the Red Sea and learning about ancient Egypt. In extreme contrast to Norway, it is hot and sunny every single day here and never rains!

We spent the first few days in the sprawling city of Cairo. It has all the familiar traits of a developing country's capital - crazy tooting traffic, dirty streets, throngs of people and endless poorly constructed apartments. But for a city of over 20 million people, we have found it surprisingly safe and organised. Egypt is a country poor in natural resources, but rich in people power, with a population of 80 million. The land is predominantly uninhabitable desert and consequently 99% of the population are concentrated in just 4% of the land area- along the Nile and its Delta.
As we searched for the Cairo bus station we were befriended by an Egyptian boy called Aladdin. Although we have found most Egyptian men to be sleazy and arrogant, Aladdin was a genuinely nice guy, keen to practice his English (and perhaps secure a Western wife!?). He showed us around Cairo and taught us how to 'walk like an Egyptian' - crossing the street without being hit, by weaving among the moving cars, like crossing a flowing river. He also helped us find a cheap restaurant- not easy with most Cairo eateries closed for Ramadan (the Islamic month of fasting).

We then headed out to the pyramids, located on the outskirts of Cairo. The Giza pyramids, completed in 2550BC were more magnificent than we had imagined. It is believed that they were built by moving huge stones from a quarry and dragging and lifting them into place. At around 140m high, the Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. Pretty impressive ay! Atop grizzly camels we explored the site and enjoyed a magical sunset over the surrounding desert.

Thanks to an after-hours, backgate entrance and a few bribes paid to the police, we enjoyed the pyramids tourist-free. A perfect afternoon, other than our guide attempting to feel us both up - he soon learnt his lesson!! In the evening we were invited back to the camel owner's home to share Iftaar (the meal following sundown during Ramadan). It was a bizarre experience to sit in Mahmoud's lavishly furnished home enjoying delicious Egyptian food, prepared by his six wives - while they remained completely out of sight!! We have found the restrictions and blatant sexism experienced by Egyptian women disturbing. Forced to cover themselves and remain confined to their homes all day - we have actually seen very few local women outside of Cairo. We have a new found appreciation for the freedom and rights that come with being a Western woman.

From Cairo we caught a bus out to the Sinai Peninsula to the small dive town of Dahab. There I had my first experience of scuba diving and completed by open-water dive course through Sinai Divers. I had been quite nervous about learning to dive, but absolutely loved it!! After four days of one-on-one teaching with my excellent German instructor, Laveska, I felt totally relaxed and confident underwater. DahabWith warm, crystal clear waters, stunning coral and incredible animal life the Red Sea is the perfect place to learn to dive. Kate did nine awesome dives while we were in Dahab, including an overnight trip to dive the WWII wreck- SS Thistlegorm. Sunk by German bomber planes in 1941, killing nine people, it now rests at a depth of 30m, with great visibility, making it a perfect dive site. The 126m steamship is like an underwater war museum - full of motorbikes, Bedford trucks, guns and other wartime cargo that never reached its destination. Another highlight for Kate was diving in the Ras Mohammed national park and she was impressed by the wonderful variety of fish and coral on all her dives. (These diving photos are not our own, as we do not have a waterproof camera. We just really wanted to show you what it was like underwater!)

In Dahab we also enjoyed lots of snorkeling, swimming, delicious meals out and even managed to get our hands on some clapped out old bikes! We have really missed having our bikes - the freedom and sense of purpose that comes with cycle touring. In saying that, we are really glad not to be biking here - as we get enough hassles from the Egyptian men just walking down the street! It would help to know some Arabic...

With only twelve days in Egypt, we decided to spend most of it in Dahab rather than travel around and see more. After ten months of being on the move, it was nice to be in one place for ten days! Before flying out of Cairo, we spent a day at the Egyptian museum which was fantastic. It is housed in a large historic building right on the Nile River and has the largest collection of mummies and ancient Egyptian artifacts in the world. We particularly enjoyed the famous "King Tut" section - Pharaoh Tutankhamen's elaborate tomb was discovered remarkably intact (after more than 3000 years!) in the Valley of the Kings in 1923. Artifacts from the tomb on display included the gold funerary mask and sarcophagus, four huge gilded boxes that fit inside each other, chariots, an ancient trumpet, thrones, and even a royal toilet seat.

With three weeks to go we are amping for our time in Nepal with Tom, but we are also looking forward to getting home! When we get back to New Zealand we will spend a month travelling around the country catching up with friends and family, before resuming jobs at Tauranga Hospital over summer.

See you all soon!!!

Norway II and England (again)

2009-09-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

2600km, 37 tunnels, 18 ferries and breathtaking scenery at every turn.....Norway has been an absolute blast! The last few weeks cycling from Trondheim to Bergen have been tough - definitely no risk of sunburn, dehydration or heat-stroke, in fact we were on the verge of hypothermia nearly every day! We left Trondheim on a bit of high after a brilliant time spent with Chris and Emily and coming close to securing jobs for our return to New Zealand. We covered 250km from Trondheim to Molde in one and a bit days. The riding was rather unremarkable and only memorable for getting caught in a massive thunder and lightning storm, eating crackers and cheese for dinner (too wet and cold to cook!) and having to take a longer route due to a closed road.......

We were very pleased to reach Molde, where our warmshowers hosts Berry and Robert kindly picked us up, as the undersea tunnel to their island home is banned to bikes. Berry and Robert were wonderful hosts. We were treated to a fantastic salmon meal and home-made wine, enjoyed with stunning views of the mountains and fjord from their dining room table.

After a late start the following day we set off toward the Trollingsen Pass- one of Norway's most famous sections of road. The eleven hairpins and steep incline is built into what looks like the dead end of a valley - surrounded by enormous peaks and powerful, roaring waterfalls. The climb was one of our favourites on the whole trip and we were rewarded at the top with magnificent views, a magical sunset and great alpine campspot at the pass.
The next morning we awoke to the familiar pitter patter of rain. This was the beginning of a six day stretch of almost continuous rain and very cold riding. Our feet were continuously wet and cold and pitching a soggy tent each night became a bit tiresome. Descents became unbearably cold with heavy downpours and icy wind. We actually looked forward to uphills to keep us warm. We discovered the warmth of Norwegian petrol stations and treated ourselves to coffee and waffles. Although it was pretty grim at times and definitely the coldest and wettest either of us had ever been, we pushed on and kept smiling - through chattering teeth. We figured it was the weather's way of easing us out of cycle touring! A typical Norwegian weather forecast
At least the rain makes the waterfalls more spectacularWe spent a day exploring the peaks surrounding the small town of Loen (Jostedalsbreen National Park). We climbed a 1600m peak and had amazing views of the lake and fjords below. We have found that with all the hours spent biking, our walking and running muscles have become really weak. Although we feel quite fit our legs get so tired walking!

The night before we were due to fly to London we got caught in a fierce storm. We decided to stay put for the night and ride the last 60km to Bergen airport in the morning. We spent ages at the library checking our email and doing some jobs. When the librbary closed at 7pm we made a dash for the nearby shopping centre. While enjoying a meal of blue cheese, crackers, chips and doughnuts (very healthy!) Kate happened to look in our document wallet.....'Matilda- how come there is only one passport in here?' In a sudden sickening moment I realised I had Left Kate's passport in a photocopy machine at the library.....now closed until 11am the following morning. Surprisingly, Kate handled the news incredibly well! So with no passport, a flight the next day, galeforce winds and horizontal rain we set about finding shelter for the night. The winds were too strong for us to pitch our tent, but luckily we managed to find a perfectly positioned Info centre porch to hunker down in. Like true hobbos we spent a restless night hoping the storm would pass and that Kate's passport could be recovered.......Luckily, by morning the weather had settled and the wonderful librarians showed up early to work! So with passports safely back in hand we set off for Bergen.....our last ride!

We made it!!!

After leaving Norway we spent a few days in the UK catching up with lots of friends. We also cleaned and packed our bikes and sent them back to NZ by boat. It was awesome staying with my childhood friend Kellie Hinds and we had a great weekend up in Sheffield with Johnny, Claire and Ruth (UK docs we worked with in Whakatane). Also very cool to briefly catch up with Matty and Becky, who had just flown over from New Zealand for a holiday with Becky's family- made us amped up for mountain biking back at home. Walking in the Peak district...Some familiar faces in a quaint English garden

15000km on the bike, 20 countries and endless stories to tell, this has been the journey of a lifetime. We have seen so many incredible sights, met so many generous people and have learned so much about our crazy, complicated world. Thank you to all those people who have made out trip possible through their advice, hospitality and support. We are both getting super excited about returning to New Zealand, but are also really looking forward to our time in Egypt and meeting up with Tom Ritchie for three weeks in Nepal.

Goodbye beautiful Norway...

Norway

2009-08-30T03:31:00.000-07:00

"Due to its geography and climate, Norway is not suited to long distance cycling" - Lonely Planet guidebook.

With quiet roads, stunning scenery, a sparse population, low crime rates and the right to free camp anywhere, for us, Norway has been the most perfect place to cycle tour! Although the extreme weather conditions have made things tough at times we have had an incredible couple of weeks cycling.

We left you last in Switzerland. We spent our last night in Zurich with Warmshowers hosts Paula and Adrian. We had a great evening with them. It was good to hear about Adrian's North American Great Divide mountain biking trip, and Paula taught us all about underwater rugby (yes, it exists), a sport in which she represents Switzerland! Our departure from Zurich airport was filled with dramas stemming from misinformation from the airline, rigid airport rules and overpriced bike boxes. After a lot of shouting, swearing, a few tears and threats that we wouldn't be able to fly, we finally conceded to their demands, paid up and dashed to the departure gate to board our flight to Alta.
Alta is a small town in the north of Norway. At a latitude of nearly 71 degrees north, Alta is deep inside the Arctic circle and the sun was still in the sky when we landed near midnight. The temperature was not as cold as we expected. The Gulf stream ocean current means that Norway has a relatively mild climate given its latitude (ie. it is not a big ice cap). After unpacking our bikes we biked out of town and found a camp spot on a beach. It was a weird sensation to awake at 2.30am to bright sun shining through the tent but we got used to it very quickly and it didn't affect our sleep. From Alta we headed south along the E6. We were immediately struck by how beautiful and empty Norway is. Stretching over 2500km and with over 83,000 km of coastline, huge glaciers, endless fjords and stunning mountain ranges, Norway is hard to beat for those who love the outdoors. Norway is renowned for being very expensive. After World War II the country experienced rapid economic growth, particularly as a result of large oil deposits discovered in the early 1970s. Today it ranks amongst the wealthiest countries in the world. We were shocked to find that a burger costs equivalent to NZ$40, and eating our supermarket food in a supermarket foyer is as close to eating out as we have got so far.
Despite food and alcohol being extremely expensive, we haven't spent much money here. The 'right of way' law in Norway means that you can camp virtually anywhere you want for a maximum of two nights. This has given us an incredible sense of freedom and we have camped in magical spots every night without spending a dime on accomodation. The Norwegian people are friendly but reserved and seem oblivious to our presence most of the time (in fact on lots of days we have seen many more reindeer than people!!) As we biked south we were met with breathtaking views at every turn - a new fjord, a cascading waterfall, a hanging glacier, incredible rock formations and looming peaks. Norway is known for its wet climate but it was dry for the first few days and we were lulled into a false sense of security. The reality set in on day four when we were hit with by an Arctic blast that brought icy rain, hail, bitterly cold winds from the north and freezing temperatures that even had the locals complaining. They particularly thought Kate was strange in her short bike shorts.....the only bare legs in the Arctic I think! We spent a fantastic day walking in the Lyngen mountains. The Norwegian peaks rear up out of the sea and it does not take long to be well into the hills and above the bush line. We walked up to a beautiful glacier and lake and spend hours exploring the area with great views of the surrounding fjords. On a particularly stormy evening we caught a ferry out to the Lofoten islands off the Norwegian coast. The captain warned us that the sea was very rough when we boarded and we secured our bikes well. Because of the sea conditions the crossing time was doubled and I, along with most of the other passengers, was soon green and vomiting. We were pleased to get off the boat at midnight in the small fishing village of Andenes, and in sub-zero temperatures pitched our tent on the first bit of flat grass that we came to. This happened to be outside the local medical centre, but in typical Norwegian fashion no one blinked an eyelid when we stumbled out of the tent at 10am the next morning. We were elated to find out that afternoon that our friends from the Orion Health Adventure racing team had won Primal Quest....awesome effort and a big congratulations to Anna and the boys!!!!!!

We had read a quote that "if you're in Norway and its not raining, you must be in a tunnel". We found this to be quite true with eight solid days of rain in a row, which can be tough when camping every night and being outside all day. The 25 tunnels that we have been through so far (3220m being the longest) have provided some shelter as well as bus stops and short ferry passages. We never let the weather get us down and kept reasonably chirpy. Sometimes at night we made good fires to warm up by.
The Lofoten Islands were spectacular and rugged with beautiful beaches, cliffs and inlets. Cute wee fishing villages were dotted around the islands as well. The riding was fantastic.The strong head winds, frequent showers and cold temperatures made the riding hard but it was great to see the islands in their wild state! It was so cold that we slept fully clothed at night and I developed some nasty chilblains on my feet (or early frostbite as I like to think of it!)
Back to the mainland at Bodo, we pushed on through persistent rain and eventually awoke one morning to blue skies and sunshine. We definitely had a new appreciation for the sun and spent hours washing and drying all our muddy and wet gear. We even managed to wash ourselves on one of our ferry journeys. This has been the longest period without a shower for both of us - 17 days. Not a fact that everyone would be proud of!
After eight months on the road our bikes and gear seem to be slowly falling apart. Kate's spokes are forever breaking, one of my pedals has gone, my gear shifter stopped working and I spend many evenings stitching clothes back together. We have definitely become more resourceful on the trip - Kate is speedy at fixing spokes and brakes, and managed to replace my pedal with one salvaged from a roadside bike wreck. From Bodo we rode hard and covered 800km in 6 days. We followed a tourist route called the RV17 although it was pretty quiet because Norway's busy "summer" period only lasts one month (July). We enjoyed much brighter weather, beautiful still waters mirroring the surrounding peaks, more great camp spots and brilliant riding. The road is broken by frequent short ferry crossings which are a great chance to chill out and admire the surroundings. Another highlight was two minke whales playing in the fjord right outside our tent one night....great dinner time entertainment.
We are currently staying in Trondheim with New Zealand friends Chris and Emily. They are based in Norway for at least 18 months so Chris can concentrate on orienteering which is really big in Europe. It is awesome to hang out with some kiwis, have a shower, do some much needed washing, explore the local trails and sleep in a bed at night. We are staying here for 3 days and then will be continuing south to Bergen where we finish our cycle journey!!
Some more photos....

Kate stewing apples.... we are quite domesticated despite being homeless!

Lots of the buildings have grass growing on the roof...maybe for added warmth

Tilda doing the dishes..

Another great camp spot....

Kate fixing yet another spoke...

France and Switzerland

2009-08-10T02:42:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been filled with high passes, epic downhills and stunning Alps riding. We have met and stayed with many wonderful people, and enjoyed lots of French wine and Swiss cheese and chocolate!
After Costa Brava we cycled into France and continued along the Mediterranean coast for a while. Near Sete we left the coast and headed north toward Switzerland up the Rhone valley. To begin with the riding was quite dull with flat barren land and scorching hot temperatures. It was sooooo hot one afternoon that we had a tub of ice-cream and a litre of coke for lunch! Mmm very healthy!

We had been quite shocked by the overpriced camping in Europe and expected to find cheaper rates in inland France. One evening, in search of a reasonable rate we ended up cycling an extra 60km and riding until well after dark eventually finding an abandoned campground and paying nothing! We were awoken by a friendly Frenchman cleaning up ther area with a tractor. He waved cheerfully, gave us bottles of water and spent ages searching through a pile of leaves after accidentally scooping up one of my cycle gloves with some rubbish. We have not found all of the French people to be quite as welcoming and have a few run-ins with locals... often overcharging us for things and one fiery elderly woman even tried to cut down our washing line we had innocently tied to her fence!

