Cycling around the World

Okay, just one more post...

2011-03-17T23:05:00.001Z

We've been back now for a few weeks, Den's been back in work for a few weeks and I've been lucky enough to start a new job last Tuesday. It's amazing how quickly life gets back to 'normal'.

We have some great memories of our amazing trip, and luckily, we don't have to wait too long before we set out on our next cycle adventure. It's not quite going to rack up as many miles as our trip around the world, but we're back on Bertha, the tandem, riding across the UK for a local cancer care charity, Maggie's Centre. You can follow our progress on our new blog -

http://www.janesjaunt.blogspot.com/

If you think you like to get involved then get in touch. Meanwhile, thanks for reading our ramblings over the past 12 months. We hope it's been useful in keeping you up to date with our journey, we'll see you soon. Love Den & Rich

In the end......

2011-02-21T01:57:00.001Z

Looking back we have not posted for a while, sorry about this, to be honest there was nothing much to write home about as the scenery was dull as ditchwater and we had to really crank up the mileage against fierce headwinds which Argentina seems to be famous for (which ever way your cycle!!) to reach Colonia in Uruguay in time for Richards birthday.

lovely gate and pillars shame about the rest of it.

Frey Bentos. Meat pie anyone?

From leaving Ceres we had 10 days of continuous cycling across the rest of the Santa Fe Provence and in to Entre Rios, this was trickier than we thought as there is a tunnel linking the two major cities of the regions and no cycles are allowed, first unavoidable cheat on the back of a pick up. Torrential rain that flooded many roads were had on the days riding in to these two cities so short days were decided on, grim cycling in the rain especially when the puddles are so deep you can clean your feet as you pedal and pick-ups send waves of water over your head and down your neck.....yuck!

The sun was hot so took advantage of every stop, some were nicer than others

Entre Rios is a lovely place, as the name may suggest it is surrounded by rivers and seems to be an amazingly friendly place, within the few days we had offers to show us the sights by car, go drinking and act as translators but overwhelmingly everyone was so incredibly friendly and helpful. So from the principle city Parana we made our way roughly following the river to Gualeguaychu, where it all changed. This place is a tourist hotspot for locals and boy do they know how to party, as we left at around 8am, there were still party people drinking Smirnoff Ice and wandering around, not looking too drunk mind!!

Presentation is everything

Rich and Juan who saved us many miles of cycling!

Leaving Gualeguaychu was no wrench but we had to leave early-ish as we had a border to cross and a Rugby match to watch. We had read on the internet that there was contentions around this border as there is some pulp factory which locals take exception to on the bank of the river over in Uruguay. the question of is it open was answered fair early as all and sundry raced past us. We arrived to find that we could not take cycles across the bridge, grrr!! they were also not going to help like the peeps at the tunnel did, so it was up to us to find a way over. Luckily as we trawled back through the cars, truck and pick-ups we asked Juan here if he would give us a lift. The guy was a star, he helped us through immigration and customs and dropped us off the other side, really good, guy, not a word of English and with our dodge Spanish the conversation was not great but so helpful.

How high are those swings???

Like it's neighbour Entre Rios, Uruguay is an amazingly friendly place. The roads are in the main good and traffic is fairly light, the countryside interesting with hills enough to entertain but not to really fatigue and comparatively little wind, the only downside it that it is very expensive.

Idyllic cycling in Uruguay

With wine by the roadside

All good things they say have to come to an end and Colonia was the final destination on bikes for us. It also happened to be Valentines day so we ended on a high note so to speak, also it was Rich's birthday on the 15th and we can't cycle on a birthday. It was very strange finishing, mixed emotions really. You can't believe that you don't have to get up the next morning and cycle, for me the anxiety of cycling in the sun had gone overnight, after so many days of not feeling 100% due to the sun I had acquired a loathing of the very hot heat you can get down here and in Asia. Also as there is no fanfare or welcoming party it is a little uneventful and where it is momentous for us everyone else was so not interested!!

Rich's birthday was spent in the capital city Montevideo, we had a look around the historical sights and went to the places we were advised not to go after dark!! seems there are a few unsavoury places near the tourist area, lovely!
The city itself is pretty impressive, with very big old building that would not look out of place in London or Manhattan.

tall building and palm trees


The important part of the day, birthday drinks!!!

Sorry about the wonky photos, blogger is having a off day.... can´t imagine it was user error. Whilst Uruguay was lovely and the people were great it was time to move on to Buenos Aires. Which will have have to wait for the next blog as I am off to bed ready for tomorrow and the flight home.

One pair of sandals that will not be making the journey home, but I may remember for a while yet!!

Hot and dusty, but exfoliated in Argentina

2011-02-03T21:03:00.001Z

fancy one of these being in Argentina

Boy have we being having fun and games since setting off from Santiago Del Estero. Unbeknown to me Rich wobbled his way out of the garage parking lot of the hotel in Santiago Del Estero, owing to his inner ear infection playing havoc with his balance. If I had known we would have booked straight back in, but as the receptionist was horrid he valiantly carried on.

It was a short ride of just 30 miles to the town of Fernandez where nothing opens until 8pm and boy racers screech up and down the high street on their supped up lawnmowers mascarading as motos until the wee hours!!

Amazing bike shop in Santiago Del Estero

We are now on the flattest straightest road since NZ and Aus, the landscape is very similar, featureless farm land with not a tree to be seen! So not too much of interest to report.... unless you are in to farm machinery.

Our ride from Fernandez took us 60 miles to Herrera. Hotel was a hovel. It was the worst we have stayed in in Argentina but admittedly palatial compared to places in South East Asia!! Rich was still feeling rough and today suffered with loss of power so I took the rucksack on my bike to give him a break. 60 miles feeling dizzy, weak and trucks going past at 80km is no mean feat and he did amazingly.

The most interesting things on route 34

It tipped it down over night and we had a lovely walk through the petrol station forecourt puddles and out on to the road. Now, the road we are on has no hard shoulder to speak of, there is about 3inch's of tarmac the other side of the white line and then a rough dirt track by the side of the road, which is good to head off on to when a truck is bearing down blaring its horn! Unfortunately, after the rain of last night there was a lovely, almost primordial ooze sitting just past the tarmac that was covered in a disguise that rendered it looking like hard ground. So when the first truck rumbled up behind sounding the signal we both headed for the safety of the verge only to find we had no steering as the wheels dug into the gloop. The resulting synchronised crash must have been to the great amusement of the trucker. No major injuries to be report except the odd bruise and a scraped knee, the bikes faired well with just mud splatter everywhere!

fruit and veg seller

After that little escapade the day went well up until 10miles out of Pinto where I heard a twang and developed a rather big wobble in my back wheel! whoops spoke gone again. Rich having recovered to about 60% took back the rucksack and 1 of my back panniers, lovely for me but can't have been nice for him. Arriving in Pinto we found a lovely EXPENSIVE hotel and went exploring for spokes. Rich was dubious that we would find anything, but armed with a phrasebook we can achieve anything, after finding a lady who spoke very basic English we eventually found a place that sold spokes and a shop next door that could fix it. Here, there was no 'it will be ready tomorrow' it was fixed while we waited, and they did not want anything for it, they were happy with the tip we gave them!!

Rich on the radio

The next morning, the owner of the hotel caught us as we were leaving and asked if we would do a quick radio interview on her brother's show, so after finding out there was a lot more of the town of Pinto than we saw last night we got to the radio station and had a quick interview with the owner of the hotel acting as interpreter, not sure how many people heard this but I hope it was not too many as she asked more questions about our relationship than about the ride!!

very funky teapots at the EXPENSIVE hotel

Heading out of Pinto we now find ourselves in Ceres in Santa Fe province, we are taking a day off as the heat really saps your strength and our legs are feeling it from cycling into a headwind for 4 days, we also need to recover from being sandblasted by all the trucks that trundle past. There must be a lot of sand on the road as when an articulated lorry goes past we loose a layer of skin in the resulting sand wind combo. Great for ex foliation, not so great for leaving your sun cream in place!

resting under the trees

For anyone following route 34 there is accommodation at the following places: Fernandez, Garza, Herrara (bit of a dive, but ok), Pinto (2 places which looked lovely form the outside), Ceres (there could have been somewhere at Selva but were too tired to look!)

New route master

2011-01-28T18:47:00.001Z

We have a new route master....me, after the 92 miler I have relieved Rich of the role as it is harder to complain to yourself and Rich will feel less guilty!

Having assumed this role I have found a new route to Buenos Aires, it takes us into Uruguay and we cross by ferry to BA. I like the sound of this route as apparently the city is a sprawling mass of traffic. We hope to be there by 16th Feb.

The route masters first decision after the 92miler was to declare a day off, seriously 92 miles after pretty much 4 weeks off the bike was far more than I needed so we had a lazy day to allow my aching legs to recover, they weren't as bad as I thought they would be but I was not owning up to that!

Provincial border

Back on the bikes again we headed for Tucaman via the nosiest camp site I have been on in a while, with the biggest speakers going! and not just one group of campers but pretty much everyone played music until the wee small hours, I did wake at 4am and could not hear anything but at 6am boom, boom, boom.

The riding now is undulating the hills can be a couple of miles of gradual up hill then the same the other side, it seems like we are in a very wide valley and it is all very similar, kinda reminds me of Oz as there are sugar plantations, its hot but blessedly not humid.

Tucaman the city is OVERPRICED, other than that another big city with a big plaza and one-way streets. Whilst riding around trying to find a hotel that was not demolished or being renovated Rich got a puncture in his new super duper puncture resistant tyre, that went down well!!! We looked very adventurous sitting on the plaza eating ice cream at a café whilst Rich mended his tyre and cursed his bad luck. Mind you I think he would have needed solid tyres to avoid a puncture as it was a great hulking piece of glass.

Moving on we arrived at Rio Hondo knowing that there were at least 4 camp sites, hotels are comparatively expensive and we decided that we will camp where ever possible. We set up camp underneath the trees on the bank of the river and had a lovely relaxing afternoon. It was just a tad hot and the tent was hotter but we were finally just drifting off to sleep around 10pm when some new campers arrived and started using the BBQ station next to our tent, ok.... can deal with that, but by 1.30am when they started to blow up their air bed with a foot pump I nearly lost it. Finally they settled down only to be up with the sun at dawn making enough racked to wake the dead. with a fairly spacious camp site I am wondering why they camped quite so close???

With this much room on the camp site.....

Why did they have to camp here????

Our departure from that camp site could not come quick enough!! Having got very little sleep, what with the new neighbours moving in and the heat I was a grouchy bugger. Rich was a star and very patient. The sun was unbearably hot that day and what with the lack of sleep we ended up having a few mini siestas under trees and rolled in to Santiago Del Estero sweaty and pink having agreed to have a day off.

One day off has turned into 4 as Rich has a (jointly diagnoses) ear infection which is affecting his balance and if there is one thing you need on a fully loaded bike its balance. So glad we picked the nicer hotel!! It also means that my bike has time to go to the menders as at some point I had broken a spoke and Rich does not have all the tools needed to fix it as it is on the drive side....what ever that means!! We also missed the biggest soaking ever which managed to flood the street outside our hotel, phew. Rich's balance is improving daily and we hope to set off tomorrow.

Finally, Den persuades me to get on a Bus

2011-01-22T00:47:00.000Z

It was like a catalogue of errors, but after Den being ill over Christmas, having to wait for our spares to clear customs and with me being ill through food poisoning, we were ready to leave Sucre.

We were heading south towards Potosi. The road was sealed again, which should mean that even though it was hilly, we should be able to make it within two days. The road followed a valley downhill for the first 30km out of Sucre, and the sun was out, so we maintained good progress. Then the road started to climb, and the sun became more intense. We took a while to duck into the shade of some trees at the road side. By the time we got back on the bike it was fairly late, but we carried on. Then it all started to go a bit wrong. Den was struggling with the altitude, hills and heat, we both came to the same conclusion.... Den wanted to go on a bus, but me being a mad keen cyclist and all that, I wanted to go the whole way on the bike. There was no way I was going to cheat by getting a bus!!

Then Den had an asthma attack on one of the steeper slopes we were climbing. So decision made, we were getting the bus. As we sat down to decide how we were going to get to Potosi, a family came along in a 4x4 and offered us a lift. Den nearly bit their hands off!

We found Potosi to be a poor relation to Sucre, if we had been to Potosi first we would have thought it was quite nice... as big towns go in Bolivia. The one thing we would say about the place is 'where are all the restaurants/cafes'? We struggled to find anywhere nice to get some food in. The big tourist trip to do in Potosi is a trip to the silver mine. The mountain is huge and looms forbiddingly over the town to the South. Interestingly, most of the Spanish empire's wealth came from silver mined in this very mountain for over two centuries.. We did think about going on the tour, but quickly dismissed the idea as we both have an aversion to spending money on crawling through puddles 100's of metres underground whilst breathing in toxic fumes, so we though we would give it a miss!!

Potosi

Potosi Bus Station, best bit of design in Bolivia

So moving on from Potosi involved a cursed cheating bus ride. Luckily, it was on unpaved Bolivian roads so there was at least an element of adventure. Of sorts... I wouldn't quite go along with the horror stories I'd heard from backpackers about overnight Bolivian bus journeys. It's still a lot easier than on the bike. So 11 hours overnight on a bus with a broken seat, packed to the rafters with snoring locals. Most people were friendly though and we chatted as much as our Spanish would allow until the lights went out and everyone tried to sleep. Den managed not one wink, and let me know about it the next day, luckily and much to her annoyance, I had a great night's sleep!!

Den:

Villazon was like any other border town not somewhere you wanted to hang around. We changed our money getting a better rate than we had bargained on (hopefully... well it was 6.30am) and on to the border proper, well what a disorganised crossing, all in it too 3 hours to go through both sides, I think buses disgorge early then when the border opens its a game of catch up. So with that over and done with we went in search of breakfast and another bus. Wow! Found a bakery with French looking yummy stuff, mummmm, 2^nd world here we come!

This time the bus was very luxurious, way better than UK buses and we even had DVD's to watch. We got to Salta by 6pm and there finishes our buses out of the Andes, I for one am very glad, but Rich is cursing the loss of those miles! Especially as the road from the border to Salta drops over 2000m. We had a slight altercation with the baggage handlers in Salta, who was asking for a tip ,fair enough I thought... until I saw Rich's bike....the front mudguard was ripped out of the front holdings and all bent out of shape and his saddle was all scuffed up. Now, it is usually me being placating and Rich arguing the point, but in a reverse of roles, it was me pointing out the damage and refusing to budge on what was a voluntary tip. Lack of sleep makes me feisty me thinks.

WE LOVE SALTA, it is lovely, this may be because we have come from a definite 3 world country or it could be that it is just lovely, either way we liked the place, especially the Carrefour! Leaving Salta was a wrench, but leave we must if we are to have any hope of reaching Buenos Aires by the 14^th, which is the target we have set ourselves. Being the day before Rich's birthday.

Salta

I'd like your biggest bottle of beer please waiter....

The start of the ride was great, I really felt the difference between cycling at altitude and here, so much nicer and easier!! After 25 miles we were flying and having a good time, then some kind fella stopped us and said it was raining heavily up ahead, it was very overcast and looked like rain so not wholly unexpected. At 37 miles we were soaked and low in morale. An opportune shelter at the side of the road provided a much needed dry spot for a couple of hours.

We decided to push on and head for San Jose de Metan we were hoping to find a shop on route and maybe somewhere to camp. At 9.15pm we rolled in to Metan and collapsed in to the nearest hotel, 92miles as the first day back is pretty impressive even if I say so myself!!

Time off the bikes in Sucre

2011-01-11T20:18:00.000Z

Sucre is the official capital of Bolivia and has been designated a world heritage site by UNESCO. All the buildings within the city centre are painted white, which makes it very picturesque. European and American governments give a good deal of aid to Bolivia to maintain it that way. The aid is then promptly pocketed by local government officials and used to buy posh cars and the residents are left to splash a little white paint on the walls every now and again.... at least that's how it got explained to me.

We've been here for a few weeks now, waiting for replacement parts to arrive to allow us to continue on into Argentina. We ordered one package from the US, and another from the UK. Yesterday, the package from the US arrived. We were ecstatic. After sitting in customs in La Paz for a while, it was delivered to Sucre and sat in the post office until the owner of the guest house we are staying in noticed it lying in a corner. They'd not thought to deliver it the 4 blocks to the address is was meant to go to.

The UK package is more of an issue. It's been in customs over in La Paz for 2 weeks now. Apparently we need to provide some additional information and make a payment of some duty before they will release it. It would have been nice if someone, maybe the shipper UPS, had have told us this. But at least we know where it is and why it is being held up.

So we asked what information customs needed. It appears we just needed to register as a temporary importer of goods. To do that you need copies of your Utility bills (and to prove your payments were up to date) and a copy of your Bolivian electoral certificate..... and all forms need to be filled in in triplicate. With no carbon to do the work of duplication for you. This country is a bureaucratic mess! On a par with India, maybe worse.

Needless to say we have no utility bills or voting cards, so our guest house owner has bravely volunteered to do battle with the dark forces of Bolivian bureaucracy. He deserves a medal. His breakfast is particularly good as well. At the moment he has got customs to agree to release the parcel to UPS' agent in the country. Then one more backhander to the kid in the agent's office, wait for him to receive it and the parcel should be on the overnight bus to Sucre.... Hooray!!... we hope!

There's quite a few adventure sports to sink your teeth into in the hills around Sucre, some fossilised dinosaur footprints and an over hyped tourist market 2 hours away to keep you interested. Though not all of which appeal to me surprisingly. Some good food can be had in the local restaurants, and there's a museum or two. Mainly though, I can't wait to get back on the bike.

Out and About in Sucre

Where are all the bike shops?

2010-12-29T16:10:00.000Z

Hummmm..... steel bolt in aluminium frame, should be relatively easy to get out I hear you say, well no as a matter of fact it's not, well in Bolivia its not. After chasing round the non existent bike shop, then a mate of the B&B owners we should have stayed at (more on this later), it all came down to a too risky hard drill bit so we decided to go the expensive route and order a new rack that can be fitted on the quick release of the rear wheel.

As this was the best option we also decided to order some extra special puncture resistant super duper tyres as Rich was getting sick and tired of repairing tubes! Therefore we find our selves staying longer than we had planned in Sucre, which is no hardship as we had specifically picked this place for Christmas as it was so nice.

So we are waiting for our parcel to turn up, how long UPS will take to get them here is anyone's guess, so far it has gone from Ireland to England to Germany to Kentucky to Florida and now it is in San Salvador so who knows where it will go next?? hopefully Bolivia but you never know.....so for now we wait.

We had much more thrilling things to worry about in the run up to Christmas, like where we were going to stay. Should have been simple.... two weeks or so before Christmas work out where we are going to be..... look on web for reasonably prices good accommodation, email a booking, confirm booking, turn up, relax, enjoy Christmas. Simple, straightforward, uncomplicated. so why were we walking round on the 23rd looking for a new hotel? Well it appears that while the owner is a great guy, very friendly and helpful his administration skills area little haphazard to say the least, we were not the only ones double booked!!

The saga went something like this (take a big breath), we arrived earlier than expected and had booked in to one hotel, bit soulless but ok, so we phoned up asking if we could book in early, sorry full, ok we will turn up on 23rd, byebye. Then an email, oh oh i'll cancel booking as am sure you do not want to move, response.. NO we want to come to you for Christmas, OOOP's i have double booked you, have checked and you can stay next door. come today, sorry can't today, OK tomorrow. Yippee, have sorted nice quite B&B for Christmas. Turn up, next door is full!! luckily 1 room for 1 night available as late cancellation. Don't worry I have booked you in somewhere else, nice place go tomorrow, I wander down and find paint peeling off the wall, drab brown bedspreads in cold soulless room, NOT staying here for Christmas, it sooooo depressing. So that is the story of how we found ourselves walking round Sucre looking for accommodation on the eve of Christmas eve!!and like good budget conscious travellers like we are we threw money at the problem and it went away.

Now with this lovely hotel room in a prime location Christmas should have been more exciting than it was, however that is not counting my ability to catch a cold whenever we stop for a wee while after some serious riding!! So Christmas day was spent with me alternating between boiling hot and freezing cold and feeling just plain grim, luckily it was just a heavy cold and not flu as I first thought.

We are now residing back at the original B&B where are bikes are and the parcel are turning up, we are keeping ourselves entertained by playing chess on the magnetic travel chess set I gave Rich for Christmas or faffing about on the internet, we are quite bored and are working on my tax return THAT'S how bored we are, oh and have finally established that you can not download music on to a linux system in Bolivia.

The Road... better make that, the Track to Sucre

2010-12-23T22:34:00.000Z

In our last post I was somewhat unkind to Oruro, the town centre it turns out was delightful. The guide book is not overly enthusiastic from a backpackers point of view, but we found it a pleasant enough place to spend time.

Oruro Square

The road to the east heading towards Potosi and Sucre was sealed for 40kms or so. The only downer was that we picked up 3 punctures on the road from various bits of road debris. I think we need to have a look into a couple of replacements for the Specialized tyres that are proving to be none to resistant to, well, anything really.

