Time to clean 🧼🫧 the bags and stuff off all the dust 🤯

Look these nice bare bikes ❤️

We had a big issue with a persistent smell on our tent! Monthes ago, a stray cat marked on it. Since then, whenever a cat was nearby, she marked to claim it as her territory. It's so disgusting and nearly impossible to eliminate the smell. While washing the smelly footprint in the sea, we discovered the aweful odor was removed. Now we washed the tent with salt water 💦
hopefully it lasts!

What we tooted on our mastdon account exactly 1 year ago 🤩

Its good to look back and see the route we took, the struggles we've went through and the progress we made
🚴‍♀️🚴❤️ 🌍

🎬 https://odysee.com/@sharinggoodmoments:2/malweg_firstyear:6

sundaymood

Happy to announce:
our newest video 'cycling middle east l' is online 🥳

https://odysee.com/@sharinggoodmoments:2/cycling_middle_east_I:6

Marc already started at our extended stay in Dubai, to collect all the snippets we filmed since we entered Turkey.
Last week we sat all day long at our 'carpet-office' and spent hours editing and subtiteling...

So good to have all videos as reminders 😍 on our odysee channel 🤩

'gorbä', the cat of Assad's homestay marked (peed) at our bicycles the very first day when we arrived, like he does with everything new in his territory. He also has a special love to Assad's motorbike and never fails to mark it whenever Assad returns from a ride. Another characteristic of this cat is his voice. His meow is so loud and insistently!
Sometimes he reminds us of alpers fluffy velvet kadife. 😸 Happy catursday 😹

With Assad and Aishe we went (by car) across country to #explore...
Marc: why are there everywhere 'mountains' of seashells?
Assad: Long time ago #queshm island was under the surface of the sea and its ground was covered with seashells... Over time, sea level has fluctuated and exposes the island and the ancient sea floor with the shells...
And! The shifting tectonic plates and geological processes, uplifting and erosion etc. transformed the seafloor of shells into hills

Like everyday for several times, the air was filled with the preaching sounds from the speakers of all the mosques around. The beach had been empty for quite some time, but slowly, the fishermen started returning to their ships and fishing nets. Fiona, with her 📷 Fujifilm X-E4 camera, was happy to have such a nice playground... 😉
#photo #photography #travelphotography #outdoorphotography #qeshm #iran #ship #fishingboats #lifebuoy #fujifilm #fujixe4

Queshmis have been using their hand-built Lenjes for journeys, trading, smuggling, pearl diving, fishing etc. The knowledge of building Lenjes has been passed on from father to son, over time. Lenjes are mentally built without any plan. Therefore, the whole process of Lenj-building has been empirically transferred. This industry has a long cultural history. Traditionally they were built of jungle woods resistant to moisture. Nowadays, the boats are made of modern material like fiberglass...

It was nice to walk along the beach while low tide and capture the mood of the cloudy day...
#iran #qeshm #tide #ship #fisher #nature #naturephotography #photography #photo

The little village Sarrigan, where we are located, has at the seashore the local #traditional #ship manufactury. When we happened to wander past the shipyard and spontaneously wanted to visit the workshop, we were sent away somewhat gruffly. Aha, this day it was friday, the local 'sunday' and obviously no one was working. Fortunately, the beach here is not yet privatized and fenced, so we could still see the ships 'in the making' from a little distance. Marc's outfit fits perfectly 😎
#iran

We are still not yet ready to cycle on -
so, we stay...
most of the day behind the protective walls of 'Assads homestay', where we get delicios food, where we have a pleasent portion of privacy, where we don't always have to pay attention and estimate whether something could happen (not in a negative way! but I want to be kind of prepared if someone come to say hello or to ask where you from).
Of course sometimes we are strolling through the little village, not so often, but thats fine 😅
#iran

About yesterday 😎
Guess whose #birthday we couldn't hide from our lovely hosts... 😍

They always provided us with glutenfree food solutions ☺️
Yesterday they were able to get oat flour and asked us for a bread or cake recipe. We didn't think anything more of it until Assad suddenly said to Marc, while having lunch, that somehow he is looking one year older... ok, we're busted...
For dinner Aishe made traditional 'tomshi' #bread (for us with oat flour) and baked a delicious oat cake 🤩
#iran

Assad took us a to the nearby Chahkooh #canyon. The two of us choose to climb through the inner part of the canyon, through the incredibly impressive eroded and washed out limestone walls and up, to the plateau on top. Meanwhile Assad and Chris, another guest of the b&b, went another way without climbing passages to the plateau. The view over the island was great! Assad led us over the duneshaped hills back to the entrance of this worth seeing site of the #unesco global geoparc of #iran
#nature

https://odysee.com/@sharinggoodmoments:2/cycling_middle_east_I:6

Happy to announce:
our newest video 'cycling middle east l' is online 🥳

Marc already started at our extended stay in Dubai, to collect all the snippets we filmed since we entered Turkey.
Last week we sat all day long at our 'carpet-office' and spent hours editing and subtiteling...

So good to have all videos as reminders 😍 on our odysee channel 🤩

#cycling #video #travelvideo #travelvlog #travel #adventure #sharinggoodmoments #iran #middleeast #turkey #oman #uae

Beside chilling and doing a lot of nothing, we drink #coffee, of course 😅

Because soon we will run out of good ground coffee, which isn't available here, we did how Assad told us. We went to the shop next door to buy green beans (~1kg for 4€, robusta from Vietnam). Before Assad roasted the beans in an iron pan, Fiona sorted out all the bad beans, like Cinderella 😅.
What a nice smell during the roasting process! Surprise, surprise the coffee is very tasty!
#coffeelover #traveling #iran #qeshm

We arrived in the little village Sarrigan on the north-western part of the fish shaped island #qeshm.
Notice: all the blue marks on the map are our sleepingspots...

Since some days we stay here at 'Assad homestay', a B&B run by Asad, his wife Aishe and doughter Ati.
#timetorest #chillday #traveling #cycling #bikepacking #biketravel #biketoot #iran #traveladventures #photography

Late afternoon we came across the sign 'statues valley'. We said 'lets go there and camp between these super fancy looking mountains and rockformations'. The guard, whome we had to pay an entrance fee, assured us that we are allowed to camp and to stay as long as we want. That night was the calmest night since... and the view out of the tent, so wonderful!
During the day we explored the impressive area by foot. Crazy what happened to the prehistoric rocks here, a long, long time ago!
#geshm

Our route led us in a zigzag-way over the island #qeshm. First we pedaled on the northern coast through a very flat and vast landscape to Dargahan, where we crossed the island and went along the south coast to Shib Deraz, the port to Hengam island. We saw and smelled lots of areas where they sundry the small fishes on blue nets. We crossed again to the nortcoast. The roads only led straight ahead, mostly we had headwind, but the surroundings became more and more hillier and interesting...
#iran

In the meantime...
sun woke us up somewhere out there, made the first cup of coffee, went for shit-business, prepared breakfast (oatflakes with a fruit like pommegranate or banana, the juice of one lemon, sugar and water), ate, chilled, drank another coffee, chilled, drank more coffee, packed very slowly our stuff... started pedaling... after some km made a break, ate chips or cooked lunch, had coffee... pedaled... on, slowly slowly, another couple of km until we sat up camp and marveled sunset

'In south #iran we will easily find an affordable private place to stay for one month or more'... thats what we thought before we came here and throwed all the previous plans over board (#cycling to cyprus to spend winter there). But no, its not that easy! Here in the south, especially on the islands and the coast, its now highseason, fully booked and way more expensive than we expected.
We decided now to take one day after the other, cycle around #qeshm and postpone our needness of the break...

Since 16 months we are #cycling around the world 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️🌍 ❤️
The first months it was the new, exciting #bikepackinglife, then it became 'normal' life - obvious & totally fine! Open-end #traveling is not like #holyday... So, we have to find out how to live this new life...
We missed to take some longer breaks, now we are really in need for it.
We long for privacy, space where each of us can move alone & do things by himself, we desire good people around us to talk. We need to refill energy!

When we arrived on #qeshm we felt a bit lost, eventually found a restaurant to eat and a place to camp at the beach.
Funny, how the official campsites (they are free) and almost every parc here on this island is full of 'parcelles' to set up camp. Lots of familys from mainland #iran are here camping. The place to meet and talk together is in front of the toilet house, next to the station to charge the phones 😅
#traveling #cycling #bikepacking #biketravel #BikeTooter #camping

When we pedaled through the so called 'snowy mountains' we felt a little bit like #cycling in the swiss mountains 😅.
Can you see the mountain peak half black half white? Crazy, how is this possible?!
It was nice to pedale around the island on a weekday, means much less traffic. And to be slowly, to have time to look around, to discovere other super nice viewpoints.
Back in town we had a very nice chat with 4 male and 2 female bike travelers from north #iran 😍, before we left #hormuz...

We brought both of our headlamps, waited until some tourist groups had come out and took our time to illuminate, marvel at and to take lots of pictures of the colorful walls inside the rainbow cave 🌈
On our first day on #hormuz, Ahmed, our tuk-tuk driver, told us (his story), how two dutchmen discovered the cave a few years ago and showed it to him, as the first local. Now it is one of the main attractions on the island.
Can you imagine where these #colours come from?
#travelphotography #iran

After a nice, calm night we tried to take a shortcut inland to the rainbow cave. The gravelpath led us direcly into the '#garbage valley'. The view was so shocking, the smell disgusting! Thats the disadvantage of cycling beside paths prepared for visitors. But its the truth, the ugly truth of what humans (we tourists) leave behind. thanks (not thank you!) to the big sellers and their advertising that sells us the need for all this disposable stuff...
We have to face, and to deal with it!

