Trips

A ride from across France and Belgium to Dusseldorf. After attending Eurobike I caught the train to Basel. On the train I met a German mother and son who were also going to start a ride in Basel. We rode together at first. After we went different ways and mine took me through Nancy, Reims, Lille, Bruges, Antwerp and finally Dusseldorf.

With young Kai on the Canal du Rhone au Rhin. Heading to Mountbeliard.

Days later I stumble across another canal going my way for nearly three days. The Canal Champagne et Bourgogne. It is superb. This is one of a classic style of bridge to be seen along this canal.

Through the Champagne region.

Perhaps all of France is the same. But I am developing a theory that the north of France is the best. I can’t fault it for bike touring quality.

Reims is a great city for a rest day. I’m not religious but still deeply appreciate the architecture, history of, and culture around cathedrals.

As I move north west I ride with this fellow for a few hours. Same story I hear so much. After decades of work he is following his dreams of adventure, being fit, being free. We love it together.

In North West France they are still digging up bones in the fields. This region saw massive battles.

Googlemaps takes me along Canal la Sensee, a canal from Napoleonic times that links two rivers. On this tour I have not particularly sought out canals at all but have spent several days riding along them.

Ah googlemaps! Now I’m being taken over miles of cobbles in the border region with Belgium. On road bikes apparently, there are techniques for skimming along the tops. But the luggage on a tourer makes it very bumpy.

Brussels sprouts growing near Brussels. Well, not far from there. I’m heading for Bruges.

I have not been in Belgium for long but it already feels quite different. There are lots of houses with sharp lines and clipped hedges. Maybe it is the Dutch influence. This is in Flanders.

I’m loving riding in Belgium.

Cycling is so much a part of culture here. It is Sunday and I have passed several bike races and seen thousands out on their bikes. It is the way to get around in Belgium.

The night before arriving at Dusseldorf airport, on line, I figure I can’t get s carton in the airport. So, I look for bike shops and find there is one on my route just near the airport. I have my carton and can even ride the last km carrying it.

Brief

A 2,000km ride across Italy and up through the Balkans. Starting in North West Italy, crossing Italy and then taking the ferry over the Adriatic to Dubrovnik, up through Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Austria into Southern Germany. Riding a Vivente Swabia, a bike that has been proven so much already, this also became a trial of the route plotting software Komoot.

Starting in NW Italy, crossing Italy and then taking the ferry over the Adriatic to Dubrovnik, up through Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Austria into Southern Germany.

Komoot route planning, after you tell it the start and finish, offers options of bike touring, road cycling, mtb route and hiking. For each one, a summary tells you the distance and the climb. Then, in the detail, you get the route divided into bike path, single track, road and the surface into paved, gravel and so on. Whereas Google routes often ignore even EV routes being available, Komoot seems to be made just for bike tourers.

Mechanised tomato harvesting in North Italy.

Separate to Komoot, I have downloaded OSM (Open Street Maps) for the regions. I am staying in Airbnb’s mostly and only choosing them one or two days in advance. This gives me plenty of flexibility to take weather into account. I choose Airbnb’s in the 30 Euro range. I don’t plot the route until I have the address for the night’s booking. Then Komoot takes me, mostly on cycle routes with no traffic, right there.

It seems that all of Italy moves to the coast for the summer. These beach scenes are endless.

Arriving in Dubrovnik I do a ride around where The Kings Landing scenes for Game of Thrones were shot.

Following the Adriatic coast north there are not many off-road options and the terrain does not allow room for a shoulder. Having the mirrors really helps.

It is classic scenery along the Adriatic. Steeped in history too.

This is in Zadar. From here I leave the coast and head inland.

Zagreb, a beautiful city, is the Croatian capital. When Yugoslavia was formed, the states made a constitution that allowed any one to leave the federation. This happened in 1991 when both Croatia and Slovenia said they wanted to be independent. Bosnia tried to stop them.