The road splits just before the town of Machacamarca, and we took the left fork towards Huanuni, a mining town, whose centre piece is an open sewer running through the middle of it. We'd planned to spend the night here but, were disinclined to stay once we'd had a look around for a few minutes.

After asking around we found the track out of town. It was a river bed heading to the South East. It looked like we were on a diversion as they were working on improving the road. In fact once we'd found the road itself, it transpires that they were doing more than that, they were tarmacing it. Happy days! We sped along until it started to climb... this might not be so bad after all.

At the end of the first day's ride we even managed to find a lovely camp site across the river bed from the main road.

Camp site

The next morning we continued to climb... and climb. To over 4400m in fact. The road was steep. The gentle gradients of Peruvian road builders are clearly not followed by their Bolivian equivalents. It was hard going all day, and at Uncia the tarmac stopped. We'd finally found the dirt!

We decided to camp, so we pushed on past Cala Cala and another steep climb. A few miles past the town we found a dirt track that appeared to head nowhere, where we decided to have tea and to wait out the remainder of daylight until we could put up the tent. It was just as we finished eating that we realised our mistake. The first of the llama herders, complete with accompanying llamas headed past on their way home for tea. After the 10^th group we realised we may have made a mistake, but it was too late to move on. Certainly there was nothing up the steep sided valley. So we stayed put, and fortunately had a sound night's sleep.

The climb the following morning was gruelling, but seemed not as long as the previous day. We reached the top to be met with a hugely deteriorated road. 6 inch corrugated ruts caused by cars travelling too quickly along the unsealed road.

Roads and Ruts and Mines

Passing by a high altitude lake, we came across, bizarrely, a pedallo in the shape of a swan moored up ready to go. The plain gave way to a sharp sided valley, and we followed the this down for over 1000 vertical metres. The road was littered with rocks and soft sand traps, which meant our speed had to remain low. I'd guessed we'd travel 35 miles a day at an average of 5 mph. A bit optimistic in these conditions as it turns out. We were averaging single figures even on the down hills. When the road turned upwards, to eventually climb back over 4000m, our speed was oh, maybe 3mph.... when we were cycling. 2 more punctures on the climb, this time in the heavily worn Schwalbe tyre on the back of my bike. Oh, and Den's chain snapped.

Mining using hand tools. Hard way to earn a living.

By the time we reached the village of Pocoata, we were both thoroughly exhausted and in need of a comfy bed. Unfortunately, of the two hostels in town, one was full (in Bolivia, we've started to suspect that some hostel in remoter parts have a dislike of strangers and say they are full even if they may not be) and the other was locked up. Looks like another night in the tent was calling. Fortunately, one of the team was not in the mood for three days more of bumpy dirty roads. So we resorted to plan B. Taxi. Now it's not far from Pocoata to Sucre, but we clambered into the taxi at 7pm expecting a long and bumpy trip.

The reality was worse than we could expect. 8 hours of being thrown around. And this was us taking the chicken's easy way, cycling's too hard route... well it would have been murder on a bike. Got to Sucre at 3am and went in search of a hotel. Got let into one on the town square after hammering the door bell for a while. Had to have two showers to get rid of all the road dust before we could climb into the white sheets on the bed. Ahhh, bliss.

Sucre by Night

The following day we found that the head of a bolt that holds on Den's rear pannier rack had sheared off at some point, possibly during the taxi ride, but we'll need to get that fixed before we can carry on. Oh well, it's Christmas so we'll deal with that later.

Happy Christmas everyone!!

High Plains Drifting... Or La Paz to Oruro

2010-12-16T18:36:00.003Z

Had a lovely day off exploring La Paz, doing a bit of shopping and checking out the ex-pat pubs in search of cider. There's not a lot in terms of land mark tourist sights. The hotel we stayed in was fairly centrally located so a lot of the things we needed were an easy walk away.

The climb out of the canyon that La Paz sits at the bottom of is over 500m. Seeing as how we were only retracing our steps from on the way down, we cried off the 2 hours of hard work that cycling out would have entailed, and caught a taxi back to were we started the decent from.

After all the ups, downs, rain and wind of the last month, the ride to Oruro was essentially 230km of flat straight road. So fast but sooooo boring! The desolate altiplano stretched for miles to the horizon. It might have been the kind of desolated isolation that could have inspired had it not been for the constant passing of trucks and coaches about 2 foot from your left shoulder. Luckily we managed to avoid any actual contact with several tons of metal long enough to reach Oruro.

The road to Oruro

The first day out of La Paz, we reached the town of Patacamaya. Which offered a choice of none too salubrious accommodation for the night. In it's defence, the cost was about 3 quid. But, as they say, you get what you pay for. I was a bit worried when we went to the restaurant downstairs and I was told that I couldn't have a beer if I was staying in the hostel. I guess there may have been some problems in the past.

Patacamaya

The second day into Oruro was a longer than average. 75 miles. We were in two minds when we set out whether to do this trip in two or three days. In the end, it was the lack of (open) accommodation along the way that made us decide to go for the extra mileage.

Oruro is apparently the folklore capital of Boliva. There are a number of big festivals that occur throughout the year, and some interesting art on the way into town. Unfortunately, it just goes to prove that that you can have all the culture you want. If the side of the street is covered in dust and rubbish, then your town is still going to appear down at heal. Anyhow, we are off to investigate to see if there is any more to this town than first impressions suggest.

Welcome to Oruro

Having looked on the web, the unsealed road between here and Sucre could be one of the hardest of trip so far. Only, 210 miles. It should take us about six days. Let's hope so. Looking forward to having Christmas in comfort.

68 miles to nowhere on the road to La Paz.

2010-12-12T20:00:00.001Z

We had to cross two climbs that topped out at over 4100m on the first day out of Copacabana. Between the two, we crossed the lake on a rickety wooden ferry. Which felt okay when loaded with a couple of 4 x 4's and our bikes but I wouldn't have been very sure about, say a bus...

Came across a cluster of hotels 20 miles or so later, but since we hadn't reached our target of 50, we decided to ride onto the next town to crash there. Bit of a mistake. There was nowhere to stay. Neither there, or the next town, or in fact the next either. So as the sun set, we crept off the road to put the tent up.

The good news was that when we got up we were only 30 miles from La Paz. The traffic built steadily as we got closer to the capital. Not a problem, bar the collectivo drivers pulling in front of us at any moment to drop off a fare. Then an easy cruise down the Autopista into town and hopefully a decent night's sleep. Should be. The hotel has a strictly enforced curfew, of, oh 3am. Maybe not.

La Paz...

Puno to Copacabana

2010-12-12T19:56:00.001Z

Our final full day in Peru. Really am disappointed to be leaving. We've both really enjoyed touring in Peru. Brilliant scenery and sights, very friendly people, easy to find decent accommodation and some challenging climbs... what do you mean Den? Oh, apparently big climbs are not a good thing.

50 miles on the road to the Bolivian border brought us to the town of Juli. The road mostly followed the shore of the lake so it was comparatively flat, well up until we reached the outskirts of Juli itself when the road climbed steeply to the town centre. There was a festival on in town. By the time we got there, it seemed to have been going on for most of the day judging from the drunkenness of the male population of town.

We took a room in the first hostel that had a spare room. We headed out to catch some of the parades and to stock up on provisions for the next day. On the way back we met this guy.

The next morning, we stopped off at the beach.

On the way to the border crossing with Bolivia, we saw 3 cycle tourists in as many miles. Two of which were on a tandem going the opposite way to us, on their way to Lima from Buenos Aires. We were both quite missing Bertha after that.

From the border, it's only 8km into Copacabana. We picked a midrange hotel from the guidebook and checked in. The town is compact and it took us no time to look around. After changing some money and fixing ourselves with an early dinner we decided to get an early night. Unfortunately, there was a tour group who just wanted to PARTY in the function room downstairs. I must be getting so old. Anyhow, once the music had stopped at about midnight, one of their party decided to start a fight. Hurrah!!

Final Push to Puno

2010-12-06T23:50:00.002Z

Feeling a little the worse for our 85 miles yesterday, we had a bit of a late start from Juliaca. It's just under 30 miles to Puno, and the road is fairly flat and arrow straight for the majority of the time, so we started just after 10am after a filling breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

Getting out of Juliaca was easy. Out the door of the hotel and head south. We ended up running out of town on a 6 lane highway with big no cycling signs up.... which we continued to ignore until the road reverted to two lane type. There were no police to witness our law breaking thankfully, although after a while I got the feeling that it may not be strictly enforced anyhow as we over took yet another pedal rickshaw.

Had our fifth puncture of this leg of the trip just a few miles later. The Specialized tyres that came on Den's bike just aren't made for touring. A small piece of wire had punctured the carcass of the tyre and given her a slow flat on the rear wheel. As the tire had been wearing quickly we swapped it with my front tyre and hopefully we'll have fewer punctures for a while - there is less weight over the front wheels, so thorns etc. won't be forced through the tyre quite as easily.

On the road to Puno...

As we neared Puno the road climbed for a 150 metres (vertical) over a few miles, before allowing us to coast into town, just ahead of the afternoon rain. We checked out a few hotels and ended up plumping for the Hotel Sillustani. A bit on the pricey side compared to some of the places we've stayed, but hey, welcome to Puno, tourist-tastic Gringo-ville. Luckily it's the low season so we wangled a discount.

Lake Titicaca....

Puno and around...

Just been out for an authentic Peruvian pizza.... mmm yum, oh and Den bought some Alpaca socks... mmm, questionable.

Machu Picchu

2010-12-06T03:24:00.001Z

We've been climbing a few hills lately, here's one of them snaking it's way up the hillside, from back on the road between Nasca and Abancay

Sometimes, even though they look flat, they are in fact climbing...

Anyhow, we had a day off in Cusco. The area surrounding the Plaza de Aramas in Cusco is picture postcard stuff, there's a couple of colonial era churches and alleys with Inca stonework foundations. Reading up on it and there is lots to see and do in the city. One of those times when you simply don't have long enough. Our main reason for coming here though, like 90% of the other tourists I would imagine, is to see Machu Picchu.

First things first, how expensive is it to get to Machu Picchu? Makes you wish that we'd visited the other free to view Inca ruins further back on the road to Abancay. We took a kamikaze collectivo to Ollytambee. Made it alive, just. Then took the $34, 1 and a bit hour train to Aguas Calientes. Which is the stop for Machu Picchu. Guide book described it as most awful small town in Peru, but since that book was written they've spent lots of money doing it up. Can't say there was too much wrong with it, and certainly unlike some cities in Peru, you never felt in imminent danger of being mugged. Stayed in a fairly decent hotel, and got up at 4am to be ready to board the first bus up to Machu Picchu.

I won't even try to describe Machu Picchu, it's breathtaking. Even if it does give the appearance, from a distance, of having been colonised by North Face attired ants. So even if you are paying for the privilege of visiting, it's money well spent. It even has a hotel at the entry gate. Sanctuary lodge – cheapest room, $800 per night if you please.

Returned to Cusco in the afternoon by the same route that we had arrived. Not quite ready to get back on the bike the next day.

Short day to Urcos. Mostly flat or downhill following broadly a river valley. Stopped off en route to see a pre Inca structure that was later modified by the Inca civilization to act as both aqueduct and toll gate to control the flow of traffic into and out of the sacred valley. Stayed in a wonderfully tranquil hostel.

58 miles to Sicuani. The road followed the course of a river all day. It's fairly flat going. The hard shoulder was intermittent for a while but the only obstacles were the dogs, who like to chase tired cyclists. The town of Sicuani looks like a bit of a tip, but found what looks like a reasonable hostel and the central plaza was quite pleasant.

Final 4000m pass before getting to Lake Titicaca. Had an early start from Sicuani in order to climb the last major climb before Puno. Saw an interesting sight on the way up the climb. A chap was riding his moto with a 12 foot plank of wood strapped to the back...now that's not inline with the bike, you understand, that's across the back of the bike. Like he was out to clothes-line oncoming trucks. Still he was happy with the set up.

Anyhow, the ride was all going well until the afternoon wind and rain kicked in for the day just as we approached the summit of the Abra la Raya pass. We got a bit of a soaking before we reached the top. Where I got to pet my first Alpaca.... can see why they make jumpers out of their fur... very soft. All set for the rewarding downhill bit, and the headwind sprang up with gusto. How frustrating! We made it to the village of Santa Rosa about 20 miles down from the summit and called it a day. Stayed in a very friendly guest house, whose main attraction was that the toilet was in the same building as our room. Unlike the other hostel in town.

Here we go, the rain cloud that was about to engulf us.

85 miles.... and Den's still talking to me. With the shorter than intended day yesterday, we had an early start today and managed to put in 45 miles to the town of Pucará in time for an early lunch. Our plan was then to push on to Calapuja before looking for somewhere to stay. Unfortunately, there was nowhere, so we knuckled down and rode into Juliaca, some 85 miles from our start point just before dusk. Our guide book warned that there was nothing special about the place, and they were right. It was however the longest day's cycling of our entire trip to date.

Ups and Downs between Abancay and Cuzco

2010-11-29T23:48:00.004Z

We seem to be developing a routine in cycling at the moment, 1000m plus climbs followed by huge wrist aching descents as you spend an hour or so hauling on the brakes as you come to another

Abancay to Curahuasi

We had a steep climb out of our rest stop of Abancay. The road wound upwards and oh so slowly we crawled our way upwards. Some 30km later, almost at the top of the pass we could look back down the valley and still see the town we'd left first thing this morning. Then as we neared the summit, we passed into the rain cloud. Abancay passed from view.

A sweeping downhill doubled our mileage for the day in the space of a rather breezy and cold hour. We reached the small town of Curahuasi just before dark. Our digs, Hostal San Sebastian, was fairly basic but set around a beautifully maintained courtyard. The hostal's owner was very helpful, even breaking out a plastic sheet to cover the bikes during the night.

The next day our aim was Limatambo. In a reverse of the previous day, we had a continuation of yesterday's downhill for 9 miles or so to the river valley. Then a climb up. The road was somewhat broken up in places and we had yet another thorn based puncture. Arrgghhh!!

Limatambo's accommodation options were on the limited side. We found a lovely rustic looking villa, just outside of town, that offered rooms to let, but couldn't raise the owner to even take a look. So back into town and a night in the basic hostel in the centre.

Final day into Cuzco meant another pass to be cleared at a height of 3700m, from a starting point of 1900m. A 6.30am start and we reached the top just after midday. I think we both deserve a rest day when we reach Cuzco. We're also going to take the train over to Machu Picchu rather than ride. How lazy are we???

Nazca to Abancay

2010-11-24T21:41:00.003Z

This the big test for me following my less than heroic succumbing to the effects of altitude when in Tibet. The climb up from the desert that hugs the Pacific coast of Peru to the Andean altiplano. Nazca sits at an altitude of around 500m, but heading east inland you climb to well over 4000m over the course of 56 miles.

The world's highest sand dune... over 2000m

We rolled out of Nazca at just after 7am and quickly managed to miss the signpost for the turning we needed to take, courtesy of a large truck parked across it. It was only as we rushed past the air field still on the Pan American highway that we realised our mistake, which incurred us a 4 mile detour. Not a great start to the day with a monster climb ahead. The good news was that the traffic died off dramatically once off the main North South route. Consisting mainly of the occasional lumbering truck, slightly faster moving pickup and still faster motorcycles.

The climbing was steady. Den's knee played up for most of the day and kept her planted in the saddle for long periods. The landscape was unrelentingly dry desert scrub. A few low shrubs dotted with the occasional cactus. A handful of forlorn houses passed every now and then, but from the moment the road start to climb we saw not a single person outside of their vehicles. Only towards the end of the day did we find a shop to replenish our fast depleting supply of water. We'd started the day with 14 litres on our bikes, enough for 2 days we hoped, but by 4pm on this first day we were already down to 6 litres left. We stopped after 36 miles at an altitude of 2600. Exhausted we hauled our bikes off the road, over a low ridge to some flat ground that looked to have been excavated in readiness for an as yet unused landfill site. We cooked up pasta as the sun set over the mountains we'd spent the day climbing.

The next morning we broke camp and started back at the climb early. Initially more of the same desert scrub, but then as we reached the high plateau, the landscape changed and the earth sprouted grassy tufts for as far as the eye could see, streams gurgled their way out of the ground and animals were visible amongst the vegetation. We'd reached the pampas. We followed the road across the high grasslands for most of the afternoon before we reached our reward for all our previous climbing exertions. A 15km 1000m decent into the town of Lucanas. We crashed into the first hostel we came to in the town. Too pooped to hunt out dinner.

We had a proper sit down breakfast at a restaurant before we continued the following morning. The friendly locals came to chat to us. It's a shame about our poor Spanish, but they were genuinely interested in our journey. You know when this happens that you've left the clutches of the gringo trail behind.

We only had a short ride to the town of Pequio, where we planned to take a couple of days off the bikes to acclimatise a bit more, as the following days would mean us camping at over 4000m for probably two nights. The first 9 miles were all up hill. We saw a few bands of roving motorcycle tourists sweep past on their way to Cuzco. Which made me very jealous at the thought of being able to climb even the steepest climb on a wave of torque. Nearing the top, and probably looking a little worse for the climb, I noticed a pick up slow behind me. I turned to be confronted by a film crew pointing not one but two video cameras at me. How very disconcerting. They did an impromptu interview about our trip and then explained they were filming the trip of one of the groups of motorcyclists that had previously gone past. How Charlie and Ewan is that? Not only do you get a support vehicle tailing you, but also your own camera crew. I think we must be under prepared.

Pequio was one of those places that grows on you the longer that you are there. We had a few days to adjust to the altitude, but when we first rolled into town I wasn't holding out much hope of enjoying my time there. But mooching around the town centre the following day, I was quickly drawn to the lovely town square and the rest of the clean well cared for town that spilled away down the hillside.

The first day on the road to Abancay was again about acclimatisation. We only actually cycled 11 miles, but we climbed up to 3700 metres. Found a gulley blocked from view of the road by a dry stone wall, and settled in for the afternoon reading and watching the trucks lumber on the road. Put the tent up just before dusk and had a cosy night just the two of us an a handful of cows.

The next day we climbed steadily, we were heading back up to the 4000m plus plateau and I felt a lot better prepared than I had been in Tibet. We climbed fairly constantly all day, only covering 35 miles or so and we got as far as the village of Negromayo when we spotted another cycle tourist heading just off the road. We gave chase down a grave track, and caught up for a chat. Robert (from Germany) asked if we wanted to share his campsite, and we agreed.

The wind had got up and was bitterly cold by the time we pitched the tent and cooked up supper. We piled rocks around the edge of the tent to cut down on the draft and put on every stitch of clothing we had in our panniers to keep us warm. Wonderfully we had another night of restful sleep. In the morning, when we woke, the frozen condensation was defrosted rapidly by the sun coming over the horizon and dripped on us as we tried to catch a final few winks. Time to get up then!

Waving by to Bob we crossed a series of undulations across the top of the plateau before a huge 1000+ downhill rush into Chalhuanca. It was a long 70 miles, and very tough going until we got to the downhill bit. Even then the wind caught us out and on some sections was so strong that we had to battle against it in order to make progress.

Chalhuanca was another delightfully well kept town. Most notable, my getting to eat some meat for once, as often Den and I share food. I had chicken and chips. Mmmm!!! Yum!

Final day to Abancay was the big day in terms of mileage. 79 miles on the map, with the final 7 being uphill into town. The road followed a river valley downhill from Chalhuanca, and the first 40 miles were dealt with quickly by 11am. Then the wind started to blow again. It's not difficult to over exaggerate the demoralising effects cycling into a strong headwind can have on you once you've been at it for a few hours. At one point a local cyclist heading uphill in the opposite direction flew past us, courtesy of the wind. I was very jealous. At least for most of the final climb that wind was giving us a boost. Shame it was a bit late, and we were both knackered by then. We rode into Abancay just after dark with 75 miles on the cycle computer. Had a quick bite to eat and then crashed in the towns nicest hotel beds.

Hop, Skip and a Jump from India to Peru

2010-11-14T19:07:00.003Z

Three long haul flights have taken us via the UK to Peru. Along the way we have dropped off the tandem and picked up my Surly Long Haul Trucker. This was due to Den suffering on the back with heat exhaustion in the heat and hills. As South America has both we decided on a change of transportation. Den on the flight out was therefore bike-less and our shopping in Lima consisted of running around bike shops. Eventually, one was found for exacting demands, she wanted one that fitted....I ask you! So bike bought, pimped by me and we were ready for the off. Oh, except running round looking for all the essentials like fuel for the stove, food, water containers and spares for Dens bike so our three days in Lima were pretty fully.