No creditcard or bankcard of a foreign bank is working here, we have to bring all the money we will need during our stay in #iran in cash and exchange it here to a pile of iran rial bills... iranian people pay everything, even a coffee on the street, by card. so they don't have a lot of cash and if they can't give you the right amount of change its how it is or you get a flower 🌸 😇
After three days in this little hut without windows we packed, cycled a bit and camped on the islands coastline.

For three nights we rented a little clay house with straw roof, carpets and some pillows. Luckily we could use our airmat, so we had our usual sleeping comfortability. During the days we took it very easy, compleeted toots from the time in Dubai, wrote journal, drank coffee, strolled through the village with its very nicely created spots.
Ofcourse it's not everywhere beautyful. Most of the village is dusty, dirty, rundown and half-ruined.
#traveling #iran #hormuz #travelphotography #travelphoto

After 3 hours cruising from one touristic spot to the next viewpoint we were so overloaded with impressions. It was hardly possible for us to take in more of the beauty around us. When we entered the rainbow cave it was immediately clear that we have to come back to this place (with better lights)! We will share these pictues later, promised 😇
pic.1: 'snow mountains' (white stone) are visible behind the red rocks.
pic.2: red rocks
pic.3: salty gravel path
pic.4: a yellow large boulder
#hormuz

The 'valley of the statues' was breathtaking. It's crazy what could be created thousands of years ago through cold, heat, water, pressure, earth shifts, etc
Already from far away several animals and dragon heads were spottable.
We dared to climb over a ledge on the smooth rock to the side facing the sea and were rewarded with a gigantic view on to the cliffs and the Persian Gulf. Dangerous but fantastic 😇
#iran #hormuz #adventure #travelphotography #landscapephotography #naturephotography

We where a little bit surprised and felt a bit overwhelmed about the amount of tourists and how they are all clapping, singing and shouting to super loud music on the tuk-tuk. For us it was thursday, but Ahmed teached us, in #iran thursday and friday is the weekend. And in this 'winter season' at least every weekend it is very crowded on #hormuz, the also called 'the party island'...
Next stop was the red- and silver beach (red rocks and black sand)
#traveling #adventure #iran #naturephotography

some more pictures of the salt mountains of #hormuz...
Marc tasted it, its real salt 😅
Its fascinating how many different layers, form and colour variations are visible. Immagine how it would look after been washed by rain from all the dust of the vehicles rushing across!
#iran #traveling #adventure #island #salt #photography #naturephotography #coupleselfie

The first viewpont of the #sightseeing tour around #hormuz is towards the funny, spacy looking, soon opening Majara resort. Coincidentally the manager was there and showed us the inside of the suites. So unique the shapes and colors! Next stops where the salt cave and the so called 'salt godess'. The salt is very healthy, Ahmed told us. Infront of the salt wall 'Nikon' got cought by a large group of Iranian tourists to make photos. Can you spot Marc on pic.4? What do you guess is he doing?
#iran

The first day on #hormuz we spent with a joung chinese backpacker, we called him 'Nikon' because he is wearing a nikon branded gilet and is carrying several cameras. Sadly we couldn't pronounce his real name 🙈. We met him on the ferry from Dubai to #iran and again in Bandar Abbas. Since he wanted to see the treasures of hormuz we decided to take one of the tuk-tuk, the most used transportation on the island, together. Ahmed drove us around and showed us all the magic places 🤩
#traveling #iran

Since we couldn't find an affordable hotel, where we were allowed to take our bicycles into the room at Bandar Abbas, we jumped onto the last boat to go to the island #hormuz. On the boat we had to squeeze us next to piles of raw eggs, pasticbags with salad and all other kind of vegetables and fruits, wooden poles, other building material and tons of luggage of the passengers.
On the island we found an easy spot to set up bivouak 🙂
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #outdooradventures #iran

After 8h on the persian gulf we arrived late night at the port of Bandar Abbas in the very south of Iran. We made it through the migration process 🥳 and found a campspot not very far from the port at the beach between old fisherboats. Next morning, the 10th of january 2024 we started our #Iran 🇮🇷 journey 🤩, cycled to #bandarabbas where we changed money, bought sim cards with the help of a kind iranian guy, drank coffee and had to say goodbye to Guillaume who is #cycling now towards Pakistan.

8th of january '24: we left #dubai, finally 😅
Together with Guillaume we made our way out of the city to #sharjah. One last night we spent wildcamping at the beach near the port, to be the next morning very early there. The check-in process was all about waiting, then hurrying to wait again, run to the next counter to wait in the queu, and so on... with 2.5h delay the ferry sat off at 12:30. On the ferry we met Kyra & Flurin, a swiss #backpacker couple 😀
#cycling #traveling #adventure

... to reach the 'Alserkal Avenue', the district of contemporary #art galleries and creative spaces, we walked through the Al Quoz industrial area and several streets with thousands of so called accomodation camps; 'bedspace' for millions of men from pakistan, bangladesh and india. Without these incredibly brave people #dubai would fall apart imediately.
To see art and creative expression was so good, it had a calm down and refill effect. The #glutefree pizza had a refill and pure joy effect 😋

'dubai-mission' nr. 1: collect our Iran visa - ✅ easy and fast
nr. 2: ferry tickets Dubai to Bandar Abbas (Iran) - 🤯 an odysse
😅 in the end we got the tickets, but...
due to stormy sea the next ferry was canceled - ment 5 more days (way too much) in #dubai 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♂️
since chilling in a parc is not allowed (pic. 4), we strolled through 'Old Dubai' and all the souks, took an 'abra' (boat bus) over the river Dubai Creek and went by metro to the far outside located, fancy enlighted expo2020 ...

#dubai, the #shoppingmall city...
We went to see the enormous ski hall in the #MalloftheEmirates. It's stupidly crazy to ski right in the middle of the desert! It was somehow strange to see how they celebrate winter wonderland and christmas mood with lots of effort. Beside #sightseeing we used the time to visit every #bicycle shop, to collect new tires and other replacement parts. Like at the concept store 'BMC switzerland' we met everywhere super nice and helpful people 😍
#cycling #uae

To see the announced new year's eve fireworks we took the metro to 'Burj Khalifa'. The center of #dubai consists only of #skyscrapers with blue reflective facades.
We strolled through the streets and walked to the beach. Thanks to lucky coincidence, we found the beach with a direct view onto the #burjkhalifa. From here we marveled at the fireworks, which exceeded all our expectations.
On our way back 'home' we came across the impressive museum of future. Wow, what a building!
#dubai #uae #NYE

Last day of the year 2023 😎
We woke up with the sunrise, packed up our bivouac in 'corner 8' and fought our way through the daytime traffic to the hostel where we ha booked a 4-bed room but had to move into a 6-bed hall... rather special... but confident to have a save place for the bikes!
At least we immediately felt very comfortable in the neighborhood. It seems to be inhabited only by pakistani and indian workers. They welcomed us so warmly and made it easier for us to stay.
#cycling #dubai

#cycling through #dubai was crazy terrifying and damn dangerous. Our goal was to find a sleepingspot as close as possible to the neighborhood where we had booked a bed for the coming nights. It was already dark but we were still pedaling in the middle of the super busy, multi-lane highway full of speeding cars (~120km/h). tooo 😱 to take a #photo! After some tense and life-threatening moments, we decided to stop this odyssey. Luckily we found a quiet corner where we set up our bivouac (pic 4).

December 30th 2023 was the day to enter #dubai. The nearer we came the surrealer the whole environment went. From sanddunes, playground for 4x4 drivers, to in sand planted bougainvillea with watering tubes everywhere, to extremely bright green meadows appearing along the highway. And then the we could see the crazy amount of skyscraper through the hazy sky.
#cycling #bikepacking #biketravel #BikeTooter #adventure #uae

... At sunset, 'Said' said: 'yallah, yallah'. The picnic on the carpet, surrounded by nothing but sand was finished. He made it clear to park the bikes and to jump into his car. First he stopped at his father's house where we were invited for more tea, coffee and dates and where we catched a glimpse into the #arabic culture 🤩
In arabic style (honk infront of the shop) Said ordered takeaway food for us... After a quiet night in the bedouin tent, Said came to make breakfast and chat with us 😍

... 'Said', what a hilarious character we met outside the supermarket. Despite his limited english, he was determined to invite us to somewhere. Hugo went with him to scout it out and returned with good news. Off we pedaled to Said's camelfarm... 🐪 There we got the privilege to pet these impressive animals. What an experience! 🤩
Afterwards Said laid down a carpet in the center of the sandy ground and treated us with coffee, tea and all sorts of sweets.
But not enough...
#cycling #camel #uae

On December 29th 2023 we packed our bikes again and the four of us set off towards #Dubai. The first part of our route led us through a mountainous area with some steep climbs before we had to take the highway... at least with significantly lower slopes. Since we couldn't find a restaurant for lunch, we cooked in front of the supermarket. The shop owner gave us some cucumbers when he saw us cooking rice... so nice! 🙂
and then Sahid came across...
...to be continued...
#cycling #BikeTooter #uae

happy new year 🥳🥂🍀❤️
greetings from #dubai and all the best for 2024 🥳

Since 5 days we are in #UAE 🇦🇪, country nr. 26 🥳
Together with Hugo we crossed the border and cycled 10km inland to #Hatta Wadi Hub, where we met Guillaume, another french cyclist.
The place here is a fancy #adventurepark with an lots of crazy activities. Each day hundreds of guests from Dubai, Abudabi etc. enjoying their winterholidays and weekends here. We are fascinated of this shiny fancy 'world'.
A little away from the hustle and bustle we built our own little paradise 🤩
#cycling

Some last impressions of our travel through #oman before we crossed the border to #UAE.