The country is getting greener and more fertile. These farm sheds with horizontal poles on the sides are for drying hay.

Bike paths abound in the north of Slovenia, close to both Italy and Austria.

The hay drying system again. It would be quite a bit of work to do this so the season must be a bit short and a bit too wet for field drying.

One thing you don’t need to worry about in Europe is finding food. Lately I’ve been ending the day with 500gm of frozen raspberries mixed with ½ litre of yogurt. It gives an instant cool-down and rehydration.

Check out the glulam beams and columns in this farm building in Austria.

In Austria, approaching Innsbruck. There are lots of fellow travellers here. Most are riding European versions of bikes almost identical to Vivente models. Close to 100% have rear panniers and handlebar bags with a few also having front panniers. The bikepacking idea of not having a rear rack has not caught on here.

At Eurobike in southern Germany I spend a few days studying bike components.

In Zurich airport they sell bike cartons. Thumbs up to Komoot which got me here.

A week of touring all around Portland Oregon before heading south, finding the Willamette Valley cycleway, riding to Eugene and then around that region. Training back to Portland.

Portland has a reputation for cycling infrastructure and it’s well earned. On “urban” tours it’s great to go out early and ride in on the commuter routes. I don’t need to know where they are or where they are going. Just get in the stream and it takes me along.

Around the city there are plenty of longer day rides to do.

This is in Beaverton, a commuter city over the range to the SW. Great effort has been made to make people ride to the mass transport and park there.

Cyclists can get a keycard for the parking station.

Heading south, the obligatory American flag and a generous road shoulder. The pro-cycling infrastructure definitely results in good behaviour towards riders. We are granted respect.

WV refers to the Willamette Valley. Pronounced “will-am-it”. This massive Willamette river runs north, eventually through Portland and then into the Columbia river. The cycleway is well promoted but it was surprisingly hard to find.

Hazelnuts. Most USA production is from around here.

Rye. They bale it and ship it to Asia as fodder.

Read the sign. There is an element of lawlessness up here. Some people have moved into remote areas deliberately to get away from authority. It is more noticeable than in other countries.

Eugene is fantastic for cycling.

It is a good place to visit a museum and learn about the ways the Europeans got to these parts. Unfortunately, in this case, no mention is made of the decimation of the native civilization in the process.

There is a train service from Eugene to Portland and you need to put your bike in a carton. They sell cartons at the train station. Back in Portland these are discarded and there is a dumpster full of them behind Portland station. After 4 bike shops told me they had no bike cartons I snigged. This is on the metro out to the airport. I rode this tour on a VWR Patagonia.

A ride from Nice to Cordoba through inland Spain.

Ready to ride out from my Sydney abode I am travelling light. 11.5kg not counting the lock and the bike. The only luggage I do not have is camping equipment because I’ll try to find Airbnb, pensiones and cabins at campgrounds.

This tour is to link up some earlier tours. One in Andalusia and one in France that ended at Nice. I’ve waited till September to avoid the intense heat of the Spanish summer.

Straight away I’m in the grape harvest season.

Google maps can be testing. The correct route is on the other side of that canal. This was a dead end.

Across the border into Spain but it is not Spain according to the locals. It is Catalonia! Yellow independence ribbons and flags everywhere.

Getting into the dry inland of Iberia in late summer there are almonds ripening on the roadsides.

Ah the indulgences you can enjoy when clocking up big days on the bike. The Spanish eat late but I need to be asleep by then so I normally buy things at the market and eat at the lodging.

The great thing about tunnels is that they cut out some of the climb. The road makers in this isolated region never expected cyclists so there is no shoulder, but the drivers were most careful to not harm me.

Stork nests.

Ah, google maps. Thank you for showing bike tourers the way through areas where paper maps have no roads at all. These tracks seem to exist only to service a vast network of wind turbines.

This should be a movie. The fog or cloud was pouring over the mountain like a river.