07.11.10 (Lima to Chilca, 36miles)

We had been told by various people that drivers in Peru and Lima especially were erratic at best, so with this in mind we woke early and headed off around 7am, by sheer luck it was a Sunday and the traffic was fairly light for Lima. We were staying in a suburb called Barranco which was south of the main centre and fairly easy to exit the city from. (For anyone following this route it was as follows: took Pedro do Osma all the way to the end, including all the name changes until it met Huaylas, which has a name change to something to do with defence, but helpfully has the old name written real small underneath. Follow this for miles until eventually you come to Panamerican sur, which is the main south route, bikes can go on the nice wide well maintained hard shoulder. Simple!)

So with the city behind us we pushed on, Den had to adjust her saddle several times as it was too low, higher and higher it went until her knees stopped hurting but she felt safe, 8 months of not having to worry about steering, braking or pretty much anything has made her a cautious, which in Lima traffic is a good thing.
Den's New Bike

So our first night on our tour of SA was spent in a small town called Chilca, we stopped at the first hostel we saw called Leo's, which was pretty basic and had black bathroom ware and lime green walls, interesting was the word. This was were it all started to get expensive when the Samsung gave up the ghost.... funny noises and nada, Computer kerput. There was nothing to be done in Chilca except go to an internet cafe and see what samsung says. So one very smelly Internet shop I would not like to say cafe as it was basically a room fully of typically smelly teenage boys playing computer games or Play Stations, grim, we stayed long enough to know we were in computer trouble. Thus ends our first day.

08.11.10 (Chilca to San Vincente de Cañete, 50.5miles)

So the road south from Lima cuts through a desert, great, with great big sand dunes that the panamerican highway goes up and down, up and down, up and down so I think you get the picture, when we arrived in Cañete as the locals call it Den was ready for a lie down. We were helped to find a hotel by a Brazilian guy who is taking 5 years to cycle from Alaska to the tip of Argentina, he had gone for the local look of no panniers but Chinese laundry bags strapped high on the back rack, he could leave his bike in the square and walk us to the hotel down several side streets, we could not walk 10 meters from our bikes!!! So once we were settled in we went in search of our friendly cyclist to buy him a drink for helping us, but all we saw was him riding a round the streets, hopefully we may meet up with him again.

Through the power of text and helpful parents back in the UK we had a number to call for Samsung repairs, so after chatting to them came we to the conclusion that we were not going to get our computer fixed whilst traveling via them. This was slightly worrying as we have come to rely on it quite a lot and having seen the inside of the average internet place here we do not want to spend too much time in them!! Decisions have to be made..... but not to day.

09.11.10 (San Vincente de Cañete to San Clemente, 53.07miles)

Our continued ride south followed the pattern of yesterday, up, down, up, down, however today like the last part of yesterday we were on the old highway with periods of access to the new highway which is being built, this was great as we could nip on the the new tarmac and ride with out too much concern for the 18 wheel trucks speeding past just a few feet away.

We had decided to head for San Clemente a small town near the turn off to Pisco. We took the decision not to go to Pisco (it was a 12 mile detour) where was a massive earthquake there in 2007 and the colonial architecture from which half it's fame derived had been mostly destroyed. The other half came from the drink Pisco Sour. Apparently in Pisco the word on the street is that mass corruption has kept the relief money from the people who really need it. Neither did we want to go on the Paracas trip (Den has done it before and I am happy not to go). Sometimes, I am such a rubbish tourist. So San Clemente it was.

Our hotel was clean and looked fairly new. Don't remember the name, but it was a big white building perched on the hill overlooking the Pan American Highway. A couple of kms north of the Pisco turnoff. There was a delightfully helpful owner for whom nothing was too much trouble. If you ever stay there be sure to check out channel 55 on the TV.... the only English language channel available, but a lot more exciting than CNN, I can't say any more here. We walked around the town while shopping a bit later on. There are a fair few new buildings around after the earthquake, however there are more tumbled down and makeshift homes than new builds! Had dinner in a local restaurant, which hosted a great game of “chicken”. The local stray dogs would come in and edge towards the kitchen very slowly, until the cook would notice their presence and send them running with the closest kitchen implement to hand. Not very hygienic but great entertainment when placing small wagers.

10.11.10 (San Clemente to Ica, 48miles)

getting up this morning was hard.... the bed was not that comfy but what with the last effects of jet lag still clinging on and the cycling after a month off the bike we were tired. Luckily, the ride to Ica was not so bad, the up and down eased to flat or a gentle incline, so the riding was easier but the hard shoulder was narrower and in not so good repair. We arrived in Ica around lunchtime and ended up getting off and pushing as the traffic was the worst we have seen in Peru. We eventually found a place to stay after the lonely planet sent us to a building site!

Decision time, what to do with the computer??? choices, get in mended via Samsung in Peru, not an option as they could take up to 5 weeks!! get a new hard drive fitted in Ica, not a good idea as it may not be the hard drive that is only our diagnosis, also all the software would be lost, so that leaves us with the third option of sending the Samsung home and looking around for a new computer. We had talked about not having a computer but really we have decided that we like having one for the photos, the blog and keeping in contact in general. As we think all three are really important and would fall by the wayside if we had to spend too long in the internet places over here we decided to look around for a new computer.

Bingo, after starting in the smaller computer workshop time places we eventually met a really helpful shopkeeper who took us to a shop that sold small notebook computers, after several more shops like these (found with out help!) we found a good priced one and bought it. Ica is known for theft so they had us set up the basics in store so it was password protected when we took it out. Which was great for security but not so good for the set up. It is in Spanish!! After spending hours on the internet researching it, the options of how to get the language into English, were to upgrade the software to Ultimate at a cost of $250 or so, (nearly the price of the computer!!!), learn Spanish quickly or install a different operating system. We went for the latter. Frankly though it's ridiculous. Message for Microsoft. People sometimes buy computers outside of their home country, perhaps in a country where the local language is not spoken by them. To then ask them to pay the same again on top of the cost of the computer to upgrade to a version of windows that can be made to run in say, English, is ridiculous. Anyhow, our friend Manuel, from the computer shop installed us a copy of Ubuntu, which replaces windows and is free and as far as I can tell so far is just as good. So there!!

Ica itself has a delightful town square and lots of lovely eateries where we whiled away our rest day. We also paid a visit to the regional museum, which houses a collection of shrunken heads and a scale model of the Nazca lines in the lot around the back.

From Ica we had a long 65 mile cycle to the next town of any size south. Palpa. The last 2/3rds of the ride took us across very arid desolate desert. We climbed slowly throughout the baking heat of the afternoon. And were rewarded nearly at the very end with a flying decent into the town of Rio Grande. More good fortune on arrival in Palpa. Another reasonably priced nice hotel.

Just a note on all these hotels we've been staying in. When I first thought of this trip, I had visions of camping out most nights under the stars. Hotels are for wimps, I thought. Real travellers rough it. Well, when tthe reality is that for about five pounds each you can have a hot shower, wash your clothes and have a meal that someone else cooks. Yes, we could spend less, but at home if you live rough and try to spend less than a dollar a day, people will call you a tramp. And they'd be right, you would be. The only downside with our approach is that you do have to concede you fall down the hierarchy of hardcore travellers by not living like a bum. I should explain. In the same way that backpackers look down on package tourists, and over-landers in turn look down on backpackers. Hardcore cycle tourists will look down on us as being soft..... and well that's fine with me. On that note we came across a chap who was walking from La Paz to Lima, dressed all in white with a big white flag held above his head on two poles extending upwards from his bergen. We would have stopped to talk, but he was blatantly mad. Regardless, he went straight to the top of my hardcore travellers list.

Palpa to Nazca.

What should have been a comfortably short cycle was given a bit of edge by the raging headwind that blunted our progress for most of the day. Stopped off to look over some of the Nazca lines from the observation tower by the side of the highway. Then cruised into town. Staying at the Hotel Oro Viejo. Bit on the pricey side, but very tranquil walled gardens to relax in and gird our strength for the testing road to Cuzco and beyond.
View from the Nazca Lines observation tower and some other photos...

Advantages of having a Den in India

2010-10-25T07:54:00.002+01:00

Den's been getting a lot of attention from the gentlemen here in India. I think it's likely to be the height and the blonde hair, though she's assured me she finds it less than enamouring. I've found one plus side though When negotiating prices for tuktuks and such like, she seems to immediately get offered prices that would take me an age to haggle down to. From now on I'm letting her do all of the negotiating.

We spent a few days in Jaipur. It's known as the pink city, as the whole of the old town was painted pink to celebrate a royal visit in the 19th century and has remained like that since. 1st day there was one of doing nothing, and then we had a day shopping. Our most important purchase was a new umbrella (sunshade) for Den as the last one was misplaced a couple of days ago in a rickshaw. When we eventually got round to sightseeing, there were some lovely forts and historic buildings to see in the local area.

Our favourites were.... first off, Amber Fort. Set in hills 11km north of the city. The fort's battlements follow the jagged hills for miles beyond the citadel. There was a festival on at the time we visited so the crowds were large and the hawkers on the march up to the gatehouse were unrelenting. But once inside, the crowds dispersed in the narrow maze of corridors around the main palace.

From there we moved on to the Jantar Mantar Observatory, which I remembered from a BBC documentary as containing some wonderfully designed scientific instruments. Mostly still in full working order, I found it very exciting to be able to wander around them and read the time off a 300 year old, 30m high sundial and to find my watch to be a minute slow.

Had a look around the ostentatious City Palace, which still today houses the Maharajahs, their current seven story abode was a little more bling than the average home in India it is fair to say.

From Jaipur we caught the sleeper train to Jaisalmer. More visiting forts ensued. This one built of sandstone and very imposing with views for miles across the desert scrub.

Went shopping, and ended up being given an impromptu tour of an old town house that belonged to one of the merchants, whose great, great, great, great etc grandfather had served in the court of the Maharajah. He was hoping to use the proceeds from his shop to turn the house into a museum. I hope he does. I think it's the not so stately homes that give the most interesting insights into the past.

In the evening we took a Camel ride in the desert to watch the sun go down over the sand dunes. A bit of a cliché, but what a lovely way to end the day, especially as we were met on arrival by a man who sold me a cold(ish) beer. For a price.

We tried to get a train back to Delhi for the following day so that we could make for Amritsar, but it was fully booked, so we've had an extra day of reading and pottering around the shops while waiting for tomorrow. Will have to remember to make sure we book our tickets well in advance next time.

We stopped long enough in Delhi to witness the “improvements” that they have made to the backpacker's ghetto in preparation for the Commonwealth games. Interestingly they decided that the crowded Main Bazar street would look a little more elegant if it was a little wider. To achieve this they removed the front rooms from all the buildings for maybe half a kilometre along the road. While a bit drastic, it does make the street look a lot more spacious. Unfortunately they failed to attach new fronts to the buildings in time for the start of the games. In fact, they didn't even get close to finishing the job. For the time being therefore, if you look up, away from the gathering swarm of hawkers at street level, you can peer into the shopkeepers homes above. Must be most disconcerting.

Stayed more than long enough to decide that our hotel wasn't the best, then headed north to Amritsar. It was a comparatively painless 8 hours on the train, and our hotel was immediately opposite the train station. Spent a few days there, taking in the sights, foremost among which was the golden temple, also doing a bit of shopping and seemingly rather a lot of time looking for book stores that have recently closed down. Very frustrating. And as a result of which, I ended up having to read one of Den's trashy girly novels.

India & the Commonwealth Games

2010-10-12T09:17:00.000+01:00

Just when we thought we were comfortable with riding our tandem around in Asia and being used the generally poor driving, we hit India. Fine on the rural roads. Suicidal once you hit a town on a loaded tandem with a trailer. No one expects a push bike to be so long, and they don't drive with a margin for error. Scary!!

More importantly (for me - Rich) my ribs are still causing me discomfort from where I bashed them a month ago. We now have 3 weeks before we head off to South America, via home, and I wanted to make sure that I am 100% fit for that. So after we got close enough to Delhi to be able to load up a taxi, we decided to give my bruised ribs a rest and to finish up the Asia leg of our trip a few miles early... .is that wrong??

For our holiday from cycling, we're going to be relaxing in Delhi, going to the track cycling at the games and having a train based tour of northern India. We are currently in the medieval fortress city of Gwalior, 100km south of Agra. We saw the Taj Mahal a few days ago, and for once I came away without feeling that the reality doesn't live up to the hype. It's amazing!! It's even worth running the gauntlet of hard sell touts and hawkers for.

The trains have been a pleasant surprise too. Normally I'm an avid exponent of the view that the best way to see a country is by bicycle. But with the driving in India, for the moment, taking the train seems the ideal way for us to get around.

Lumbini to the Indian Border

2010-09-29T10:11:00.003+01:00

Lumbini is the birthplace of the founder of one of the world's major religions and has been designated a world heritage site. Surprisingly, there were comparatively few tourists milling around, just a handful of western backpackers and some Buddhist pilgrims. The various Buddhist nations have each built a pagoda around a specially designated park, but the ancient remains themselves are low key, and perhaps the tranquil setting is the site's greatest draw. It's biggest downfall is the location in a mosquito infested marsh land. Mosquito's are EVERYWHERE!! Even though we employed enough DEET related mozzie replant products to take out half of the home counties I was bitten remorselessly.

From Lumbini we made our way west along a minor road, that turned into a track, that turned into a river. We crossed by leaking ferry. The routine appeared to be: dock, bail out, load, cross river, dock, bail out... etc.

Once back on the highway we had a 3 day ride to our next destination of Bardia national park. The roads proved to be amazingly quiet as we sailed along the flat stretches from village to village. We later found the reason for the quiet roads was heartbreaking. The roads were quiet because no buses were running, due to a dispute over an incident that had occurred the previous week. A little girl had crept under a bus while it was at a rest stop to play, the passengers had bordered the bus and the driver had driven off, in doing so he ran over the poor little girl, crushing her to death. A lynch mob formed and dragged the man from the driver's cab, tied him in a sack and threw him into the river. A few days later, his wife, overwhelmed with grief and having no way to support herself or family, committed suicide. The driver's dispute arose from the fact that although the bus company insurance company paid out 5000 pounds to the dead child's family, no compensation was payable to the widow of the bus driver. Terrible, terrible tragedy.

Accommodation was basic on the first night of the ride in the town of Lamahi, 70 miles out of Lumbini. Annoyingly, the teenage son of the owners had a copy of a Justin Beber (that how you spell it??) song, which he insisted on playing over and over while we had dinner. Not that worthy of note, you might say. Anyhow, later, in our 1st floor room, we were lying in bed, scantily clad owing to the heat, when from just outside the window emanated said same JB song. Dirty little peeping tom had climbed onto the a joining roof and was looking in from outside. To make it worse he came back in the middle of the night with a torch.

Faired better the following night, where we found Hotel Plaza in a town called Kohalpur. Which aside from being in the middle of a project to extend upwards by two storeys, was a very pleasant place to spend the night at just under 8 quid.

We turned off the main road for the last 12km to the lodge in Bardia National Park, forded a quite broad river and then bumped down a rutted track to the park HQ. We stayed at the Forest Hideaway lodge, in a mud hut with thatched rood. The lodge was arranged around a highly manacured central courtyard which contained a lovely english country garden. Very tranquil. On our day off we went for a elephant safari. Unfortunately, the grasses were very long at the end of the monsoon, so we didn't see any of the big game that we'd hoped (although not expected) to catch.

Moving on from Bardia to the border we had another 70 mile-ish ride to the crossroads of Atariya. Guest-house was dirty, but looked the best of an unappealing lot. The staff made up for it with their enthusiasm. As did the ever present mosquitos.

Final day to the border was a short 25 mile hop to the border town, Mahendranagar. We plucked the name of the best hotel in town from the Duff Guide and went to check in. Unfortunately, there seems to be a policy at Hotel Opera of telling westerners that they only have the rooms with air conditioning available, (some people at Bardia said this line had been trotted out to them). They are all but twice the price of the standard rooms. So, I went and waited outside and took a look at the book. 2 minutes later, they'd found actually, they did have a non AC room available. Amazing!! Anyhow, aside from that poor introduction, everything is clean, tidy, the restaurant tasty and very modestly priced. Ok, Den has found that custom made clothes can be made up quickly and cheaply so we're off dress shopping. Oh, happy days!!

Pokhara south to Lumbini

2010-09-29T10:11:00.000+01:00

Pokhara, like Kathmandu, has a tourist ghetto. It's called Lakeside, it's full of restaurants, trekking shops and guest-houses. Unlike Thamel, in Kathmandu, I found this far less congested and in your face. It's location on lake Phewa Tal makes it a lovely place to relax.

Moving on, we're into our final couple of days of climbing in the mountains before we reach the flat plains of Nepal's Western Terai and Northern India. Since we left Vientiane, it seems like we've alternated between climbing and descending steep ribbons of tarmac, and sometimes just dirt. The number of flat days has been few and far between.

Our first port of call was the town of Waling, on the 'main' highway 10 south of Pokhara. The road climbed out of Pokhara for 10 miles, and looking back down the valley gave us astounding views over to the peaks of the Annapurna range.

By the time we were 15 miles into the ride we realised we'd been completely wrong about our comment in the last blog posting questioning the reputation of friendliness of the Nepalese compared to other nations. Once we left the tourist highway, we were on the receiving end of more “Namaste's" (hello & goodbye in one) than you could shake a stick at. One small lad quite forgot himself and jumped on the trailer for a ride up the hill. He got the Denyze nanny stare. That soon lightened our load.

Found a guest house on the south side of Waling, which had a simply massive room, and a curious definition of en-suite. The bathroom also served as an outside toilet for the family who owned the place. So to use, you would have to unbolt the toilet door inside the bedroom, lock it again from the other side, then cross the room to lock the outside door that the family might use. That curiosity aside though, it was a very pleasant place to spend a night with more lovely views down the valley in the late afternoon sunshine.

Went for a fantastic meal of Daal bhaat at a local restaurant in the evening back in town. Food was awesome and the owner's young son spent the whole meal staring at Denyze while pretending to watch wrestling on the TV.

Yesterday, we had our last major climb until we get to the Andes. A thousand vertical metres over 20 kms at the end of a short day to the town of Tansen. Otherwise known as Palpa, this former mountain kingdom was the last area of Nepal to fall under the control of Kathmandu's monarchy. It is currently having it's Durbar (palace) rebuilt following a Maoist attack during the civil war, but we had a lovely walk around the town, and a another first class meal in a restaurant on the town square.

Today we reaped the rewards of all of our climbing yesterday with a 20+ mile decent into Butwal. Not so fortunate was the weather, it rained with an intensity that suggested the current 8 day festival to celebrate the end of the monsoon season maybe a little premature. Currently stopped for brekkie at a road side resort on the way to Lumbini. We're on our way to see the birthplace of Buddha, and then out west for a couple of days on safari at a wildlife reserve. Let's hope my cycling cape has had it's last outing for a while.

Onwards from Pokhara

2010-09-19T16:53:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow we are heading out to western Nepal, via the East West highway on the way to the far west border with India. Only two more days of ups and downs and we'll be out of the foothills of the Himalayas, and back on the flat, so hurrah for that. We will also be back in the tropical heat of the late Indian subcontinent summer. Hopefully it'll be a good opportunity to rebuild our fitness that's declined so dramatically after our lay up.

West to Pokhara

2010-09-18T09:49:00.000+01:00

There comes a point in every journey where momentum is easily lost, and for us it definitely seemed as though Kathmandu was the place we felt it most strongly. Perhaps it was the thought of being past the halfway point, or maybe it was the cumulative effects of pretty much 3 weeks of inactivity, but we cycled out of town with heavy legs.

We opted for an early start to avoid the rush hour, which we managed most successfully, and aside from a small detour for wont of accurate directions, we made it onto the Pokhara bound highway from down-town Thamel without a detailed map.

Our aim for the day was 68 miles, to one of the resorts that surround the hill upon which lies the pilgrimage site of Manakamana, which is reached these days either by a 5 hour trek through the jungle, or a 10 minute ride in Asia's longest cable car.

The road undulated gently for most of the day. The worst of climbs being of the long drag variety rather than the outright knacker-you-out sharp clips. Still by the end of the day, we'd managed to descend by nearly a thousand feet from Kathmandu and we pitched up just in time to secure lodgings at a comfy resort hotel.

We're both starting to doubt where Nepal's reputation as being friendly comes from. It can't hold a candle to Cambodia or Laos in that regard, but perhaps it's just as we are on the most frequented tourist trail in the country. For the moment I certainly feel like I've been classed in the mobile cash machine pigeon hole by the local populous. But still, that's how it goes in some places.

The next day dawned dripping, deluge like wet and we set off into the monsoon with another 65 miles or so left to run until Pokhara. Feeling a bit stiff in the legs, it was Another day of ups and downs, but this time mostly of gradual ups, with a couple of sharp down hills to keep Den on her toes. Since Kunming, she's been the very happy controller of the rear disc brake, which means she can limit our speed on the down to 20-25 mph. Which is probably very responsible, but very frustrating for me, as these hills will be my last chance for a while to break the 50mph mark on the tandem.