#cycling #bikepacking #biketravel #biketoot #bikeTooter #adventure #travelphotography

Our last camp spots in #oman...
In oman camping is legal and omani people love to camp as well. They take every opportunity, weekend or public holiday to pitch the tents, roll out the huge picnic carpets and spend time outdoor with the whole family.
On weekdays we were mostly alone at the beaches.
#traveling #outdoor #adventuretravel #camping
#cycling #bikepacking #biketravel #BikeTooter #biketoot

Along the coast we faced a different world. Less luxury and oversized villas, less glamurous shining mosques but a lot of dilapidated buildings and abandoned mosques. A local told us about the planned highway 'Dubai to Muscat', directly at the border of the sea. Therefore all people had to leave this area. Now only some fishermen are living there, remained behind.
Sidenote: these old, almost destroyed pickups are still in everyday use, to pull and push the fisherboats into the water.
#cycling

Four days we cycled on the coastal road, mostly along the sea and through the tiny villages near the #sea.
It was amazing to open our eyes and watch the rising sun every morning, to dip the toes into the refreshing water when we made a break and to have a swim in the sea at night.
#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #biketoot #BikeTooter #adventure #outdooradventures #sunrise #photography #travelphotography #oman

Back near #Muscat we met Hugo, a french cyclist. Together we pedaled along the seashore northwestwards.
While #cycling at midday we crossed a camel family on the street and shortly after Ahmed stopped his big pickup next to us. We couldn't resist his invitation to his house and for a delicious lunch.
#bikepacking #biketravel #biketoot #BikeTooter #hospitality

Cycling through #oman means for us more of transporting us from a certain place to the next destination. Not like in other countries, where we cycled through a constantly changing great landscape to enjoy every moment of #cycling and see the diversity. Yes, here is the possibility too to explore the mountain area, especially around Nizwa on steep gravel roads, but for sure it would be super demanding 😅 Nevertheless, we have great moments, love it to be here and see great things on our trip 🤩

from Nizwa we cycled together with a swiss family. Very impressive how Lea rides her bicycle with her son Tim behind her on the 'follow me' bike!
#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #followme #oman

In #oman we met lots of cyclists 😍
We crossed 8 cyclists and shared our route with other 6 cyclist like Felix, Hugo and Lea with Tim and Tobias. Even the #oman cycling champion Omar cycled for 5km with us 😅
#BikeTooter #cycling #biketour #bikepacking

#drinkingwater in #oman

#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #biketravel

Every friday the famous goat market takes place in #nizwa. We got up very early, with the sunrise, to have the experience of this traditional event. The city was quiet, but already kind of busy. The closer we got to the 'goat suk', the more people there were, locals and tourists alike.
#oman #cycling #travel #adventuretravel #travelphotography #photography

Nizwa, what a beautiful city in the mountain area of #oman.
We visited the old traditional #suk. Each seller burns incense and sweet smoke goods in his shop, wherefore the entire suk is full of heavy scents...
#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #travel #adventure #photography #travelphotography #nizwa

Since we are in #oman its warm enough to camp without the flysheet. We love to see the stars and to wake up with the first daylight. Its so magical when the rising sun bathes the #landscape around us in a soft pink-gold light. After breakfast and #coffee we cycled on, on the highway... Everyday we see pickups transporting #camels, but never realised it to take a #photo. When we stopped for lunch at a pakistani restaurant we finally got the chance 🐪 📸 🤩
Lunchbreak on the floor was amazing😋

Marc bought a new set of espresso cups. Now we can invite people for a ☕️ coffee or a 🫖 tea 🙂
A tiny thin wire from a burst trucktire caused that day a flat for Felix 🫤
We pedaled until sunset, pitched our tent and made a cozy fire 🔥
After a whole day cycling 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️🚴on the highway it was wonderful to end the day with cooking on the fire and simply enjoing our life 🥰
#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #BikeTooter #biketoot #adventure #nomadlife #photography #oman

Next stop was 'Al Mintirib' and the so called 'door to the #sanddunes'. Our desire was to find an easy accesible campspot in the dunes, to have the experience of a night under a stary sky in the #desert. It was more touristic than expected. Almost every pickup stopped next to us to offer us a dune-tour (hi my friend...) and along the first visible dune were big villas and trash...
In the end we found a #campspot next to a soccerfield and the next day we pedaled on direction Nizwa
#cycling #oman

The road to the 'Wadi Bani Kahlid' was super steep. Exhausted but excited and relieved we reached together with Felix the top of the hill just after sunset and rushed down into the valley. Next day we enjoyed almost one full day in the #wadi, exploring the cave and swimming in the refreshing water.
#oman #cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter

At midday we searched a place in the shade for a break and water. Since some km there was no shop, no mosque, no house and not a single tree. With #cycling a detour we finally came across a house with a empty waterdispenser next to the house. So Fiona knocked at the door. The friendly omani family imediately invited us into theire house, to eat together with them and to fill our bottles with water after the mum and grown up doughter dressed fiona up as a omani woman.
#hospitality #oman

on the road...
fiona, marc & felix #cycling #oman🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️🚴 😎
and the first flat for marc since 3000km 🥳🤪

The beautiful, carved wooden door to the museum and shipyard of the boat builders of Sur.
The amazing mosque, tone in tone with the pink sandstone hills behind it.
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #biketoot #oman

At the Wadi Shab we came across Felix, a cyclist from Belgium. We camped together not far from the wadi at the seashore and decided the next morning to pedale as a group of three to Sur. There we met a family from France travelling by campervan and took the possibility to camp next to them in the middle of the city, at the beach... What a sunrise we got the next morning 😎
#cycling #oman #BikeTooter #biketoot #bikepacking #biketouring #travel #adventure #photography

The Wadi Shab was amazing.
First we had to take a boat, to cross the water (90m 😅), then we walked through the narrow valley and enjoyed the fresh climate caused by the palmtrees and the green garden 💚
We met again Marianne from biel and while swimming to the cave we met Cornelia and Dominique, two swiss girls with theire tourguide. We had a lot of fun in the cave. Marc climed up the waterfall to another pool and jumped into the natural, cristalclear turquoise water 🩵
#cycling #wadi #oman

For lunch we cooked lentils (dal) with delicious #papadam. In the afternoon we pedaled on. On our right hand the vast, deserty #landscape with steep mountains in the background and from time to time a building complex and on our left hand we had the view over the sea, the golf of #oman. Shortly before sunset we found a #campspot at the beach. That night Marianne was our neighbour. We were quite excited when we saw her swiss carplate and figured out that she is from our hometown 😍
#cycling #biel

yesterday we met Amrit from Punjab, India.
He is cycling with his friend. Find us in his vlog :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fOqAakOgUk

#BikeTooter #oman #india #cycling

The days are quite short. Sun rises at 6.30 am and sunset is at 5.20pm. We figured out quickly, its the best to get up early. Even now, in 'winter' its getting hot very fast and from ~11am to at least 2pm its not fun to pedal on tarmac without a single tree... I (Fiona) am not really an early bird, but I will adapt 😅. Yesterday we sat in the saddle for 5,5h, pedaled 93km. At 7pm we reached the desired beach campspot near the 'Bimmah Sink Hole' where we spend the day today 😎
#cycling #oman

The last two days we cycled mostly on the higway with a wide shoulder. In the early morning and evening, there is quite a lot of traffic, during the day the streets are almost empty. Because of the midday heat we too don't want to pedal, but to find a shady spot to have a 3h pause isn't that easy in this deserty vast environment. Even in the rarely encountered towns it is difficult to find a public park or picnicsite.
#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #BikeTooter #biketoot #adventure #oman

Finally, at 10pm we found our sleepingspot, 100m off the tarmac road behind a rocky little mountain. The short night was quiet, only a shy wild-donkey came across...
Today we pedaled through a very bizarr rocky and deserty landscape. From time to time we came along stripes of green oasis. Sadly all these wonderful palmtree gardens are fenced with a high wall. Luckily we found one of the really very rare shady places to fix the puncture from yesterday again (thanks to cheap china patches!). #oman

In the afternoon we pedaled out of #muscat. Our plan was to reach Yiti beach, have a swim in the refreshing sea and to pitch our tent. It was already dark, we came to a roundabout and saw that our route was blocked. 'No visitors allowed'. The next two beaches we tried to reach were closed too. The guards said 'closed' and 'private', in a stern tone. It was after 9pm. We were frustrated and hopeless. After fixing a flat, having a #coffee and already 60km on the tacho we hit the road again...