The French countryside got more beautiful as we headed inland, with lots of flowers, vineyards and gorgeous wee villages. We rode north through the gorgeous wee theatre town of Avignon, through the aptly named Orange and spent a night in a lovely campground in Mondragon.

When we told the campground owner that we planned to reach Grenoble from Mondragon in two days he laughed, said it was 'impossible', and suggested 4-5 days! - that sounded like a challenge to us! We rode hard for two days over several passes, among breathtaking cliffs, through the stunning Gorges de la Bourge, cycled through quaint French villages and enjoyed a lot of tasty bakery food.

Pont en Royans - houses perched on a cliffAfter 220km and 13 hours of riding we were rewarded with a 20km downhill into Grenoble. Grenoble is a small French city nestled in a valley surrounded by high peaks on either side. We stayed with a lovely couple called Sebastian and Anne. We had a very relaxing time and enjoyed their delicious organic french food and hearing about there cycle journey through Mongolia and Central Asia....we are already planning our next trip!

Seb's homemade bread was delicious although he hasn't quite mastered the yeast recipe...a little hard!!

In Grenoble we were stoked to catch up with Amy and Dave from Ohope. They are currently driving around Europe with their mountain bikes and had been following the Tour de France. We spent a chilled out day beside a lake eating more great French food and catching up on the last 18 months since we last saw them.
From Grenoble we biked north-east toward Chamonix and the Swiss border. The terrain was very mountainous with 2000m passes in all directions. It is a road cyclist's paradise and there were roadies everywhere! We try (with some success) to keep up with them on the hills- much to their annoyance, given our bikes and panniers weigh ten times as much as their carbon bikes!
Kate had done some research on a website called via-michelin and thought it was realistic for us to ride from Albertville across the Swiss border and make it to a small village called Chippis.....a slight error in the figures resulted in us doing one our hardest days ever. We had a stunning days riding with incredible views of Mont Blanc, glaciers, waterfalls and rivers.....unfortunately after three 1500m passes and 178km our appreciation was waning!

Mont BlancFinally at 9:30pm and with very tired legs we rolled into Chippis and were greeted by the charismatic and motherly Tilly. Tilly is a Dutch-woman who has been living in Switzerland for many years. She and her husband Marc treated us to delicious food straight from her vege garden and fussed over us doing our washing and taking great care of our exhausted selves! After a day of recovery Tilly sent us on our way complete with freshly baked bread, a box of tomatoes and cherry pie!!
Our riding from Chippis took us up a valley following the river Rhone, climbing steadily toward the Grimsel Pass. Switzerland is a beautiful, mountainous country, but we are pretty shocked by how much infrastructure and man-made things there are EVERYWHERE- bridges, tunnels, viaducts, roads and rail-way. We compare Europe to woman who has had too much plastic surgery- her natural beauty forever scarred by the power of technology.

The steep road and many switchbacks loom ahead...

We had a perfect clear day riding over the Grimsel Pass (2165m)with fantastic views and a wicked descent to the town of Meiringen (500m). From there we climbed over the Grosse Seneidegg Pass in hope of getting views of the famous Eiger. Unforunately all we got was very wet and cold- but we enjoyed the challenge of another 2000m pass and had a cool ride on offroad trails down to Interlaken.

With very poor visibility, this warning sign was our only view from the top....

We are currently in Seelisburg, a typical small Swiss village nestled on a cliff overlooking a lake and mountains staying with Kathrin and Phillipe. They are a great couple who we actually met in Argentina. We didn't realise that when we wrote to them on warmshowers, but they recognised us after looking at our blog. It is a small cycle touring world! They made the epic two year journey from Alaska to Ushuaia on their tandem. It is great to relax at their house and enjoy the peaceful mountain setting.

Kathrin and Philippe - we had such a great time at their place!

A few more photos....

Sarnersee, Switzerland

Castle ruins on top of a cliff in France

A typical Swiss wooden house...After several hours climbing...not the best view!!!
Gorges de La Bourge

Relaxing in Seelisberg

From here we ride to Zurich tomorrow and catch our flight to Alta in Norway for some 24 hour sunlight, chilly weather and lots of fjords. Ciau for now....

Italy and Spain

2009-08-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

Hola from Spain! Since we wrote last we have made it all the way (with the help of a few ferries) from Croatia to north of Barcelona on the Spanish coast. It has been hot, hot, hot!!

From Dubrovnik we caught an overnight ferry to Italy and then biked across to Naples. The eastern coast of Italy was dry, hot, flat and barren in comparison with the Croatian coast. However, what the area lacked in natural beauty it compensated for in the warmth and vibrancy of the Italian people. At our first snack stop we soon attracted a small crowd, were given a free map of Italy and gifts of peaches!! The fruit is great this time of year...huge peaches, nectarines, plums and cherries! The icecream and pizza are fantastic too.

We hooned across Italy in two and half days. Not such great riding as the roads were big with lots of fast, crazy Italian driving- no small roads. We rode for 140km on the first day with the blazing sun above and olive trees as far as the eye could see. We rode until dusk and then asked a family if we could camp on their lawn. They were very friendly and gave us their downstairs area to shower and sleep in.

Our second day riding was a lot more interesting with lots of mountains and greener vegetation. We rode hard in hope of making it to Naples that evening. But after 145 hilly kilometres (plus time wasted accidentally riding onto another motorway) and with the light fading fast, we realised we weren't going to make it. Finding ourselves in a sprawling town surrounded by many other sprawling towns we knew our chances of finding a camping ground within 100kms were slim. In hope of some help we stopped at the tourist information office. We were greeted by a friendly group of Italians who quickly offered us their office as a resting place for the night. We gratefully accepted their generous offer and had a good nights sleep.

We had a brilliant downhill into Naples the next morning with great views of Vesuvius mountain. In Naples we spent a few days staying with a lovely dentist called Luca. He lives in a beautiful apartment right in the heart of the old town. With crowded, narrow cobbled streets, old cathedrals, motorbikes and cars driving wildly everywhere Naples is a crazy chaotic city- and very difficult to bike around! The streets are brimming with people - all speaking loudly with energetic hand gestures - so Italian!

One of things that struck us most about Italy was how dirty it was- the roadsides were littered with dumped rubbish, old furniture and plastic bags. Naples was no exception with piles of litter all over the place- apparently the Mafia are somehow involved with rubbish collection!?

Luca took us out in his boat with five of his friends to an island off the coast. It was great - swimming, eating good food and hanging with the Italians. In the evening we went to a fantastic open-air concert, followed by pizza dinner after midnight! The Italians eat very late and found it hilarious when Kate and I were looking for an open pizza restaurant at seven in the evening!

We spent a day exploring the remains of the Roman city Pompeii - Kate nearly wilting in the intense forty degree heat! Construction of Pompeii began around 6th-7th century BC. The Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD buried the city under 20 metres of ash and it remained undisturbed until 1748. It was incredible to see how advanced and elaborate Roman life was.....and all this 2000 years before Machu Picchu was built!
The Bakery
Plaster casts of victims caught in their last moment of life, with the expression of terror often quite clearly visible... Mt Vesuvius looming in the background... A Roman time cafe...
From Naples we made the decision to catch a train to Rome - breaking our unbroken run of riding every km in Europe. The heat, busy roads and a ferry booking made it a very good option. The ferry from Rome to Barcelona was the closest Kate and I will ever come to going on a cruise ship. We spent the 22 hour journey lounging by the outdoor pool, drinking beer and playing cards in the luxurious lounges as we crossed the Mediterranean.
Barcelona was a stunning city to ride into....vibrant Las Ramblas, beautiful buildings and fountains, thronging streets - the city sure has a great feel. We spent the night with Enrique, a Spaniard who had recently spent three months cycling in New Zealand and fallen in love with the place. Enrique cooked us a variety of delicious tapas, which we ate while discussing all the virtues of beautiful NZ.

The next four days were a complete change of pace for us. We met Ella, Suz, Nariah and Amanda in Bennicasim for the annual music festival. It was so great to see the girls, hear about their travels and spend some time chilling out. The four days of good music, beach swimming, crowded camping, late nights and drinking was only marred by one massive windstorm that resulted in the cancellation of Kings of Leon and many campers losing their tents. Luckily we reached our tents just in time and nothing was lost to the hurricane force winds. The aftermath...

Weary from lack of sleep we headed north on our bikes up the Spanish coast. The girls were traveling by car and met us in the evenings to camp (great to have a support crew)Ella even spent a 100km day on the bike while I went in the car...concluding I much prefer being on my bike! Ella enjoyed her day- despite dull, hot riding and Kate making her ride until 3pm before having a lunch of stale jam and bread!

Having rushed through Barcelona on the way to the festival we decided to spend a day in the city when passing back through. On arrival in the city we were tired, hot and Kate had more broken spokes grrr. Enrique (our Spanish host) was out of town, so we eventually decided to get a hostel. Inexperienced with hostels we didn't realise you were meant to book in advance, and soon found there were no rooms anywhere. Facing up to a night on the streets of Barcelona and reaching the limits of our traveler reserve, we eventually followed some Australian accents a few blocks and found a cancellation at their hostel. The following day we roamed around Barcelona, swam at the crowded beach and endured the cities hottest recorded day in 100 years!

From Barcelona we continued north up the Mediterranean coast (Costa Brava). It was a strange experience seeing this part of the world. Although there were some beautiful sections of riding and a few gorgeous, secluded beaches; for the most part the coast was crowded with tourists, ugly hotels, tacky fairs and carnivals. We crossed into France and are now riding north towards Switzerland. We are really looking forward to being back in the mountains, but will miss the ocean and frequent swim stops. The newest development in our plans is that we are going to spend our last month in Europe in Norway. So, on the 12th of August we will fly from Zurich to Alta- 72 degrees north, for some chilly but beautiful Arctic riding. Bring on the wilderness!!!

Croatia

2009-07-12T04:35:00.000-07:00

After all the rain in Hungary we had high hopes for our time in Croatia....and we haven´t been disappointed! The last two weeks have been filled with sun, swims in crystal clear waters, great riding and lots of time to relax and read.

We found Croatian people to be wonderful - very friendly and generous. Within an hour of crossing the border, we were given free vegetables and use of people´s cell phones. On our first night we rode late aiming for a small town where we thought there was a camping ground....alas no camping ground! With darkness approaching we stood in the town centre wondering what to do. We quickly attracted a crowd. The town drunk came to our rescue introducing us to the local PE teacher who was more than happy for us to camp out in his garage. We had a great night's sleep next to his 1500cc motorbike and collection of skis.

The riding was good and the landscape very different to neighbouring Hungary - greener and more mountainous. Frequent landmine signs made free camping out of the question.

As far as history goes, it doesn't get much more complicated than this region. Croatia is no stranger to war and conflict and has fought hard for its independence. It had been occupied by various European empires since Roman times and was then part of the former Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was a federation formed after WWI comprising six republics (Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Hercegovina and Slovenia). The 1990s saw ugly ethnic and religious conflict across the region and the collapse of the Yugoslav state. In Croatia there was lots of fighting between the Croats and the Yugoslav People's Army (dominated by Serb communists). All is peaceful now, but the scars of battle are all too evident. We rode past vast areas of uncleared landmines, deserted towns with bombed out houses, the remaining buildings and streets pock-marked from shell fire. The graveyards were full of young soldiers and civilians killed in the war. It was a completely new and disturbing experience for us riding through a recent war zone. We encountered many area like this, both inland and near the coast, but outside these areas war seems like a distant memory in beautiful sunny Croatia.

By the time we reached Zagreb, Kateś rear wheel rim was seriously broken and buckled. We bee-lined for the first bike shop we saw and were greeted by a bunch of friendly helpful bike mechanicis who had a new wheel built within two hours, despite being totally bogged down with other work....sometimes it helps being two girls I think!!

We spent the afternoon exploring the Croatian capital with its beautiful centre and slightly more dismal outskirts. In the early evening we met up with Drago, our warm showers host. Drago lived in a small but comfortable apartment building. It has been a real education for Kate and I seeing how people in Europe live in such small apartments. I think we take it for granted in New Zealand how spacious and private our homes are.

We had only planned to spend one night in Zagreb, but the cycle touring forces had other ideas. As we rode out of the city Kate had a puncture. While waiting for her to fix it, I noticed that my bottom bracket was broken. The next major city was about 500km ride away so we decided we better go back and get it fixed. Being a public holiday all the shops were closed and we found ourselves having an enforced day of rest! We had a cool day hanging out with Drago and his friends at BBQ beside a nearby lake.

The next morning our mechanic friends had us all fixed and on the road by 9am. We really enjoyed riding through rural Croatia- green forests, sleepy villages and rolling hills. We camped the night near the Plitvice National Park.

We spent the following day exploring the stunning waterland of the park by foot. This series of lakes, streams and waterfalls is one of Croatia´s lead tourist attractions. Despite periods of heavy rain it was truly breathtaking- a very special place to visit.

From Plitvice we rode west toward the coast- only two mountain ranges stood between us and the Adriatic Sea!

We stopped in a small village and were lucky enough to meet lovely Rita Natkovic and her family. Granny (a classic rural Croatian woman all dressed in black) was happy for us to camp on her lawn. We watched on as she milked her one cow with a portable milking machine (wish you could have seen it Shane!) and we enjoyed fresh milk with our dinner and breakfast. The following day we packed up early with Granny watching on in fascination as we collapsed our tent and packed it away into its small bag. This is one of the real advantages of travelling by bike - getting off the beaten tourist track and seeing how the real people live.

We rode over a beautiful 1000m pass to be met by stunning views of the Adriatic Sea. We coasted down the hill toward the beckoning ocean thinking we had arrived in cycle touring paradise! 30km up the coast we took our first swim in the crystal clear waters and caught a ferry to the island of Rab. A little rain dampened our first afternoon...but since then the weather has been sunny and extremely hot- especially climbing those hills!

We spent the next morning swimming and reading before hitting the road again and heading south along the coastal road. It was one of our favourite sections of riding with hardly any traffic, incredible views of the gorgeous coastline and perfect swim spots. We camped at a beachside campground and enjoyed a few beers while watching the sunset this region is famous for. We continued south and rode 140km in hot conditions to be rewarded by a dreamy campground near Sibenik....so dreamy in fact we couldn´t leave the next day! Kate, dressed in her biking gear and raring to go, returned to our campsite to find me in my bikini not having packed a thing- the decision had been made. A day of swimming, reading and drinking beer at the campground bar...sorry to all those people who are currently enduring a cold New Zealand winter!
By the time we had reached Split- a large city on the Croatian coast- Kate had five broken spokes on her rear wheel! Our mates who rebuilt the wheel obviously hadn't done it that well. In very hot conditions we searched the city and found a bike mechanic who could fix it straight away. We then headed to the ferry terminal, chose at random and booked tickets to the furthrest out island, Lastovo.

We didn't leave Split before making a bit of a scene....A slight misunderstanding and me taking far too long (nearly missing the ferry) led to an all out shouing match on the waterfront. It was quite entertaining for the tourists (Kate saw one woman pulling the video recorder from her husband who was filming us), but not so much fun for us! All forgiven, we had a lovely five hour boat trip out to the island.

Arriving at Lastovo at 10pm we had no idea where we'd stay. After a few enquiries, it turned out the campground owner just happened to be on our ferry. Our bikes were thrown on the back of his truck and we drove the 17km to the island's one campground. We spent a blissful three days on the island - exploring its hilly terrain, roman ruins, swimming in quiet inlets and hiring a 4m boat for the day (Kate was in heaven).

From there, we caught a ferry to Korcula Island and rode the length of that. It was hilly with lots of vineyards in the centre (which we didn't visit.... wine + 35 degrees heat + riding over big hills = disaster!!)

Over the next few days we rode the last 250km along the coast to Dubrovnik. It was pretty uneventful apart from me having to hitchhike back 60km one morning after realising that I had left my bikini at the campground!!

Right on the sea, surrounded by stone walls, and with white marble streets, Dubrovnik is a very unique and beautiful place. Unfortunately it was swarming with tourists and we were glad to only have a afternoon there before catching our ferry to Italy at 11pm. A few more photos....