It took us most of the day to compete the distance, and we took the first room we came to, that was in the Rough Guide, at the Sacred Valley Inn. Nice enough hotel for the $10 per night charge, but the room we are in at the back on the ground floor is a little damp. Maybe should have paid the extra for the room upstairs. Anyhow, the plan from here is to have a couple of days off the bike, (so soon?!? yes, we're wimps) before we start the long drag out west to the Indian border. There's a nice lake to walk around, sail on and lots of other wallet lightening activities, so we'll see what we can get involved in.

The Indian Visa shambles... sorry, I mean application

2010-09-18T02:40:00.003+01:00

Never have we seen red tape so thick or so totally pointless. We went back today for our Indian visa.

The process, in theory is this:

1. Take ticket
2. Wait for number to be called
3. Apply for clearance
4. Pay Rps 300
5. Return in 5 days with completed visa application form
6. Take ticket
7. Wait for number to be called
8. Submit Visa application
9. Pay Rps 3050 (for 3 month visa)
10. Return at 4.30pm to collect visa

See, simple and straight forward 10 step process. So, we've got to point 4 earlier in the week and this morning, we're aiming to come staright back into point 5. After collecting our ticket from the little ticket machine (that everyone misses as they are not looking out for it, you don't know it's there and it's not advertised as to what to do, so there is one very busy guard directing everyone back to it). We sat and waited and waited and waited and saw quite a few people jumping the queue.

Rich, to my horror even went up and complained at one point. But finally they started sending people away from the queue without the right ticket, much to Rich's delight, now it was motoring. Finally we were called and it was a simple process to get confirmation that we had waited 5 working days for no apparent reason....... they had not sought any clearance for our visa nor did we need any, so it was completely pointless.

But after an hour or so we had submitted the application and had been relieved of 3000 Rupees for our trouble. We tottered off to run some errands prior to our departure.

Rich volunteered to waste his spare time by going to collect the passports at 4.30. In the afternoon there is no ticketing system in operation. So once they open the doors to the visa processing centre (late!!! 4.58, I might add), it's a simple matter of fighting your way to the front of the scrum and getting your receipt down on the counter first.

He was 6th in the “queue” so was going pretty well until they asked where I was. Ahhh!! “Ill in bed”, Rich replied. “Do you have a signed letter?” the man asked. Errr, no. Luckily, by applying the principle of if in doubt just hang around, they eventually turned my passport over to him. He must have an honest face... or something.

So, off tomorrow again. Feeling like we're going to be out of sorts on the bike after so many lay ups, in Kunming waiting for the Tibet permits, in Lhasa, acclimatising and in here, with Rich recovering from not acclimatising. Route is flat and we're leaving early to avoid the traffic and heat, so hopefully should be all good. Only concern we do have is that the trailer is looking likely to be in need of some repair in the near future. Crossing the landslides really gave it a battering and we have more weight on it since we bought cold weather gear in Lhasa. So fingers crossed, and at least we know we aren't going to get cold if the weather turns.

Kathmandu

2010-09-12T10:59:00.000+01:00

Today, we should be camped out at Everest base camp. But given the choice of still suffering the effects of AMS and bruised ribs in a tent or being here in a comfy bed, I know which one I'd prefer. Am mighty annoyed with how things have turned out though. The Tibet to Kathmandu ride was the one section of the trip we both REALLY wanted to do. A real highlight. Luckily Den is wonderfully understanding, and has said she'll wait until I'm fully recovered before she thumps me for messing up and getting sick. She's so understanding.

Doctor says no high altitudes for a couple of months though, so I must obey. Luckily Kathmandu has lots of good restaurants to take my mind off the frustration. They can serve you up a bewildering array of good food and possibly 3rd world Asia's most expensive beer. They must have some kind of heavy tax on booze or something. All the local kids are sniffing super-glue.

Yesterday, did a spot of sightseeing around the town, and Den persuaded me that a Yoga class may be a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon. It wasn't. Some middle aged guy with pathetic died red hair pulled back in a ponytail, got increasing frustrated that I couldn't do a full lotus after 30 minutes of him giving us attitude. Clearly only my bruised ribs prevented this, but maybe it was bad Karma... or maybe it was krap teacher.

Last night I saw my first drunk person since arriving, western or otherwise. We were sat in a middle eastern restaurant having just been served our main course, when the very relaxed kid in the corner who we thought had just nodded off to sleep, woke up and decided he must answer a call of nature. Unfortunately, he had incorrectly identified the WC as being narrowly to the left of our table.

He staggered over, hands fumbling for his flies, ready to put a dampener on the evening so to speak. Luckily being British, I can spot a pissed up student from a mile off, so I jumped up, grabbed hold of his arm and pushed him towards the nearest waiter, as if to say, “look at this pissed bloke, can you get rid of him please?”. After a somewhat needlessly long discussion by the staff and after due reflection and consideration, they thought it best to eject him from the premises. Then bizarrely, they failed to stop him coming back inside a bit later on and lying prostrate in the middle of the restaurant for 5 to 10 minutes while his 'boyfriend' begged him just to go home. For god sakes, just throw the idiot out!!! Just like being at home.

India visa's take 6 working days to process in Kathmandu, well actually that's not strictly true. They take one day, but the visa processing centre needs to check that they are allowed to issue you with a visa which takes 5 working days to do. So, we are going to be here until the 15th at least, minor accidents not withstanding. The plan is to then head west across Nepal, before crossing into India, and heading to Amritsar then on to Delhi and Agra to see the Taj Mahal before heading back for our week in the sun.... err, I mean rain lashed UK.

Misadventures on the Tibetan Plateau

2010-09-11T11:47:00.001+01:00

I feel a little frustrated to say the least. We had 3 days of acclimatising in Lhasa, but it seems that it wasn't enough for me (Richard). On the morning that we were due to start riding, I started to feel nauseous. Then on the first night into the ride at the foot of the Kampa-La pass, I woke up early, short of breath. By the time we'd climbed the pass to an altitude of 4000m, my breathing was becoming more difficult. Den and I decided to head back down to where I last felt comfortable and await the guide and truck to advise on the best course of action as I was clearly feeling the effects of the altitude.

The guide recommended that we should use the truck to go over the pass and make camp in the next valley. I assumed he knew what he was talking about. In fact the next valley over the pass was at over 4300m. As we looked for a camp site, I started to feel seriously unwell. Den asked the guide what should be done, he recommended that we head to Shigatze, at 3800m. Where I should be okay. Unfortunately, this involved two very high mountain passes.

We bundled into a passing truck and head up the first pass, Den, me and my accompanying oxygen cylinder. We climb to 4700m and the truck stopped with a puncture. We are both in a state of panic as I've started to get pins and needles all over my body, and am feeling very disorientated at this point. There's no other cars passing on the road at this time of night to take us to a safer altitude, so we are reliant on the truck team to change the wheel quickly.

It's not for another 4 hours that we descend again below 4000m, and on reaching Shigatze at gone 1am we are very grateful for a comfy hotel bed. Unfortunately the relief was only temporary.

In the morning I was very short of breath and we head off to the local hospital. A quick hook up to an oxygen tank and I'm starting to feel better again. They also ran some ECG's to make sure that there was nothing wrong with my heart, but the machines were so old that the output really didn't look much good... so more stress there then. Anyhow, their advice was that I should return to Lhasa and fly to Kathmandu as quickly as possible.

The next morning, having stocked up on oxygen cylinders, this time with a very fetching tube that you can insert into your nose, we boarded the bus back to Lhasa. We assumed this would head down the central (i.e. low level) friendship highway, but instead it went back the way we came, over 3 high altitude passes.

My flight to Kathmandu was uneventful, except the Chinese border guards wanted to know why I wasn't on my designated tour. But Comrade, I have been very ill, now just let me on the damn plane!!!

On landing I was taken straight to an ex-pat clinic, given a proper EKG and some blood tests. Told there was nothing wrong with my heart and that the diagnosis was Acute Mountain Sickness. Basically, we made the wrong decision in going over the pass and that I should have initially returned to Lhasa to acclimatise further. Spending days subjecting myself to too high altitudes without proper acclimatisation meant that it was no longer a case of just descending to a lower altitude to alleviate the symptoms. Now I would have a few days to a week of a tight chest and shortness of breath to remember the experience by. Lovely.

Den, meanwhile, remained in Tibet to return to Shigatze to collect our bike and equipment from the group and then to head to the Nepalese border where I would meet her.

So two days after landing I got into a land-cruiser and set off for the border, 4 hours away. As we were leaving the city limits, the driver got a call to warn of landslides on the road after heavy rains.

We got to within 12kms of the border before we were stopped by an impassable landslide, so I stayed the night at a resort a few Kms further back towards Kathmandu. It rained heavily all night.

In the morning we drove back to the landslide and I set out on foot across the offending landslide and 3 or 4 subsequent slides, before hitching a lift for the last 5 miles to the border in a dukes of hazard orange 20 year old battered Toyota Corolla.

Once Den was safely into Nepal, we cycled back downhill on the tandem, pushing over and through the landslides back to where the driver had parked up, and stowed the bike and packs in the car.

A bit further down the hillside, the road had mostly collapsed, having fallen away into the river to the right. We guided the Jeep through this obstacle only to be stopped around the next corner by a massive landslide. We spoke to some people coming the other way. There were 6 or 7 more that had happened during the night, and had still to be cleared.

After talking about it, and with rain still falling, we didn't fancy getting trapped on the road, away from medical attention for a few days (still worried that there could be something more serious wrong with me), by landslides. We loaded up the tandem and set off across the mud and inched our way back towards Kathmandu, but it was slow going. Sometimes weaving around boulders, fording knee high water rushing across the remains of the road and one point ankle deep in thick gloopy mud. Crossing some of the slides we would have to time our break to avoid the still falling rocks.

On one, particularly recent slide, a hornets nest had been disturbed. There were hundreds of them buzzing around, and some of the little blighter's decided it was clearly my fault and decided to attack. Valiantly, I made a run for it, leaving Den to deal with hauling 100kg fully loaded tandem over a mudslide between rocks that were still falling to the ground from the hillside above.

We got to 45kms from the border by tea time. Checked into a small roadside guest house, in need of a nice shower and a nice bed. Unfortunately, while in the shower I lost my footing, slipped and landed on my side against the sharp edge of a tiled step. I thought my ribs had broken. This, I thought as I lay on the floor, was not a good week.

Yippee we are here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-09-01T12:13:00.000+01:00

We made it.....we are in Lhasa, Tibet. We were so worried about our bike going cargo and us not getting on the plane due to some problem with the Travel permit that it was a stressful day, but it went without a hitch and no big stress, well apart from when Rich thought we were at the wrong gate and made us run through the airport all to find out we had been at the right gate all along, a kick of adrenalin was not what i needed at that point in time, but it was all fine. The bike was there waiting for us at the cargo terminal there were a few chunks out of the boxes but all was well inside.

Our travel companions arrived on the train from Beijing and we all went to dinner, there are two students from London, and a chap from Canada who is on a world tour, but slightly worryingly not by bike! In fact none of them have been on any extended cycle tours and all have new bikes and basic knowledge in bike stuff! However there is a big truck following us so if things go wrong them and the bikes can catch a ride, we however are going slowly and doing it all. I recon we shall have a good time and they will preserver. find their rhythm and acheive!

So our next post shall be from Kathmandu, Nepal, in 21 days time, but give us a few days to get on a computer before anyone starts to panic! We shall have completed 1000km over 16 days up and down large hills (still hills, not mountains) so may just colapse in Kathmandu for a few days before we post. However, we will check our phones so people can still txt us, apparently Everest Vase camp has very little of anything but good phone signal!!

6 months in training and finally here.....can't wait.

Himalaya calling

2010-08-27T17:53:00.002+01:00

Off to Lhasa tomorrow early AM, so may not get too much of a chance to do much blog posting when we're cycling in the Himalayas. Apparently it's a bit high and there's not much Wifi !?!

Could be difficult, imagine if Tibetan Macdonalds along the way to Nepal don't have internet connections!! What will we do? We might have to make conversation rather than browse the net while we're eating our Mcflurry burgers. ;-)

Kunming

2010-08-24T15:14:00.002+01:00

Rich is a genius and looked up bike shops in Kunming on the web, we had heard that there was one really good one in town. I was not feeling 100%, a cold/sore throat was on the way which justifies the journey yesterday (in my eyes!) Anyhow we headed out with guidebook and Rich with an idea of where the place is, me feeling under the weather and not looking for a long walk. We had to head up to green lake, which a beautiful lake in the middle of Kunming complete with water lilies, pedalo's and tourists galore. We this is where Rich falls from his genius status.... we have to walk about a quarter of the way round and then head into the back streets, so when we arrived back at the place where we first started walking round the lake I was not impressed and took over the map reading.... 15 mins later we were at the shop. They said that they can mend disc brakes and to bring the bike in. We had not taken the bike as the traffic is a total nightmare.

Once the beast was present the fun began. Little English is spoken in China, which is understandable and our mandarin now stretches to hello, thank you and egg fried rice, not that helpful in 'can you fix our disc brake please, this is what we want doing' finally as we had got it all sorted with a good dose of google translator giving out 'Chinglish' (sentences that don't really make sense) we were heading out of the shop to return at 5 the next day when the mechanic came running..... he did not know how to get a part of the brake off. So to cut a very long and boring story short, 4 hours in a bike shop long, a chap who is English and works there weekends came by, translated for us and we eventually left with the bike not fixed, to ring Thorn (the makers of the Tandem) to arrange parts to be shipped out ASAP to China. Oh and another spoke was broken!

Thorn was going to get back to us the following day with prices for the parts so we could arrange a customs declaration form, China are really anal about how much stuff you can have sent to you so it had to be right so it did not get stuck in customs. Finally two days later on the 19/08 we got an email stating the price...... and a golden nugget of information.....all the hope disc brake parts are reusable!!! there should be no need for a delivery!
quick phone call to a Thorn mechanic later and we are the proud owners of fantastic information. Back to the bike shop the following day and hey presto one happy stoker i.e. me, Denyze as I have the disc brake, yippee I have some control!! Spoke mended, chain cleaned, bike boxed for packing and all for the extortionate price of £19, yes that is right approx 10 hours of faffing around on our bike cost the measly sum of £19. We love China!!

The rest of our time in Kunming has been spent trying not to spend too much money, which is always difficult when you discover Carrefour supermarket with imported cheeses and the markets have lots of lovely nic-nacs. So what do you do with too much time on your hands... you up load photos, we have upgraded the flickr account and now we can upload as many as we want. So go and have a look, if you click on the photos in the top right it should take you straight there. The photostream is totally out of sync so go to the sets down the right hand side of the flickr page and have a giggle! We hope to keep up to date from now on.

Today (24.08.10) we had some good news, our Tibetan Travel Permits arrived!! We can now officially enter Tibet on the 28th. Since 2008 every foreigner has had to have a travel permit applied for by a travel agent in Lhasa and you have to be on a tour, no holds barred, no permit no travel. We were nervous about ours turning up,as we were having it sent to our hotel and we did not know what Chinese post was like, but after a confusing phone call for both parties and trip to reception to confuse the receptionist as she knew nothing about a telephone call, a knock sounded at the door. Yippee, travel permit time, it was all a little like Fawlty towers. Now we are spending time sorting out bike transportation! it just never seems to stop, but we love it.

The Day Denyze would rather forget Simao (Pu'er) to Pu'er (Ninger)

2010-08-19T15:51:00.000+01:00

15.08.10
This started out like any other day, there was cloud in the sky, but not raining, it was a perfect temperature for cycling and the traffic was fairly light for a large town at 7am. This is the good part of the day, as we started going up hill the day rapidly went down hill.

Once we found the correct way out of town which is easy enough as you just look for the Mosi rd signs (thankfully in English), we started our first climb of the day, nothing drastic there, this was the start of the 213 which has been our haven for the last few days and we knew it well. Only it was slightly different, in that once we had passed through the toll gate (alarm bells) we assumed that the traffic (coaches, trucks and lots of cars) would turn off for the express way soon. Wrong... they continued on the same road as us. This road was wide enough for two vehicles to pass comfortably and accommodate us JUST. Only it was not wide enough for the kamikaze drivers who just had to overtake, on blind bends, brows of hills or my favourite.... following a bigger bus/truck when overtaking praying nothing is coming in the other direction as they can't see!!! How crazy.

Well all this was bad enough but add to the mix a, I say 6ft, Rich says 4ft so we'll split the difference and call it 5ft drop into a stone laid culvert at the side of the road with no rails in between and there is one very, very scared stoker on the back of the tandem, who is not having a good day. THEN add rain and low cloud (or it may have been high cloud and we were just high too) so visibility was rubbish. They don't drive with lights in bad weather where as we looked like a Christmas tree in comparison, and I get more scared. rounding one corner I saw that I was justified in being scared as on a short down hill section of the road was a truck lounging at a 45 degree angle in the culvert, no other vehicle involved, everyone appeared to be OK sat at the front waiting to be recovered. But not good for my peace of mind.

This continued on for about 30 miles of up and down big hills, we had done our research and the hills looked hard but I really did not notice them as we did battle with the traffic and weather whilst trying hard not to completely freak out at the stone culvert drop, or fall in it. Rich was a saint and coaxed me along but even he found it tough going and where he usually relishes pitting himself against the odds, be it the weather or the hills, due to the unrelenting traffic and the completely stupid way they drive he was not enjoying it and admitted it was just plain dangerous. Which was reinforced by the further three accidents we saw on the road. 1 rear end shunt, 2 trucks off either side of the road, where it looks like they had a little kiss in the middle of the road decided they did not like and headed for the stone culverts on either side of the road and jumped in head first!!! oh, and a moto went flying on the third one.

Half way along the route we saw why the road was so busy, the express way, which is complete on all the maps, is still being built, so they have this express way which links Kunming with Laos and Burma send all this trade traffic down it and after 6 years of building, the middle section is only just being built. Excuse me for being a little dim but is it not a better idea to build it continuously starting at one end and finishing at the other? not leaving a massive gap halfway along over really big hills so its really dangerous for everyone!!

Finally the hills gave way to a valley and the town of Pu'er/Ninger appeared. In true style we arrived bedraggled and worn down but surprisingly the day off had renewed me and if not for the weather and drivers I would have carried on, how frustrating, I had another 40 miles in the tank!! So as Rich takes inspiration from Andy McNab we did not make any hasty decisions nor on an empty stomach so checked into a hotel (there must have been a 'conference' on as a lot of hotels seemed to be full), but finally after an hour of trawling round we found one, checked in and went out for something to eat.

Decision time.... after a google maps search it appeared that the express way started again 8 miles or so down the road, over the next set of hills. I had had enough, there was nothing to prove by getting killed on a Chinese road so we could say 'we cycled all the way' I have a keen sense of self preservation which was screaming at me to find a different way to get over those hills. We took the view that the traffic would only get worse the closer we got to Kunming and if we were going to find alternative transport then we might as well go the whole way to Kunming. You read lots of stories on the web about how people hopped on a bus with bikes in China. That was the China of old. Nowadays they have modern new coaches that do not have roof racks which is where bikes went on coaches of old. So the bus was a no go. so we trawled through the phrasebook and cobbled together a sentence saying we wanted to hire a minivan/mini taxi. Well this got results and after a bit of haggling we had sorted our ride to Kunming.

16.08.10

Pu'er/Ninger to Kunming by minivan

Mrs Cheng, the driver arrived 30 mins early at 8.30am, a good start we thought. After loading the van, it was a tight squeeze and Rich was squished in the back we set off....in the wrong direction, we stopped at her house where various people came out to have a look and it transpired that she wanted to take someone with us, but there was no room, 'could we put the bike on the roof?' errrr... No. So after much ummming and ahrrring we set off.... only to stop 1 mile on for oil.....then another mile for petrol, finally at 10am we set off.

Correct decision made......the 213 to the express way was horrendous, traffic was worse than yesterday it seemed and the driving was just as bad, we were glad that we had a female driver as she appeared to travel slower and did not take such crazy risks. That’s not to say she was a good driver, as I stick to my view that all Chinese drivers should be banned from the roads!! We drove on the wrong side of the road to avoid pot holes, excessive use of horn, a few crazy overtaking manoeuvres that would have been aired on 'police, camera, action' if performed in the UK and it was a scary drive over those hills, I was so glad we were travelling by minivan rather than the bike, JUST!

The Express way was uneventful except for the requisite accident which seems to blight Chinese roads, there is far far less traffic than in western countries but it seems just as many accidents. This one closed the express way for 1 1/2 hours, in fact there were two accidents, the second being where some some big car had not stopped in time and gone into a truck and tanker. With some tricky manoeuvring we followed every other car and squeezed past the truck and a retaining wall and were off. Not a police car in sight but lots and lots of litter was strewed on the carriageway where people had just chucked it out the door on to the floor whilst stationary, bonkers.

Kunming was looming fast and we reached the turn off around 5.30pm and stopped on the side of the express way. It transpired that Mrs Cheng did not want to go in to the city. Which was understandable, but we could not get out on the express way!! after 30 minutes of her phone constantly going off and dithering we finally started moving, she had agreed to take us in to the centre. As soon as we knew where we were on the map we had, we asked to be set down, with everyone expressing relief! I was able to escape her flipping mobile which had either been glued to her ear, ringing a really high pitch screeching ring or being texted on, Rich could escape the seat from hell and Mrs Cheng could turn round and leave the city.