As soon as we had assembled the bikes at the airport, we cycled a few km to a park by the sea to take a break. Suddenly Dai and Monica, a cyclist couple from Spain, stood next to us. We had already messaged together and wanted to meet up, but we didn't think it would happen so quickly. We exchanged travelstories and experiences, went out to eat and today we visited the gigantic Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque together. We shared good moments.
#oman #grandmosque #mosque #photography #cyclinglife

We just finished our Balkan video 🥳
watch and boost 😎
🚴‍♂️🚴

https://peertube.linuxrocks.online/w/6D8vF6WefYKpDrDUL5Hmq4

#BikeTooter #cycling #gravelbike #travel #croatia #bosnia #herzegovina #montenegro #albania #greece #balkan #worldtour #drinkingwater #dog

yea, we arrived at #muscat in #oman 🇴🇲
how 62% of you dear voters had guessed 😅

#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #travel #adventure #nomadslife #cyclingtheworld

Guess where we are going:

bye bye #istanbul, we had a great time strolling through your streets, visiting your famous places and learning about your culture. Bye bye and thank you alper for your kind hospitality. While the week at your place we could recover and regain energy. 🫶

Now we are on the move again...
The bicycles are packed and checked in...
#cycling #bikepacking #travelbike #travel #turkey

It was nice to stroll through the grand bazar...
I was totally in love with the architecture...
In the end, the omnipresent cats of #istanbul found their way into my picture gallery...
We turned into 'Migros Kids'... 😅 dear swiss friends, did you know in turkey they have the Migros supermarkets too?

by boat, thats the way to explore #istanbul 😍

We made it, together with Baptiste, to the nearest possible ferry stop, 'Rumelî Kavagi' on the #bosporus before the black sea.
And of course we drank çay, everywhere çay, heaps of çay 🤩

#Istanbul is amazing!
We visited some mosques, wandered between the column of the basilica cisterne with the nice medusa head pedestal and were amazed about the view onto the wooden houses at the princess islands.
#turkey
#travel #travelphotography

We enjoy our time off the bicycles...
#istanbul #turkey
#sightseeing #nightseeing #travelphotography

In the evening, after sunset we made it to #istanbul. From the busstation we cycled through the craaaaaaazy and daaaaaaangerous traffic to the neighbourhood #kadıköy where our host alper waited for us 😍.
Today we got some first, very nice impressions 🤩
#turkey

Some impressions from the bus to #Istanbul.
we prepared a delicious 'müesli' (oat) with #pomegranate in the bus 😋

Impressions from our recovery walk in #Lapseki...
#turkey

thank you for the many wishes for recovery!
🫶
we are both feeling better again and are now sitting on the bus to istanbul, where (thanks to #mastadon/xmpp) we have an invitation we are looking forward to 🤩
praise the open web 🙏

Hey, we have entered a new continent. Hello Asia 🤩! How cool is that! 🥳

Since Fiona was feeling sick, we took the first affordable hotel room we found as soon as we arrived in Lapseki.
And here we are... since three days... Fiona is feeling a little better, but now Marc has the same symptoms. That's why we stay here...
drink tea, sleep, repeat...
ps: luckily the room is an appartment with a kitchen and a funny little bathtube to sit in. So grateful for that!
#cycling #notcycling #turky

The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge is the longest and second tallest suspension bridge in the world—with a main span of 2,023m. It is a road suspension bridge that spans the Dardanelles, about 10km (6.2mi) south of the Sea of Marmara. The bridge was officially opened on 18 March 2022 after roughly five years of construction. The year "1915" in the official Turkish name honours an important Ottoman naval victory against the navies of the United Kingdom and France during World War I. ... so Wikipedia

On the terrace right on the seashore of a closed campsite, we took our lunchbreak. To pedale on the highway is so incredible energy sukking, even if there isn't too much trafic. The constant stress because of the cars and trucks, the omnipresent engine noise... and this day we had headwind... its not every day cookie eating, not even on a bike 😉
We left the aegean sea and continued our route to Gelibolu where we took the ferry to cross the sea of marmara to Lapseki.
#cycling #BikeTooter #turky

In the evening we found a spot in the forest near the road to pitch our tent. We weren't particularly surprised when a family of dogs joined us. The two puppies were very cute, but we stood our ground and didn't touch them or give them food. As soon as we crawled into the tent, the dogs also set up their 'nest' and stayed with us until dawn. The off-road route we tried to take wasn't really trustworthy, so we ended up back on the highway with no spectacular views other than the golden arch.

The whole night it poured out of buckets and had thunderstorms. We where so happy with our campspot! Next morning we breakfasted with the other couple, exchanged travelstories 😍 and got turkish çai before #cycling on. At #Keşan we stopped, to search for food, cash and a simcard... Quite tricky!
To get cash cost enormous fees 💸
To get one of the expensive simcards took time ⏳ but wih coffee, eeeasy 😅
Vegi- and glutenfree food 🤷‍♀️ (not talking about vegan!)
Lets see how we can adapt 😅

In #turkey we found us cycling on a four lane #highway. At least with a wide shoulder and in this evening it had not too much trafic. When we came to Ipsala a fire (someone burned his garbage) had covered the whole city in thick acrid smoke. To stay in this area was no option, so we kept on pedaling as fast as possible, until it was dark. At a gasstation we met by coincidence a #cycling couple. They had set up #tent behind the station and the owner offered us to pitch ours in the garage. 😇

Very excited we crossed the border and entered #turkey 🇹🇷 country nr. 24
with 16'200km on our odometer... 🥳

ps: never seen such a nice borderbuilding 🤩

#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #BikeTooter #biketoot #cyclingaroundtheworld

While waiting for the sunset we could watch a group of dolphins jumping through the waves behind us. Wow! So impressive! We stood there at the reiling, speachless and stoked 🐬 🤩
As we reached Alexandroupoli we rushed through the city to our, on googlemaps spottet expected sleepingspot. Unfortunately the whole vast area was super mudy and wet, so we decided to pitch our tent behind a playground. Next day we cycled eastward through such a special regions. look these trees!
#cycling #greece

We left the georgeous island #samothraki to move on. After only 1 day of #cycling some km half around the island without luggage it felt so hard to pedal again with the fully loaded bikes 🙈
While waiting to bark on the #ferry we enjoyed the mandatory #coffee from our #bialetti with an amazing view onto the #mountain Fengari (1611m). #greece

Last but not least the different statues of the beautiful and famous #Nike of #Samothrace. The original statue can be seen in the Louvre Museum in Paris... the white one is an exact 3d print since france wants to keep the original... 🤔

#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #BikeTooter #biketoot #greece

Of course we don't want to withhold the pictures of the masterpiece from you!
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #biketoot #biketouring #samothraki #greece

The 'Sanctuary of the Great Gods' is an ancient site located on #samothraki in #greece. It was a renowned center for mystery cults and was dedicated to the worship of the great gods, a group of deities with #mysterious identities. The sanctuary complex featured various temples, ritual spaces, and a sacred altar. It attracted pilgrims from all over the ancient world who sought initiation and #spiritual purification.
We spent a mesmerizing two hours wandering through this captivating location.

exploring #samothraki
#cycling #greece

... The ferry brought us to the island of #Samothraki 😍

We found an easy studio, had a shower and stayed inside for the following 36hours 😇 relaxing our legs 😎
Outside it was crazy super windy and rainy, really no reason to go outside 😅
What a lucky coincidence that we are not exposed to the storm either in our tent or on the bike right now!
First task after the storm was over: cleaning our bikes and stuff, washing our clothes and discovering our surrounding 🤩
#cycling #restday #greece

In the Harbour of Alexandroupoli we took the ferry...
#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #BikeTooter #biketoot #adventure #greece

We pedaled the coastalroad. On our left side the hills were all burnt down. The smell of charred trees still hung in the air. It was so sad to see these dead trees! On our right side we got an amazing view over the sea. For lunch we stopped and had a picnic next to the #sea. It was awesome! After that, we rode our bikes through some small neighborhood streets to get to #Alexandroupoli where we said goodbye to Oda and Clemens.
#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #BikeTooter #biketoot #greece

To take a shower at the empty beach it was a tiny bit to chilly this morning 😅
And luckily the road wasn't that rough like expected from the roadsign 😅
But we had to free Oda's mudguard from the sticky mud...
#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #BikeTooter #biketoot #outdooradventures #adventure #travel #greece

Finally, the sun broke through, and we continued #cycling. At a junction, we met Oda and Clemens, two cyclists from Norway. Since we were going in the same direction, we decided to continue together, set up our camp on the still very muddy ground, and spent the evening chatting and exchanging stories under the clear, sparkling starry sky. The next morning, we embarked on our joint stage. It's nice to share the route with like-minded people 😍
#bikepacking #biketouring #BikeTooter #greece

Oh! by sheer coincidence, I captured 16,000km 😅🥳
#odo #odometer

We woke up before sunrise to a brief rain shower. Luckily we managed to escape the second downpour at a café and had breakfast under the roof of a chappelle. We cooked lunch at a bus stop, glad for the shelter when it started pouring out of buckets. Suddenly a local offered us his run-down, unused #caravan. We arrived totally wet, but thankefully took this offer and sat out the rain in the dry place. Between the rain showers, we cycled on the serviceroad along the boring highway...
#cycling

Continuing to cycle in the sunshine along the coast and empty beaches. The roads were not very busy, and we easily passed through the less appealing harbor town of Kavala. In the evening, we arrived at the next beach. We had found this spot through #IOverlander. However, to our dismay, the place turned out to be a run-down and abandoned holiday/beach bar complex, surrounded by litter and filth. It wasn't exactly the most idyllic place for cyclists #traveling with tents...
#cycling #greece

#cycling the coastal route from Asprovalta to Cape Appolonia, we stumbled upon the most amazing campspot with an incredible 180° panoramic view of the sea. It was the perfect spot to witness both the awe-inspiring #sunset and the breathtaking #sunrise the next morning.
#BikeTooter #bikepacking #travelphotography #greece

We departed Thessaloniki, passed by lake Koronia and pedaled through the villages with amusing names like Profitis or Nymfopetra, the later has an archaeological site were a legend says, that hunters were turned to stone because they stared at the bathing nymphs...
We continued along lake Volvi, and to our surprise, we had already crossed the Chalkidiki peninsula and reached the Thracian sea where we decided to enjoy the warmth of the evening sun at the beach and take a swim in the sea.
#greece

We took a train from Katerini to #Thessaloniki, which is the only remaining train line that passes through the once important train station. On top of the hill overlooking the bustling city, we found our #campspot for the night and decided to pitch our tent on the basketball field to avoid some of the thousands of centipedes that emerged after sunset. The next day, october 28th, we witnessed the crazy flight show of jet fighters in the air, as it was #Greece's national day.
#cycling #biketooter

As the tourist season comes to an end, all the hotels, resorts, restaurants, campgrounds and beach bars have packed up and closed. That looks quite strange. However, a handful of campers still remain, seeking to catch the last warmth and sunny days in #greece. They are lucky enough to secure the finest spots, right by the sea. We, too, have found an idyllic location with shelter from the roof and wind, aswell as cctv camera protection 😅, to fall asleep to the sound of the waves that night.