Arriving in old Castile. The roads in Spain are fantastic.

In a rocky, arid and mostly treeless region, huts like this, with holes in the top for smoke to get out, are lodging for herders. The rocks provide shade in the daytime and retain the day-time heat through the cold nights.

Beautiful natural scenery and wildlife. Why would you be riding along the tourist Med coast when you could be here?

Further south and the olives begin. These ancient trees are heavily pruned to give the new growth that produce the fruit.

It is fig season and there are plenty of trees along the roads.

This is a mechanised system to get water up from a deep well. The buckets are links in an endless chain. Powered by a diesel engine and geared right down the buckets tip into a spout and run into a channel to a vineyard.

Before stainless steel the wine was kept in concrete silos. Mostly tempranillo around here.

I am full of respect for the Spanish road infrastructure. It is extremely safe for cycle touring. Great signage. Very considerate and respectful drivers.

Coming into Cordoba, after 1,800km from Nice, and ner a drop of rain, my bike is filthy. All fixed for two euros in the self-serve car bike wash.

An urban tour. 10 days in DC with side rides to West Virginia and Baltimore. A bad start was arriving at Ronald Reagan airport and when putting my bike together finding my front disc rotor was badly bent. It took an extra half hour to get it rideable. This damage was done in Dallas Fort Worth or in Ronald Reagan International. From now on I’ll always use a disc protector.

DC managed to get a good subway despite massive efforts by the highway building and car lobby. (Moses lost that one). The fact that bike infrastructure is also well developed is therefore not surprising.

Car drivers don’t see the beautiful features under this bridge but a cycleway passes below. There are a number of long off-road routes in DC.

Baltimore is only 40 miles away. The city itself is horrible for riding. But Maryland is making efforts to accommodate bikes. This pro-bike sign is in MD.

DC has a very impressive zoo.

Under one of the bridges across the Potomac.

Washington DC is quite easy to cycle around. Pedestrians are also well catered for. The subway system plays a big role in limiting the number of vehicles on the road.

One of the most vibrant colours in vegetation. It is an impressive city in so many ways.

The cycling level is not high but if you want to cycle in DC you certainly can. I picked up a bike carton at a shop and carried it on the subway to the airport and packed at the airport.

A ride from Hamburg to Bodensee in the south. We ride through Podstam, Berlin, Dresden, Bayreuth, Bamberg, Nuremberg, and Ulm. A first time for me in the old East Germany. At Friedrichshafen we visit Eurobike.

We have digital mapping sorted out and are able to travel through forests, and anywhere google maps takes us.

Amazing scenes from history on display in Berlin.

Berlin is a cycling town.

It is hard to imagine what was going on here only 60 years ago. History marches on.

A very artistic city now.

SE of Berlin the country is not rich. A bit sandy. Humour thrives though.

Cyclists treated well at the Ibis in Dresden. It is a sobering experience being in this city. City planners have not tried to cover over what happened here. Glad we went though.

We just love bike touring so much!

The test Swabia crossing the old Iron Curtain. Trying out the rear conspicuity device. If you spend a lot of time on a bike you need to pay more attention to safety.

We called in to Wagner’s birthtown, Bayreuth, for a lunch break. The funny thing was that the water cost more than the meal and when we queried this we were reassured it was “famous” water.

We move onto Bamberg, surely the high point of any bike tour. On a visit to a bike shop I pay attention to B&M mirrors and within six months they are standard on Vivente bikes.

At Ulm we visit the extraordinary Cathedral.

Boer goats. They don’t mind the cold but they don’t like getting wet. They seem to be doing well here in Bavaria. Not common though.

European farmers appreciate big eaves on their shed. It is a mystery why Australian farmers don’t demand them too.

A ride from Kununurra to Derby on the Gibb River Road.

We flew into Kununurra, put the bikes together at the airport, stayed in a local caravan park and in the morning headed out on the tar before the turnoff to the GRR.