Having said our thank you and goodbyes we headed off into the big smoke and found the hotel we had chosen and headed out for something to eat. This China was unlike the China we had experienced so far, very western in look and feel only the town centre is not left to the drinkers at night, the shops are open and it is just as busy as during the day time, we have returned to civilisation as we know it and tomorrow are off to find a good bike shop to see if we can get our disc brake fixed.

Mengyang to Simao

2010-08-15T15:53:00.002+01:00

13.08.10
Mengyang to a place we never learnt the name of!!! (45 miles)

Mengyang was a nice enough place, I was bored of egg fried rice so we went all out with the phrasebook and got some noodles. Not quite what we were after, as we wanted them fried with tofu,... but they came warm and we at least got an egg. If we deviate from our trusty egg fried rice we seem to come a cropper.
The ride from Mengyang to the place we could not work out the name for (our mandarin is a little rusty) was, compared to the last two days was ok. For a long time in the morning we followed the express way, weaving in and out of the bridge supports that span the bottoms of the valleys that we go up and down either side of, while the no bike express way stays on a gradual gradient (I am not bitter, honest!).

We covered the first 20 miles is fairly good time and then started the obligatory climb. we finally reached Dadugang at around lunch time and found a restaurant to eat at, ordered the favourite and was delighted to see a group of 8 army men turn up and commence staring at me, great... off putting to say the least while trying to scoff egg fried rice with chopsticks. I am getting this a lot in China and it's starting to grate. Anyhow after a quick loo stop in the loo from hell next to the pig sty (not joking!) we were on our way and for the most part it was down hill or flat/undulating. The hotel we eventually found was fairly decent and for only 60rmb a bit of a bargain even if the bed felt as if the mattress was missing and we were straight on to the hard wood!

14.08.10
unknown town to Simao (Pu'er) (26 miles)

Bliss, mostly a flat ride (well compared to what we have been doing!) and just 1 climb, we decided that we would stop in Simao AKA Pu'er (not to be confused with Pu'er 50km up the road!)and knew we had a very short ride, so we set off later than usual, this was lovely as continuous 5.30am starts wear you down.
Rich who is usually on hotel duty due mainly to his higher expectations was less enthusiastic today and we nearly missed the gem that we have found. It has all the mod cons including a computer with internet access and is by far the best hotel we have stayed at in S.E.A and China and all for ?2, bargain of the century.

We headed out to find a Bank of China as we were banking on there being one here as it is a fairly sizable town/city. After chatting in gestures and phrasebook pointing with the reception staff we estimated that the bank was a fair walk away so were surprised to find it 5 mins walk down the road, with thank goodness an international ATM. So we now have money which was always a worry. I pushed the boat out and tried to order something other than egg fried rice for lunch and got 'burn in the mouth noodles' which would have been great if it was heat hot but unfortunately it was spicy hot and my lips started to hurt soooooo badly I had to give up, dinner was definately egg fried rice!

15.08.10

Rest day, yippee..... I seem to be saying that a lot lately. Anyhow I am in need of a rest day even if superman Rich was still saying 'another 50 miles in the tank'.
The hotel is great and we have got a lot done on the internet which we needed to do. We also went shopping..... bliss... unfortunately for me I am not average chinese size, I feel a little like Gulliver over here as I am about a foot taller than the average women and then they have heels on, so no shopping for me, but we did get stuff for Rich. Rich's cycling shirts have become somewhat fragrant in the underarm department and were in dire need of meeting the bin, so we managed to buy a non pastel/florescent/vomit inducing sports top and a rather spiffing smart shirt for the evening/casual wear. So now he can throw out his old shirts and not smell, yippee.

We head out tomorrow on our next leg, hopefully we can go all the way to Kunming with out another rest day, all good training for Tibet I keep getting told!! (Rich has just corrected me.... WE WILL be going all the way to Kunming without a rest day, the slave driver!!) early to bed then for an early start, at least the temperature is being kinder to us, highs of low 20's.

Oudomxay (Laos) to Mengyang (China)

2010-08-14T15:10:00.000+01:00

08.08.10

Our final day of riding in Laos was to head up to Boten, where China and Laos allow foreigners to escape in either direction! We had a rough plan of getting to Nam Noy which had a guesthouse and seeing how we felt only we cycled right through the place, Laos is usually quite good with road signs but must have forgotten this one. So we forged on to the border at one point in pelting rain with no place for cover. As we expected the border had shut for the night so we cycled back the 500 meters or so to what we thought was Boten. Wrong, it was mini China in Laos. Hideous monstrosities of buildings in lurid colours most between 6-10 storeys high. Vientiane does not have buildings this high! Anyhow we checked into the only hotel we could find and got ripped off for the pleasure. 35GBP equivalent, but at least we got some money changed as they would not except Kip.

This 'mini china' was a serious dive, There were chinese 'ladies' plying their wares so to speak everywhere, one guy was walking down the road with 'ladies' chasing him pushing cards in to his hand, where there was a pile of call cards already. God it made me sick, the whole place was seedy and as soon as we found something to eat we hightailed it back to the hotel.

09.08.10

Boten/mini China to Mengla (31 miles)
Chinese Border formalities (by Rich)

I was expecting worse at the frontier come the morning. At Shanghai in January the border guards had little boxes on their desk where you could rate the quality of their customer services (like anyone would give a Chinese official less than a perfect 10 and be allowed into the country), but that was at an international airport in the run up to an international event, the Shanghai EXPO. Not the sort of friendly touch I was expecting at a middle of nowhere border post at the edge of red China. Shows what I know, the English speaking official was very polite and conducted the formalities while engaging in some small talk about our journey. Come the red revolution, comrade, all border crossings should be like this.

Mohan, the town on the Chinese side of the border is under going somewhat of a refurbishment shall we say. I think the town planners have been watching too much Shreck as the place looks the spitting image of the place where princess Fiona comes from....A land far far away. It honestly looks like a place in a cartoon. After having rice for breakfast we set off on the expressway to Mengla. This road is a cyclists dream, good gradient, tunnels, bridges, none of this climbing melarky all very gradual and easy with a big white line between you and the traffic (not that there was any) as we were back to hard shoulder land. the 47 km was achieved with relative easy and we pulled in to Mengla wondering what we were doing as parts of it was undergoing a similar refurbishment as Mohan.

10.08.10

Yippee, today was a rest day and a get money day! we had changed some at rubbish rates to pay for the hotel at the border but that was it. A lot of ATM's in China are domestic only but thanks to the Olympics international ATM's are becoming more widespread. But wouldn't you know it Mengla has none, so we had to change some of our Dollars at the only place in town, but as the exchange rate is pretty much fixed we did not have to shop around.

Also on our 'to do' list was to sort out flights and stuff for Tibet which was causing us some concern but unfortunately, China's cuddly but over intrusive government made it's presence felt when we tried to get on the net. No official Wifi at the hotel, (thanks to Dodgy Planet, who claimed there was) meant that we had to seek out an internet cafe, but it seems that to use a computer we had to have a Chinese Internet Card, and to get one you have to show your residence permit.... doh!!

As we were wandering about town feeling rather dejected at not having proper internet access (someone had weak unsecured wifi on steps of our hotel, hotmail only) we spotted another westerner, on a bike. We headed over to say hi and found out he was heading to Laos so arranged to meet up later to swap maps and books. Yippee we are now the proud owners of a Mandarin phrasebook. We also found a couple of maps in a bookshop as John (the other westerner) had thrown his away a couple of days earlier(you really cant go wrong on the road we were on). We met up with John and went for a few drinks and some egg fried rice as that was all we could order and swapped lots of tips for the two countries, it is so much easier talking to some one rather that reading it in a book. So with beer in Rich's belly we headed off to sleep, ready for our China adventure to properly begin tomorrow.

11.08.10
Mengla to Menglun (64 miles)
HILLS, HILLS and more HILLs, today was a tough day, we got onto the expressway to see haw far we could go before we got chucked off. Well the answer is about 8 miles and we did not get chucked off so much as saw a no cycling sign and were too chicken to push the Chinese officials in the area to see what would happen! So the old road it is then, all the way to Kunming. Which is not so bad, it is shady as there are trees arching over the road, the views of the tea plantations are stunning, its quiet for the majority of the time, the only real bug bear are the hills and lack of signs, although we are having fun playing match the symbols when ever we do see one.

We rolled in to Menglun at about 5.30 after another torturous day in the saddle, booked into the best looking hotel in the town (our ploy is to look for the best looking building and hope it is a hotel!) pretty good quality for 100rbm which is about 10GBP and went looking for something to eat. By a stroke of luck we found an internet cafe that was not run by a draconian dragon and spent time booking flights and finding out that we can not blog directly and I can't get my daily dose of Facebook, this means that any babies born in the next two months need their Mummies and Daddies to email us the good news, hint hint Naomi!! Pictures would be nice too!!

12.08.10
Menglun to Mengyang (41 miles) (By Rich)
HILLS, HILLS and more HILLS, once again, one was 17 miles long, boy did Denyze like that one, though the mileage is small by comparison to what we have been doing the ride was very very tough. To make up for this I have been splashing the cash at lunch time and buying us slap up meals of egg fried rice for the outrageous price of 1 pound for 2 bowls, food is so cheap in rural China, if a little too spicy on occasions, but that soon gets forgotten half a mile down the road.
Just had a visit from the friendly local Public Security Bureau Police. They knocked on the door of our room and asked me to accompany them downstairs for a nice chat while they took over the reception of the hotel, and for the next 15 minutes or so they helped us by making sure that all of our papers were in order. Welcome to the police state!! At the border crossing they would have offered you a cup of tea if you'd have had to wait that long. Bed and and early start is in order i think before they come back for seconds!!

Louang Probang to Oudomxay

2010-08-07T12:14:00.000+01:00

Louang Probang is a fantastic town and we were reluctant to leave the colonial backwater which is tourist central in Northern Laos. But after 4 days we could stay no more. We knew that we had been a wee bit preoccupied with the Tibet bike flight saga (wont bore you but bikes on planes in Asia don't seem to go!) and our broken spoke (drama, I never knew a broken spoke could cause such alarm in a young man!!) so we had not been doing the usual tourist trail of Wat's, Pagodas and such like so on day 4 we headed out to some waterfalls which I had not seen on my last trip here, but really wanted to see. Enter 1 tuk tuk driver who had obviously read the SEA tuk tuk driver manual of how to rip off the Farang. Unfortunately he did not read the last rule which was don't try and rip off stubborn Denyze, as the heels go in and the smiles come out and budging from the agreed price does not happen. However, I think we all may have got our just deserts as on the boat ride (cause of problems) back from the waterfall we all got caught in an horrendous rain storm and got soaked to the skin. Karma, some would say.

We set off from LP at dawn, as we were pedaling down the street we saw the local monks out collecting Alms. This is a beautiful sight all the orange swathed men and boys walking single file past the shop keepers collecting a small something from each. There were plenty of tourists out for the photo opportunity but unfortunately I found out the hard way once that when you take a camera out of an air conditioned room it is best to leave it in the bag until it has warmed up, otherwise your lens takes pics from the inside of a fog bank!! so no photos, which is a shame.

Our days ride saw us follow one river after another which was great as there were hills along the way but no real climbing like on previous days. However our nemesis the sun popped out and chased us in to a handy restaurant for 4 hours, complete with bonkers cats who kept attacking me. All in all the 72 mile ride took 7 hours but we did not hit Pak Mong the only town with guesthouses until nightfall. We would recommend anyone who is passing through here to stay at the guesthouse by the bus station as it was the best of a bad bunch!

We had done our research and knew that the next day was a real shiner!! we decided to hit the road early and I mean early! 4am early. It was pitch black outside yet still there were locals starting their day. We completed 9 miles before day break with at least 6 of those going slowly up hill. We hit several landslides that were in the throws of being cleared up and at one point had to walk the bike through as it was just to sticky. The road from here on in was in pretty poor repair. you can see that top layer is so thin that as soon as it starts to erode it breaks up pretty quick and turns into a downhill mountain bike course complete with giant pot holes and massive drop offs, we had to walk the bike down one as we though the back wheel might buckle as we are now both paranoid about the back wheel and the dodgy spoke repair!! There was one huge climb today of about 15 miles which reached a height of 1200 meters lucky for us this was the first climb and was completed in the relative cool of the early morning.

We were not so lucky on the second and after riding a ridge for awhile and loosing some height we hit the last climb with the sun on our backs. Yep you guessed it we walked, hopping from shade to shade. We arrived in Oudomxay by 2pm and could not believe that 50 miles had taken us 10 hours!!

We are two days from the Chinese border and are not sure what the state of affairs will be with regards to accessing blogger as it is a google thing. So you may or may not see a post up here of our china exploits, but we will try and find a willing volunteer in the UK to up load blog posts for us!!

Hell Day and beyond

2010-08-04T12:14:00.000+01:00

31.07.10 (Kasi to Kiou Ka Cham)
Hell Day, that is what the Navy Seals call their day that does not end in training. Today was our own personal hell day. We started before dawn and headed out up the hill that had defeated us the day before. Easy as pie, we were up to the top in 90 minutes, which is good for a 12 miles of flat and up hill.

The decent was over all to fast and we started on the the longest hill of the day, approx 12 miles of continuous up hill with some 10% sections thrown in for fun, I am so chuffed that we managed to cycle all of it, no walking today. All thanks to the downpour we were cycling in as there was no sun. Yippee, I'll take cycling in the rain any day. So we reached what we thought was the top of the hill and had an early lunch in a restaurant with stunning views of the craggy peaks that make northern Loas so beautiful. Heading back out we realised that we had been deceived by the village sign and in fact the top was a further 7 miles, but with full stomachs we felt re energised. On reaching the town of Phou Khoun we stopped and re-stocked our biscuit supply at the market at the cross roads where the road splits off to the east and Phonsavan.

With the rain so bad, we saw lots of landslides along the way and riding through ones that had been cleared but with thick slippy mud left on the road was scary, the smaller ones that had not been cleared we just rode round. The descent after the town was a blessing, it gave us time to stand out of the saddle without having to power hard and was very refreshing. All too soon the down hill turned in to the next up hill slog, this was perhaps the shortest of the day at about 7 miles long but by now our legs were not fresh and the going was tough. Still the end arrived at last and we were able to buy some fruit and drinks at the stalls on the side of the road at the top. These along with the small road side shops in the villages that we pass through have been our saving grace in Laos.

The last hill of the day was upon us at 4pm, we were both flagging fast so had another handful of crackers and biscuits and set off. There was a funny noise coming from my end of the bike (typical) and we were just deciding if it was my bottom bracket (the thing that joins the pedal arms together and allows them to turn, for all you non bikies) when the chain snapped. Luckily there was no other traffic on the road as there was a bit of a wobble as our feet spun round with no resistance, if only peddling up hill was really that easy. Mr Fixit Roberts whipped out the tool kit and set to work while I sat and swatted flies. We discussed the option of flagging down a passing truck to give us a lift and I kept a look out but the only truck to pass that stopped had pineapples in the back.

All too soon for my liking the chain had been fixed and we were on our way again, the sun was playing hide and seak behind the clouds but by this time the ferocity had gone so it just enhanced the spectacular scenery when the sun did come out. We pulled up in Kiou Ka Cham as dusk was just turning in to night, it was just after 7pm and was the end to my very longest day in the saddle ever. Unfortunately for us the run of good hotels had to dry up sometime and tonight was the night, we had researched the best of the three so knew where to head for, we booked in grabbed a bite to eat and fell in to bed.

Stats for the day: 13 hours of travel 11.5 of those actually peddling, over 2000 meters climbed and a good many descended and all in 60 odd miles!!

01.08.10 (Kiou Ka Cham to Louang Probang)
Dawn came all to soon and we were off again glad to be gone from the lumpy bed from hell. Today was the last day of cycling before a well earned couple of rest days.

We knew we had two hills to climb today, the first by far the longer at about 10 miles long. But first we were rewarded for all the up hill slogging of the day before with a mammoth down hill. Yippee.... that was good fun and that was about our lot for fun for the day as the sun had come out to play so on the up hill we fried, unfortunately for me the sheer amount of time we had spent in the saddle the day before had left quite an impression and it HURT! This meant that sustained sitting(necessity in up hill cycling on a tandem) was beyond painful and we decided to walk for a while, so we walked/pushed up hill for about 2 hours and covered 6 miles, not bad. We were seriously bored and we decided to see if I could stand the pain to ride again and set off. I could just about bare it so we pushed on a reached the top by 11am. The down hill was amazing, we over took 3 trucks that had over taken us on the way up we were going that fast, Rich has got the hang of what my top speed is before I start yelling, so was very restrained.

Louang Probang by 2pm and booked into a guesthouse with WiFi so we could tackle our Tibet travel plans.

Vientiane to Loung Probang (the first 3 days of 5)

2010-08-02T15:40:00.000+01:00

Busy busy busy..... that is what we have been. Rich getting well again as we did not set off when we thought but on the 28th!! I think Vientaine is great but not that much!! We were lucky that we did stay as long as we did as by the end of the first days cycling Rich was ready to literally drop.

We have good news on the Tibet front too, we have arranged to join a tour that has been arranged by a lady in the UK who advertised it on the Lonely Planet forum. Rich was Mr Dubious but we went round the houses and have sorted it out so we are booked on a tour. Thats the good news, now we have the headache of trying to book transport to Tibet. Flights look a nightmare with bikes and the train just as bad so we have some planning to do!

28.07.10 (Vientiane to Thinkeo)
Our route out off Vientaine was following a route description that we have found on the web. There is a great website written by a couple who travelled the world for a couple of years by the looks and written up route descriptions. It is great and lets us know what the hills are like, horrendous, just incase you wanted to know!

So there we were peddaling out of the chilled city where its the dogs that are the biggest pain for cyclists. We were considering finding a stick they were that tenatious, I am just glad there were so few cars on the road as we ended up in the middle of the road on one occasion!! Setting us up for Tibet were they have mastif's that like to play 'bite the cyclist'!! I think the fact that Rich was not firing on all cylinders and we relaxed a bit too much due to the website saying 'just follow this this and that'. Well we found ourselves on little more than a mud track. Ooops. Rich was not best pleased as he knew he did not have anything in the reserve tank. We asked at a stall in gestures and it appeared that we were going on the right dircting just not on the right road! We decided to carry on and are glad we did as we got to see a lot of the Laos contryside and villages that we would not have seen otherwise, also there was a neat little 1 car ferry that took us across the Nam Ngum River for about 35p.

Once we had found the right road, re-fueled and watered we headed off on the last part of the days ride. This is where the hills started, they were not too bad and would have been great to get our teeth into, if only the sun had not come out. Ping.... two over heating cyclists, so we decided to walk, Ping.... two hot cyclists but not about to keel over cyclists.
The guesthouse we were heading too had closed down so we got stung for a song further down the road. Rich was in no state to look any further, the place was lovely and brand new, they loved us, two cyclists covered in mud.

29.07.10 (Thinkeo to Vang Vieng)
The following morning we set off early and ground out the miles and hills, we did 64 miles and made it to Vang Vieng without getting lost, mind you we did have to only turn right at a T junction once. Vang Vieng appears at first as a rather unwelcoming place when coming from the south, due mainly to the old CIA airstrip that runs between the main road and the town, so you end up seeing the place hidden behind trees and this obsolete eyesore inbetween and have to run the gaunlet of massive, deep puddles to get on the airstrip, work out where you are then head off into town.

Vang Vieng itself is very touristy so we were able to have western food although Rich chose the wrong Pizza and ended up with one that had pretty much everyting that does not go together on a pizza. We had some things to do on the web sorting out our Tibetian Travel Permits and moving money around which was made all the easier by the thunder storm that raged overhead cutting the power every 5 minutes and dropping the all important internet connection. We were both exhausted so headed to bed for an early night.

30.07.10 (Vang Vieng to Kasi)
Today started good and finished bad!!!! we headed out of Vang Vieng clutching our freshly made up bagguttes for breakfast, yum yum. We made good time and although the hills were steep and at times long we did well doing 40 miles before lunch. We stopped at Kasi the lunch stopping place for the busses from Vientiane to Luang Probang and Ponsavan the two northern tourist towns. Had a bite to eat, at this point we had to make the decision to either carry on a further 13 miles or stay in the town.

We knew tomorrow to be a killer of a day and wanted to lessen the distance as much as possible so took the decision to go for it.....our survey says, XXX Wrong! We knew that out of town there is a big big hill which on its own would have been tough but do able. But low and behold our freind the sun popped out to say hello and fried us!! After 45 mins of pushing the bike up hill in the sweltering heat we took the soul destroying decision to head back to the last guest house that we saw. We were both destroyed and not happy with the end to what was a promising days cycle. Luckly we have once again managed to pay over the odds and found a lovely room. (Rich turned his nose up at the bungalows that had squat toilets.)