We cycled through Trikala and Larissa to Tempi from where the road ahead was impassable. Tempi, like many other villages we had passed, was devastated and nearly abandoned. The destruction caused by the flood was evident everywhere. With no other option, we spent the night on the first floor of a gas station under construction. The next morning we took the detour over the mountain 'Olympus',
pedaled in the rain towards the sea.
#cycling #BikeTooter #mountolympus

Two days cycling along the highway was rather monotonous, but ok. So we could process the experiences of the past days. What caught our attention were the damaged cotton fields. A farmer told us about the massive storm which flooded the entire valley 6 weeks ago. 1,2mio ha. of cotton fields, a important export good to Turkey and Vietnam got destroyed. The garbage hanging from trees and scattered on the bridge railing showed us the immense height the water reached during the storm.
#climatechange

four last pictures... 😅

The Greek word Meteora means “suspended in the air”

This magical place left us absolutely enchanted and overflowing with joy.

#meteora #greece #travelling #travelphotography #naturephotography #cycling #exploretheworld #lovemylife

For that day we had different plans...
Marc wanted to do the advertised e-mountain bike tour to explore this unique and challenging #landscape without any luggage. Fiona opted for a regular tour. She joined the other tourists, was transported from #monastery to #photo spot to capture the picturesque scenery with her camera. What an experience...😅
Unfortunately, Marc's desired tour did not take place. So he enjoyed the rising sun on a #rock, where Fiona coincidentally met him 🥰
#meteora #greece

#meteora, what magical place!

'According to scientists, these pillars were formatted about 60 million years ago, during the tertiary period. Once the area was covered by the sea, but a series of earth movements caused the seabed to withdraw. The mountains left were continuously hit by strong winds and waves, which, in combination with extreme weather conditions, affected their shape. This is why the pillars are composed of sandstone and conglomerate.' (greeka.com)
#cycling #BikeTooter #greece

There was a bear 🐻 close to our tent. We guess he decided to watch us quietly on how we run behind a fox 🦊 during the night 🤣
€1 piece for size comparison 😉
The #riverbed still showed signs of the flood from a few months ago 😱
#cycling #greece #nature #wildnature #wildlife

Approximately 7km before we reached Kalabaka, we found an ok'ish place to pitch our tent.
At #midnight Fiona woke up because some'thing' knocked at our tent... 🤔
When she opened the zipper a #fox 🦊 stood there...
watch the #video marc cutted of that special visit 🤣

https://peertube.linuxrocks.online/w/wKCCpcp9QQgSGQ7yiremPm

In the last picture you can guess what the object of desire was.

We had been #cycling the whole time on an orange 'national road', but apart from a few locals there was no traffic. Everyone seems to be driving on the highway that cuts through the mountain far below us. ...thats what we thought, but... after an amazing 12km and almost 1'000m descent we figured out why we where alone on this street. a landslide 😱 imagine to sleep in your tent underneath this nice tree and out of a sudden the whole piece of land slides down the slope 😱
#adventure #greece

The following morning we continued uphill, from #Metsovo up to 1'725m on the Katara pass, where it was very windy but where we had a fantastic view. Beside the scenic #mountain #landscape we were capativated by the beautiful colorful mixed-leaf forests.
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #greece #nature #autumncolors

The rest of the day, from Longades we pedaled uphill... nothing else than uphill! 🚵‍♀️ 🚵
The sky turned cloudy and grey but it was still enough warm, no even sweaty to stay in t-shirt and shorts.
While pushing the bike up the steep road, fiona discovered a big multicolored #caterpillar beside the road. And a swiss #bikepacking #cyclist overtook us. After a short chat he had to move on, since he only has a limited amount of time...
#lifetime #slowtravel #cycling #BikeTooter

In the early morning we cycled on, had breakefast while the sun rose at the other side of the lake and continued our journey once again around the beautiful #lake of #ioannina eastwards.
#cycling #bikepacking #travellingbybike #greece #landscapephotography #naturephotography

#Ioannina in north west of #greece and the region #epirus is a very charming and bustling city. During our break days which we spend here at the place of distant relatives, we had the pleasure of leisurely strolling through the city's enchanting streets, captured nice datails and had a visit at the ancient castle of Ioannina.
#cycling #bikepacking #TravelByBike #sightseeing #citytrip #BikeTooter

The #mystical view in the early morning and the #sunrise through the sea of ​​fog were fantastic. Luckily our campspot was above the fog line. With our new companion, the 18 year young solo #cyclist Jordan on his way to asia, we pedaled to Ioannina, went for groceries shopping and had a lunchbreak on the southern #promenade along the lake of #Ioannina. Later we cycled around the lake until we found a very easy campspot, for once early in the afternoon.
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #greece

The next day we took it easy... cycled a little, took breaks and red an e-book to each other. In the afternoon we passed one of the stone arch bridges that are famous here in #Epiros. The #bridge of #Klidonia leads over the river #Voidomatis and has very special deformed trees on its banks. It was already getting dark and we were still looking for a place to sleep when we spotted a cyclist a little off the road under olive trees and joined him.
#cycling #bikepacking #travelbike #greece #nature

#greece 🇬🇷 🥳
we reached country nr. 23 🤩

The border crossing at 'Tre Urat' on the alabanian side and 'Mertziani' on the greek side was super easy and fast...
We reached the town #Konitsa the same evening, restocked food and, by chance, discovered the #stonebridge (length 36m/ height 20m) that leads over the #Aoos river. The #bridge is narrow, steep and has low parapets. The small bell under the arch warns passers-by not to cross the bridge when there is strong wind.
#cycling #BikeTooter

From the road, which winds up for a few meters, we marvel at the incredible view of the river and the impressive albanian mountains. During the descent we enjoy lying in the curves and feeling the wind. 🚵‍♀️ 🚵 😎
Here in the eastern part of #albania we loved the #nature and were impressed about the #landscape.
#cycling #velo #bike #BikeTooter #radreisen #travelbike #aroundtheworld

There are lots of bridges to cross the Vjosë river. But its very important to keep an eye open before pedaling... 🫣 😜

#cycling #fahrradfahren #radreise #adventuretravel #bridge #albania

In the evening, we made a big fire. And in the morning we made our italian espresso coffee in the in the remaining embers. 🥰 ☕️
#cycling #bikepacking #biketoot #travelling #camping #tent #sunset #fire #campfire #sunrise #coffee #bialetti #mountainview

The following night we spent on an empty field. Even though we were much deeper down in the valley, it got cooler in the morning hours than it had been the night before at just over 1000m in the mountains. We cycled on, but only for 7km, when we found a nice spot to spend the day at the border of the river Vjosë. We were eager to cool off, so we took a refreshing dip in the #water. It was so relaxing in the warm #sunshine and under our bicycle-blanket-shade-shelter 😎
#cycling #chillday

and more pictures from the day we made our way downhill into the Vjosë valley...
🚵‍♀️ 🚵 😎

#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #adventure #outdoor #nature #naturephotography #landcape #mountains #albania #balkan

Some more landscape pictures from our adventurous uphill trip in the albanian mountains between the Osum- and the Vjosë valley 😎
#cycling #bikepacking #hikeabike #BikeTooter #offroad #adventure #LadscapePhotography #nature #albania #balkan

Fiona and Marc are cycling the globe since september 2022. 🚴‍♀️🚴🌍️
They got married ❤️, sold everything, and started their journey from the place they called home.
This video shows some impressions from the first year living as nomads on the road.
There was never the intention to produce a movie, but after scrolling through our video pieces we realized it would be nice to cut some of our experiences together.

https://peertube.linuxrocks.online/w/iXGQxDk8kcFA8Pw75M6YQj

#cyclingtheworld #nomadslife #bikepacking #BikeTooter

The next morning, on top of the mountain, a dude with his, with green branches fully loaded donkey came along. He gave us his hand, greeted us, and talked with us. Sadly we couldn't understand anything, except 'hello' (phonetic: 'pershendeti').
The way down was not a tiny bit better than the road uphill, but downhill we didn't needed that much time 😅
Down in the valley we treated us with delicious vegetarian food 😋
and rolled along the crazy blue river Vjose.
#cycling #BikeTooter #travelbike

And then, again... we expected a narrow but ridable road over the #mountain into the Vjosë valley... After #cycling the first 7km uphill on a paved road it turned into a gravel road, got rougher, narrower and steeper...
No! turn around, go back and search for another adventurous way over the mountains (or over the highway) wasn't an option. For 6 hours we pushed and dragged our #bicycles until we reached the top of the mountain and tired but happy found an easy campspot for the night.
#albania

After a night next to the river Osum we could admire the rocky #canyon for the following 10km.
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #travelling #adventure #nature #naturephotography #balkan #albania

The road through the Osum Valley to the Osum Canyon stretched out. It went endlessly up and again down to the river. We took our time, enjoyed #cycling and the great #landscape around us, drank coffee in small villages, brushed our teeth at a fantastic viewpoint and were amazed when we finally reached the #canyon and saw the massive, gigantic, pillar-like rock walls.
#albania #balkan #travel #BikeTooter #adventure #nomadslife

We thought to camp near Berat, at the border of the river Osum, but it just had too much dodgy people around. So we pedaled on until we came across an unfinished house. A young man asked if we need help and secured us that we easily can stay there for the night. After some phrases together he told us that he spent some time in a swiss prison, because of working without papers.Then he wished us a nice evening in a propper swiss dialect 'e schööne oobe' 🤣
We had a safe night 😅
#cyclinglife