Admiring the Cockburn Ranges. Note the corrugations in the road.

An early start after camping on the east bank of the Pentacost River. There are crocodiles here and we are hurrying as best we can. A few 4WDs pass us and they have their windows up. Leaping crocs maybe?

We have opted to travel light and make the 700km in 7 days. So no front bags and minimal food.

Most of the road is quite good. We are riding in early June, after the season and after the initial grading has been done. The three bikes were running 700 x 35-42C tyres.

As we go further west we encounter the amazing boab trees. They are a native of Madagascar and it is assumed that some of the big seed pods floated right across the Indian Ocean.

We camped on water every night. The freshwater crocs are not very dangerous. Only the “salties” are and most of the camps were far enough inland to be away from the salties.

The termite nests are truly amazing. This is one of the biggest we saw.

Pete was going to provide fish but the catch was just too small to provide the nutrition we needed. We all lost weight on this ride. There are two places where you can buy a bit of food along the 700km road.

Getting more shagged out `as we pushed further west. Note the bikes had no stands in 2013.

We arrived in Derby on schedule and spend a day looking at the sites. This is the Boab Prison Tree where Aboriginals were held captive. Their crimes were to live off the land as they had for millennia.

We got the bus down to Broome to catch the plane and the local bike shop obliged us with bike cartons. We rode to the terminal (which is literally in town) and packed there.

A ride across the Caucasus between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea and up to Erzurum on the Anatolian Plateau.

Having arrived in Baku on the Caspian Sea we head west across the desert country of Azerbaijan. The roads are good. Baku itself is awful for cycling but out of the city was fine.

This was an early test ride with a Rohloff hub, using a chain tensioner. This frame also was the first VWR to have a rear kickstand. It was mounted with two 5mm screws. It turned out that 6mm screws were required.

Sometimes its nicer to take the road with no traffic. Lots of Walnuts and Hazelnuts in western Azerbaijan.

Cyclists are always fascinated by other ways of carrying things around. This load of watermelons was just across the border in Georgia.

Devastation from a recent earthquake in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia.

Down on the Black Sea coast, figs are in season. It is mid-August. Some of the best roadside snacks in the whole world along here.

Cows on a decommissioned bridge in Georgia doing their best to amuse passing cyclists.

Crossed into Turkey. We will ride on the Black Sea coast to 20km past Rize before heading inland. This coast road features numerous and often long tunnels where touring bikes need lights.

The turnoff to Erzurum, 20km west of Rize. The 1,000km ride from Baku has been a preparation for this climb.

The lower slopes going up to the Anatolian plateau are covered in tea plantations. It is gorgeous scenery.

As the country becomes steeper and more prone to avalanches, cable systems are used to deliver supplies to remote houses.

Coming down, we reached a long line of cars at the front of which was a massive avalanche that must have happened a few hours earlier. It was cleared after an hour but the ride to Ispir had to be completed in darkness. A tough ride.

At last. The pass at 2,640m. There was not one meter of level road in the 70km from the black sea. Now it is 40km downhill to Ispir where there is lodging. The Rohloff was fine for climbing but after this ride the chainwheel was changed from 44T to 42T.

A ride from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia south to the Iranian border, along the border on the Iranian side to Jolfa, to Marand, Tabriz, Saqqez, Sanandaj, Hamaden, Arak and Tafresh. Then the bus to Tehran.

Armenia is a poor Christian country surrounded by richer Islamic countries. Much of its prior land has been taken. During WW1 the Turks committed genocide against Armenians and still won’t admit it. It is mountainous and roads are poor but traffic is light. As long as you take care it is safe.

We have miscalculated on the road to Goris. The climbing has taken too long. We are taken in by a farming family. It is amazing how, when you are really in need, someone appears and offers help.

The southern section of Armenia is disputed by Azerbaijan. There are land mines on the roadside. At least there are warning signs.