2010-07-25T14:23:00.002+01:00

Ok, so we were going to set off on our next leg of our S.E.A. Travels two days ago but unfortunately Rich is not feeling too well. He has managed to develop a chest infection as if from nowhere. So we have been stuck in Vientiane for the past two days, luckily we have had WiFi so I have not gone too stir crazy, at least in Byron Bay Rich could escape to the Supermarket, here there is the upmarket delicatessen which has two isles to memorise not 20!! Rich is not feeling as bad as I was, thank goodness, so we hope to be on our way tomorrow.

The prolonged stopover has given me plenty of time to upload some photos on to facebook and hopefully flikr if the connection ever lasts long enough!! The one downside is that I have spent a large amount of time researching our China leg of the journey. It is a massive comedown as we had hoped to be able to travel independently whilst cycling the friendship highway in Tibet, however due to travel restrictions we have to have a guide and transport. Which means we have to join a tour, which means we have to try and organise one pretty sharpish so we can sort out the visa extension in China. Talk about complicated. China does not make things easy in the slightest. We have been searching the internet and have found a couple of possibilities that will still allow us to cycle the route we want so fingers crossed. Otherwise we are preparing ourselves to spend extra time in mainland China and then fly to Nepal and go to Everest Base Camp from that side if organised tours prove to be too expensive.

Cambodia to Laos the quick way....

2010-07-23T13:50:00.000+01:00

Cycling north over the Cambodian border back into Thailand was the hardest day's cycling to date. That's official, as measured by the Denyze scale of tiredness. The rain of the previous night had turned the dirt road into a mud track and progress was slowed by mud building up between the wheels of the bike and the mudguards. At times this would stop the wheels turning and we would have to dislodge it with a stick... or our fingers. Terribly messy. What fun!!

The worst sections of the day were where they had ripped up the road completely as they were in the process of relaying it and also the climb up to the border post in O'smach which saw us frequently off and pushing the bike, while being overtaken by trucks and motos. By the way, if you have ever thought of emulating Ewan McGreagor and Charlie Boorman, you don't need a BMW GS motorbike, you just need a Honda Dream moped. Even 14 year old girls were throwing them through mud filled ditches that looked like they could have been an obstacle on Junior Kickstart.

We rolled into Prasat two very tired and hungry cyclists, with Den once again suffering from heatstroke. Checked into the Leelawadee guesthouse for a well deserved rest day.

This day was spent debating the merits of various routes into laos, finally in the end we decided that with Den suffering heat stroke at the drop of a hat due to the effectiveness of me as a windbreak, a cheat was in order. So a traumatic train journey from Surin to Nong Khai was seen as the best of the avaliable options. We had to change trains in Nakon Ratchasima with a lay over of 10 hours. Only our 10 hours turned in to 12.5 hours... which would have been fine if we were talking about daylight hours, but it was delayed from 1.30am to 3am.

On a side note. We had to check our bike and luggage into the baggage carriage on the train. This involves locating a different office to the ticketing kiosk and being charged what appeared to be an entirely arbitrary amount by a man in a very tight fitting Thailand national railway uniform.

It occurred to me that we had been over billed by tight uniform guy when he proudly showed off a couple of tubes of toothpaste he demanded as a bribe from a shopkeeper who had just had a large package delivered to his loading bay...Mmm.

When, on arrival at our layover, the chap unloading the our luggage, said that we had to pay him 10 Baht for unloading our bags, I began to think that all employees were on the make. I'd read about this scam on the web, so I declined to pay him. He didn't really persist once he realised I wasn't just going to give him money on his say so.

The officer in charge of the baggage at our final stop, presented us with a bill for 70 Baht (well he hand wrote it onto our shipping docket). I think the difference in price was due to the fact that this guy was wearing another tight fitting uniform. Anyhow, again I asked what this was for and told him that we had not had to pay anything previously. He kept repeating that we had to pay him, but refused to say what it was for.

I thought, he's not going to keep this up for long, but a crowd of his minions had appeared and I don't think that he could lose face by backing down, and he still refused to say what we were being charged for. After 5 mins or so of him getting increasingly agitated he finally exploded, “Forget it, I'll pay it myself!”. Which confirmed for me that he was definitely just on the make, otherwise he would have called over the police from the end of the platform... and when did any government employee pay a fine on behalf of someone they were supposed to be collecting money from?

Facing down the forces of Thai railway tyranny and oppression made me feel hungry, but first we had to face the border guards, get our visa's and cycle the 20kms into Vientiane. The border crossing was relatively easy if as little time consuming, 'go to window 2 and get form, then window 1(??) hand in form and pay money, wait 5 mins and then voila one visa' We covered the distance into Vientiane in no time on the flat roads. Checked into the Mali Namphou Guesthouse. Quite nice, with Wifi, Cable TV and hot showers. Have spent 3 nights here as the power supply for the laptop broke yesterday and we didn't want to head out into the sticks without a way to charge it.

Tomorrow, we head off on the 400km to Luang Prabang. Hopefully the weather will cool a bit as we now start climbing to the Laos highlands and there is a big fat cloud across Northern Loas and southern China, fingers crossed!

On another note entirely Loas has yielded a veritable deluge of mini's young and old and the scores stand at Rich 9 and Den 10.

Another Blog.... am I bored?...

2010-07-18T12:36:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we cycled from Siem Reap back the way we came, as far as a small town called Kralanh. Checked into a guest house just set back to the left of the petrol station on the main road through town. Went for the $10 superior room, which was clean and seemed ok value until it turned out that we needed to pay $10 more for air con. Feeling like we were being ripped off, we opted to tough out the evening with only the electric fans for relief from the humidity. Unfortunately for us, the room had the thermal properties of Steve McQueen's cooler from the Great Escape, so for most of the late afternoon we sat on the balcony and read. Had our first puncture on the road too. Our trailer tire punctured just as we were pulling into town. No problem as we could fix the puncture in the peace and quiet of the room.

Today, we headed north, towards the Thai border at O'smach. Roads were unsealed and dusty with red earth. Mid morning foiund us with a distinctly spray on tan orange appearance from the dirt kicked up by the passing cars and motos. It also found us with our second puncture on the road too... small stone in the front tire. Had quite a small crowd around us, finding it all very amusing, by the time we'd finished the repair.

We have a hotel room in Samraong, it was $12 with air con and sat TV (but no Wifi). Samraong it turns out has a choice of reasonable places to stay and there's even an ATM in town, so it's practically civilisation. It's just a shame you couldn't say the same for the weather. Monsoon rain is lashing down outside, and we have 80kms of dirt road to cycle tomorrow... or should that be 80kms of muddy roads to cycle.

An extended stay in Siem Reap

2010-07-18T11:52:00.005+01:00

Our ride going from Sisophon to Seim Reap while not eventful was memorable, as this was perhaps the worst day of cycling ever for me! We knew it was going to be a long day as it was over 60 miles and hot. We set off early and where as in Thailand we were able to buy something for breakfast the night before all we could find were danish biscuits and while nice they were not very filling! We managed to grab a plate of rice in a road side restaurant which caters for the tour buses from Bangkok, This was at 8.30am and the temperature in the shade was 29 degrees. We applied sunscreen several times and just sweated it off, Rich had a hat but I had lost mine so had the full glare of the sun and little wind as Rich is a wonderful wind blocker, great in the cold, but sucks in the heat! So we rolled into town with at least one of us suffering sun stroke/heat exhaustion and a cherry red face. Shopping for a hat is first on the list of things to do. So in true Den and Rich style having carefully selected three guest houses to tour around and select the best one: we went to the nearest and took the room they offered. Unfortunately for us it was a little expensive at $40 but it was lovely, so as we were both ruined and in no mood to tour around a city with no street names we stayed put, recovered and headed off to see the sunset at Angkor Wat.

The Temples of Angkor Wat ARE AMAZING! Angkor Wat itself is just stunning, although Rich did liken it to Didcot power station! In the fact that there are 5 pineapple turrets things but you only see 3 at anyone time (mostly): just like Didcot- see 3 towers but there are 6. beautiful ancient monument, 1970's concrete eyesore, Men's minds are a mystery. However after I had stopped laughing we went off for a wander. We went up and climbed the first set of steep stairs and had a look at the carvings, Angkor Wat has lots of Bas relief carvings depicting battles and dancers, amongst others. We climbed as high as we could, last time I was here you could climb right to the base of the turrets but now you can only go to the main level below, which is no bad thing, as the tourist numbers have increased but the steps are still ridiculously steep and nerve racking to climb down. Angkor Wat is a must see temple if you are ever in this part of the world I would highly recommend a visit as I can not hope to describe here what it is like.

After our ride from hell and lovely sunset at Angkor Wat we were looking forward to a day of temple touring. This started at 4.45AM!!! we had decided that to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat would be lovely too and it was, if a little crowded, not so great photos but never mind. We zipped over to Ta Prohm which is the one with all the trees growing out of it, Tomb-raider was filmed here, sadly it is very broken down and work is going on to restore it, however the techniques used are questionable as it looks a little odd with parts old weathered sandstone and parts fresh grey concrete, Thankfully the main body of the temple was literally like Lego with no mortar used lets hope they have someone who is good at jigsaw puzzles and likes building blocks. The day was very hot and humid and we were getting temple fatigue by 11am so having seen a large part of the temple complex that is easily accessible by tuk tuk from town we headed back to the hotel to recover.

Having spent the hottest part of the day secreted away in air-con'ed luxury we headed out to finish off the last of the Temples. We really enjoyed these temples as they were not so crowded and the high heat had gone there was better light for photos too although we had bought the little camera. All in all a very relaxing day (save for the sellers, water,cold drink, postcard) but once got used to it it was not so bad.

Our second full day in Seim Reap was highly uneventful as we were planning our onward journey up in to Thailand and beyond, boring but essential as we are off the beaten tourist trail and there is nothing in the guidebooks so internet searches are a must.

Day in the life tour (by Richard)

Our last day in Siem Reap and we went on a tour entitled “a day in the life”. Normally anything that smacks of organised tourism sets off the alarm bells in my head, but this was run by an NGO, and promised an experience that even independent travel couldn't give you an insight to, well not unless you happened to speak fluent Khmer, and mine's a bit rusty.

At about 8am a small group of us headed out from the town to a local village to 'help' a family with their daily work. In exchange for the family tolerating our 'help', the village is paid a small amount by the tour organisers, who also have a program to install water pumps and filters at the homes around the village.

Untreated water is a real scourge in Cambodia, 1 in 7 children die before their fifth birthday because of waterborne disease. So approximately one in every three families will lose a child for want of clean drinking water. A water filter costs (US)$47, so a little over £30.

You can follow the link to Trailblazer's website here, if you want to know more. So what do you really want for your next birthday? How about asking for a gift of a water filter for a village? There's a one in three chance your donation will save a child from dying and a certainty that it will prevent waterborne pathogens from making a family ill.

Our first task of the day however was a lot more light hearted. We pulled up at the outskirts of the village in our van, bundled out, and I was promptly handed the reigns to an ox'n'cart. Power delivery is a little different to our usual form of transport, however I can at last say that I have finally found a more bum numbing method of covering distance than on a tandem. Controls were rudimentary. Whip to go, pull on the reigns to stop and steering, well, that remained a mystery to me. Nothing I did influenced the direction the cows and cart were heading. It seemed that Myrtle and Ermintrude went wherever the nearest vegetation was going to allow them a quick snack on the way past.

First proper job of the day was helping make a roof from palm leaves for the family to re-roof their house, which must be done every 5 years. The building materials are all derived from Bamboo and the Palm tree, locally sourced, so local in fact that both trees were in the family garden. We are told that the materials are ideal for the local climate, in that they deaden the sound of the water falling during a rain storm (a tin roof will echo) while keeping the heat out of the living quarters under the afternoon sun, (a tin roof would act like an oven).

How to make a bamboo and palm leaf roof. A bamboo cane is split along it's length into quarters and cut to be just over a metre long. Dried out palm leaves are folder in half and lain either side of the bamboo pole. The spine of the palm frond is used like a giant needle and thread to sew the first palm leaf in place, and then the next leaf is partially overlaid with the first (think slates on a roof at home) and so on until the whole bamboo cane has palm leaves hanging from it. It takes about 15 minutes to do one section. The roof requires 300 sections. We were clearly not going to be able to re roof the house this morning, but it was amazing how the materials in the family garden could be used so inventively.

Next job was to make dinner for the family, we prepared soup, with rice and and a paste to accompany. The paste was particularly interesting as it's core ingredients were, salted fish, some very strong chilli, a variety of root vegetables and a whole heap of red ants to add some protein. I tried some of it and do you know, that while spicy, it tasted very nice. Denyze declined, but I did have to ask, if you are a vegetarian, does that mean you can eat ants or not?

On the way to Siem Reap from the Thai border we'd seen a lot of rice fields, with water in them. Not knowing any different, I assumed that all rice fields would look like this. But in the village, there had not been the hoped for amount of rain this year and their rice fields were dry. (This is supposed to be the wet season). I asked what would happen if the rain did not fall heavily soon, our guide replied, somewhat diplomatically, 'the villagers would have to buy in rice from outside'.

The villagers average income in this part of Cambodia is around $2 per day. Most things they need they get from neighbours if they are unable to grow it themselves, or from the bigger farmers, for whom they often work. I'm not all together sure how they will afford enough rice if all families are suffering from a poor harvest at the same time.

Our last task of the day was teaching school kids English, not having done any teaching before, I was looking forward to this, but I had no idea of how to go about it. I mean, I had no idea of their current English language skills, what the curriculum they were following was or what was it that we were expected to teach them. Each of us asked the guide about this throughout the day, but we never received very much of an answer.

The reason for this became obvious when we got inside the classroom. 70 expectant children looking at us. It seems there was no curriculum, the extent of their English was days of the week and primary colours and the guide had no idea of what was going on any more than we did. The school teachers had all bunked off for a quick fag round the back of the building.

We got down to teaching them the names of some animals. It was fair to say that it wasn't much of a success. I am glad to report that my previously assumed lack of aptitude for the teaching profession was entirely proved to be an actual lack of aptitude,... however keen the kids were to learn.

But for all of that, definitely a captivating day, and I'm really glad that we spent the extra time in Siem Reap to allow us to be able to experience it.

Cambodge...

2010-07-11T13:41:00.001+01:00

When we put the bike together Rich forgot to say the other major thing that had gone wrong. My cycle computer decided that it did not want to work. I had not realised just how much I relied on the thing to keep me on track. It is demoralising knowing you have a 60-70 mile ride but far worse when you have no idea where you are in that ride!! For the last three days I have been driving Rich up the wall with the dreaded question 'how far have we gone'?

Whilst walking around the border town yesterday we happened to see a bike shop, with a Specialized bike in the window. We are sad people and had to rush in and have a look around, as if we are going to find anything we need in a small border town bike shop. Well low and behold, I shall bite my tongue as there was my model of computer sat winking at me from the cabinet.

Well, when Rich started to fit the new computer on the bike, we trialed it on my fittings as it has an extra long wire, blow me if it did not jump start my computer into working, so now we have an extra one. Clever Rich came up with an idea of mounting it on the bike and using it as a KM not miles computer, so now we have three computers on the bike 'just in case'.

While we think the roads in Thailand are fantastic with great hard shoulders on all roads for the slower moving motos, bikes and others on the road, the driving has a lot to be desired!! On the 2nd day in the space of 15 miles we saw two crashed cars (on straight roads with no other vehicles involved) and witnessed a pick up stacked high with chickens career off the road up ahead of us and roll down the bank! We raced up the road and offered help but they were already on the phone calling for back up, I did not look too hard at the chickens that were all over the place, suffice to say Rich is steering clear of eating chicken for a while!

With the early rising, quick road surface, flat terrain and eagerness to get out of the heat we have been finishing our rides by mid to late morning, giving us lots of time to hand wash our clothes and get them out in the sun to dry, have a mooch around town and spend time on the web. Rich found lots of info about the border crossing which we have since found out has changed, so, just in case anyone stumbles across our blog looking for info on the Aranyanprathet and Poipet border crossing read on.

The border opens at 7am, by 6.30am there were small queue's waiting at immigration in the allotted railed lines, a bit like cows waiting to be milked. At 7am there was a massive rush to get through the double doors and in to the right queue. Foreigners was of course the longest and slowest line. While I was inside getting out of Thailand Rich was outside with the bike, he had walked down the road and was waiting at the barrier. Once I was through we swapped as I was unable to get his passport stamped, unsurprisingly. With both passports stamped we walked the bike through the barrier into no man's land.... this is a very busy place, people everywhere and huge casinos looming.

We walked across the bridge and was told right-side right-side, we have travelled over 2500 miles and this will be the first time we have cycled on the right side of the road. Anyway we walked towards the Cambodian archway with Ankor Wat pineapple turrets on top, we were looking out for a port-a-cabin with a little window at the side as this is what we had read was the visa office. In fact we were directed to a brand new building with border guards saying visa,visa, just to the right of the archway. It was a simple process of filling out the quick form and handing over $20 and 100 baht. The 100 baht is for 'express service', else you will have to pick up your passport in Phnom Pen, as we are not going there we had to pay up. Once the visa had been processed (3 mins) we were free to head out to immigration which is further on, holding back the tuk tuk drivers and moto mafia. Filling in arrival cards and getting the visa stamped was the last in a simple process of getting across the border. As we walked out into Cambodia we were expecting it to be a maelstrom of bustle with pushy moto mafia and crooked money exchangers. However we only had 1 tuk tuk driver offer us a lift to which we simply said no thanks and got on the bike a rode away, I think that was answer enough!

The road out of town has at long last been paved, when I last came in 2003 it was a very long bumpy dusty ride from Poipet to Siem Reap. I was dreading this part of the trip as I remembered what the road was like, but to my surprise we cruised along at 15mph and arrived in Sisophon at around 10am, With aching cheaks from all the smiling and shouts of hello. We spent the following 45 mins looking for the Golden Crown Guest House, as the other hotels were near to a karaoke brothel and we have been traumatised enough by them!!

Back on 2 wheels

2010-07-10T10:02:00.001+01:00

What a relief to finally get back under pedal power. One, because it feels like time is short on this leg of the journey as we have lot's of miles to cover into Delhi, and two, because it transpires that our grotty guesthouse (see 2 posts ago) was not just a guest house, but also doubled as a brothel for the Karaoke bar downstairs, (music finished 3am, if you are interested).

So early start at 5.30am, to make the most of the comparatively low humidity and cool temperatures. We headed 40 miles east in the direction of Phanom Sarakham. A bit tired but none the worse for our sleepless night. As the morning wore on it became witheringly hot but at least on a bike, once you get up to speed (about 13mph on a reasonable road) then the air flow means it's not altogether unbearable.

We arrived in Phanom Sarakham by just after 9.30 in the morning and after a bit of snooping we checked into a hotel. One which would give us a higher class of accommodation from than the night before, even if it had seen better days. The place looked like it had been shipped concrete slab by concrete slab from eastern European and showcased the very best of that regions architecture circa 1973. At least it was clean and didn't have a “karaoke” bar below it.

Then we went out to spend some time in a beautifully air conditioned web café, and returned to the hotel to do some reading before getting a bite to eat and an early night.

We went downstairs to enquire about food, and were told that we could eat in the restaurant, lovely, lead on I thought. So we were promptly led into the hotel restaurant, cum karaoke bar, cum massage parlour..... I'm starting to despair of getting a good night's sleep in Thailand.

Another early start took us out of town along the eastbound 304/359 highway and for all of our hotel issues of the last couple of days the cycling here is wonderful, other road users, who are used to dealing with slow moving cycles and mopeds are giving us plenty of space. The topography is flat to undulating and the roads well surfaced.

As we were nearing the end of a 50km straight stretch of the 359 we noticed an advert for a resort guest house and as we had nearly reached our intended destination of Sa Kaeo we pulled over and asked to be shown the rooms. OMG! How fantastic were these little bungalows?! Naramon Gold Resort. If you ever pass by, and you need a great place to stay, I can't recommend it enough.

45 miles east we've arrived in the border town of Aranya Prathet, we trawled a few guest houses and hotels looking for a favourite and we ended up opting for the Market Hotel. Rooms are clean and basic, but looks like after last night and tonight our standard of accommodation has turned a corner. Off to explore now. Have seen a few other westerners here so hopefully tonight we'll know what we're ordering off the menu rather than taking pot luck with our ropey Thai language skills.

what we love (and not love) about our bike

2010-07-10T08:22:00.003+01:00

There's always one thing that comes back to bite you. In this case, while reassembling the bike we had more problems with our fancy pants 'hydraulic dry coupling' for the disk brake. This was the part that caused us all the problems while disassembling the bike in Australia, and with apologies to readers who don't care for knowing about the technical bits of the bike, the dry coupling, made of a light alloy metal, allows us to have a hydraulic disc brake on the back of the bike while still being able to split the bike in two, by allowing us to split the hydraulic hose on the brake in a couple of seconds.