This machine is used to clear the land mines

Tilda jumps from a 4m wall The inside of Kate's drink bottle
Another great sunset

Austria, Slovakia, Hungary

2009-06-24T03:44:00.000-07:00

Since our last blog we have cycled over 1400km, through four different countries, visited some beautiful cities, seen more naked people than we care to remember and more roller-bladers than we knew existed. We have also had our longest day, our hottest day and our wettest day of the whole trip.

After an absolutely awesome time in Munich we hit the road again heading south-east across Germany, back toward the Alps. The riding along the Austria-Germany border was idyllic with some great track riding along alpine rivers, through green valleys and over a few passes. The traditional Austrian houses are huge with wide verandahs, detailed wood carving and overflowing flower boxes. At least half the house is for the cows - very different to farming in NZ!!Our destination was a beautiful alpine lake called Konigssee. Nestled among high peaks the deep green waters draw many German hikers and tourists. We spent two days there walking and riding in the hills. The second day turned into a pretty big mission. We climbed 1400m on our bikes over 13km (all in granny gear) to the top of the mountain, then descended by foot down to the other side of the lake. After a glorious swim we climbed back up the 1400m on foot before being rewarded with a mean downhill ride late in the evening. On our way home we enjoyed a good German beer in the last of the evening sun. Unfortunately that night our cooker decided to remind us just who was boss and refused to get going (lost all pressure). At 11.30pm, a very dispondent Kate gave up trying to fix it and we went to bed hungry, tired but content.
Luckily Kate managed to fix the cooker in the morning and we had a big feed of chilli beans, veges and rice for breakfast! From Konigssee we rode north to the gorgeous old city of Salzburg. Reknowned as the birthplace of Mozart and of course the filming of everyone´s favourite ˝The Sound of Music" it was swarming with tourists. We had a good wander around and lunch before hitting the road again. Between Salzburg and Vienna the scenery was a bit mundane so we decided to crank through the km´s. In the city of Linz we joined with the Danube River. This is quite a famous cycle route for Europeans and is really well set up for cycle tourists of all abilities with great signposting and lots of rest stations. We thought finding the cycle path itself would be really straight forward, but without a map of the city we found ourselves in a confusing industrial area. Trying to get to the river we accidently biked onto the Autobahn! With tooting cars screaming past us at frightening speed, and us in a slight state of panic and fear of our life, we had no choice but to bike until we got to the next exit. (Trying to turn around would have been certain death I think!)

Free camping on the Danube

The ride along the Danube to Vienna was pretty, but unremarkable other than Kate nearly burning a forest down. For the second time in a week the cooker gave us another wee reminder with the fuel bottle catching alight while we were cooking! This has never happened before and luckily we managed to contain the fire pretty quickly.

We spent several very relaxing days in the beautiful city of Vienna. We stayed with another generous warmshowers contact called Martin. He had also biked in South America, so it was great to share stories and learn about his passion for paragliding. He took us out for a fantastic Turkish meal and to one of his favourite chilled out bars.

The buildings in Vienna are magnificent

Leaving Vienna by bike we encountered hundreds (maybe a thousand) nude people along the bank of the Danube! Mostly middle-to-old aged people sunbathing, swimming or just having a picnic. Not a pretty sight!! We crossed into Slovakia and cycled to the city of Bratislavia. This was a nice place with good atmosphere.

On leaving Brataslavia we encountered hoards of roller bladers. There were literally hundreds of them swarming the cycle paths - many only wearing bikinis or speedos! So many bodies in one day!!

We really noticed the difference leaving Western Europe and traveling into the East. Dreary Soviet style apartment blocks are the most striking and obvious feature that remains from the years of communist rule.

Slovakia had a rather empty, slightly depressing feel about it. Part of the former Czechoslovakia until 1993, the rural areas felt rather unchanged from its Soviet days with tired looking towns and many of the local men gathered at shabby looking pubs drinking vodka shots at nine in the morning. The good news for us was very cheap beer- 40c for a pint! We managed to find a late evening camp spot in a forest only to realise it was completely infested with mosquitoes - worse than in the Amazon! We were covered in hundreds of bites within a matter of seconds and had to take refuge in our tent- forgoing dinner for the second time that week!

Typical Soviet style house....brightly coloured with large windows!

As the scenery was fairly dull and the riding flat we decided to mission it to Budapest (the capital of Hungary). With temperatures soaring to forty degrees we completed our longest day so far....the odo clicked to 199km when we finally reached our destination in Budapest. Both exhausted, hot, sweaty, and quite pleased with ourselves, we were welcomed by Anna, our warmshowers host. We had a relaxing evening enjoying some beers at a buzzing outdoor pub. The following day we visited a museum called the `House of Terror´. This documented life in Hungary under two consecutive totalitarian regimes- firstly the Nazis and then the oppressive Soviet communists. Soviet rule existed from the end of WWII until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989- apart from twelve days of revolution in 1956, when 260 000 Hungarians fled the country, most never to return. The museum was really well done and gave us real insight into the way people lived in fear and with such strict restrictions- every aspect of daily life was monitored and controlled . Citizens were forbidden to leave the country awear western clothes, and thousands were tortured, murdered and deported to Russian labour camps. Today Budapest is a modern, vibrant city with stunning old architecture and great cafes and restaurants.
The next leg of our journey saw us cycling through Hungary to Croatia. Unfortunately our riding in Hungary was slightly tarnished by some of the wettest, coldest weather we`ve had on the trip- in stark contrast to the sweltering temperatures just days previously. Three days of solid rain is not much fun when you`re riding and camping. At one pub, while we sat shivering over the menu, the waiter took pity on us and brought out blankets! We were relieved when the rain finally stopped and we crossed the Croatian border....heading towards the beach, sun and islands of the Adriatic coast. Bring it on!!

Preparing dinner in the tent...pouring rain outside

Typical European hiker....Leki poles and talking on a cellphone!

Germany

2009-06-08T23:48:00.000-07:00

Kate and I have absolutely loved our time in Deutschland so far. The combination of great riding, ever-changing landscape, cool people, delicious bakeries and the fantastic beer is hard to beat.

We last wrote from Köln in western Germany where we really enjoyed staying with Heidrun, Martin and their family. We had a guided tour of the city with Heidrun and Martin on their recumbant tandem bike. We visited the stunning Dom- a gothic cathedral that took over six centuries to complete (started in the 1200's)

From Köln we followed the Rhine River south. The weather was fantastic with tempertures over 30 degrees some days- perfect for frequent river swims. The riding was pretty cruisy along flat cycle paths with many beer stops at the cute Biergartens that line the river. We had to put a limit on our stops as one afternoon we realised we had drunk much more beer than water and Kate looked back to see me dangerously weaving between the many Sunday afternoon cyclists.
The highlight of the Rhine was the beautiful Rhine valley/gorge. This section of the area is surrounded by high cliffs, many hill top castles and medieval villages. Our favourite of these towns was the 2000 year old Koblenz where we spent my birthday visiting an ancient fort. Along the Rhine we were hosted by more people we had met through warmshowers. People are so so generous and welcoming- special thanks to Stephan and Nadine, Bennie and Caro, Romina and Luis. Before crossing the border for a brief stay in France we spent a relaxing morning in the lovely old university town of Heidelburg. The town is overlooked by the extensive ruins of an ancient castle- twice destroyed by bombs and once by lightning.
We continued south along the Rhine to the French town of Strasbourg. In Strasbourg we were greeted by Simon- a lovely quintessential Frenchman who showed us true French hospitality with a BBQ-turn-crazy party, a tour of the city and a relaxing afternoon enjoying the sun at a nearby lake. We enjoyed our brief stay in France, but found the French far less accommodating with our pathetic attempts at the language than the German people.

Simon

Canal in Strasbourg....

Next stop was Freiburg. A small town in the south-western corner of Germany, Freiberg is set on the edge of the famous Black Forest. We were greeted by Rudo, Anna-Marie and their four lovely children (also from warmshowers). We camped on their back lawn and had a great time exploring the forest on our bikes with no panniers. We climbed over 1000m getting great views and attempted some single-track riding - but our thin tyres are really not up to it. From Freiburg we rode east through the forest- with some steep but short climbs (compared to the Andes that is!!)

The Black forest...we found it more green than black!

On the eastern side of the forest, I had my first taste of the much built up Black Forest cake and we stayed with a lovely cardiologist called Sabine. Although a brief stopover, Sabine's hospitality, route ideas and maps were most appreciated.

As you can see on our map above, we then headed south to Lake Constance and along the German-Austrian border. The riding along here was brilliant with a mixture of lush, green rolling farmland dotted with huge old German homesteads, lakes and our first views of the spectacular Alps. We are really into our riding at the moment and have been doing lots of km's. After a particularly long, hilly 160km day we decided to have a rest day at the idyllic lakeside town of Hopfen Am See. What was meant to be a "rest day" turned into a ride across the border into Austria, a 70km cycle around a pristine lake in the Alps and then a hike up a 2000m peak. We were just so stoked to be back in the hills! We paid the price the next day with very tired and sore legs! Luckily we only two relatively easy days riding to reach our next destination - Munich. And that`s where we are now.

Yesterday we were greeted by Anna - Eloise`s "exchange sister" from her time in Germany. Anna and her friends are amazing hosts and have been showing us an authentic Bavarian good time! Anna had prepared a delicious Bavarian brunch including pretzels, bread, eggs, bacon, cheeses, meats, strawberries, melon and much more.....we didn`t need to eat for the rest of the day!

In the evening Anna pulled out her traditional Bavarian dresses so we could truly feel the part at the famous Hofbauhaus beer hall . We loved getting dressed up and had an awesome night with Anna and her friends enjoying one litre steins and enormous fresh pretzels. We looked so like genuine locals even the tourists were taking photos of us!!

On a more sober note we visited the notorious Dachau Concentration camp site and museum today where thousands of Jews and other `undesireables` were imprisoned and died before and during WWII. It was a very moving experience. We find it difficult to comprehend Germany´s dark past when you see where it is as a nation today.

Our journey will continue tomorrow when we will head south again to the Alps and make our way to Salzburg in Austria.

A few more photos....

So many beautiful lakes in the Alps

A mai mai at our campsite....with a view

Sussing out a route Reading at Hopfen am See

Neuschwanstein schloss....inspired Walt Disney's Cinderella castle

The Netherlands & Belgium

2009-05-23T04:29:00.000-07:00

We have been back on our bikes for less than two weeks, but it has flown by. So far we have visited the Netherlands and Belgium and have really enjoyed the history, people, food, beer and of course the cycling.

We left London on May 11th, and it was a full-on day....a 15km ride across London at 5am, a train trip to Harwich, a 7hr ferry across the channel and then a 25km ride north to Den Haag (the Hague). We have never received a better reception on public transport and the staff couldn't have been more helpful. In Den Haag we stayed with the lovely Jasper, who we met through our Scottish friends Alex and Lauren. On our arrival Jasper had dinner prepared and we later shared a few drinks at his local pub to celebrate Kate's birthday.

We had been anticipating the excellent set up for bikes in the Netherlands....and were not disappointed. Cycle lanes were everywhere with excellent sign posting. The lanes are not just painted strips on the road but completely separate main roads. They even have specific traffic lights... Our first impression of the Dutch was that they extrememly active people - within an hour we had seen people surfing, kite-surfing, running, walking, wind-surfing and of course riding their bikes. And there are bikes EVERYWHERE! They are truely replacing cars. People of all ages ride with excellent carriers, trailers and baskets, perfect to load up with groceries or up to three children! There are estimated to be 16 million bikes in Holland!! Europeans tend to ride old fashioned style bikes and we look quite out of place with our mountain bikes.

A typical parking lot...
Jasper has a wealth of knowledge about cycle touring in Europe, so we spent some time pouring over maps and picking his brains. We spent a very relaxing day in Den Haag visiting the International Peace Court and enjoying the cities beautiful parks. The following day we set off north for Amsterdam. We followed a long-distance cycle route that rambled its way through the Dutch provinces. It was all just as I had imagined- canals, windmills, green fields, dykes and lots of small villages.

The Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with 17 million people living in about the equivalent area of Otago! The houses are narrow and tall and squashed together- perhaps stemming from an historic tax system based on the width of your house! We arrived in Amsterdam late in the evening and eventually found Marije and her Mongolian Ger. We had a arranged to stay with Marije- a woman we had made contact with through Warm-showers, a cycle touring website. Marije is also a keen cyclist who recently spent two months riding in Mongolia. Following her experience there she decided she would like to spend some time living in a traditional Mongolian Ger. The Ger was lovely- very spacious and warm inside with four inches of woollen felt for insulation. (One night we got back wet and cold, got the fire roaring, and within 5 minutes we were stripping down to underwear...it was like a sauna!!) Marije lives about 2km north of Amsterdam in the countryside and it was cool staying outside the city amongst the farmland. We spent a few days exploring the beautiful narrow, tree-lined streets of Amsterdam, criss-crossing the extensive canal system. We visited the Anne Frank museum, set in the house where she was in hiding during WWII. It was well done and a very moving experience. The centre of the city was somewhat overwhelming with millions of tourists, marijuana smoke wafting from the many coffee-shops and lots of sex-shops. We unknowingly wandered into the red-light district which is located in the central city. It was kind of bizarre seeing all the semi-clad women in booths behind glass-windows trying to attract customers.
From Amsterdam we headed south along the North Sea coast and two days later were in Belgium. We visited a beautiful city called Brugge and cycled around the cobbled streets, ate waffles and had a few beers. There are over 500 types of beer in Belgium and so far we have found them pretty good!! We stayed in a place called Gent for 2 nights with Nele and Jakob (also from Warm showers). They live in a gypsy caravan and have recently cycled through Poland. We got on really well with them and enjoyed sitting around a camp fire at night talking and sharing stories.

At my Mum's suggestion we decided to take a side trip to Flanders Field where many New Zealand soldiers fought during World War I. Belgium was a neutral country at the beginning of the war, but Germany ignored this and invaded Belgium lands in order to reach France, thus drawing England and subsequently New Zealand into the war. Belgium territory served as a strategic point along the Western Front and many thousands of lives were needlessly lost in gruesome trench warfare. The town of Ieper was almost completely destroyed during the war but was rebuilt in an identical fashion after 1918. We took the train from Gent south to Ieper and spent many hours at the fascinating 'In Flanders Field Museum'. The museum was the probably the best we had ever visited. In the afternoon we cycled out into the countryside where there are many cemeteries and old battlefields. We visited the Polygon Woods Cemetery and the New Zealand Memorial. There are both known and unmarked graves in these perfectly maintained cemeteries. It was a very moving experience to see the hundreds of grave-stones of Kiwi boys who died so young in this foreign land.

That evening we had a night out in Gent with our hosts Nele and Jakob. We rode across the city to their favourite pub to meet with a group of their friends and sample some of the many delicious Belgium beers. It is great to meet locals, hangout with people our age and really see what their lives are like. The night ended with a 3am cycle tour of the beautiful city with its canals and castles.

The next morning, a little hung-over, we set off for Antwerp (or was it afternoon?) The ride was mainly along canals and we were once again blown away by just how many people were out on their bikes. We rode into the city late and were lucky to once again have accommodation with some locals through a friend of a friend. After a whirlwind look around Antwerp we began our two day ride to Koln (Cologne, Germany).

The first day went smoothly- more canals, strawberries and ice-cream, small pubs, beautiful countryside and easy to follow routes using specific cyclist numbering systems. We rode until nine in the evening and managed to find a sweet wee camp spot in the forest. Day two was not so straight forward. As we crossed the border into Germany the sign-posting we had been relying on became unreliable and erratic. We were planning to buy a map at the first town that we came to, but all the shops had been closed. With no map and after realising we had just done a big circle, Ken reappeared for the first time in weeks. Just when things were looking quite grim a group of four cycle tourists went whizzing by. We set off in pursuit hoping to look at their map and get some instructions. They were at the end of a ten day journey and were generous enough to give us their German Map. Even with the map the day was pretty difficult and navigation was trying to say the least.....so many roads, crucial sign-posts missing, big motorways, complex villages. We realised navigation had never really been as issue in South America as there was usually only one road! Finally at nine in the evening and after covering 290km in two days we were stoked to arrive at our destination- a small village north of Köln on the Rhine River- where we were greeted by our lovely hosts Heidrun and Martin.