After crossing at Nordooz, the road to Jolfa is bristling with Iranian forces. No photos. Amazing though. Then turning south we are back in the real Iran, hanging out with the spectacularly friendly people.

A goat herder along the way.

Iran is a vast country with the resources to build perfect roads over great distances.

Whilst looking for a hotel we are spotted by locals who ask us to be their guests. We take a rest day and join their family and friends on a picnic.

There is plenty of climbing and awesome scenery.

Every morning there is a “water loading” session. We need to take on as much liquid as possible. There won’t be anything available for a long way. This was a 9kg watermelon and just two of us eat it over an hour.

I am on my tourer with 35C tyres and am invited to join a MTB ride in the hills with a local club. It is rocky but the Marathons hold up really well. With no luggage I feel like I have turbo power.

The green on this sign says 45 degrees. It’s a heat wave lasting a few days. Regardless of averages being ok, there is always the chance of extreme weather.

We have made it to Tehran. Often cardboard is easy to find but not today. We have ridden over 10km around looking before finding some. With previously bought tape and rope we pack the bikes where we find the cardboard.

The final packages but at the airport there is a plastic wrapping machine. We hire a blue ute to take us to the airport (which is 40km out of the city). 24 hours later we cycle out of Sydney International Airport.

The Chhattisgarh ride. To get into Chhattisgarh we land in Hyderabad and ride up to Warangal on the first day. We then have to go SE for a day to get over the Godavari River. We stop in Konta, Malkangiri and Jeypore. Then in Dantowara, Basur and Jagdelpur. Heading north we arrive at a junction just west of Raipur (the state capital) but then swing west to Maharashtra and Nagpur from where we depart. This 2007 tour through Chhattisgarh involved encounters with both Naxalites and police but I won’t discuss either of them here. Not one westerner was sighted in the 1,600km. One puncture on the two bikes. A very remote, poor and tribal part of India.

Cotton picker on the road to Warangal.

Its getting a bit late and the animals are being brought back in. We still have a 40km forest to ride through.

The main road is straight ahead but we want to go to Konta. It would have been easy to not notice on this sign that we need to go left.

For a few days we are in western Orrisa. This is a fish trap.

Woodgetters. These women don’t just stroll. They jog. And today we saw one of them jogging whilst also breastfeeding.

This is a load of leaves. They will be going to a big market, probably some distance away. They are used with beetle nut, a stimulant that men and women chew. It makes their mouths red and causes them to spit out red saliva. All a bit gross but what an impressive load!

An animist roadside totem top. One of the world’s largest tribal populations lives in the forests of Chhattisgarh, where they follow a religion that blends animism and witchcraft with the worship of multiple gods.

Arranging a boat ride. It is already a 120km day and if we can’t pull this off it will be 170km. The rivers become massive in the wet season and would just be too expensive to build enough bridges over them. In the wet season this would be impassable.

Chhattisgarh family with corn.

Women bringing leaves in from the forest.

So many bikes have only pedal spindles, the rubber having fallen off. I have started carrying pedals and when I see one of these I do a very quick free service and in one minute depart leaving the bike with brand new pedals and the locals scratching their heads saying “what just happened”. I did three bikes today.

This is the largest number of people I have seen on a single rickshaw. I can see 11 but there might be as many as 20.

The road is rough but there are lots of local cyclists. They have their own tracks on either side and it is quite easy to travel at 25-30kph on these perfect bike tracks. On the road you’d be doing less than 20.

The bridges of Maharashtra. Surely someone has made a coffee table book of them. They are beautiful. Today a woman washing clothes flashed her boobs as I rode past. We all laughed.

Departing Nagpur. Yesterday was a rest day allowing time to score cardboard and wrap the bikes after they had the front wheels, saddles, pedals and handlebars taken off. This remote and not-modern part of India pulls at my heart as I take off.