Unfortunately, in Oz, while using brute force to undo the coupling it seems that we may have accidentally crushed it, causing a hairline crack in the metal, which means that it was impossible to redo the coupling when reassembling the bike. Being an unusual part, it means that we are not able to get a replacement in Thailand (oh, that and the fact that they cost lots) and we'd have to go back to Bangkok for other parts to get the brake working again by other means. It's okay, as we have a second rear rim brake, but we hope we can get the disc brake fixed for the Himalayas.
On that note, I feel like we should share our thoughts on the bike, in a review of our Thorn Tandem for any readers who are considering buying one for any adventures. (You may like to skip the rest of this post if you are not that interested in bikes).

If two people of differing cycling abilities are planning a trip, then I would wholly recommend considering a tandem. It takes a while to get comfortable spending long periods of time on it, before which, your bum spends a lot of time aching but the benefits of one person not being left behind, and being able to talk whenever you want more than offset this.

With regards to our Thorn, the S&S couplings (which allow us to split the tandem in two) and the Rohloff speedhub gears (14 gears in the rear hub) are the obvious things that set it apart, and make it more expensive, than a regular tandem, but both have been excellent additions. The S&S couplings have allowed us to transport the bike on planes with no problems, and the Rolhoff is wonderful (though not without fault), as it means the drive chain requires only maybe 20% of the maintenance compared to a regular set up. Overall, the quality of the Thorn is fantastic. I have a Surly Long Haul Trucker solo touring bike with Tubus racks and in every way the Thorn frame and fittings look and feel more solid. Okay, advert for Thorn bikes over.

Problems? Well, the first is that the Rolhoff leaks oil, not a huge amount, but it left a small amount on the rear skewer, and when we attached the trailer this leakage increased, but this is a common issue, and not one that leads to any problems apparently. The hub can also become stuck in gear when changing down under pressure between the high and low ranges of the gear box, widely known about, but can be very frustrating! Certainly, if you are used to a positive Campag or Shimano rapid-fire shifting system then, in comparison, the action of the twist grip on the Rolhoff is very vague, something you get used to, but definitely a case of could do better. Our other problems, have been as a result of the disc brake.

As mentioned above, the dry coupling seized and has now put the Hope disc brake out of action, but before that, the disc brake didn't feel like it had the power relative to the v-brake that you would expect. It seemed to be quickly overwhelmed either by the all up weight of the tandem or the dry coupling caused a degradation in performance, but anyhow, the lever could be pulled back to the bar after only a couple of uses on many hills. When we find a decent bike shop that sells hydraulic hose and a bleed kit, I'll give Denyze the brake lever on the rear stoker bars (no need for the coupling) and we'll get to see what was the cause of the poor performance, but in the mean time, I would recommend to anyone that they stick with the single v-brake on the back and stock up on spare brake pads.... you bank account will thank you for it and you'll stop quicker with the v-brake in any case.

Finally, last piece of info. We originally had drop handlebars on the front of the bike. I spent ages when buying the bike deciding between drops and flat bars (don't think I endeared myself to the sales staff on that one) but eventually went for drops as I find them more comfortable for long distances. Let's be clear about this though, when the riders, the bike and the luggage weigh in excess of 200kg, unless you are riding on sealed roads with very little traffic, you will not get enough leverage to be able to control the bike safely with drops... well I certainly couldn't. Does that make me a bit of a wimp? What do you mean yes?

leaving Bangkok

2010-07-07T09:16:00.002+01:00

With the 30 day chinese visa's safely in our passports we headed out of the relative safety of Bangkok today. With it goes western menu's and easy ordering of vegetarian food. Luckliy we arrived in our first port of call Chachoengaso and after dumping our bags in the dump of a guest house we set off exploring looking for food. We have managed to explore all of about 300 meters from the hotel and are at present in the airconditioned luxury of an icecream parlour that does food has a waitress that can speak some English and has free wifi. Talk about intrepid adventurers tasting the wares of the locals!

We are putting off going back to the guest house for as long as possible as it is a little more than grotty but the only one we could find and that was with the help of the taxi driver who drove us from Bangkok. We also have the delight of putting the bike back together and packing all our stuff, although we sent lots home we have managed to buy lots of books just to even it all up.

The big news Rich forgot to say in the last post is that we have decided after much lugging about of the bike in its packed stateis that we really do not want to be gadding about all over China by train as was the first plan, so have revised the route. We have decided that Vitenam will have to wait and to head straight up Laos and into China rather than via North Vietnam, then head straight towards Tibet and the big hills. So no Beijing, no great wall or Terrocotta army but also no lugging the bike around packed up!!

lets see what tomorrow brings.....

Love you long time....

2010-07-06T15:48:00.003+01:00

I am very frustrated!! To cycle to from Bangkok to Delhi involves pedalling across a few thousand Km's of China via the Himalayas. The main reason for my frustration is that in Bangkok we decided we would apply for our Chinese visas, and while almost all countries in S.E. Asia only grant a 30 day tourist visa as a matter of course,... so too does China.

Great, I hear you say. And if you are cycling across Laos it is, but China is just a tad bigger. In theory, you can obtain a 90 day visa, but try as we might, the constantly smiling lady in Bangkok's Chinese embassy, would not admit the possibility of getting anything more than a 30 day visa. The upshot of all of this is that either we have to cycle to Hong Kong to try our luck of getting a longer visa there, or rely on the generosity of the PSB (the very communist one party state sounding 'Public Security Bureau') to allow us visa extension once in China. We collect our passport, Chinese visa et al. tomorrow.

Anyway on to impressions of Bangkok. After the relative familiarity of Australia, Bangkok is like a developing world slap in the face. Hawkers, trying to sell you stuff you never knew existed, you never knew you needed and you certainly have never wanted. Street venders pushing the limits of their stalls across the pavement into the road, health and safety be damned. Tuk-Tuk drivers conning naive gap year backpackers straight off the plane for 10 times the going rate for a 2km ride. Yet, it still makes for a soft landing pad into indo-china. We've not yet been given a menu without an English translation, in the area we are staying western tourists outnumber the locals and there's a heavy presence of the ever comforting 'tourist police'.

So from here we are heading to the east, to the Cambodian border, and on to the famous Ankor Wat temples. Apparently the roads have been tarmaced over the last few years... here's hoping! If not, then at least we will be getting a proper dose of adventure cycling!!

Australia and beyond......

2010-07-05T01:38:00.002+01:00

On the Whitsundays cruise a lady asked the question, 'My 5 star friend says that the outer reef is the only place to really go to see great coral, is this true?' the response: The coral here is just as good if not better. I wish we had believed that as we could have saved ourselves a lot of money! Don't get me wrong the reef was great and we did get to go scuba diving (Rich's first time), but the reef was looking sad and very similar. lots of patches of dead reef and apart from the giant clams size -Huge!!! the coral we saw at the Whitsundays was in better shape. We did see one part of the reef that looked like it was out of saving Nemo which made up for the disappointment of the morning snorkel, but would like to know what impact the tourist industry is having on the reef as it was startling how much of the coral was dead.

the last full day in Cairns was spent running round the shops, changing money, buying tyres, getting bike boxes, parcel tape and all the boring stuff you have to do when you move on. Finally when we were back at the campsite we set to work on the bike packing it up, we gave ourselves plenty of daylight hours to complete the job, as last time in Auckland we ended up scrabbling around with head torches on, not great to find that bolt that just pinged off!

So having started the job at 4pm you may ask why we were still struggling with one, yes ONE part of the bike 3 hours later!! we had not had the bike apart for the entire two months which should not cause a problem except it had a good coating of sea water on several occasions, the water got down in to the dry coupling for the hydraulic brake and that was it, not budging. So after about half a can of WD40, Rich's patience had deserted us, pliers, adjustable spanners and a rubber hammer (Thorn, the bike shop's idea) we were no nearer to getting it off and starting to panic. Our saviour was in the guise of a guy who runs cape york 4W drive trips. He had a trailer of wonders and we eventually sorted it with monkey wrenches a and G clamp. Talk about saving the day. Panic over we stripped the rest of the bike and set to work packing the rest of the baggage. Our major moves always seem to have a glitch somewhere.

That was it Australia was over for us and it was on to cheap Bangkok!! We thought we would do a quick summing up of our thought on Australia:
Expensive
Friendly to the unusual traveller
Grey nomads zipping everywhere in their RV's and caravans
Massive divide between indigenous and westerners
same same countryside for very long stretches
Grey nomads more fun, less noisy and friendlier than backpackers
Big difference between tourist and non tourist spots, latter were the better
good trip and got lots of mileage in, but on the whole weighing up the money spent and things seen we could have missed it out and gone straight to Indochina and seen all of Oz another time

The last few miles in Oz

2010-06-27T08:24:00.002+01:00

We've made it!!!!! We are in Cairns, it was with mixed feelings that we rode into Cairns last Wednesday (23rd). Sad that it was the last part of the 'western' leg of the trip and slightly apprehensive about our next port of call....Bangkok and Indochina.

Innisfail was the last big town before Cairns, we stopped at a campsite by the side of the river which I was assured had no crocodiles, however the locals said they wouldn't swim across 'just in case', great one restless night for me! we woke early to rain which we ignored and when back to sleep, but it kept on coming and as we did not want to spend another night by the river (more to do with noisy neighbours..... 2am they went in to their van but carried on until 3!) we made the oh so wise decision to make a break for it and head off. Luckily we had a fierce tail wind with which we flew along at around 16-17 mph, however it was raining for the majority of the day. As we may have mentioned before we are fair weathered cyclists so upon arriving at the campsite at Fishery Falls we promptly booked into a cabin.

The following day with a late start but the wind still behind us we arrived in Cairns around lunch time, found the campsite, threw up the tent and hightailed it straight to town. The following day having worked out our plan of attack we had a frenzy of bookings and car hire in the morning then I yet again Rich dragged me off to the shops to look at the ipad..... they look lovely. Rich on the other hand had another agenda for luring me into the shop with the ipad. He had decided that actually a small notebook computer was a good idea and that we should buy one! I on the other hand had ipad eyes!! they look so nice and shiny. For the rest of the day we debated the practicalities of it and of course went and bought one!! So we are now the proud owners of a snazzy little white Samsung notebook and bag! hopefully this will mean more blogging....

The highlight of Cairns (aside from the shopping) so far has been our trip to Hartley's Croc farm, I am so glad we did not see any Croc's on the way up as we would have been breakfast, lunch and dinner! On the way to the Farm we saw a sight that we did not think we would see..... a couple on a tandem with the exact same trailer as us, we think it was the same bike, she even had a pale blue top on like I have..... we have twins out there.... we could not stop and chat as we were zooming along in the hirecar and they were on a hill, shame it would have been good to swap stories.

Tomorrow it's off to The Great Barrier Reef.......

Townsville to Tully...

2010-06-19T06:05:00.003+01:00

We only have 3 more days of cycling left in Australia. I can barely believe it. I think we are both looking forward to an extended time off the bike once we roll into Cairns.

Anyhow, still some work to do before we get there, and A-team movie rants aside, I thought I'd better tell you what we've been up to. We spent a couple of days off the bike in Townsville. One day, we took a bus to have a look around the shops, (Townsville has that American feeling of being designed around the car and as such, having no real town centre for shopping), discovered a great Greek takeaway and downed a few beers in the sunshine.

The other day, we spent on Magnetic Island, driving around in a mini moke (like in this piccy, and by the way, the mini game was suspended for the day to save us getting distracted). Our bright orange moke was based on a mini with drum brakes, and all I can say is that thank god the island had a 60kph speed limit. You have to virtually stand on the brakes to get them to slow the car in any manner. In case we had needed to stop suddenly, I told Den that she would have to stick her flip flop over the door sill and onto the tyre, BMX style.

Back on the bike, we made our way to Rollingstone. We stayed at a lovely caravan park on the sea and apart from getting plied with tea and biscuits from a very nice pair of Aussie caravaners, there was not much to report.

Next day we found our way to Ingham. The dodgy planet wrote a rather disparaging paragraph on the place, but in my eyes the fact it's not a 24hr party town, makes it heaven. Stayed out the back of a lovely 1920's Italian style hotel, which was idyllic. Absolutely the best campsite we have stayed in while we have been in Aus.

From there it was onto Cardwell. A quiet sea front town on the main highway, and arrived just in time for free tea and scones and cake at the campsite. How lovely...

Now we are in Tully, centre for banana growing and sugar production and as a result full of fruitpicking backpackers, all waiting to party hard at the camp tonight. We're supposed to be here for two nights.... can't wait.

Now I'm off to watch Wales get hurt by the All Blacks.... anything less that NZ by 40 points is a moral victory for us.

DO NOT WATCH THE NEW A-TEAM MOVIE!!!!!

2010-06-15T06:05:00.002+01:00

....I would quite honestly have rather have watched that new Sex and the City movie. Plot was absolutely awful. Dialogue was appalling. Continuity was shot and the special effects were average. It is officially worse that Transformers 2, which up unlit yesterday was my previous worst movie ever. Anyone associated with that film should be ashamed. If you want a fix of A-Team action, spend your money on a series box set of the eighties original instead.

I'm so angry with having paid money to waste my time watching it that I can't bring myself to write any more.

2010-06-10T09:10:00.002+01:00

Hiya, I'm back, fully rested and recuperated. God I hate being ill, but being ill away from home is the pits. Rich was a star and very attentive but suffered from cabin fever after 4-5 days of either being in the cabin or walking to the supermarket, I was contemplating sending him out on the tandem but the rain put paid to that.

The cheat extraordinaire was from Brisbane to Rockhampton which was a distance of some 600 miles, slightly more than we would have covered in the days that I was ill, but hey if you are going to cheat you may as well do it properly. 'Rocky' as it is known to the locals is the self proclaimed beef capital of Oz, we did not see to much of this as we rode through the deserted town centre at 8pm but it was kind of eerie so we high tailed it out of there as soon as we could. A pub and a roadhouse were what made up our first nights resting place of Yammba, the pub garden was the campsite which suited Rich just fine.

We awoke to the gentle pitter patter of rain, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but try as we might we could not look past the fact that we would have to spend a day in the pub or the roadhouse and while Rich may have been happy with this I was not, so between rain spells we packed up and made a run for it. The good weather ie no rain lasted a good two hours before the inevitable happened and the heavens opened. 2-3 hours later we rolled up in Marlborough another town with not a lot to it except a pub with rooms! well I was recuperating and Rich seemed to be coming down with what I had so it was in the best interests of all concerned that we have a proper bed for the night. At Yammba we had got chatting (as is the norm) to 2 couples who are travelling around in a caravan and winnibego. Well they invited us over to their van for supper! thay had passed us on the way and had felt sorry for the drowned rats they passed! anyhow we had a great time squished in to a delux campervan which has a double bed that you put away by electrically zooming it up to the celing......I want one!!! the winnibego not just the bed.

After the boozy night and struggling to get in for breakfast (no unlocked door) we set off late the next day. If the day before was wet this day in contrast was an absolute scorcher! We were heading for St Lawerence 45 miles down the road. The road was long.........hot.........and had no roadhouse, torture. We finally arrived and fell on to the only shop with abandon! The following day was along similar lines.... hot and long although the campsite was great as it was free and on a beach, we also met up with our friends (by design) from Yammba, which was great. Although the howling of the dingos at 2.30am and 3.30am was not so great, laying there thinking I was going to be eaten alive by wild dogs ala Bridget Jones!!

The following nights accommodation in Sarina however was poles away from a beach with howling dogs. By this time Rich had suffered enough with his cold and wanted to be some where warm. We hired another cabin for two nights and spent a relaxing day looking round a mini sugar cane mill. This seemed to sort his cold and a renewed Rich and I set off towards the Whitsundays. We were having such a good time on the bike that I have concocted a charity bike ride that goes from Lands End to John O'Groats with the 3 peaks in as well, we have set ourselves the target of 10,000 pounds to raise for Maggie's centre, this all may change when we hit hills/mountains and things start to ache and the riding is not so pleasant but I don't think so!

So today has been a very relaxing day spent cruising the Whitsundays, having a beach barbie on the 2nd best beach in the world and Rich's first time snorkling alll in all a very good day, finished off by a meal cooked by some else and a few drinks....bliss.

Yucky Flu & No Escape from Byron Bay

2010-05-31T03:07:00.002+01:00

Poor Den. As if having to put up with me for 24hrs a day wasn't bad enough, now she's been suffering from a heavy dose of the flu. As a result of which we ended up staying for 9 days in Byron Bay.

I'm guessing that half a day to look around the town, half a day to head up to the lighthouse and maybe a day on the beach followed by a day's surfing, and with evenings spent taking in the nightlife, 3 days would be the ideal amount of time to spend in Byron before moving on. 9 days is definately too long. Especially when it's mostly raining. By day 5 I knew where everything was in the local Woolworth's supermarket, I knew the names of the staff in the bakery, I could give directions to most shops in town when asked by tourists..... I was more local than some of the locals.

Luckily for me, Den summoned the will power to leave on the Friday and we had a short (30 mile) cycle North to a lovely small town called Pottsville. It's most lovely feature largely being that it wasn't Byron Bay. It was so nice in fact, that we spent the following day there too, before heading up to the Goldcoast and jumping on the train to Brisbane. Where we have another day off while we wait for the Tuesday morning train to power us to Rockhampton.

Brisbane... almost, & Richard becomes an old git

2010-05-19T03:45:00.003+01:00

According to the route guide in the back of Dodgy Planet's East Coast Australia it's 907kms from Sydney to Brisbane along the Pacific Highway. Our route it seems is somewhat longer, but only just. We've got to Byron Bay, with about 100k left to go until we hit Brisbane.

We've followed the coast north, away from the backpacker trail, following pieceful sunny beaches where towns have for the most part constituted large villages with a local shop. we've been sleeping in tourist parks in our tent, looking very much the odd ones out as other campers settled back into their lavish caravans and campers. My favourite was a couple who had a camper, the back of which lowered down to form a ramp, and contained a little 4wd car.

My favourite site was in a village called Croki, just off the main highway. It's a lovely town that formerly was a paddlesteamer port, it contained just a couple of elegant georgian villas, with lovely virandas, and a quiet campsite on the river side, with it's own jetty. Only two other campers - tranquil & relaxed. UNTIL.... two camper van's full of (wouldn't you know it) essex boy brit backpackers turned up and proceeded to play very loud drinking games at the barbeque until the early hours and then running and jumping off the jetty, which was next to the tent. Really I don't want to be labelled a grumpy old git, and hate is a strong word. But I hated them. Some people shouln't be given passports.

Anyhow, better get over it, because it's one long PARTY town all the way up the Gold Coast from here to Brisbane. Byron is flooded with the great unwashed straight off the OZ experience coaches, then it's through places like Surfer's Paradise, which is a bit Ibiza for Ozzy kids and Euro twenty somethings and then onto Brisabane itself which according the guide is a 'clubbing mecca'.

Mmmm.. wonder if there are any trains. I can feel a cheat coming on.

Sydney, Home & Away & Much Embarrassment

2010-05-08T03:01:00.005+01:00

After ridding ourselves of the bourgeois luxury that was the campervan on a very rainy Saturday back in Auckland, we flew the 5 hours to Sydney, where we spent three days seeing the sights and both came away very impressed by the place, in no small part, no doubt, helped by the clear blue skies and warm weather. Best of all, on the Sunday after arriving we managed to get involved with filming for a TV commercial at the Sydney Opera house. We are now fully signed up talent in the latest worldwide Australia tourist promotional advert. Yey!! Fame at last!

On Tuesday, we were back on the bike. A short hop through Sydney and onto the Manly ferry, north en route to Palm Beach (where they film Home & Away) accompanied by more sun and warm weather.

Our plan is to follow the coast and so far most of the terrain has been benign, flat roads so making for lots of officially certified Denyze approved nice cycling. We chatted to a local cyclist chap, who very kindly has provided us with an excellent route up the coast, staying off the main highway as much as possible and using local ferries where necessary.

Amusingly for Den, we got to a campsite a couple of nights ago and jumped off the bike outside the reception, where a woman was working at a computer behind a desk. I strode up to the door and attempted to slide it open, it budged a little, but wouldn't open. So I tried it again, a bit more forcefully and the door slid open. I was in!! "A bit sticky!", I remarked to the lady behind the desk, "Actually, it was locked" she replied. I looked at the door. Attached to it were the remains of the catch, screws and plugs that had allowed it to lock. Opppps!!! Apparently she had closed half an hour before and was just cashing up. Luckily she accepted my grovelling apology and allowed us to stay the night without letting our tyres down. I have resolved to be more respectful of sticky doors in the future.

Campervan bliss.....

2010-04-29T01:32:00.004+01:00

What can I say, campervans are fab, since leaving Auckland we have travelled miles and miles and miles, my bum does not hurt, my legs do not hurt, I am not exhausted by 3pm and just wanting to lie down and go to sleep. Having said that, it can get a bit boring, travelling for miles, getting out having a look at the sites then getting back in and carrying on. Its been good this week, it has made me realise that I do in fact like the achievement of cycling to a place of interest, it makes it all more worth while, humm..... best not let Rich read this post he may get ideas of going further than we need to.

We are on our way back down to Auckland to see Beks and Emma, they were fantastic and let us stay with them for 3 days while we checked out Auckland they have also been bike minding for us as the tandem was no way going to fit in the camper. Thank you both.