Sometimes we have to laugh out loud at ourselves when we are once again see the looks of the tourists while we drag our packed bikes over the most steep and uncyclable paths 🤣
Our 'donkeys' are our 'everything' and they are dragged along everywhere 😍
The castle ruins and the view over the pretty town of #Berat were worth the effort.
#cycling #BikeTooter #travelling #albania

Berat is nicknamed 'the city of a thousand eyes'. We quickly discoveres how it got that name. The white ottoman stone houses climb up the hill to its castle, so everywhere you go, the windows seem to be watching you. 😎
We tackled the steep cobblestone path to the castle late in the afternoon.
#albania #cycling #hikeabike #adventure #sightseeing

In the lowlands, where the majority of Albanians live in villages along busy roads, there is a lot of rubbish in the countryside and in every stream. The waters also all smell like rotten and toxic wastewater from the dilapidated factories.
The season is over, the infrastructure for tourists stands abandoned and half dismantled.
The people here are extremely friendly to us. We were given the huge melon as a gift one morning.
#cycling #biketooer #travelling #balkan #albania

#albania showed us his agricultural landscape and the sea-side. The people are very friendly, loughing and greeting us 😎
our route so far:
Hani Hotit -> Shkoder -> Lezhë -> Fushë-Krujë -> Durrës -> Rrogozhinë
#cycling #biketoot #landscape #beach #nature

🥳 yesterday, exactly when we reached the sea, after almost 2 months cycling in the mountains, our odometer showed the number 15'000 🥳
#odo #odometer #cyclingtheworld #cyclingaroundtheworld

1300m downhill 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️😎
we headed to the border of #montenegro and #albania. There we waited in the queu in middle of old and brandnew mercedes cars to get our passports scanned and stamped...
The 4th picture shows a screenshot of all our #sleepingspots in the so far cycled through balkan countries slovenia, croatia, bosnia & herzegovina and montenegro. (combine the dots to get our route 😉). We mark every spot in #organicMaps.
#cycling #nomadslife #travelling

Cycling in the mountains of #montenegro is amazing. 😍
#cycling #bikepacking #biketouring #BikeTooter #travel #adventure #nomad #balkan

Brandi, our new dog, has turned our lives upside down. 🐕❤️
We discussed all possible scenarios of how we could take him with us and how it would affect our travel. We saw that we were soon approaching a dangerous main road, and Brandi still positioned himself bravely in front of every oncoming truck, trying to protect us. With heavy hearts, we left him behind speeding downhill at ~50 km/h without looking back. 😢💔
#traildog #montenegro #cycling

From Uvač this cute little dog run with us. 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️🐕
We tried to send him back. But in vain. He stayed with us at all costs.
Over 2 mountains for more than 30km. And of course he totally captured our hearts ❤️ so we gave him dinner and a place in our absis of the tent to sleep. He had such good manners, we were impressed. He accepted the limits and placed his poo deep into the bushes.
#dog #traildog #cycling

From Žabljak we took the road to the Tara bridge (everyone goes to visit this 'attraction'...) In our opinion it is not recomendable to cycle to, and through the tara canyon. The street is narrow without any kind of shoulder, there are a lot of campervans and touristbusses. And in addition, the canyon is not really visible if you are deep down in itself and its very dificult to find a campspot. Near Mojkovac Slobodan invited us to drink schnapps and coffee for breakfast in his garden 😍
#cycling

The 15km and 655m descend was fantastic, but the beautiful region turned into an ugly touristic mountain village. However, in #Žabljak we spent two cold nights (6°C) on a campground. It was time to take a shower with hot water 😅 🛁 and it was good to meet other people, wonderful to socialize and talk to others in our mothertongue, german and english...
#cycling #bikepacking #travel #adventure #balkan #montenegro

And then the #Durmitor enfolds his beautiful peaks. From the Sedlo pass 1907m we had a fantastic view over the switchbacks we had pedaled the last hours.
Btw. the route is the touristic panoramaroute nr.1. We are happy that's off season... the road is narrow and there is still a lot of touristic traffic.
#cycling #BikeTooter #bikepacking

The highplateau that led us to the durmitor national park showed its fascinating beauty at every turn. One of the most beautiful places we have ever seen.
#cycling #bikepacking #balkan #montenegro #DurmitorNationalPark

After a dayride along the Sutjeska valley on both sides of the river we crossed the border to #Montenegro. Not far from the border we pitched our tent next to the narrow path. Next morning we woke up in middle of thickest, wet and cold fog. We pedaled steadily the winding road up the mountain until we emerged from the fog into beautiful, sunny weather.
#cycling #BikeTooter #balkan

The Battle of Sutjeska Memorial Monument (Spomenik Bitka na Sutjesci) is a sculpture and memorial complex built in the 1970s to remind humanity of the bad things happen in the Battle of #Sutjeska in 1943. Designed by sculptor Miodrag Ivkovi and Ranko Radovic. The monument consists of two 20 metre 'wings' and took seven years to build.
#bosnia

two days with a lot of thunderstorms, rain and black clouds... The #mountainview on road towards #tjentiste and the #sutjeska Nationalpark was breathtaking!
#cycling #BikeTooter #BosnienHerzegowina

The closer we got to Gacko the darker it became. The sky was almost black from the thunderstorm that was building up in front of us. In addition an acrid cloud of smoke came from the open-cast coal mine and the power plant. Catastrophic! Happy and relieved we found a covered picnic area were we cooked a delicious latenight dinner despite the strong and long-lasting thunderstorm. Next morning we figured out were we slept. Wow, what a view over the lake!
#cycling #bikepacking #bosniaherzegovina

In the begining we where scared of landmines.
now our rule is to respect barriers, fences and warning signs. we also do not walk in high grass.

#landmines #bosnia

in bosnia herzegovina the road unexpectedly transforms into a rough, steep and rocky terrain like a riverbed, despite being marked as a main street on the map. yes, on this roads you meet cars 😅
in the valleys we also always find surprisingly nice places to eat lunch, rest and even to take a bath 🤩

#gravel #cycling #bosniaherzegovina #balkan

Around midday we both dreamed of eating pommes... In this lost region there is no restaurant, no bar, no supermarket, no kiosk or farmersmarket. We are #cycling past more graveyards (often very old and derelicted, or where they devasted?) than hamlets. And then, Marc shoutet 'patatoes'! Stopped his bike and asked if we should collect some leftover potatoes from the harvested field. So we got our potatoe-lunch with these incredibly tasty 'crumpiri' 🤩!
#BikeTooter #balkan #bosniaherzegovina

Still in the mountains, on a high plateau ~1100m, inbetween the peaks Tjeme 1326 and Ivanov Vrh 1389, to mention only two of all these nearby peaks around us...
We do have enough food and we found a drinking water fountain/ natural spring. So we are happy to be in this beautiful wild mountain area!
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #adventure #outdoor #nomadslife #balkan #bosniaherzegovina

From Konjic it went straight uphill. Soon we had to take a long lunch break. Not only because we still felt the day before's 'tunnel ride' in all our muscles, but also because it started raining. The street was no longer asphalted and for quite a while the 'path' ran adventurously along the steep abyss. Fortunately, we arrived in time from this difficult route section to a small hill where we were able to pitch our tent before it rained and stormed almost the whole night. It even hailed 😱

Along the Jablaničko lake there is only one very busy and narrow road. There is definitely no room for cyclists. And if that isn't enough, there are tunnels there. Sometimes there is a bypass, but that requires you to cross the road twice, which is pointlessly dangerous (same as taking pictures 😱). So we bit the bullet and pedaled our way through the tunnels as fast as we could. We arrived in Konjic bathed in sweat and completely destroyed after a total of 80km at late evening.
#autokorrektur

Along the Ramsko jezero water reservoir to Jablanica with its monument of the blown up rail bridge.

#cycling #BosnienHerzegowina

We heard a lot of storys about the dangerous wild dogs in the balkan...
..this family of quite big #dogs protected us the whole night and they where very friendly. Every night we meet new dogs, but we somehow always become friends quite fast 🥰
#wildcamping #BosnienHerzegowina #WildDogs #cycling

The first uphillride towards Tomislavgrad we had sunny and quite hot weather, we sweated a lot 😅
On the plateau we almost got cought by a black cloud. Exactly at the right time we found shelter at a picnictable underneath a roof 😇
One hour later, the temperature had dropped down dramatically, the rain stopped and we could pedale on with dry feet.
#cycling #BikeTooter #bosniaherzegovina

We pushed our bikes a ridiculous steep, mostly unridable gravel path toward the bosnian border.
From an german cyclist we got the recomendation to visit the Buško jezero lake. It was a super rec.! we stayed there, chilling on the beach for two days 😎.
#cycling #BikeTooter #bosniaherzegovina

Totally naive and happy we cycled smooth on a super new asphalted mainroad. No car appeared, we had the whole road for us...
yes, we ignored the sign 'driving banned'...
After almost one hour cycling we knew why they closed the new street (without detour possibility). A huge (~3km) constuction site was there. Oh no, do we really have to turn around? No, the friendy workers waved us through and we passed all the big street-constuction-machines.
#cycling #Cetina

Later on we reached the natural spring #Cetina. Because we spotted it on #organicMaps we cycled there to refill our bottles. And once more, we were surprised about this magical place. In the karst mountains every single raindrop disapears inbetween the rocks and stone layers. But down in the valley the #water appears suddenly at one point directly out of the ground.
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #croatia

The next morning we crossed the 'spomenik smrznuti partizani', one of numerous monuments across th balkan countrys.
#cycling #bikpacking #BikeTooter #croatia

We left Knin after eating pommes while it rained out of a big black cloud. Our track, a easy gravelroad led us through a nice canyon like valley. Again we had a breathtaking view down to the clearblue river. Later on, we could grab fresh figues directly from the tree. So delicious!
#cycling #croatia