We have really enjoyed our first two weeks in Europe. It is so very different to South America. Although in many ways things are more easy, cycle touring in Europe presents a whole new set of challenges. We are excited about our plans for Germany and will probably be heading south down the Rhine as you read this update.

A few more photos:

With our big appetites back, we were pleased to discover that European bakeries are goooood...
After misplacing our spare tube, Matilda finds the puncture leak in the canal water...
Kate trying out Marije's recumbent bike...a few seconds later she crashed...

One of the many beautiful little villages...

Ciau for now...

England, Scotland, Ireland

2009-05-09T03:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a hectic three weeks we have had since leaving South America! After overcoming some of the initial culture and price shock of arriving in London we have had a great time in the UK. It has been very social time catching up with lots of Kiwi friends and people we had met on our travels.

After landing at Heathrow and being in awe of the cleanliness and organisation we set about hauling ourselves, our bike bags and heavy beach bags full of panniers onto the tube and through London. As we had so much gear we had to do shuttle runs through the stations, dragging our bags up flights of stairs and down long corridors. We immediately noticed the difference in London attitudes compared to South America.... only one of the hundreds of people who walked past offered a hand. We spent a busy week in London catching up with friends, getting our bikes to the bike shop and making the most of the selection at the supermarket. The cost of life in London came as a bit of a shock- with things costing up to twenty times more than in South America - we watched our savings decline quite rapidly!
Kate and I were both pretty shocked by how cold London was and we stuck out in our jandals and oil stained clothes. Our Mum's had posted us a few clothes (thanks), but we both agreed shoes and jeans were essential. After a spot of shopping on Oxford Street we thought we looked quite smart and fitted in with the London scene, only to have these ideas shattered by Kate Percy who greeted us with- 'Who looks fresh off the boat from South America!'We made several day trips from London. We had a fun rowdy night in Brighton with Ruth, a doctor friend from Whakatane. Cool to experince our first English 'house party'. The following day we set off for Cambridge. It was great to catch up with Tyrone and Meredith. We had a fantastic day punting on the Cam, basking in the sun and drinking Pimms. We explored the colleges and even spotted a few naked swimmers at the nudest beach on the banks of the Cam. Great to hear about T and M's many adventures. We both feel inspired to travel more through central Asia, especially Iran.

From London we caught the train north to Edinburgh. It was incredible to cover the 550km between the two cities in only four hours. To think Bolivia only has one operational train service that runs three times a week and travels at a painfully slow pace, the same distance would have taken over 24 hours! We both loved Edinburgh. It is a relatively small city with beautiful old buildings, a centrally located castle and so much history. Thanks heaps to Emma for having us to stay and taking us out for a delicious mexican meal and free margaritas.

My sister Polly is currently living in Inverness (Scottish Highlands) and our next stop was to visit her. Polly is not quite as keen on bikes as us, so we decided hiring a car would be the best option for tripping around Scotland. It also gave us and our bikes a much needed break from each other! From Edinburgh we hired a car and set off for Inverness. It was lovely motoring through the beautiful Scottish countryside- so lush and green, with millions of daffodils. We spent several days in Inverness with Polly and her friend Sabrina. We were treated to an absolutely delicious garden dinner party by a group of their friends.From Inverness Polly, Kate and I headed north to the Highlands of Scotland. We absolutely loved the northern part of scotland- stark, isolated, cold with a beautiful rugged coastline. We explored castles, went for long walks, talked about swimming in the freezing North Sea and camped at a perfect wee spot by the ocean. We also spotted some fantastic road signs, including one for the small town of Brawl. And Kate's favourite.....
Our next destination was Plockton, a small village on Scotland's west coast. Plockton is the home town of Alex, Lauren, Poppy and Ash- the cycle touring family we met in South America. Despite having only spent an afternoon together near a border in Bolivia we felt a real connection with them and were buzzing to see them again. It was a pleasure to stay in their lovely recently completed, energy efficient home and share delicious food, wine and stories from South America. Their home is full of Alex's ingenious design features, including thousands of water filled milk bottles beneath the floor storing the heat captured by the sun. We used Plockton as a base to explore the stunning Isle of Skye. Joined by Polly's friend Sabrina, we spent a day climbing and walking in the ancient and awe-inspiring rock formations and clambering among castle ruins. From Plockton we continued south to Glasgow where we spent one night with Nats and Eddie from Whakatane. We had great pizza eats and fast tour of Glasgow. The following day we made our way back to Edinburgh to meet up with Matt- a mountain bike guide friend we met in La Paz. It was fantastic to see Matt. We ended up having a very boozey fun night with him. I suffered the next day as we lugged our heavy gear through the city and set off on a train and ferry journey! At one point I had to lie down in the middle of Glasgow railway station!
Next stop was Northern Ireland. Kate and I had both studied NI's turbulent history at high school, but never really got our heads around its complicated past. A Black Cab tour of the city proved a really good way to help our understanding. Belfast, to this day, is a very divided city. Northern Ireland is still politically part of England. The population is divided into Protestant unionists who consider this a good thing and Catholic republicans who believe there should be one united Irish Republic. This is not only a philosophical divide, but a real physical division. These two communities are segregated by 16m high fences! The two communities exist completely independently from each other and there is no social interaction. Although the Belfast Agreement was signed in 1998 and the IRA was disarmed, there remains a small but staunch group of activists on both sides. Only weeks before our arrival in Belfast there were several assassinations. It is a very sad reality to see people continuning to live with such mistrust and deep seated hatred, but the wounds run deep. These issues stretch back hundreds of years. Each party has fought so hard for what they believe in and each experienced so much loss. On a lighter note we had a very fun night out at a traditional Irish pub with Kate and I showing off our Irish dance moves with the locals!
After deciding on another hire car we drove north around the coast and visited the famous Giant's Causeway. This geological spectacle is formed from cooling lava forming perfect hexagonal steps dropping off into the ocean. Although swarming with tourists it was still a fantastic sight. That evening we reached the walled city of Derry. Kate and Polly were treated to a tour from a local guide 'Paddy' (aka Matilda) who doned an excellent Irish accent and showed them around the walls of the city. Derry also has a history of political unrest and is still very much divided like Belfast. There are political murals everywhere and plenty of Irish flags and Union Jacks proudly displayed.After crossing the unmarked border into the republic of Ireland we set about finding a campspot for the night. This proved a little more difficult than we expected, but as the rain fell and darkness approached we eventually settled on a beach side carpark- much to Polly's disgust!! While Kate chose the car to sleep in Polly and I slept restlessly.

After a long day driving and a spectacular visit to the Slieve League cliffs (the highest in Europe) we arrived in the capital of the republic, Dublin. We were lucky to have Nariah and Scott to stay with in Temple Bar. Scott is busy assisting with the opening of Hell Pizza in Dublin and hoping to get the chain up and running in London. We had a lovely couple of days enjoying a fantastic walking tour with Nariah. We really liked Dublin despite it being the most expensive place we've ever visited (6-7 euros for a pint!) and bloody freezing. We visited the Kilmainham prison and went on an excellent tour which gave us alot of insight into Ireland's many uprisings and battle for emancipation from Britain.

After missioning back to Belfast to drop our hire-car and Polly off, Kate and I spent one more night in Dublin. We went on a mini pub crawl, eating dinner at Ireland's oldest pub (dates back to the 1100's!) The following day Kate and I ferried and trained to Oxford to catch up with Nick Douglas and Julia Matheson- both doing currently doing PhDs. It was so good to see them both, wander around the lovely town and visit the beautiful old colleges. Oxford exudes academia....everyone just looks so brainy!
Kate and I are back in London now after our whirlwind tour! Unfortunately we haven't been able to see everyone that we had hoped to, but will be back in the UK in September.

We were very excited as we had booked tickets to The Lion King musical while we were in Scotland. We arrived early at the theatre to collect our tickets, only to find that there was no record of our booking. The woman at the box office made several phone calls as Kate and I stood anxiously and began to doubt we'd even booked! It soon became apparent we had indeed booked....but for the previous day!! Absolutely gutted with ourselves the woman said 'No problem, come back at ten past seven and we'll find you a seat'. Relieved and slightly embarrased we returned an hour later to discover we were designated far better seats than we had booked! The Lion King was spectacular- incredible costumes, lighting, music and set.

Yesterday we were reunited with our bikes. We were extremely lucky to be put in touch with a bike mechanic from Cycle Surgery, London. Karl did a fantastic job. Following my bike's 'electrocution' it needed quite a bit of work including new brake levers, cables and a whole new rear brake. Karl did a great deal on parts for us with completely free labour. This kind of generosity is what makes our trip possible and we want to thank Karl and everyone in the UK who has been so super generous and welcoming.

Tomorrow we are catching the ferry to Holland where we will begin our journey across Europe. We don't really have any fixed plans....just a map, our bikes and hopefully enough New Zealand dollars to keep us going until October!

Ecuador

2009-04-01T18:29:00.000-07:00

Hola from Quito, the capital of Ecuador. We´ve had an action packed month since we last wrote and time has flown by.

After our time in Cusco we were pleased to be faced with an hour long flight to Lima instead of the epic 22 hour bus trip. A four hour flight delay had the upside of us not having to pay anything extra for our bikes ( I think they were scared of us!) - which saved us over $100! Flying over Peru we were glad not to be riding - monotonous, moutainous and dry pretty much sums it up. Peru´s capital Lima (home of 8.5 million people) seemed to sprawl out forever beneath us. Overcrowding, unemployment and poverty is rife and we were glad not to be riding through the neverending slums. We managed to spend less than an hour in this hot desert city, pleased to find a north bound bus minutes after our arrival.

We bussed all the way through to Loja- a small city in southern Ecuador. The bus trip was unremarkable except for Kate´s shoes being stolen. We immediately found the Ecuadorian people to be really friendly and although like Bolivia it is a developing country, Ecuador is far more advanced with excellent sealed roads and much better infrastructure.

We set off from Loja in the pouring rain, unfortunately having arrived in Ecuador in the raining season. We soon discovered riding in Ecuador is TOUGH! Constantly riding between 2000m and 4000m we were either grinding up steep hills or tearing down them - feels like there was much more of the up!! This combined with shorter days, cold, misty weather conditions and the savage dogs makes it hard going. We have learned to deal with the dogs with a combination of stone-throwing, yelling abuse and our dog dazer (thanks Shane!)......and if all else fails pedalling like hell and hoping we can out-sprint them!

We were both exhausted by the end of each day.....one evening after arriving at a hostel (as cold as we had ever been before) we lay in bed, eating chocolate and peanuts, had muesli for dinner and watched bad American movies! Despite the tough riding we enjoyed the steep Ecuadorian landscape, met some great people, and enjoyed camping with views.

We weren´t too impressed with the food in the rural highlands though...pig carcasses in varying states of decomposition were hanging up everywhere, and thats about all you could get!
The first major town we reached after Loja was Cuenca. The day we rode into town was challenging to say the least. After 85km and having crossed our 500m contour lines at least seven times during the day with minimal views we finally made it to the top of a 3800m pass. The visibility was terrible with thick mist swirling all around us. As darkness approached we realised we wouldn´t make it to Cuenca that night, but campsites amongst the muddy, steep pine forest were not looking promising. Suddenly a truck´s tail-lights appeared out of the mist as we realised the driver was reversing towards us to offer a ride. After a few seconds thought we agreed to chuck our bikes in the back and get a ride for the last 50km into the city. As we sat in the cab both relieved to be out of the freezing rain and mist I turned to check our bikes were OK......."Kate, did you take your front box off?"......"No. Oh shit!!" No front-box! Speeding along the potholed road the box Kate has on the front of her handlebars had come loose and fallen off.
The lovely truck-driver promptly turned back and we slowly drove back up the hill carefully searching for nearly and hour....with no luck. We were both resigned to the fact we had lost our wallet, bike tools, map, pump, warm clothes and our precious Leathermen (parting gift from Anna, Soph and Shane). We began planning our next insurance claim and trying to figure out how on earth we were going to replace these essential items. As we came to a main intersection before the city two truckies waved us down. Through some rapid fire spanish we picked up that these men had seen the box fly off, picked it up and waited at the bottom of the hill to return it to us! They were pretty overwhelmed with the two Gringo girls hugging and kissing them....it all worked out OK and we had a very relaxing couple of days in the lovely city of Cuenca.

Front box back where it should be...

From there we continued on our bikes up the spine of the Andes through Alausi to Riobamba.
After spending a night there we planned to go to a cool touristy town called Baños. Baños is situated under a very big, very active volcano that has erupted several times in recent years, completely shutting the town down. It is also famous for its thermal pools. When we asked at the hostel in Riobamba we were told that the direct and by far quickest road was closed following a recent eruption. We asked around a bit and a helpful man from the local bike shop said he thought it would be fine on bike, but wanted to confirm with a few other people. So we all set off on bike to the bus station where we asked about four men at the bus terminal, who all said that they thought it would be sweet on bike - a small amount of pushing required. We rode about 50km, descending down into a valley- the road gradually deteriorated and we were soon pushing our bikes through thick ash.....when all of sudden the road disappeared altogether! There was a HUGE canyon where the road once was- at least 150m deep with crumbling walls. Completely impassable!!While Ken stayed calm, I was less than happy...in fact furious! There was no option but to turn back, push through the ash and bike to Riobamba....all uphill. Luckily after 15km of climbing some locals took pity on us and we hopped in the back of their truck with our bikes. The guys at the bus station thought the whole thing was hilarious and were more than happy to take us and our bikes to Baños. We were glad not to be riding on the super busy Pan-American Highway with the crazy crazy Ecuadorian drivers. We spent several relaxing days in Baños biking to the jungle, swimming in a dreamy river, eating at a fabulous local restaurant and checking out the many nearby waterfalls.

These falls were awesome, so powerful! Some old chap had picked away at the rock for the last two decades so you could get right in behind the waterfall...

Matilda with another bloody knee after a low speed crash on gravel!

Ecuador´s next top model (eat your heart out Philippa!)

Having really enjoyed our time in Baños we set off north for Quito. We intended to bike a side loop (the Quilitoa Loop) on the way, which inlcuded several more high passes, with the highlight being a famous crater lake. We set off with fair views of the second highest peak in Ecuador (Cotopaxi).We had been warned the ride was tough and the weather very cold….and within hours we had found out just how tough and cold. At nearly 4000m, after climbing for four hours, we were caught in a freezing cold hail and rain storm with a puncture and rapidly declining enthusiasm. Shivering and barely able to use our hands to change Kate´s tube, I looked at Kate and said "Wanna go to the beach?" She looked at me and grinned through chattering teeth….within ten minutes we were heading back downhill!! The next afternoon we found ourselves in blissful Canoa. Canoa is a small, dreamy seaside town with a gorgeous long beach, gentle surf, warm water and lots of lovely but basic restaurants and bars. Finding ourselves a room with stunning ocean views we both agreed our early trip to the coast was a fantastic idea and the perfect way to end our South America trip. We spent our last week surfing, swimming, taking long walks, bike rides, reading, lying in hammocks, eating delicious seafood and hanging out with the locals and other travelers.

Matilda carving up

On our last morning we took some sit-on-top sea kayaks out hoping to explore some nearby caves only accessible from the water. After half an hour, we turned to paddle into the small rocky beach just as a giant set came in. Our boat nose-dived on a massive wave throwing both of us into the water. After righting our kayak and managing to scramble back on we decided to paddle out behind the breakers. The big waves continued and after just staying afloat over a few breaking waves one came crashing down right on top of us, capsizing us again. The boat hit my head in the process and Kate (the lifeguard), thinking me unconscious dragged me to the surface! Defeated, slightly concussed, but still laughing we abandoned the cave idea and headed back to Canoa, catching some much more tame waves on our next beaching.

Fishing boats

Giant prawns

So after eight days in heaven, we took an overnight bus to Quito - 2 days to clean and pack our bikes, have a look around and see a few friends. Unfortunately my bike sustained a few injuries on the journey from Canoa to Quito. Piled on the roof of the bus our bikes became tangled with some low lying power-lines and with sparks flying somehow both brake levers became bent beyond use! Thank goodness we are heading to the western world where bike parts are readily available!