We have just two days left in NZ, it seems all very strange that it was nearly two months ago that we set off from Oxford on that cold March evening, its weird to think that we have been here for two months and have only scratched the surface of this amazing place. I will be sad to say goodbye, and a little apprehensive about what is to come as NZ was known to me, OZ is a whole new experience for both of us.... bring it on

If you want to see more photos of the trip go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/denandrich/ this is aswell as Richards account http://www.flickr.com/photos/rdtandem please have a look and a giggle......

Road to nowhere inparticular...

2010-04-21T01:42:00.004+01:00

Made light work of the 3 day ride up the Coremandel penninsula from Rotorua. It was along lovely, traffic light and for the most part flat roads. The weather feels like it's made the change to autumn. The days are that little bit cooler, the dew a bit more hesitant to clear in the mornings and the number of tourists on the road has plummeted.

We spent the nights mostly at quiet, backwater camp grounds, that seemed a world away from the commercialised, overpriced stuff that makes up the centre of the north island's tourist hub. All invigourating stuff for (the bank balance nursing) cycle tourists on a strict budget.

We caught the ferry into Auckland, arriving just after dusk, and what a great way to have your first sight of the city, with the highrises all lit up behind the shipping port.

Now we have four days in town, then we pick up the keys to a camper for a week so that we can get round to all those places in the far north of the country that we haven't have time to cycle to, before we fly over to complete the Australian leg of the journey.

Seemingly the only thing that isn't great, is that Den has taken an unprecidented lead in the mini game.... 76-73. Grrr,.....

Smelly rotten eggs....

2010-04-14T00:35:00.003+01:00

This is the smell that is all consuming in Rotorua, the thermal tourist spot in NZ. We arrived here yesterday have cycled for 60 miles from Taupo, having stopped at a thermal area on the way, we arrived a bit late, it was dark and it took us a while to decide on the best place to pitch the tent. Not due to darkness so much a Richard wanting to find the warmest tent pitch, yes the camp site has warm spots. Which sounds great until your tent resembles a sauna at 3am then it is not so great!! We are planning to move it today after it has dried out from the torrential rain that yet again created pond on the roof of the tent, Terra Nova here comes an email....

So from the last post we have traveled so distance, from Wellington we caught the Train to National Park where we stayed in a department of conservation campsite, this was very basic and for the very first time we got to use the camp stove, water filter, and kitchen sink that we have been carting around, Yippee. from here we were able to see the three volcanoes that make up the Tongariro national park. Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe, these are three immense volcanoes that dominate, Ruapehu was last active (visually) in 2007, so three years ago, luckily for us no ash, rocks or molten lava were seen, although we did see a rising cloud of mist coming from one of the sides of Ngauruhoe which alarmed us some what, until we got further to Taupo and Rotorua and then they become the norm.

We have two days here in Rotorua, Rich is going to spend one mountain biking, I on the other hand may just partake in a mudbath and thermal spring dip...

next stop the Coramandel.....

Bribery gets you.... everywhere

2010-04-09T00:23:00.004+01:00

Okay, as of last post, we were going to try and travel back to Christchurch from Geraldine. Well we tried to get a bus, and found that with it being easter weekend then we couldn't get on with all our stuff, so we pedaled the 35 miles north to Ashburton before trying again to catch the bus on the Tuesday. Luckily, a brief chat to a taxi driver provided the answer - apparently a little extra incentive for the driver would ensure that he found some luggage space. Low and behold, he was right, $20 later we were on the bus riding towards Christchurch, bike, trailer and luggage taking up an entire hold below the coach (out of a total of 4 luggage compartments on a bus for 50 passengers).

The next morning we had an early start and caught the train to Picton (very scenic journey) at the north of the south island, and then the ferry into Wellington.

Since then, we've been living like backpacking tourists in a particularly rubbish hostel, killing time seeing the sights until we can continue our train journey, tomorrow, to take us up to National Park in the middle of the north island.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T02:10:00.002+01:00

Well Easter is upon us and we have settled in a place called Geraldine 50 miles north and considerably lower that Tekapo (oh, the down hills are some much easier that the up hills!!), we are trying to be here only for 1 day and two nights but things may be playing aganist us!! we had hoped to catch a bus up the dreeded state highway 1 as it is a nightmare with lorry drivers wanting to ride the tandem as aposed to give us an inch of room, but things are not going well and we may have to ride a little further and hire a car if all else fails.

On to brighter things, we now know our tent is kind of water proof!! it retains water well, like all good pond liners; as this it what the roof of the tent resembled at 2am AND 5am this morning. Needless to say Rich was a star and went out to sort it out, there is a serious design flaw in a tent that is perfectly pitched when going to bed and pond like 4 hours later with wet stretchy fabric.

(Rich is gloating and wanted me to pass on the good news that he has just had a fab mini spot of a clubman which brings the total up to 50-38. I need to get in some serious spotting in Christchurch.)

Rich would also like to add that we have a new top speed....... 45miles an hour, I would like to point out that I was imploring him to slow down and he was breaking when we hit that speed I dreed to think what speed we would hit otherwise. (this was on a down hill section just incase anyone was thinking we were both super fit or something!!)

So we venture on to Christchurch on two wheels? four? or a bus?..........

North from Alexandra over the Lindis Pass (962m above sea level)

2010-04-01T04:09:00.002+01:00

Our replacement trailer parts arrived in Cromwell (20 miles west of Alexandra) a few days ago, so we headed over for a night in what was probably the grottiest campsite of the trip so far. In reality it was a chalet camp for out of work dole bludgers and roadbuilders, we just happened to pay 30 dollars to be allowed to camp on a patch of earth between the chalets. Lovely. Town of Cromwell was worth a diversion for a couple of hours though.

From there we cycled the 25 miles north to Tarras, where camping was limited to the field of the local community centre, where there were no amentities. We ended up staying in homestead accomodation run by our host Phil. First B&B I've ever stayed in that came with free booze supplied by the landlord, and in the morning he even haggled us down on the price. It wasn't all great though, decor was a bit 1980's student squat. You can't have everything.

The next day we took on the main challenge of the 50+ miles over the Lindis Pass to Twizel. Spent all morning, and most of the afternoon climbing the 962 metres to the top, and then spent an hour and a half running down the 20 miles to the town of Omarama. Thought we were doing well until we met a girl on a touring bike who had come from Queenstown that morning (about 100 miles away). Checked into the deluxe camp ground and found that 500m down the road there were private open air hot tubs overlooking a private lake with the southern alps as a backdrop, so we pitched the tent and hurried down for a couple of hours of well deserved soaking.

Today, in an effort to recover from yesterdays exertions, we've just headed up the road for 20 miles toward Mt Cook and have had a relaxing afternoon in the town of Twizel, which was originally a temporary town for the construction workers and families on the nearby hydro electric power plant, but when they came to demolish it so many of the residents wanted to stay that the government let them.

Anyhow, I'm off to the supermarket to get some food, tomorrow we continue north to Lake Tekapo.

Otage central rail trail

2010-03-27T00:59:00.003Z

Speights...............mummmm, yumyum, we liked the tour and the tasting session afterwards. Apricot beer was a hit for me (Denyze) and Rich liked the carbo light beer. We did have a serious job that night of packing the trailer ready for an early start the next day, its fair to say it was not packed fantastically and there were a few bags left loitering on top of the trailer.

So the time had come to set off again on the next leg of the trip and head inland on the Taieri Gorge railway, this was our first 'cheat' of the trip and saved us two days hard cycling up hill so I see nothing wrong with that.... after some stunning scenery we finally made it to Pukarangi which as far as I can make out is a shed on the side of the railway tracks, no village or anything like that. We finally made it to a town called Middlemarch mid afternoon after doing battle with a headwind.

The start of the Otago central rail trail, it was a good start, sidewinds meaning that at times we had to lean the bike at an angle to stop our selves being blow off the bike or the track, one lady coming the other way was not so fortunate and was walking her bike and got blown off the track down the embankment it was that strong (she was fine if a little shaken up and embarrassed). So from the side wind inevitable came the headwind which was an absolute devil. We finally reached our destination after 8 hours of cycling!! Another day from hell followed with the head wind a constant, so much so that when we finally 'got to the top' and started cycling down hill we had to keep pedaling. But by day three the wind had turned (yippee) and we made good time to Alexandra nearly the last town on the trail..... only to find that the trailer after 4 days had developed a fault or rather it was falling apart! so we are holed up in Alexandra waiting for a replacement!! (yeah, right... we have hired a car and are in Queenstown!!)

Dunedin...Rugby & Beer... Man Things!!! Grrr!!!

2010-03-22T04:05:00.002Z

Well, this is a first, Den has let me loose on the blog without adult supervision. Since last posting, we've huffed and puffed our way over the hills to the north of the Otago penninsular, effort expended well worth it for the views.

We've spent the weekend watching super 14 rugby (Highlands Vs Sharks, with Sharks winning for those that are interested), drinking beer and shopping. Admittedly one of those is not as manly as the title of this post would suggest, but we were buying manly things I can assure you.

Tonight, very exciting, we are going on a tour of the Speights Brewery. Free samples at the end, then a quick trip to the bar next door to carbo load on more beer in preperation for tomorrow's departure from Dunedin.

Tomorrow, we are heading out to a place called Middlemarch at the start of the Otago Rail Trail, which will take us west towards Queenstown and toward the moutains of the Southern Alps. BIG Hills, can't wait!!!!

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH my bum hurts!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-03-17T07:27:00.003Z

The title of this page neeeds to be read in an accending pitch........ this is a common phrase that I am sure Richard is throughly sick of by now.......oooops.......

Well we (I) could not put it off any longer and we took the plunge on Sunday. Our rough (google maps) route was a little on the long side so had to be revised. Thus we set off for a little place called Raikaia Huts. Unfortunately we did not foresee the massive expanse of blue sky so its fair to say we were heading towards being a little 'well done' by the time we got there, luckily I had the smallest tube of sunblock known to man for 'just in case' moment. We reached our campsite in good time and decided as it was right on the coast and it was soooo blinking hot we would go for a swim in the sea. Well the pacific rollers put us off that and we soon back tracked on the whole swimming idea as the river that emptied into the ocean there was from the mountains and was not the warmest.

From Raikaia we headed out on to highway 1 which is pretty busy with trucks hurtling past at 70 mph, added to the longest (and in my view narrowest) bridge in NZ at 1 mile long that day was a pretty scary day, although still blessedly, gloriously hot, sunscreen applied but still we have a tinge on pink about us. We camped at a place called Tinwald just past Ashburton, over the bridge that had a cycle track, woohoo, only it was not signposted and we missed it boohoo.... we did i get overtaken by a wee cheeky chappy who ended up following us for a while.

Tinwald was an excellent site, with a lovely lake and very good facilities, although when the geese stared honking at 6am it was not the best!! but alas we had to pack up the tent and head off down the road, this time our destination was Temuka, this was a pretty uneventful day save for having our first go on an unsealed road, this was entertaining to say the least but there were no injuries and it sealed the deal on a trailer ASAP and flat bars for Indochina and beyond!

This brings us to today,which quite frankly was blinking awful, my bum hurt, it was cold but the sun was still blazing, the hills started and my god it windy, unfortunaly for us it was a headwind which Richard go the full brunt of being at the front with me tucking in behind, although not for long as he managed to spot 1 new mini a 1 old one, so I came back with 2 old and 2 new woohoo, still in the lead (R=21 and D=27). So tonight see us in a sleepy backwater called Waimate, it was a little hilly to get here but I think it is only a warm up for Dunedin.........

New Zeeeeeland.....

2010-03-13T03:48:00.002Z

Its been a few days since we last wrote on here but we have used that time productively and are now in New Zealand. Elizabeth was an absolute star, what with working in the mornings, driving us places in the afternoon and being nearly 5 months pregnant she sparkled all the way.... and we would just like to say a big thanks and we hope you savour the pickled onion monster munch!!!! With the Hollywood tour complete and two full bellies of cookies and ice cream (for $1.50 the best thing since sliced bread) we said our goodbyes to Elizabeth and Zack, not before I managed to put my back out........again. this was about 5 hours before we got on the plane, pain killers ahoy!!!

We finally landed in the Land of the long white cloud on Thursday having set off from LA on Tuesday, this was a little bizzar and rather anoying as it is a day we can not get back, but if that is the price to pay for a short few days in LA I am happy everytime. so the bike box saga continues..... this time they did not 'forget' to put one on, instead the lovely baggage handles/customs officers decided to have a good old nosy and opened up the boxes, so after a very expensive trip to an airport shop Richard got to work with some packing tape, blimey, is he a worrier.......

At this point I would just like to update you (gloat) on the mini adventure score: Richard 14, Denyze 20!!!!!!!!!!! (disputed)[by the sore loser]

After yet another sports massage from hell, we set to work reconstructing the tandem, or rather for all who know us and my bike building abilities Richard built it and I watched. The best part is I offered to help out right at the very end getting some fiddly thing in (I am sure I should know the name) anyhow, this lady came along and took a photo, so there is a photo for ever more of Richard sat on the chair looking on and me hard at work fiddly with something or other with a bad back, where as in reality it was very much the other way round.

Christchurch city.......Lovely........will be leaving it tomorrow and heading off down to Ashburton, although if my back is anything to go by we may not get there and camp......

Our 'MINI' LA adventure

2010-03-08T15:31:00.004Z

Our LA adventure has begun, but before I bore you all with my waffle I feel I need to introduce you to the delights of our mini (as in car) game...... it is very very simple, there are many variations out there some complicated and some ever so slightly violent but this is our version and it goes like this: If you spot a mini, you shout 'MINI', you score 1 point for a recent mini, 2 for a clubman and old minis and if you see an old mini traveller then bonus time - 3 points. A car transporter with mini's on is worth 10 points. The game starts when the car is switched on and finishes when switched off. If two people shout mini together with no obvious winner then it is a draw and neither get a point. This is our simple but at times, infuriating game, which like all good visitors, we have introduced to Elizabeth and Zack. Zack is perhaps the quickest learner I have seen and much to my dismay soundly beating me on most car journeys, I blame jet lag and tired eyes.

LA, what a place, it is not necessarily everyone's cup of tea and especially if you don't drive, but being shown around by locals is allowing us to see a different side to a intriguing city. Yesterday, we went to the beach... as in Venice beach and for a stroll along Santa Monica pier taking in the sights at muscle beach, which is smaller than I thought it would be. The places are all familiar from all the years of watching films with the locations in but seeing it in the flesh so to speak is so much better, with the crowds, the odd balls, people trying to hawk you stuff and a guy playing the electric guitar on roller blades complete with flowing robes and purple turban.... Alas there were no lifeguards running along the beach to save someone form a riptide accompanied by corny music, nor were there bikini clan sunbathers (much to Richard's disappointment) but really what did he expect in March??

Now on to the highlight of the day the Oscars, E and Z's friends were hosting an Oscar party, Richard was in his element as they had Port Salut and brie cheese and for anyone not in the know this is his amber nectar..... so once he was pulled away from the cheese board we voted on the different categories and entered the competition..... this is similar to the Eurovision parties but not quite so damaging to the liver as we were not required to drink every time we won a point!! The hosts Andrew and Taylor have theeeee sweetest puppy going, who came in and joined the party sooo cute, I was warned that it would not fit in a pannier so no abduction attempts were made. The best logistical part of the party was the fact that we started slightly later than the actual ceremony and were watching a recording so fast forwarded all the boring speeches and adverts. Its fair to say that our combined knowledge of all the films up for Oscars was sketchy at best so Richard went for the 'educated guess' approach where as I went for the 'tick the top option' approach with the view that at least one would be right!!! Needless to say we were not ranked in the medal positions!! hummm really don't think we are going to be any better with the Oscars next year either.

The Big Day...... Thursday 4th March 2010

2010-03-07T01:21:00.004Z

The big day finally arrived, with it a list of last minute jobs that was as long as your arm, luckily Rachel, Richard's sister came down to help out, which was very handy as I had sold my car on the Wednesday evening and we ended up running all over town, mainly looking for a sports massage; I had handily wrecked my back tidying the garden on Wednesday. Not the best thing to do considering what we are about to embark on.

So, having been talked into having a massage over a bottle or two of wine on Wednesday evening I set off for Iffley Road running track and Peak Performance for one of the THE most painful hours of my life. I have never experienced pain like it, but my god was it effective, I entered the building practically on my knees in pain from just walking and by the end of it could bend down to do up my shoes with out any problems..... miracle or what, I have the number and would highly recommend the place and will be going back, I am pretty sure in a years time I will be needing it!!

With the back fixed as best as can be, we headed back to stress central a.k.a. my house for last minute packing, sorting, cleaning and bickering, luckily David (my Brother) who was giving us a lift was delayed so we had a little more time to play with. But, the time had come to say our goodbyes and head off to the airport. Which sounds pain free and uneventful..... this is without the help of a great ruddy stone, which just happened to take umbrage against the radiator of my brother's van (how rude) and caused us to spend just a little too much time in an ASDA carpark waiting for the AA to arrive. After 2 hours too long in the carpark in freezing conditions (the store was not much warmer), 16 liters of water, a bottle of rad welled and an AA man with long nosed pliers we set off again for the airport. Luckily in some kind of psychic premonition I had decided that we needed to spend Thursday night in an airport hotel so we were not racing to catch a flight else we would have been in serious trouble and had to pull in a favour, or two considering the size of the bike boxes.

The flight itself was very uneventful, thank goodness, however when a very helpful BA customer services man told us that, Ooops..... there was only one box on the flight and that the other one was hopefully on the next flight the stress levels went through the roof. Not sure if people are aware, but it is really difficult to ride half a tandem. but finally the second box has arrived (at this point I should say that we are staying with my friend Elizabeth and her husband Zack in LA for 4 days) it was a little worse for wear with a crank sticking out one end and the front chain ring looking like it tried to make a bid for freedom at some point, fingers crossed we can find a new bike box to get it to Christchurch, NZ our first port of call for cycling, but for now let the LA adventure and star spotting begin.........

Final Soggy Test Ride

2010-03-03T08:37:00.000Z

We've been putting off loading the tandem up with luggage and taking it out due to the weather, which we know isn't going to be an option on the trip, but when we have the luxury of choice it's become clear that we are fair weather cyclists at heart. Anyhow, come Saturday (weather: raining), then we really couldn't delay any more, so we packed our kit into the panniers, loaded them onto the bike and set off on a test ride that would replicate the sort of stresses and strains that we would be encountering on our trip.

So, after ten minutes on the flat smooth cycle track that runs next to Oxford's ring road, we both heartily agreed that both us and the bike were ready for the worst a Himalayan mountain pass could throw at us. We retired for a well earned bacon and egg roll... well, in Den's case an egg roll.

Finally we have declared ourselves ready for the off..... well apart for that tool that Richard needs to get, the important one for the brake!! and the packing of the luggage and the cleaning of the house and the hundred and 1 other things that I am now starting to remember, but I am sure it will all come together in the end I just hope that it is before Thursday evening!!!!!

First port of call on Friday is LA - bring on the sun.......

Projected tandem milage Zero...... (and it will remain boxed for the 4 day LA holiday before the adventure/pain/torture/fun begins in New Zealand a week on Thursday)

There will be pictures at the next posting as the ones that we wanted to post are not available to us owing to a small incident with a Nissan Micra, a memory card and a trip to Swansea.

New year action......

2010-01-07T20:13:00.000Z

The deed is done, the trauma is over, the flights are booked..... there was a minor problem with baggage allowance and we thought we were going to have to pay £30 per kilo over the 23 kilo allowance , needless to say I was not impressed as we had previously been quoted as having two pieces each. Luckily our friendly travel agent's boss rode to the rescue and confirmed that we did indeed have the higher allowance... Who'd have thought you could have so much fun in a travel agency on new year's eve. Anyhow we are leaving on the 5th March, that's now officially less than two months. Hurray!

Well, finally we got our act together and went out on a test ride around the villages east of Oxford at the weekend, then it took me 4 hours to thaw out my toes! Richard is now having kittens as to whether he made the right decision in choosing drop handle bars on the tandem, apparently (yawn!) they are not so great for control when trying to man handle 350lbs of tandem, luggage, stoker (or rear-admiral) and captain on unsealed roads, and especially since his recent experience of sliding to work through the snow on a dropped bar solo nearly led to disaster.... mmm. Anyhow, that's a decision for him to make... I just hope for his sake that there'll be no inelegant and unsightly losses of control when I am on the back!!

In the beginning.....

2009-12-09T21:37:00.000Z

There were two bicycles, two people and two visions.....

Richard; an epic 16 month cycle ride around the world, me; working in good old Blighty hopping on the bike every so often on a good day.

Now there is one bike, two people and blurred vision.

Our journey has already started, the tandem is ordered, the bags are no where near packed as there is still debate over a trailer and just how much luggage can be packed into one front pannier, the flights are almost booked, the route is roughly (and that is a loose 'roughly') planned and the budget set i feel as if we are no where ready.... lets see what the next three months bring.