Fiona and Marc are cycling the globe since september 2022. 🚴‍♀️🚴🌍️
They got married ❤️, sold everything, and started their journey from the place they called home.
This video shows some impressions from the first year living as nomads on the road.
There was never the intention to produce a movie, but after scrolling through our video pieces we realized it would be nice to cut some of our experiences together.

https://peertube.linuxrocks.online/w/iXGQxDk8kcFA8Pw75M6YQj

#cyclingtheworld #nomadslife #bikepacking #BikeTooter

Totally fascinated about the new style of #nature and #landscape we pedaled into the park prirode Velebit. We were amazed about the canion where the Krnjeza river meets the river #Krupa. Little bit further we cross the river Krupa beside the same named monastry and followed our new #brouter track through a totally vast region, filled only with low bushes and rocks. With a nice descent we reached Knin.
#cycling #BikeTooter #croatia

Since the trans balkan race track is way to rough for our loaded bikes, we created a new track with #brouter's trekking profile. This #algorhythm is so unbeatable. It routed us over the pass Prezid into the natur reserve 'Park prirode #Velebit'.
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #croatia #brouterweb

The Croatian hinterland is full of surprises. Abandoned farms, dilapidated and bombed ruins, houses with bullet holes, beside very modern buildings, new tinyhouses, tiny villages, graveyards, warning signs of landmines and a wide variety of animals.
We started to read the complex history of this beautiful region since we can't beleive why all this land is not used for permaculture and sustainable living projects.
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #croatia

and it really works 🤓

Not far from Gospić we crossed the river Lika. Fascinated about the clear water underneath the bridge we stopped and decided to have a look if it would be possible to cook and chill. It was amazing! We had lunch, took a bath in the refreshing water, washed some clothes, observed fishes and simply enjoyed to do nothing. These hours have given us so much more than a rest day on a campground...
The next early morning we were rewarded once more with an amazing view when we left the place.
#cycling

Every night when we find a safe, flat, dry and thornless place to pitch our tent, we are grateful.
Take a look at some of our most recent sleeping locations.
#croatia #cycling #BikeTooter #wildcamping #nomads

We almost couldn't get enough from this breathtaking view... but also enjoyed the descend down into the #gacka valley. The river with its georgous waterfall is clear and fresh drinking water. In #Gospić we saw the statue of Nicola Tesla (yes, the real #Tesla, not this creepy guy with the electric cars) who invented the alternating current and other groundbreaking energy stuff back then in the late 1800...
#cycling #croatia

Near the Velika Sviba Peak we parked the bikes and walked a labyrinth trail. Super nice the idea and how they are laied out of carst stones.
Btw. in this area the mediterrane- and continental #climate are melting together. Along the mountain ridge it was super windy; head- or sidewind for us. Still with the wind, during the day it was very warm, but as soon as the sun disapeared it was cold. We ha around 10°C in the early morning hours. Time to take #coffee and breakfast in the tent 🤩
#cycling

what a feeling when you suddenly get a glimpse of an eye of the deep blue sea, the #adriaticsea and the cliffy rock coastline of the croatian islands. Indescribable!

Near the little village Breze via the Vratnik mountain pass to Oltari the trans balkan race track and the new #eurovelo 8 track taking mostly the same route.

Beautiful, wild nature, really amazing and highly recomendable for #cycling!
#BikeTooter #croatia

As soon as we find a calm and save campspot we start to improve and #repair our stuff. 😅
This day in the #dinaricalps of #croatia we siliconized our bags to make them more #waterproof and Marc
fixed our #solarpanel with an usb powered soldering iron 😎
#diy #maker
#cyclinglife #nomadslife
#BikeTooter

At Fužine we decided to keep on pedaling on the small tarmac road via Lič. What a great decision, we enjoyed it so much! The road was in a good condition and there was almost no traffic. But most important, the surrounding #nature and the view over the #hills and sometimes even to the #adriaticsea was breathtaking!
#bikepacking #cycling #BikeTooter
#croatia

From Matulji (1km from the sea) we cycled all the way uphill to the mountain pass Gornje Jelenje 878m, where we crossed the trans balkan race track again. It was late when we entered the nationalpark #Risnjak and it was dark when we pitched our tent somewhere in the woods. Because of the knowledge that in this forest bears, wolfes and lynx are living we slept not very good and got up the next morning very early.
#cycling #BikeTooter #croatia

After 2 days totaly in #nature we realized there are almost no possibilities to restock food. Eventually we reached a little supermarket by pedaling a detour in late afternoon but the shop was closed since midday. So we had to choose the way from ~ 1100m down to ~300m into the inhabited region. What a 'culture shock' 🙈. With the knowledge of the food supply possibilities we will have back on track, we filled our bags and even our backpacks with food and snacks 😅
#cycling #BikeTooter

We entered #Croatia over a green border. From there we cycled the 'trans balkan bikepacking race' track.
The first 20km led through a quite remote area. The path (hiking path) was super rough and technical. Marc loves to race loose gravel paired with bigger rocks. For Fiona its very demanding. She ended up pushing her bike most of the time.
The Nature here is wonderful! Amazing this karst.
Looking forward to cycle and see more!
#transbalkan2023 #bikepacking #cycling

On the 4th of september we celebrated our 1 year-cyclingtrip-anniversary
🥳 🚵‍♀️ 🚵‍♂️ 🌍️

The last 12 months we cycled through 19 counties, saw diverse landscapes, slept almost every night on a different spot (see on the map), met such lovely people and collected a huge 'backpack' of experiences and memories.

This journey filled us with joy, so we decided to keep on pedaling
❤️🚴‍♀️🚴 🌍️
#cyclingaroundtheworld #cyclinglife #cyclinglove #cycling

❤️ today is our wedding anniversary ❤️

what a magical ceremony and great party we had back then. In #love we memorise this day ❤️

#weddinganniversary

Summer is back 😍
#adria #italy
#cycling

😎 captured while cycling... 📸
#schapszahl
#primzahlen

Suddenly the sunny and hot periode was finished. During the night it started to #rain out of buckets. So we waited inside the #tent until midday. Happy we had choosen a #campspot where it was possible to stay! The multiple hours of heavy rain soaked all of our bags on the bicycle. Luckily the new tent is yet totally leakfree 🥳
Yesterday we rested in a little appartment, tried to dry our stuff and used the tv-screen as a biggee computer screen to work...
#cycling
#italy

Because of the heat last week we choose the morning and evening hours to cycle. For the hottest hours of the day we searched a shady place at the border of a lake or river...
We arrived to Trento before midday and decided to take the last hill to reach the lake of #Caldonazzo and #Levico.
from there we pedaled on, still moreoften on well signed cyclingroutes towards Feltre and then Ponte di Piave.
#cycling #BikeTooter
#italy

It rolls very well on this cyclepath along the river Adige towards #Bolzano and #Trento🚴‍♀️🚴
#italy #cyclingitaly
#cycling #BikeTooter

After a lunch break at lake Reschen, we continued pedaling on the Claudia Augusta cycling route. It's a super easy and nice #cycling path with long stretches separated from the traffic 😅.

Since the Reschenpass it was all downhill! This was the longest descent we have ever ridden. The landscape started to change already in the upper part of #Vinschgau. Apple #orchards lined up one after another.
#cycling #BikeTooter

After 12 days #cycling from Basel to the very eastern point of #Switzerland 🇨🇭 (643km) and pushing our bikes over the mountains we left the country via the green border. Suddenly we stood in a new country. It was a very short visit in #Austria 🇦🇹. Approximately 2hours and exactly 10km later, after the #Reschenpass we entered country nr. 18: #Italy 😎 🇮🇹
#cyclingeurope #cyclingtheworld

#Organicmaps leadet us over the nordic skiing path on the left side of the river Inn. When we came to the little river 'La Brancla' there was no bridge, so we had to cross the river by foot carrying the #bicycles. We took the oportunity to take a bath in the clear and fresh water. It was so good to wash the sweat off 😅

So lovely the #architecture in #Grison. 😍
Of course we filled oure bottles with the healthy mineral water in #Scuol, pedaled along the river Inn eastwards until we found a nice place to have a picnic. 😎
#cycling #switzerland

We took the route via Guarda, #Ardez, Ftan to #Scuol, so happy about our decision to cycle through these wonderful parts of #switzerland. 😍
Sorry that we are that much hyped 😆
Can you discover the castle of #Tarasp? On the left side of the Castle, some km up the mountain, Fiona grew up. So, for her it was like traveling once again through her 'hood' 🥰
#engiadinabassa #engiadina
#cycling #bikepacking

looking for a #multimeter, some wires and a #soldering iron to #repair our solar panel!

anyone in #Italy between #Colfosco, #Treviso, and #Latisana, #Trieste can help us out?