This will be our last blog from South America. It is hard to believe our time here has come to an end and we will be in London in a few days. We have had the most amazing time and although full of challenges we are so glad we chose cycle touring as our way of getting around. We are both super excited about getting to the UK for a few weeks of socialising, catching up with friends, traveling with my sister Polly and then heading off for our next biking adventure in Europe. Special thanks (muchas gracias) to everyone here in South America and back home who`ve encouraged us and helped us out along the way. And thanks to all of you who take the time to read our blog...or at least look at the pictures. Stay tuned!!

Adios South America.....bring on Europe!!!

Amazon basin & Peru

2009-03-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

With the rainy season coming to an end we decided to ditch our bikes in La Paz and head to the Amazon basin for a taste of wildlife. We opted for the 40-minute flight down to the jungle instead of the grueling 20-hour bus journey. The flight was spectacular, we cruised between the breathtaking 6000m peaks of the Cordillera Real and had great views of Lake Titicaca and the endless Amazon. After a slightly bumpy landing on the dirt runway we stepped out of the plane and were struck by the incredible heat and humidity. Rurrenabaque is a beautiful small town and is Bolivia´s best access to the Madidi National Park and the Amazon Jungle.

We signed up for a tour and spent three days exploring the pampas region mainly by boat. At this time of year there is not much solid land to walk on and so dugout canoe is the best way to get around. We stayed in huts built up on stilts and walked around on boardwalks. There were lots of alligators around so you didn´t want to fall in!! We had a great group and had a lot of fun. It was really hot and humid but we used lots of repellant and managed to avoid getting too badly bitten by mozzies.
We saw a myriad of animals.....alligators, black caiman, capybara, sloth (they were funny, so slow!), giant turtle, tapir, anaconda, cobra, all different types of monkeys (the howler monkeys were amazing), and we even got to swim with the pink river dolphins (a bit scary in the murky water that we had seen alligators cruising past just 10 minutes before!) We also enjoyed seeing lots of birds including toucan, macaw, heron, stork and many more that I don´t know the name of. Some photos....

Three-toed sloth

Alligator cruising past...

And up close....

Turtle

Cobra

Yellow monkey

Our accommodation... no solid land to be seen this time of year

White heron

One of the highlights of our jungle trip was meeting Faith Fippinger, an inspiring 68 year old American woman who we instantly connected with. Travelling like any 25 year old backpacker, Faith had up and sold everything in Florida to travel the world. A modest and gracious woman, she awed us with stories of her life...teaching blind people all over the world for 33 years, working and living in outback Australia for years, living in complete isolation for two years in a cabin in Alaska, volunteering in Indian hospitals and most recently having acted as a Human Shield in Iraq. She entered Baghdad weeks before the US invasión and remained there during the attacks, volunteering in hospitals treating civilain casualties. On arrival back in the States she was welcomed with a one million dollar fine from the US government for going to Iraq. Her refusal to pay landed her in a federal prison for three months. It was absolute pleasure to meet Faith and priviledge to hear her many stories of travel and Human Rights work overseas.

A few of our group....Faith, Lesley, Tilda and Johnny

Unfortunately on the morning of our return flight it started raining...and didn´t stop. The dirt runway turned to mud and our flight was cancelled. We waited around for a day and when the rain didn´t stop, we got the bus.

We had been warned this was “the worst” bus trip in all of South America - 20 hours plus of terrible roads in run-down buses, many breakdowns etc. It actually wasn´t too bad, with beautiful scenery of the jungle and we actually arrived into La Paz early! We spent the day in La paz catching up with friends and filling in IRD forms (grrr!!)

Our last 50 cent banana smoothie from the wonderful fruit women!

Our last night in La Paz...view of Illimani from the bar!

As time is running so short (flying to London in less than a month now) we have decided to race through Peru and enjoy our last 3 weeks cycle touring in Ecuador- which we`ve been told is amazing. Our one stop in Peru was Cusco to do some mountain biking and to visit the famous Machu Picchu.

Peru

We took the bus from La Paz to Cusco (11 hours). Cusco is a beautiful city in the middle of the Andes, with around 350,000 people. It was originally the capital of the Inca empire (1200s-1532) and is the oldest continuosly inhabited city in the Americas. “Discovered” by Spanish conquestador in 1533 the spanish quickly took over the city and constructed many beautiful cathedrals and churches on the foundations of the Inca city. We spent a relaxing day exploring the city, eating delicious food, planning our trip to Machu Picchu and getting caught in a late afternoon downpour while running. The following day we set off mountain biking towards Machu Picchu with our Scottish guide Dougie from Gravity Peru. This was not quite the amazing singletrack we had enjoyed in Bolivia, but it was a great way to see the Sacred Valley and explore rural Peru. We biked on 4wd tracks and single track and had great views of the mountains and valley below. At the end of the day we visited incredible salt pans that are thought to pre-date Incan times. After a good day riding we spent the night in the delightful town of Ollantaytambo exploring some of the nearby ruins and eating at an awesome restaurant. There are currently three main ways to reach Machu Picchu- the most famous is the Inca Trail (expensive, you have to have a guide, and book early), on the train (good because anyone can get there) or via the “backdoor”. We chose the backdoor route which involves a day of riding, a few taxi trips and an early morning walk along the train tracks. The Gravity crew picked us up from Ollantaytambo and we drove up to the Abra Malaga pass 4350m (Shane this is where the mega-Avalanche race starts). From there we rode 30km of sealed rode and 30km of gravel, with a tiny bit of off-road, descending from chilly alpine air to the humid heat of the jungle. We had a beer and then said goodbye to the bikes and Matt from Gravity. That night we stayed in a small village called Santa Teresa and spent hours soaking in some of the most beautiful hot springs we have ever been to. Set among stunning mountains, with pools cut out of the rocks and crystal clear water... it was heaven! The following day was Machu Picchu day. With an early 5am start we set off walking along the train tracks that lead to the Aguas Calientes (the town at the base of Machu Picchu). The walk took around two hours with the tracks following a raging river that winds through stunning forest. From Aguas Calientes we took the steep Inca trail up to Machu Picchu itself. Machu Picchu was thought to be constructed around 1400-1500AD and was perhaps the last of the Inca`s impressive cities. It was abandoned around 100 years later at the time of the Spanish conquest and remained undiscovered until American historian Hiram Bingham brought it to worldwide attention in 1911. To this day there is no agreement as to the actual purpose and use of Machu Picchu. The Incan people themsleves are not native to the Peruvian area and no one is sure where they originated from. The Cusco region was the founding area of their Empire that stretched from modern-day Columbia through into Chile and Argentina. Their incredible architectural skill and organisational ability is clearly demonstrated at the breathtaking Machu Picchu.

We were both pretty blown away on arriving at the almost perfectly preserved ruins- set high in the mountains with early morning mist swirling around the peaks. We spent the day exploring the ruins- the perfect stonework, the terracing, precarious bridges and being constantly impressed by what had been acheived in this most isolated of places without any modern equipment.

The green line of vegetation in this photo was an old Inca path etched into a cliff leading from Machu Picchu...extremely narrow and with a 1000m drop!!

After enjoying a cold cerveza in the afternoon sun we headed back to Cusco by train. Tomorrow we are heading to Lima…by plane! The bus ride there is epic and we are wanting to get to Ecuador as soon as possible! Next blog will probably be our last from South America….time has gone soooo fast. We are both super excited about going to Europe and catching up with everyone.

Northern Argentina II, Potosi and Sucre

2009-02-28T06:51:00.000-08:00

Although there has been a few up and downs and challenging moments, we´ve had an amazing time riding over 1200km in Northern Argentina. After a relaxing time in Salta exploring the city and even going to a film - "Slumdog Millionairre" - we headed up a side valley to a small village called Cachi. We decided to go one way by bus as we were not keen to ride the same road in and out. Kate had calculated the ride out would be all down hill given the difference in altitudes....what we´d failed to calculate into the equation was the 3500m pass in between! (our map has no contour lines.) After a quick empanada lunch we started the hot desert climb out of Cachi. We rode late into the evening and set up camp among the cacti. We enjoyed another amazing desert sunset with a ring of thunder and lightning storms in the surrounding mountains. The next morning we expected to have a short climb to the pass....but the road just went on and on and our one pass turned into two joined by a high flat plain. With head winds and mist swirling around us it was tough riding. We finally reached the top only to find the road sign had been typically inaccurate underestimating the distance by over 20km!We descended down the cold winding road and were stoked when the cloud began to lift and we were rewarded with stunning views of the lofty peaks and green valley. Kate had not been feeling well for a few days with a persistent sore throat and massive tender lymph nodes so we stopped early in a small town called Cichoani. We found the local camp ground, that strangely had no other campers, and set up our tent in the rain. As we walked into town we were warned by the rich looking neighbour that the campground was "peligroso" (dangerous) and "no bueno" (no good) for two girls then advised us to speak with the police! This made us both feel pretty anxious. We had a confusing spanish conversation with the policeman who after several cellphone calls said there should be no problem. We decided to stay, although I slept pretty badly and felt annoyed with the interfering rich lady who probably would have said everywhere we camped was dangerous! Still alive by the morning we awoke to pouring rain. We packed up quickly after cooking our porridge in the shelter of the toilet and headed out on the only road out of town. Unfortunately the overnight rain had turned the dirt road into a thick, muddy, mostly unrideable mess. After 7km of pushing our bikes were so caked with mud the wheels would barely turn! Once we finally reached the main road we attempted to clean some of the mud off in a small dirty stream. We set off on a road busy with traffic and as we began to descend down the paved road Kate was shocked to see me flying by, gathering speed and yelling "Kate- I have no brakes!" I managed to pull onto the grassy curb and slow down enough to make a safe crash landing. The combination of only one functioning brake and the thick mud and grit had somehow stopped my brake from working at all. We had a go at fixing them - but didn´t have much success and as the cold rain was getting worse we decided to try and get a ride to the next town. Turns out Argentinians with flash four wheel drives aren´t very interested in wet, muddy cycle tourists in distress. After trying unsuccesfully for an hour we decided to change tact and rode the 20km slowly into the town. This turned out to be the best decision as we found a lovely hostel where we could wash our bikes thoroughly and have a hot shower. We spent the afternoon doing bike maintenance, playing cards and drinking cervezas. The next morning the rain had eased off. We spent an hour tuning Kate´s gears- bike repairs are not quite so easy without Shane! Clean and refreshed we had a stunning days riding through the Quebrada de Cafayate (Canyon of Cafayate). With its rust red rocks, beautiful rock formations and high peaks, it is like being on another planet. We found an awesome campsite in a natural rock amphitheatre that was perfect apart from the occasional rock shower from the steep slopes. The following day we rode the final 50km into the touristy vineyard town of Cafayate. We found an amazing big swimming pool and were stoked to meet four other young cycle tourists at the campground. The Australian couple had been riding from Ushuaia and were new to cycle touring with all the flash gears. The other couple were American and travelling very lightweight having bought all of their gear in Buenos Aires after two years Peace Corp work in Malawi. It is so interesting all the different approaches to cycle touring. Some people are so committed to cycling every last kilometre...we call these people "purists", whereas we are definitely cycle touring "hedonists"! We enjoyed a delicious steak meal out with the American couple - Pace and Laura. Kate continued to feel unwell and her neck was becoming more sore and swollen so we decided to start Augmentin. This worked brilliantly overnight and we decided to ride south with Laura and Pace that day. It was really cool having cycling buddies again and we loved hearing all about their amazing work in Malawi. We camped at the Quilmes ruins (Argentina´s most extensive pre-Columbian site) and enjoyed cooking Pace and Laura a meal, as they travel without a stove. The next day was a tough 1500m climb over a pass into Tafi del Valle. It was a pretty gruelling ascent and made tougher by the fact that it was 37km longer uphill than the 10km we were told by the locals! (We had now ridden off our map). We were all stoked to reach the pass late in the afternoon and cruise down the gradual descent into Tafi. After our hard days riding we treated oursleves to another amazing steak (the meat seems to be even better than down south) and a few celebratory drinks, as this was Pace and Laura´s last day riding. Kate and I set off the next morning for the city of Tucuman. We had an awesome 60km descent through a stunning green forest and gorge and then a horrible 60km ride along a busy narrow road into the city. Kate came within centimetres of being hit by a truck, then had one a puncture and then the screw that holds my carrier on broke- again! We were both very happy and relieved to reach Tucuman and find a great hostel.
We really liked Tucuman and spent one day there exploring the city, swimming, eating good food and watching a local soccer game with the locals at a corner pub. We then caught an overnight bus back up to the Bolivian border. While crossing the border we met a couple from Scotland, Alex and Lauren, who are cycle touring with their two young children - Ash and Poppy. They have been on the road for around 6 months having ridden through New Zealand before flying to South America. Cycle touring with children is a whole different story and Alex and Lauren do an amazing but exhausting job. We also met up with a guy called Sam who we had met a few weeks earlier on the road. Sam had also been working for the Peace Corps in Paraguay. He is hoping to cycle through to the United States, but has had a few hiccups along the way including an African Killer Bee attack and having his Bob trailer bag and all its contents stolen. Despite this Sam generously gave me a spare set of brake pads as we have the same model- Thanks Sam!! Through his cycle trip Sam is raising money to help save the threatened forests he had been working near in Paraguay....if you are interested in reading more or making a donation his website is.... We had a great day hanging out with Lauren, Alex, Sam and the kids.
I´ll hand over to Kate (the historian) now to write....
We took another overnight bus to Potosi - the highest city in the world (about 4100m). Unfortunately the bus broke down and we were stuck in the middle of nowhere for several hours in the night, but eventually we got there. We were looking forward to visiting Potosi as we had both read quite a bit about its fascinating history.Potosi was founded in 1545 as a mining town after the discovery of pure silver in the mountain (now called Cerro Rico "rich mountain") which towers above the city. It soon produced fabulous wealth, becoming the largest and wealthiest city in the world. People flocked there...huge buildings, theatres, and nearly one hundred churches were built. There was such an excess of silver that the streets were lined with it!! It is from Potosí that most of the silver shipped through Europe came. According to official records, 45,000 tons of pure silver were mined from Cerro Rico from 1556 to 1783. It is a typical example of how the European powers exploited, raped and pillaged other nations. Despite being one of the most mineral-rich countries in the world, Bolivia is the poorest South American country and poverty is rife. The local indigineous population were forced into labour in the mines and died by the thousands, from exposure, accidents and brutal labour (a person typically lived for only three or four years once working in the mines). To compensate for the diminishing indigenous labour force, the Spanish began to import African slaves and an estimated 30,000 African slaves were taken to Potosí throughout the colonial era. Over 8 million Indians and African slaves died mining in Cerro Rico, and that is why it is also called "the mountain that eats men".

Nowadays the mountain is depleted of most of its minerals but continues to be mined for silver, zinc and tin. Due to poor work conditions the miners still have a short life expectancy with most of them dying from silicosis around 35-40 years of age.

We visited the mine and it was an eye-opening and unforgettable experience. Runway trolleys, explosions, falling rocks and carbon monoxide poisoning are just some of the daily occurrences down the mine.....its pretty scary! The mine is not regulated at all, and children begin working there from as young as 8 years old. There is also no organisation as to where each group of miners work, they just blow up dynamite wherever they want and follow veins of mineral. This means that the hill is like a honeycomb and some experts have predicted that the whole thing will collapse in about 15-20 years!!
We wore hard hats and gumboots and walked deep into one of the mines. There was lots of scrambling, crawling in low, narrow, dirty shafts and climbing down a series of rickety ladders and slippery planks...OSH would not be impressed at all!!! We met and talked to miners, watched them work, and gave them some gifts. Miners chew coca leaves and store them in their cheeks for hours while down in the mines. The coca is supposed to ward off hunger, pain and give them energy to work very long hours.

You can buy sticks of dynamite in the shops in Potosi for around NZ $4. We bought some and blew it up on the side of the mountain after coming out of the mine. The explosions were bigger than I thought and I only wish that we had Anna´s bunny or Didymo to make it even more fun! Yesterday we rode our longest and perhaps toughest day. We started from Potosi at 7am with a steep climb out of town amongst the snow-capped hills. We rode 160km through to the beautiful city of Sucre (the judicial capital of Bolivia). The first 50km were cruisy downhill, but after lunch we had a good 50km of climbing having dropped well below the 2800m altitude of Sucre. It was gruelling hot day, nine and a half hours of riding, with multiple dog and people chases (see below), not quite enough water, mild heat-stroke and a sore back. Matilda didn´t find the day too bad- but was up all last night vomiting! Sucre is a lovely colonial town with amazing architecture and perfectly manicured gardens in the plaza. It has a number of universities and the centre of town is buzzing with young people, cool bars and cafes. The contrasting scenes you see in Bolivia sometimes make it hard to believe you are still in the same country.
A few photos...

Biking in rural Bolivia....this "cute little old lady" was soon chasing Kate with a whip demanding money! Fortunately we could bike a bit faster than she could run! The older, rural Bolivian women are really suspicious and hostile towards us.

This is a typical picture of the Bolivian propaganda you see everywhere (on buildings, the road and rock faces)- we`ve seen nothing other than politically related graffitti about the current president Evo and the recent constitutional elections.

Typical looking Bolivian Mum and baby.

Here is an update photo of the "mullet". Kate has been getting a few compliments lately..."I love your haircut", followed by us saying "really??" with astonished looks and laughter!! I let Kate cut my hair in Salta and she actually did a pretty good job!

Sorata and Northern Argentina

2009-02-18T07:29:00.000-08:00

Hola everyone from Salta in Northern Argentina. Now we are well and truly recovered from our giardia (also known as “Beaver Fever”....according to Anna´s research!!) and we are both loving being back on the bike. We both felt pretty weird after the other three left- there was certainly a big gap! We kept kind of looking for them and expecting to hear their voices! Sounds like they are settling back in at home and enjoying New Zealand summer.

We decided to head to Sorata (a small town north-west of La Paz) for some rest and recovery. We had heard it was a beautiful town with fantastic mountain biking. After negotiating some of the worst roads we had seen in South America we were lucky to find the beautiful Altai Oasis. This camping ground/hostel set high in the lush green moutains is owned by a lovely Bolivian couple- Roxana and Johnny. They have lived there for over 27 years and have gradually developed an amazing garden, cool buildings and relaxing verandah restaurant. It had the most chilled-out atmosphere with farm animals wandering around. The lawn mowing is done by leading the llamas and fresian cow around as they gradually chew down the grass! We did lots of reading, playing cards and eating (Kate had a lot of making up to do!)

And just when we thought mountain biking in Bolivia couldn´t get any better... we met Travis.

Travis is a laid back American guy who lives and breathes to ride. He has been living in Sorata for some years building up a mountain biking/adventure company. When he´s not taking trips, he´s up in the hills track-building or riding. Although it was the off season and he wasn´t working, Travis agreed to take us riding on some of his tracks. We set off early from the plaza and drove high into the Andean clouds. On reaching the top we were met with incredible views of mighty Illampu mountain (6,368 m) and the deep valley below. Travis´ tracks were amazing - beautiful flowing singletrack, quite steep, but not too technical. He entertained us with his crazy dare-devil jumps and drop-offs and stories of the annual race held on his tracks. We wound our way down through seriously wicked tracks dropping thousands of metres into the town square. Already buzzing from our morning ride we headed up again driving 20km into the sky on terrible Bolivian roads. The landscape at the top was other-worldly...like being on the moon. Travis continued to impress us with his skills as we watched him ride near vertical scree slopes, turning his bike as if on skis! We descended through banked single track, farm-land tracks and through overgrown bush riding all the way back to Altai Oasis. An epic day riding…..we only wish that Shane, Sophie and Anna could have been there- you will have to come back Shane!!As out time in Sorata drew to a close Kate and I started making plans for the next leg of our journey. Kate had hoped we could ride down to the jungle from Sorata and had visions of skippering a dug-out canoe in her pirate singlet! Unfortunately the rainy season started getting pretty rainy and the roads turned to mud and the rivers became dodgy. We also found out there was a dengue fever out-break in the jungle. So we changed our plans and headed back to La Paz. On arriving back in La Paz we joined Phil and KJ (our new Kiwi friends) for a poker night with the Gravity crew. After chatting with Phil and KJ about their cycle touring in South America we decided to head south again to do some riding in the north of Argentina. We had only heard good things about the riding here and were really keen to be touring again.

The Bolivian roads south to Argentina are terrible and just plain boring so we were keen to catch the only remaining Bolivian train service. Obtaining a ticket to this service was a mission in itself. As there are only a few trains a week and the train is so much more preferable than the bus everyone is after a ticket. On arriving at the ticket office in Oruro (town south of La Paz) we discovered it was a public holiday and the office was closed until the following day. With limited seats left we got up early the next morning to queue....not quite early enough as we went to the back of an already long-line. The local Bolivans pushed ahead of us and we were glad to receive a numbered ticket guaranteeing our place in line. The atmosphere was tense as people entered the building one at a time not knowing if their would be any remaining tickets. With the help of a friendly policeman we secured our tickets. We had been initally disappointed with dusty, bleak Oruro, but ended up having a cool night in the Plaza watching the public holiday celebrations with elaborate costumes, fire-works and music.The journey south on the train was long but comfortable. We were lucky enough to meet an Argentian man who had cycled all through the Americas in his twenties..taking four years! He assisted us in negotiating with the train staff and getting our bikes onto the train just moments before departure. We got off the train at a town called Villazon, jumped on our bikes and headed to the border. The Bolivian-Argentinian border crossing was slow and tedious- but for once being on bikes was to our advantage, getting shunted ahead in the bicycle line with warm cries of “All Blacks” and “Jonah Lomu” from the Argentinian guards. We were both stoked to be back on our bikes and touring again!! We rode out of La Quiaca that evening on perfect sealed roads (you would have loved it Soph!) and found a good campsite in a sheltered gulley. We both agreed it was really weird not having the other three around us on the road- no Bob, no ginger beard, no Pari to chat with! But cool just the two of us and we enjoyed our tomato pasta beneath a spectacular sunset. In the morning it turned out we had camped in the middle of llama farm and we were visited by a friendly, inquisitive gauncho and his dog (who made light work of our cheese for breakfast). The conditions for riding couldn´t have been better- perfect blue skies, good road, little traffic, amazing scenery and not much wind. Although barren and dry the landscape was ever-changing with colourful rock formations. We got through well over 100km on our first day. The altitude and gentle climbing (3850m at our highest point) definitely took its toll on me and we both went to bed exhausted after another breath-taking sunset.

The next day we rode over 100km to the small town of Tilcara. With the wind against us, but gravity on our side we cruised through canyon-country with cacti and llamas lining the road. We enjoyed empanadas and delicious fresh fruit for lunch. Arriving in Tilcara in the late afternoon we chilled out and re-discovered Quilmes beer and of course helado (ice-cream). It was so much cheaper than down south - a quarter the price and just as delicious! The next day we relaxed, walked to a pre-Columbian fort on top of the hill, ate more helado and rode out of town late in the afternoon. Strong head-winds and lots of traffic meant we made camp amongst the cacti early. We set off early the next morning and had the most dreamy riding of the trip. Slight down-hill with not a breath of wind we covered over 60km in two hours. The scenery changed dramatically from colourful rock cliffs to a lush green valley. We had heard there was a thermal reserve near the city of Juyjuy. The 30km detour turned into a bit of an epic afternoon riding. Climbing over 1500m on steep gravel roads through stunning green mountains we were really glad to finally arrive at the pools and soak in the late afternoon sun. We cruised the final 20km into town and set about looking for the camping ground (that turned out not to exist, grrr stupid Lonely Planet!!) Being late in the evening we had not option but to stay in an inner-city hostel. The following day we rode the 90km stretch between Juyjuy and Salta. Our 90km actually turned into 125km as we made a slight wrong turn (map rather than navigator error- Ken stayed calm luckily!) Although our route was the shorter of the two between the cities ours was the road less travelled, being narrow and winding….but perfect for cycle touring. The riding was so so good with no traffic at all! Thick green rainforest lined the winding sealed road and as we rode our way toward Salta and we met 3 other cycle tourists. Tired but pleased to reach Salta we rode the cycle lanes to the central city and set up camp. We spent the evening in the beautiful plaza. With a back-drop of a stunningly lit cathedral and old colonial buildings, this leafy plaza had an amazing buzz about it. We ate dinner at one of the outdoor restaurants - amazed by all the people - young and old, despite it being late on a weeknight. It is certainly a lot easier touring in Argentina- the roads, the people and the terrain all make life a bit simpler. After 500km in five days, we are going to have a wee rest in Salta and enjoy what the city has to offer...We are looking forward to exploring further south enjoying the local vineyards on the way. We will then head back to Bolivia as there are a few more cities there we want to visit and still want to make it to the jungle before heading to Peru and Ecuador.

PS. I´ve been getting a bit of unfair credit for the blog. Although I do most of the writing it is Kate that slaves away uploading and rearranging the photos before fixing all my spelling/gramatical errors. Its a team effort!

Baby llama....so cute!!

Kate finally cooking the Macaroni cheese that she had been carrying for 3 months!!

La Paz

2009-02-03T08:08:00.000-08:00

And then there was two……Kate and I are writing this after saying a sad goodbye to Soph, Shane and Anna. We have had such an incredible journey together over the past two and a half months and we´ll miss them heaps and heaps.

We´ve had some amazing experiences in the last few weeks - some of the best and worst days of our trip. We have learned that Bolivia has some of the best mountain biking in the world, La Paz has amazing shopping and fruit juice and never to let Bolivian shop owners see how much money we have!

Following our jeep trip across the salt plains we took a bus from Uyuni to La Paz. It was a bit of a shock for all of us arriving in third world Boliva. Although rich in natural resources Bolivia has been constantly exploited over the years with an unstable political history. These things combined make it one of the poorest countries in South America. The poverty is clearly evident on the streets. After almost having our teeth shaken out on the bumpy bus trip to La Paz we made our way through the chaotic streets to the Adventure Brew Hostel.

La Paz is a city of 1.5 million situated in a large basin surrounded by snow-capped peaks and crazy geographical formations. Although on first impression the city seems chaotic, crowded and dirty- the downtown area is surprisingly clean with a good buzz about it. Although the constant protests marches and dynamite going off in the streets did take a bit of getting used to! We spent our first afternoon sliding down the slippery cobble-stoned streets in a rainy season downpour and visiting Gravity Assisted Moutain Biking. Gravity is owned by a Kiwi entrepreneur Alistair. He started his business around ten years ago running guided tours down `The World`s Most Dangerous Road`. Since then his business has taken off, with the ride becoming one of the main tourist attractions in La Paz.
The next day we set off with Gravity for some single-track riding just outside of La Paz. We had an awesome day riding on our hired full-suspension bikes with Scottish guide Matt and Bolivian Gus. We climbed to over 5000m and descended through a mixture of smooth rolling single-track, rock gardens, local villages and crazy steep switch backs (a bit beyond my riding ability!) Shane was in absolute heaven and our guides were pretty impressed with his riding skills pulling off some mean drop-offs and jumps. During the day we talked to Matt about how keen we were to ride an Inca trail called the Taquesi. Shane had heard about it from some mates back home who rated it as one of the best rides of their lives. It is not usually run as a tour by Gravity….but Matt was keen as to ride it and thought he could sweet talk the boss (Alistair) round. Whatever he said worked and the next thing we knew we were arranging our trip down 45km of old Inca trail in the middle of the Bolivian mountains.
After a day of rest and recovery we set off at 4:30am in the Gravity jeep. As we climbed out of La Paz I did some back seat medical consultations with our guides- dishing out pills to halt their diarrhoea. We picked up a local miner on the way- doggedly pushing his bike up the steep hill so he could coast home at the end of his long hard day in the dark cold mines. Our ride started in freezing temperatures in the middle of a snow-storm! The first hour was spent pushing our heavy bikes up a rocky slippery track in the snow….but from there it was pretty much all down, down, down! The riding was incredible- broken up trails with large rocks, steps and drop-offs, streams, slippery paved sections, sweet single-track and a tricky river crossing to top off an magic day. The weather improved as we descended and we had spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, valleys and rivers. We were all stoked with our Gravity bikes and were amazed with what we could ride on our full-sus bikes.

After a few well earned beers we started the long drive home through a breath-taking valley, quite different to anywhere any of us had been before. For dinner that night we had our first experience of the delicious local specialty- trucha (trout)…..and it had never tasted so good!! Thanks so much to Alistair and the Gravity staff for making our Taquesi day happen.

Exhausted from our long ride we chilled out in La Paz buying presents for our families and planning the next leg of our journey. Planning touring routes in Bolivia is a little more challenging than down south. Getting our hands on descent maps was tricky in itself….then knowing how much to believe is another story. After gathering as much information as possible we set off out of La Paz hoping to do a three or four day loop. Getting out of La Paz was a mission in itself….the crowded streets, erratic drivers and packed markets made pushing, let alone riding our bikes hard work. For the first time on the trip I had absolutely no energy in my legs and Sophie and Shane were cracking up when they watched Anna, Kate and I cruise by on a bus on the climb out of the city to La Cumbre! At la Cumbre we had our first views of the famed `World`s Most Dangerous Road`. The road´s reputation stems from the average 100 deaths on it each year. Although parts of the road are in pretty poor condition, it is terrible driving that accounts for most of the fatalities. The first section of the road is sealed and we tore through the cold air towards trucha for dinner! We camped part way down the road- all stoked to be out of the city and back in our tents! The following day we set off early- looking forward to the narrow gravel part of the descent and witnessing Anna`s dare for Kate…..a naked ride around `postcard`corner! The riding was not particularly dangerous, but you definitely wouldn´t want your brakes to fail, resulting in a very very long drop over the sheer cliffs the road is cut into. Kate pulled off her dare with no worries….in fact I think she prefers riding naked!

As we dropped in altitude the air became warm and sticky with the vegetation becoming more and more jungle-like, with mango trees and brightly coloured butterflies everywhere. The most challenging part of our ride was crossing a large active land-slide with rocks and rubble tumbling down. In the hot jungle air we climbed a steep 7km to the town of Coroico.

That afternoon we rode out of Coroico along narrow, but well formed dirt roads. Bolivians seem to live everywhere, and we passed through village after village. The countryside is so steep and every piece of land is cultivated- no matter what the terrain. This made it a bit difficult finding a camping spot at the end of the day. Just as we settled on a lumpy, smelly road side spot a huge thunder storm erupted over head. It was seriously the loudest thunder any of us had every heard, and Sophie stood laughing hysterically as the rest of us ran around not knowing what to do with ourselves! The storm passed quickly and we set up camp.

The following day will not be remembered as our favourite…..but at least we could all laugh about by the end of the trip! We rode in the humid tropical air toward the town of Coripata. Soph arrived first and headed into a shop to buy us some lunch supplies. The shop-owner assured her he had change for her 100 boliviani note then preceeded to deny she ever handed it to him (blatantly stealing it!). By the time I arrived they were in a heated discussion in broken Spanish. Unfortunately the locals had seen how much money we had and decided to completely rip us off. We all attempted to get our point across, but to no avail. Angry and frustrated, one of the group (I`m sure many of you can guess who!) decided to take the law into her own hands by throwing a big bag of oats over the shop floor and owner. What eventuated was a near street brawl with buckets of water being thrown, broomsticks flying around, us being man-handled, Sophie´s pannier being taken and eventually the police arriving on the scene. Having attracted the attention of half the town we eventually escaped from the horrible scene with all our gear, no lunch and 125 bolivianis less. After finally finding the road out of town Sophie calmed herself with a beer on the bike while I vented my anger at a certain oat-throwing person! After a subdued lunch we all had a good chat/debrief…and as I said we can laugh about it now! This is definitely not the norm for Bolivian behaviour, but there are pockets of animosity toward `gringos`, and we have been a lot more wary following this incident. That afternoon we rode into a valley that joined back up with the dangerous road. Once again it was not easy finding somewhere to camp with the road cut into the steep slope. We eventually found a random hotel and camping spot with semi-hot showers. The following day Shane and Soph rode all the way back to La Paz, climbing over 3000m (crazy!!), while we opted for a slightly easier 1700m climb and then bus into the city. We rewarded ourselves with a delicious Indian dinner!

Following our ride into rural Bolivia we took a more touristy trip to Lake Titicaca and Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). The trip involved lots of shopping, eating and a terrifying/hilarious trip in a bus on a precarious wooden barge across the lake. Shane and Soph were smart enough and fast enough to hop of the bus and take the safer ferry, while the rest of us were still gathering our gear our bus was moving and swaying across the water! We stayed in the lakeside town of Copacabana where Anna went nuts buying alpaca products- her favourite and a definite must for all adventure racing world champions- alpaca leg-warmers!

We did a loop of the Isla del Sol riding mostly on old inca trails, dodging locals with their donkeys, llamas and sheep. We had great views over lake Titicaca and the nearby Cordillera Real. Our trip as a group of five was topped off by a fantastic last day riding with the Gravity crew. The team invited us to join them on a staff trip to ride the `Jungle Rail-trail`. It was cool meeting and riding with Phil and KJ -two Kiwis who have recently started working for Gravity. This is a fantastic non-technical 65km ride on 4WD track and single-track. We had an absolutely brilliant day riding thanks to the Gravity crew. Our ride was followed by much needed hot showers and dinner at a wild-life sanctuary before a very boozy bus-ride back to La Paz.

The last few days have been a bit dampened by Kate´s worsening tummy troubles. She has been sick on and off for a couple of weeks but things have deteriorated in the last few days (power-chucking in the streets of La Paz!!) We have started antibiotics and hope things settle soon. We´re planning a chilled out couple of days in Sorata to recuperate.

To our beavers…..thank you for such an awesome trip. It has been such an amazing experience journeying through South America with you all. Thank you Shane for all the fix-it jobs and putting up with us four chicas. Thanks Soph for towing us in the headwinds and always being so super organised. And Pari….well thanks for being you- you´re special alright! We´ll miss you all so much….it has truly been the trip of a life-time!! Ciao perros!!!

Atacama desert and Uyuni

2009-01-19T11:14:00.000-08:00

Sweltering in the driest desert in the world, waking in frozen tents, climbing to over 4550m on our bikes, driving across the salt plains of Bolivia, and watching flamingos in the early morning sun.....it has been a busy week!!
After we left you last we had a marathon 36 hour bus trip from Pucon through to Santiago (the capital of Chile) all the way to San Pedro- a small town in the Atacama Desert (northern Chile). The first leg of our trip was an overnight bus, and although none of us slept much, it wasn´t too bad. On reaching Santiago we delayed the whole bus for over an hour as we entered into a fiery debate with the the bus drivers and managers about whether or not our bikes and gear would fit under the bus. Thanks to some strong persuasion from Sophie we were finally allowed five minutes to try packing our gear ourselves. Experts by now, it took us less that two minutes to pack our five bike frames, twelve wheels, two Bob trailers and eight panniers safely in the luggage compartment. Unfortunately as the drivers had refused to listen to us and our bikes were packed last and we had to watch on helplessly at each stop as our bikes were man-handled in and out of the bus by the drivers bearing bruised egos!

From lush green beech forests to rainless expanses and cactuses- the land north of Santiago was in stark contrast to southern Chile. We were all relieved not to be riding the 2000 plus kms of desolate coast raod, with little water and unchanging landscape.

We were all stoked to arrive in San Pedro and relieved to find our bikes all still in working order. San Pedro is a cute little town at 2400m set in the heart of the Atacama desert (the driest in the world). The town has small mud buildings, narrow streets and lots of bikes. Unaclimatised to the desert heat we were happy to find a swimming pool at our camp ground. We cooled off and then headed out for a bike ride to a salt laguna 30km out of town (Laguna Cejas), which is similar to the Dead Sea. It was a crazy sensation floating as buoyant as if we were wearing life jackets, with a back-drop of volcanoes and desert. Kate attempted diving under head first but could hardly get her feet submerged, and came up with very sore eyes. Afterwards our bodies were caked with salt and it stung to move and put on our clothes. Matilda had her first puncture on the way back to camp- but Shane managed to dub her and push her bike at the same time!

The next morning we set off early with a local mountain bike guide we had met on the bus - between his limited english and our limited spanish we managed to arrange for him to show us some of the local riding for free. Slightly intimidated by his extreme training regime at altitude and his mean physique we were all excited to be going proper mountain bike riding with no panniers or Bobs!

We rode through some stunning landscapes- the valley of death, crazy rock formations, sand dunes, tricky rocky descents and bit of pushing through thick sand. The morning was topped off with some Inca ruins and un-lit clambering through ancient cave systems. An eager dog had joined us earlier in the morning and followed us the whole time mountain biking. We were parked beside a water resevoir with steep sides and the dog accidently fell in, he was trapped and couldn´t get out. Luckily Anna came to the rescue, we lowered her down by her feet and she plucked the panicked dog to safety. That afternoon we did jobs around town and prepared for our 3 day jeep trip in Bolivia (we had done some tough negotiating with the jeep company to carry our 5 bikes on the roof of the jeep!) We went out that night and ate well, realising it could be our last good feast for some time (Bolivia is not known for its cuisine!!)

The next day was probably our toughest day riding so far.....only 50 km but a continuous climb of over 2200m to a maximum altitude of 4600m. We set off early hoping to avoid the worst of the desert heat, but Shane still managed to sweat several litres. We all found the altitude pretty taxing (shortness of breath, nausea, lethargy and headaches) and we made slow progress with frequent stops for dry wretching and lots of water.

The altitude took its toll....

After a total of 6.45 hours riding we were delighted to reach the pass and absolutely buzzing on the 5km descent to the Bolivian border post. The scenery was amazing as we entered Bolivia... mountains of every colour, 6000m volcanoes and vast stretches of barren land. We got our passports stamped and set up camp a few kms down the road behind some large rocks (trying to escape from the now bitterly cold wind). All exhausted and cold but happy, we cooked our usual tomato pasta meal for dinner and climbed into our tents for a very early night! Unfortunately none of us slept much that night (possibly altitude?) and we awoke to a temperature of -6 degrees and our tents covered in ice. We packed up and rode the last 5km to meet our jeep for the tour. That morning we meet a couple of small children who live in this very remote part of Bolivia. They were fascinated by our bikes and Shane spent half an hour towing them around in his Bob trailer!! We were then met by our jeep and other passengers. They had been told to expect five Polish girls on bikes- so were a bit disappointed to meet four smelly Kiwi chicas and one bearded boy!

We spent the next three days getting driven through southwest Bolivia in a Toyota Landcruiser, passing through some of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth - different coloured lagoons, geysers, crazy rock formations, volcanoes, islands covered in cacti and the huge Uyuni salt plain. Our jeep was pretty comfortable, we were joined by a German girl called Irena and our driver Danielo. We gradually adjusted to the altitude- although it provided it provided a multitude of excuses for various things- including Shane getting boozed on only three beers! The salar provided a great oppurtunity to take crazy perspective photos.....And our favourite....Following the trip we drove into our first Bolivian town Uunyi. The poverty and dirt strewn streets came as a bit of a shock to us- but we ended up having a nice evening enjoying the sun and pizza with other travellers. Next stop La Paz...Bolivia´s capital where we hope to do some good riding before the other three have to head back to New Zealand and we continue our journey through South America.

Happy new year!!!

2009-01-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

We last left you on Christmas morning and have now ridden over 2400km! We had a really cool xmas day with good weather, a run and a swim. In the evening we cooked up a feast- roast chicken with stuffing and gravy, lots of veges, salad, wine, bread and a delicious apple crumble for dessert. The following day we headed north from Coyhaique. Our riding since Christmas has been great, some beautiful valleys, lakes, glaciers and fiords. We experienced the rain of the Carretera Austral- making it pretty cold at times, especially on the descents. They have similar rainfall levels as Fiordland in NZ - mucho!!!!
Camp-sites at night had to meet the criteria of flat, sheltered, and access to water- camping beneath a bridge is perfect!! The road itself is in the process of being paved. Progress is a bit chaotic with the surface in various stages of mess. At times it was unrideable and we had to push, but never for too long. Sophie had a record 5 crashes in one afternoon and lost a bit of skin, but stitches weren´t required. One day stood out in particular- we ascended through dense rain forest with trees nearly meeting over head along a narrow section of road. The descent opened out onto a spectacular valley leading to a hanging glacier. We then spent the afternoon soaking in natural hot springs at a flash resort. The owner looked a bit disapproving of the dirty cycle tourists standing in her foyer and politely asked us to leave our panniers outside! We camped close by at the head of the fiord with dolphins feeding in the bay (no lies!)

The next day we rode a solid 90km and camped on a farmer´s property next to a beautiful river- perfect for swimming, washing and reading by a camp fire. The rain finally cleared and we have had five days of sunshine since... Long may it last!!!!We turned off the Carreteral Austral at Villa Santa Lucia, heading back toward Argentina. We found a dreamy lake-side beach- perfect for swimming and chilling out. Nice to have some hot weather and dry everything out...The next day was New Years Eve and we made the short but tough ride into Futaleufu. This small town is located near the world renowned Futaleufu River- one of the top kayaking and rafting spots in the world. We found a deserted camping ground covered in a fine layer of dust that later turned out to be volcanic ash! The ash had blown from the recent eruption of the Chaiten Volcano nearby. The initial eruption occurred in mid 2008 leaving the town of Chaiten virtually uninhabitable. It has continued to erupt and Chaiten is like a ghost town.

We had a fantastic New Years Eve. The evening kicked off with drinks amongst the ash at our campground. By 10pm the rest of the group managed to convince Kate that a mullet would look great on her, and isn´t it a perfect time in her life to have one...travelling, no job etc.. Next thing the scissors were out and 2/3 of her hair was gone. It looks great but hopefully grows out fast! Shane also had a new years haircut - but his is a bit more styley...looks more like Dan Carter´s rather than an 80´s rock star! The rest of the night was spent partyting with some local raft-guides. I think they were pretty shocked by the loud intoxicated Kiwis, but were stoked to get us up on the dance floor. Shane had a bit of crook guts- but pulled through and even managed to bust out a few dance moves.

On New Years Day we decided to raft the famous Futaleufu......It was awesome!! Spot the mullet!The raft guides cooked us a nice dinner at their lodge while we relaxed in the hammocks outside, it was nice hanging out with some different people our age.

On the 2nd, we crossed back into Argentina and biked to a town called Esquel. From there we caught a bus to Bariloche to avoid the busy road. Bariloche is the biggest town we have been in...100,000 people. A bit overwhelming. Hopefully getting a few repairs done here and stock up on supplies. We´re leaving tomorrow and cycling through the lakes district and back into Chile...

Feliz nuevo ano everyone. Happy 2009!

Feel free to leave comments on the blog, its nice for us to see who is looking at it!!

Feliz Navidad from Coyhaique!!

2008-12-24T14:03:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone from Coyhaique, Chile!! We are preparing for a big day of eating and drinking tomorrow while all you Kiwis will be enjoying Christmas day in the sun.

Since we last wrote we have ridden from Cochrane to the biggest town in the this region- Coyhaique. We managed to sort out most of our mechanical issues in Cochrane, thanks to Shane and the supermercado. Not surprisingly we soon struck our next problemo! Early on our first morning riding Sophie`s pannier carrier snapped at the base. Once again Shane (now dressed as Santa, complete with hat, beard and decorated Bob trailer) pulled through with some ingenious road side repairs. Once we set off again the riding was stunning- the emerald coloured Rio Baker blew us away, providing a great lunchtime swim and eating spot. Soph and Anna spent the evening doing repair work on their decaying tent which has been dubbed the "Hilton"- complete with Anna´s brand-new, hot pink lip gloss! Pegging the tent is a delicate matter as too much strian in one direction results in yet another tear!
The next day we rode through the rain. Cold, tired and dirty we decided to splash out and stay at a cute little cabana. Once we sorted out the temperamental gas shower and the toxic fumes coming off the recently painted chimney we had a relaxing night drying out. The following day we had a fabulous day riding over a 1100m pass on a mixture of smooth fast rolling roads and terrible thick gravel. We spent a stormy night camping in a small town called Cerro Castello. We spent the next morning visiting an archeological site just out of town. The caves are lined with hand prints from 10,000 years ago. The afternoon was spent riding over an impressive pass with welcome sealed road.The descent was cold and wet- but good to be covering lots of km´s fast. We were quite late arriving into the small settlement of El Blanco. Keen to get out of the wind and get dinner we set up camp in what we thought was a deserted school ground. It soon turned out to be a boarding school! We were surround by Chilean school children curious to get close to the strange pack of foreigners setting up camp in the play-ground. Our dinner (eaten over old school desks) was soon interrupted by some grumpy Chilean matrons- keen to see us off their school grounds. We piled all our gear over the fence and hopped into our tents for an early night. Our breakfast was again interrupted by curious-turned-nasty Chilean children throwing rocks at us!! We cruised the last 33km into Coyhaique pleased to eventually find a cool log-cabin hostel. We have spent the last few days relaxing, shopping, eating (a lot as usual) and preparing for our Christmas feast! PS. Christmas Day now. We ended up having a really fun Christmas Eve. The hostel owner, Santi, cooked an amazing meal with lots of cervezas, vinos and tequilla (which I discovered does not mix well with five bowls of ice-cream!!) We had fabulous night with a group of motor-cycle tourists and a hardy Scottish female cycle tourist- who showed up after a long 140km ride. We´ve had a great Christmas day so far-the sun is shining, we were all stoked with our secret santa presents. Kate will be warmer with her full length rainbow pants, Matilda safer with her full body armour, Sophie more styley with her scarf and hand-bag, Shane entertained with a travel board game and Anna will be happy drinking mate (traditional South American hot drink) from her new gourd. We will continue north tomorrow aiming to be in Bariloche for a New Years fiesta!!

The shortcut- El Chalten to the Carretera Austral

2008-12-17T06:16:00.000-08:00

We limped into Cochrane yesterday afternoon following our mission shortcut and the first 250km of the Carretera Austral- one broken Bob trailer, one broken pannier carrier, a recently dislocated shoulder, broken forks and front brakes, snapped derailluer cable, punctures, broken spokes and all with our fair share of scratches and bruises..... Our mission began with an awesome 37km ride from El Chalten to Lago Desierto. Great to be riding in lush bush with rivers and waterfalls - could have been in New Zealand. We arrived at the lake in time for a sunset jump off the jetty, beautiful clear water. We camped amongst the trees and Shane did a spot of fishing. Unfortunately there were nasty sandflies that were annoying us. Anna cranked out her super geeky net hat and was gloating about it, until a mosquito got trapped on the inside!! Haha, she got bitten on the eyelid, it swelled up and she couldn´t open her eye. The next morning we sent our bikes off on the ferry and ran the 12km bush track around the lake to meet them at the other end (saving ourselves $80 pesos each). Following a lake-side lunch we set off up a steep, narrow, rutted horse track leading to Lago O´Higgins and the Chilean border. It was completely unrideable to begin with and it was a matter of dragging, pushing and hauling our heavily laden bikes. Progress soon came to a halt when Soph fell and became trapped under her bike on a particularly steep slope (stubbornly refusing Shane`s help!). We were all a bit slow to react thinking she was in fits of giggles....until we heard "Um- I think I´ve dislocated my shoulder". We looked down to see a very deformed looking right shoulder. Thankfully it popped back into place as we disentangled Soph from her bike. We redistributed her load and continued the slog!! Although obviously sore, Sophie (the trooper) made herself a sling and continued pushing her bike. It was pretty tough, hot work, but the terrain gradually improved and we were able to start riding short sections of single-track. We reached a camp-site on an estancia at dusk having crossed the border back into Chile.

The next morning´s start was delayed slightly by Kate´s 64 trips to the toilet and Shane´s passport going missing. The friendly farmer offered Kate a special remedy and kindly turned up his radio (only static) during her frequent toilet visits! As we waited for Kate´s dia-stop to kick in, Shane missioned back up the track to search for his passport- very essential item as we had were actually in "no-man´s land" - having crossed the border but not yet checked into Chilean customs! Luckily the bowels settled and the passport was found. The next stage of riding was around 17km of steep track downhill with loose gravel and big rocks. Kate struggled with no front brakes, meanwhile Cautious Carol totally lost her nerve - lots of walking! We eventually made it to Lago O´Higgins ferry "terminal". We bought delicious pan (bread) from the local estancia, swam off the end of the jetty in the cold glacial lake then chilled out on the two and half hour ferry ride to Villa O´Higgins- stoked to have completed our short-cut mission.

Villa O´Higgins is a sleepy isolated town at the southern end of the Carretera Austral (´southern road´- 1300km gravel road linking parts of southern Chile). The section of road leading into town was only completed in 1999. We ate a bizarre meal of meat mixed with chopped sausage and gherkin (not good) and were all super glad for a hot shower at the camping ground. The next day we set off on the Carretera. It was so good to be out of the wind and in amongst mountains and bush. We were faced with our first real climbs and first real taste of "ripio" (rough gravel roads). It soon started to take its toll on the bikes - One of Matilda´s carrier screws snapped. Anna did a mean wire fix-it job and its holding well so far. Anna had several punctures on both her bike and her trailer. The rest of us were glad with our new fancy tyres for the trip (Schwalbe marathon) - no punctures so far!
The next two days we climbed over passes...descended through dense green gulleys that opened out onto panoramic views of lakes, rivers and glaciers. The weather was so changeable- rain one moment, hot sun-shine the next- but thankfully little wind. The rain makes getting out of the tent in the morning pretty tough! Yesterday was sweet riding with a few climbs and rolling hills. Kate´s climbs were made slightly more difficult as her rear-derailleur cable became caught in her cassette and shredded, so she was stuck in a hard gear. As we cruised toward Cochrane Shane had a bit of a Bob trailer blow out! On a down-hill, over the rough ripio, a welding point on the frame snapped. He managed to splint it back together with a tree branch and wire and we made it into town safely. Well almost- Matilda managed to crash 2km out of town on some loose gravel and crack her helmet! No broken bones though!

We celebrated making it here with a delicious BBQ, cerveza, chips and Matilda made apple crumble and ice-cream! Anna and Sophie over-dosed on cherries from the tree at our camping ground.

Today we are chilling out and fixing our broken bikes. Shane has already managed to get his Bob welded back together and we have found a supermercado that sells everything from food,to baby clothes, to skill saws, bolts and screws. Back on the bikes tomorrow - to Chile Chico....

El Chalten

2008-12-10T15:08:00.000-08:00

We spent a relaxing few days at El Calafate, where a lot of time was spent eating the amazing ice-cream and feasting at an all-you-can-eat restaurant (with traditional Argentinian BBQ meat being cooked over a fire in the corner). Anna over did it and ended up curled up on the floor- too full to move! We also discovered it is a pretty comfy ride for Matilda being towed behind Anna in her Bob trailer!

We hired a car and visited the famous Perito Merino glacier. Arriving early in the morning we avoided the hoards of tourists and Anna cooked us a pancake breakfast overlooking the glacier. It was enormous (6km wide, 30km long and 55m tall) and was incredibly active with heaps of creaking, groaning, gunshot noises and constant calving (chunks of ice falling from the glacier face). Only two days of riding since we last wrote- 225km from El Calafate to El Chalten. We had to resort to sleeping in a gravel pit to escape the ferocious winds. Anna and Matilda concocted yet another failed instant pudding. On the second day we battled some pretty strong headwinds across the barren Argentinian landscape- hard work! Sophie worked hard out the front and we sought refuge under a tree for an afternoon siesta. Our spirits were lifted by a group of travellers in a van spontaneously stopping to fill our water bottles and chat. Anna was even more stoked to find a dead armadillo on the side of the road! We were really happy to arrive in El Chalten and we were rewarded with possibly the best lasagne in the world and three perfect days of weather (a rare thing here according to locals). We did two day walks into the national park with great views of Cerro Torre and Fitzroy (3400m).

We are also preparing for Christmas and spent time working on out "Secret Santa" presents- difficult to be too secretive in a small town with five shops! There are no ATMs in El Chalten and we are running a little low on pesos. Luckily we had Sophie´s "emergency" US dollars to pay for our last meal, beers and vino tinto! Hopefully we have enough pesos left for our ferry crossing this afternoon! A fun night ended with a chaotic rumble -Sophie nailed Kate in a prickle bush- there will be thorns to extract for some time yet!

From here we are doing a bit of off-road riding to take a short-cut back back into Chile and onto the Carretera Austral- an isolated 1300km road, that we´ve been told is very beautiful with hardly any wind.

An update on Shane´s knee- it has been healing quite well, but slowly. Despite our perfect suturing Shane has managed to penetrate the wound twice with sticks and it looks like he´ll end up with a pretty meaty scar. No infection though. Other than that he seems to be coping with four chicas and is growing himself an impressive ginger beard.

Torres del Paine

2008-12-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

The next leg of our journey involved more walking than riding. We took the bus from Puerto Natales into Torres del Paine national park with enough food for five days tramping and the ride to the next border crossing (leaving Kate no room for any undies!). From the bus stop we biked into our starting point and set off in the rain at around seven in the evening. As we are not really set up for tramping we had to improvise a bit with how to carry our gear and had tents and dry bags strapped on the outside of our day packs. Kate ended up looking like a sherpa with her pannier attached precariously to the outside with bungies. Shane and Sophie (our pack horses) ended up carrying most of the food. On arrival at our first camp-site we were met by the camp-ground owner- an angry little South American woman. After being told in no uncertain teams, in the clearest Spanish we have some across so far, that camping was not free we had to up and move our whole camp and pay a ridiculous amount for the night. We managed to calm Kate down (who as many of you will know has a bit of reputation for disputes with camp ground owners!)

The next day dawned hot and sunny. We were very glad for an ice-berg swim at lunch-time. Unfortunately Shane couldn´t quite handle the jandal and was caught on camera bolting from the water!!

We did a pretty big day, walking for 29km through farmland, beech forest with views of glaciers and the backside of the famous torres (towers) del Paine. We reached our campsite late in the evening and Soph had her first introduction to the strength of Patagonian winds.

The track had very few people on it as it was officially closed due to a small, but quite challenging landslide- although we were not to find this out til later. The third day proved to be the highlight of our trip. We ascended around 600m across small snow fields and rocks to cross the John Gardner Pass (1250m) to be met by spectacular views of the massive Grey Glacier. The glacier made anything we had seen in New Zealand look muy pequeno (very small) being 6km wide at it widest.

We made a rapid descent with a mixture of running and sliding on our bums. After a brief lunch stop with the standard delicious combination of crackers, salami and jam we reached the landslide we had heard about. In order to cross the rock strewn gully we had to use temporary ropes and part abseil/part scramble down a steep slippery bank. We discovered one member of our team has a particular dislike for this type of terrain. As we waited anxiously at the bottom Shane patiently guided one of his chicas step by painful step to safety at the bottom. That evening we dined on Shane´s delicious fish in the evening sun overlooking the stunning Grey Glacier.The perfect weather continued over the next few days as we enjoyed frequent swims in the lakes alongside the track, randomly bumped into some Kiwis we knew and gradually ran out of food! Our trip was topped off by an awesome night sleeping under the stars beneath the enormous towers of Torres del Paine.

After the tramp we were pretty hungry! This is the girls delighted to find some scattered peanuts in Shane's trailer bag!

We are back in Argentina in El Calafate making the most of the all you can eat restaurants and ice-cream shops (trying to make sure Shane doesn´t fade away!) Tomorrow we are going to look at the famous Perito Moreno glacier (advancing at 2m per day!) and then heading north on our bikes to El Chalten and beyond.........

Shane´s crash

2008-11-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

We have made it to the mainland of Chile, 280km since we last wrote (700km in total). Absolutely stoked to meet Sophie at the airport Punta Arenas- all in a pretty intoxicated state! We tried to hide from her and play a trick, but typical Sophie was way too cunning!! We set off the following day loaded with food...Sophie riding amazingly well after a two day multi-sport event in New Zealand and a long-haul flight as recovery! Our riding was interrupted 20km out of Punta Arenas by the first serious injury of the trip. Shane, trying to prove himself as skilled as Soph, attempting no hands riding down-hill on the gravel with heavily laiden Bob (the trailer on the back). His tumble resulted in a pretty nasty laceration just below his right knee. With 3 out of 5 of us being doctors, this didn´t prove to be a problem. We were all in agreemeent that stitches were required. As Anna anxiously looked out for an ambulance we set to work with some local anaesthetic, a needle, fishing line and some Kiwi ingenuity while Shane smiled bravely and filmed the whole thing!! We were pretty happy with our handy-work and Shane´s knee seems to be healing well.

The riding has been alot better over the past few days. The scenery is more interesting with lakes, rivers and mountains as our back drop. We have had a few tail winds and it is an awesome feeling to be riding with ease and getting a few k´s under our belt. We have found fantastic camping spots every night. Last night was an absolutely magical sunset with rainbows and an ever changing sky in the long twilight. Today we rode into Puerto Natales, the closest town to Chile`s famous Torres del Paine national park. We are planning to ditch our bikes for 5-6 days and head into the hills for a tramp. We´re all really looking forward to being in the mountains and doing some walking....

Tierra del Fuego

2008-11-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

Charles Darwin descibed Patagonia as a "cursed land" while the seaman Antonio Corboda called it "the most wretched place on earth". The first week of our trip has already been full of adventures, terrible and perfect weather, challenging riding and amazing scenery. Our journey started with a beautiful ride over a pass out of Ushuaia. Five minutes into it, our peaceful riding was broken with a loud crashing and scraping. I turned around fully expecting to see Anna sprawled across the road bloody and broken. Fortunately it was not Anna that was broken, but her bike trailer Bob, whose back wheel had come out of its bracket and was rolling down the hill leaving Anna dragging her wheel-less trailer! Easily fixed we continued riding in perfect conditions through beech forest, spending our lunch-time beaver hunting- managed to find a dam, fresh beaver tooth marks and a beaver house but no beaver. Twenty five beavers were introduced to Tierra del Fuego in the 1940´s from Canada, now they are numbered in the hundred-thousands and are considered a pest. Our first night was spent camping beside the beautiful Lake Fagana with fresh salmon and trout for dinner (caught by Shane and Anna). Dreamy first day- all of us blissfully unaware of the riding ahead!

Over the next few days we made several discoveries- the best panaderia (bakery) in all of Argentina, the delicious treat that is dulce de leche and just how strong the Patagonian winds can be! The landscape changed from mountainous and green, to barren, windswept and hostile. Our progress became slower as the days went by with our speeds dropping to as low as 7km/hr.
The road between Ushuaia and Rio Grande was all sealed with wide verges, all the trucks gave us lots of space , toots and waves. Between the three main Argentinian towns in Tierra del Fuego there is virtually nothing except wind, abandoned farms and the free roaming guanaco (like llamas). At times food and water were in pretty short supply. The next major town on our journey, Rio Grande definitely failed to live up to its name! A wind-swept, dirty, industrial town, but thankfully for us complete with an amazing supermercado. We slummed it eating a huge lunch in the side street with trolleys as our furniture.

That afternoon was our first riding in the rain and we were all super grateful for the tent fly Shane packed. Finding free camp sites has been no problem and we have managed a mint spot not far from the road every night.

On day four we made our first successful border crossing back into Chile- complete with our illegal parmesan cheese and carrots! The road surface changed to gravel with less traffic. Our next obejective was to bike west across Tierra del Fuego in time to ferry across and meet Sophie in Punta Arenas. Although we initially felt we had lots of time up our sleeves we were yet to discover the full might of Patagonian winds and rough gravel roads. The wind was absolutely relentless making talking between each other impossible. All concentration was required to keep your bike on the road and I spent a lot of time picking myself and pannier-laden bike up out of the gravel. We had all read other cycle tourists` tales of days spent in ditches and culverts, but never really thought we would have to resort to that. How wrong we were!! We all became very attached to the shelter provided by a good ditch and spent many hours huddled in our sleeping bags escaping the cold winds. Despite all this we were still smiling and determined to get to Punta Arenas in time -despite our painfully slow progress. In order to avoid the winds we rode into the darkness and early in the morning, but soon discovered Patagonian winds follow no clock and the wind remained constant.

But we did make it!! Thanks to a lovely generous Chilean couple, our broken espanol, the perfect truck and some hardout riding by Shane. We were all stoked to enjoy a hot shower, delicious dinner, wine and warm bed in Punta Arenas last night. It is a beautiful wee town with big wide streets, a town centre surrounded by old mansions and quite geared for tourists is the mainland town used for Antartic trips. We`re all looking forward to Sophie arriving tonight and beginning the next leg of our journey.

We are having an awesome trip so far. The South American people are so kind and generous. It is cool practising our spanish and very satisfying when it works! Although the riding has been really challenging the freedom and new discoveries of cycle touring keeps us going.

ps. The orca photo was a joke!! Photo taken from a book in Ushuaia while testing out the new camera!!

Ushuaia - el fin del mundo!

2008-11-17T18:50:00.000-08:00

Landed in Ushuaia yesterday - the southern most town in the world!! (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. 56 degrees south) The flight down was pretty awesome; stunning views of mountains, glaciers, rivers and the terrain that we will be riding through! Its pretty cold, especially after Brasil, less than 10 degrees here!!! And its summer!!

It was pretty funny arriving at the airport in Ushuaia and setting our bikes up. Its quite a small airport and we were taking up half of it with our shit everywhere. Managed to break a spoke while putting new tyres on, but Shane fixed it quickly. Once the bikes were set up, we loaded them up, and stepped outside. It was sooooooooooooooo windy and we nearly got blown off our bikes just biking from the airport into town. Welcome to Patagonia!

Today we got supplies...food, fuel for cookers, cash etc... We also went on a boat trip in the Beagle channel for 4 hours, it was pretty awesome!! Scenery is wonderful!!! Also saw lots of cool birds and sea lions etc.. and went for a walk on one of the islands. We were also lucky enough to see a huge orca come right up onto the beach and grab a baby seal. Matilda got a great photo, but was extremely close to getting eaten herself!!!!

Leaving on our bikes early in the morning......ciao for now x

Jericoacoara, Brasil

2008-11-14T04:58:00.000-08:00

Three weeks in Brasil. I have been support crewing for team Orion Health in the Adventure racing world championships. It was awesome! The race was great, and they won!!! Out of 60 teams... World champions!!! They are amazing, it was such a tough race...Kayaking, trekking, mountain biking, running and climbing - 550km, 80 hrs racing, 2 hrs sleep...and so hot!!!! 49 degrees at one stage! After the race there was lots of celebrating to do....Anna has proven to be the toughest girl in the world, by not only winning the world champs, but then following it up by partying like crazy, two more nights without sleep.

After the race we have just been hanging out in the coolest little beach town called Jericoacoara which is set among the sand dunes... I have been learning kite surfing which is a lot of fun. Feel like I have the hang of it after four days..its quite addictive, might be looking for a kite on trade me when I get back!! Also been doing a bit of surfing, walking, sandboarding on the dunes, reading and relaxing in hammocks. Its been pretty social with lots of people from the race sticking around for a while too.

Not everything has been easy sailing though... so far i have been mugged, had our brand new camera stolen and had over $1000 of credit card fraud....sweet. Brasil is pretty dodgy actually, although most people we have met and interacted with have been really lovely and friendly. Tomorrow, we leave the heat and fly south. I meet up with Matilda and Shane in Santiago and then fly on to Ushuaia. Anna is flying to Ushuaia via Buenos Aires.

Getting organised

2008-10-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

Its only one week until I leave NZ. I am flying to Brazil and spending three weeks there. I am support crewing for Team Orion in the Adventure Racing World Champs. Check it out....
http://http://www.ecomotion.com.br/ecomotionpro2008/eco_en.asp

After the race, Anna and I are going to chill out for a week, then meet up with Matilda and Shane (Sophie arrives a week later). We fly to Ushuaia, Argentina (southern most town in South America) and start our bike trip!

There is lots to organise at this stage, especially with the bikes, but I'm starting to get really excited as our departure date approaches. Also trying to enjoy our last few weeks in Ohope at our luxury pad, we're going to miss this place...