#diy #MastoAiuto #mastohelp #aiuto #AiutoSegreto #aiutomastodon #aiutoconcreto

Serendipitously we stumbled upon this magical #forest. Captivated by its mystical ambiance, we left our bikes behind and wandered along the narrow winding paths, surrounded by moss-covered rocks. We felt like gnomes in a fairytale forest.
#engiadinabassa
#nature #naturephotography

In the valley of the river #Inn, amongst the remnants of a medieval monastery and set against the backdrop of alpine mountains we crossed #MuzeumSusch it was a big inspiration and reminded Marc of his past in the #art scene...
#susch #engiadinabassa #graubuenden #switzerland
#cycling #traveling

At 6.20pm we started the descend from the #Albulapass 2312m. Down in La Punt Chamues-ch (still on 1687m) we drank some tea before we pedaled the last 17km to our campspot. This wasn't a spectacular spot, but because there was no daylight anymore we were happy to find this piece of flat meadow. We were too tired to set up the tent. The next morning everything was so wet. Literally soaked from the dew... Very early we packed our sleepingstuff and pedaled towards Zernez.
#cycling #switzerland

On top of the #albulapass you get rewarded... but the ascend?! is f... crazy long and steep! 🥵
#switzerland #swissmountains
#cycling #BikeTooter

Same as it was 2 years ago, when we cycled this part of the #cycling route #schweizmobil no. 6, rain and thunderstorms showed up. In between some rain pauses, we came across the impressive Solis #viaduct, reached #Tiefencastel, eventually found a shelter to set up our #biwak. At the fire from the #woodgasstove we could warm oureselfe. Next morning, the sky was clear blue. We continued pedaling along the river #albula toward the so named mountainpass.
#BikeTooter

Through the #Safiental, uphill to Versam and on the other side of the Mountain down via the old bridge 'alte Versamertobelbrücke', where we had a bicycle- and selfie-shooting 📸 😎 to Bonaduz.
This is a verry nice route for #cycling! Every couple of meters you get a new sight of the valley and the rocky mountains.
#cyclingswitzerland #graubuenden

Next day we started after midday. The track lead us along the right bank of the #Vorderrhein via Trun, passing a very fancy building, until we reached the ruins of Castrisch Castle near Ilanz. It started to rain and we were glad that there was not only a barely visible ruin on top of the hill, but also a shooting range with a large canopy.
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter
#engadin #graubuenden #switzerland

We decided spontaneously to make a rest day. Shortly after, cars arrived and within minutes 11 people sat on plastic chairs in front of our tent, complaining that we are very close to the fireplace. We left and found 500m further a beautiful location to hangout. Around 5pm a car arrived. Fatmir and his helpers told us to stay. We talked together while they cooked for arriving guests. We where so lucky to taste the delicious multicourse menu and got heaps of leftovers for the next day. Thanks!

Down the #Oberalppass and further on through the Grison Mountain region, we discovered a wonderful campspot near #Disentis. Reni and Lücu joined us for another night, and it was so nice to spend time with friends along our journey!
#traveltheworld

Our friends Lücu & Reni visited us near the Sustenpass on a quite special campspot.

#Susten
Yess, we did it 😅 🚵 🚵‍♀️

On top we got invited for lunch from Johanna and Heinz while talking about the last 11 months #cycling 😍 thank you so much!

the uphill was hard but we got rewardet with the nice descend towards Wassen 🥳

#BikeTooter

This super cute guy (pic 1) greeted us in the early morning when we started pedaling. What a beautiful day to climb the #Sustenpass!
Until 9 o'clock it was quite calm on the street. After then the traffic started. Motorcycles and all kind of cars rode with max speed uphill to the pass. The stupid thing from our side was the timing. On weekend its logicaly very busy... But look these mountains!
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter
#switzerland #mountains #alps

From Meiringen Marc planned a #gravel route with #bikerouter.de
He took the hardest profile because all other profiles routed along the mainroad... yes, there is a reason why! It is NOT recomended to go onto this tough hiking path with the loaded bikes 🚵‍♀️🤦‍♀️🚵 🤦‍♂️After the first 2km we could wash the sweat off in a stream and chill on the meadow in the sun. Then the weather changed ⛈️ The following 3.5km took us around 3h 😱 The path was suuuper narrow, steep and slippery!
#BikeTooter

For the first night we found a super nice campspot at the border of the lake Brienz.
Marc did what he missed most, he jumped into the lake and took a morning swim.

pic 1: sunrise, view towards Brienz
pic 2: view towards Interlaken
pic 3: view towards Brienz

#cycling #wildcamping #switzerland #landscape

As we look at our home region now, we perceive it in a whole new light. It's like wearing tourist glasses. We are soaking in every glimpse of this beautiful landscape.
#Niederhorn #lakethun #Interlaken
#mountains #lake #cycling #BikeTooter

After one week in the region of #Bern we decided to pedal on, before falling back into the burning hamsterwheel 😅

Yess, the jurney goes on 🥳
Guess where we are going to ride 🚵‍♀️ 🚵

The first day our son Severin joined us through the #Gürbetal and along the lake #Thun until #Spiez.
Amazed by the stunning mountain view (Gantrisch, Stockhorn, #Niesen) and refreshed from a swim in the lake we pedaled towards #Interlaken.

#cycling #cyclinglife #nomadslife #travelling

Spending time with family and close friends filled us with joy and as soon as we had some tools, welding gas and a sewing machine, we instantly fall into the makers mode and could not be stopped fixing, optimizing and servicing the bikes and gear.
Thanks miho for lending us the sewing machine and helping with some woodwork.
Also thanks to Luca from #discocycles who replaced Fiona's broken #grx800 brakelever in notime.
#familytime #makersmode #bern #switzerland

While entering our homecountry near Basel, we were warmly welcomed by Fionas stepmum to stay for the night and eat dinner. Next day it was rainy while #cycling through the Jura. Luckily we found shelter to cook lunch on our new gasoline stove. In #Biel, where we lived before, we got invited from friends to eat the traditional swiss dish together.
Because Marc's beloved grandmother died a few days ago, we changed our route and headed to the funeral.

End of july, rain and headwind along the river #Rhine. With an average of 28km/h we overtook a lot of ebikes and only a flat could stop us 🔋
#cycling #traveling #BikeTooter

Our #odometer showed us the funny number 12345 🤓
#schnapszahl
#cyclingtheworld

With Markus we traveled to Sarbrücken and further on through wine yards to Brechlingen.

With nice tailwind we cycled the beautiful cycle path along the 'Rur' towards #Cologne. Very lovely the #Eifel region! Near Cologne, we met Markus and Vesuvio, with whom we cycled in Morocco. The reunion was great! Markus sister invited us to stay in their house.
#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter

On July 20, 2023, we cycled to the highest point in the Netherlands, which is also the tripoint of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. While having dinner in #Aachen Frank approached us. He offered us a place to sleep in a coworking space, which we accepted due to the bad weather forecast. After chatting together, we realized Frank didn't have the keys for the room. So, late at night, we finally found shelter under a covered park bench. The night was short and uncomfortable, but at least dry!

My (Fiona's) phone was run over by a car 😱
After a week of worrying whether any of the personally valuable data could be recovered, the phone could be fixed.

Now I can toot again 😅

In the forest, we recharge our energy, gather sweet and fruity blueberries, admire art, observe squirrels and foxes, and listen to the birds in the early morning.
#nature #wildlife #travellife #cycling

Finally reached the highest point (700m) of #Belgium 😅
#signaldebotrange
#cycling #BikeTooter

We cycled along the #Vennbahn, an #abandonedRailway route that stretches from Troisvierges Luxembourg through #Belgium to Aachen in Germany. During our journey, we crossed the Lac de Robertville in #Wallonia, Belgium, adorned with a striking metal badge depicting the iconic Wallonian rooster symbol. Earlier that morning, we had breakfast next to the historic railway hub of Born and pedaled across an ancient viaduct.
#cycling #cycletouring #cyclingeurope #travelingeurope

In the north of #Luxembourg, we pedaled across the national border with exactly 12,000 kilometers on the odometer at that very moment. From #Troisvierges, we wanted to take the train to the capital Luxembourg for dinner and then return. Unfortunately, the train was out of service. And so, after a total of 16 kilometers and 2 hours spent in Luxembourg, we were back in #Belgium 😅

#odo
#12000km
#cyclingeurope #cyclinglife

Arrived in the charming town of #Dinant in the early morning hours.
Highly recommended! But it's probably even more magical in the evening. Then the sun illuminates the colorful houses and the stunning church, nestled between water and rocks, in a golden glow .
#wallonia #belgium #nature
#cycling #cyclingtour #bikepacking #biketouring #BikeTooter

Along the border of the river #Meuse...
beautiful 😍

#belgium #wallonia
#cycling #BikeTooter #bikepacking

pic 1: marc made (for the first time) caramelized onions 😋
pic 2: found a nice spot near a little river where we coocked dinner and pitched our tent 🤩
pic 3: fixing a flat... (caused from broken glass in the woods 🤬)

That afternoon we crossed the border from #France to #Belgium 🥳

pic 4: campspot at Anseremme in middle of a little island surrounded of the river #Meuse 😇

#cycling #nomadlife #camping #biketouring #BikeTooter #cyclingeurope

we were invited to sleep @ Meffi's co-working space, but after 10pm the dude realized he lost his keys to enter and we had to search something else, at night while it was raining :(
can you guess where we slept:

p.s.
we had great vegan/glutenfree breakfast at isabellas bakery and then left town to find a safe sleeping spot

any #gravel / #travel recommondations for Germany?

We are in #Aachen, longer goal is Hungary...

anyone?

Exploring the enchanting #Ardennes region in #France, where we discovered nice singletrails and forest paths in a wonderful leafy forest. It was an absolute delight. Nature's beauty never fails to amaze us! 😍🚴‍♀️🚴🌳
#cycling #biketouring #bikepacking #nature #naturelover

our route led us through miles and miles of cornfields... and we enjoyed tailwind for the first time since Sahara😊
#cycling #landscape #nature #agriculture #france

#Rouen impressed us. We were really blown away by its incredible 'Palace de la Justice' and the famous 'Gros Horloge'. The #groshorloge stood out to us in particular—it reminded us of that famous #Zytglogge in Bern and especially Fiona felt for some seconds a little bit like coming home 😍
In front of the #cathedral we talked a while with a very sypathetic couple. They are combining #cycletouring and houssitting. We love theire way of #traveling and staying at a place for a while!
#cycling

Back in France! 😊
First day, a warm and #sunny day. We enjoyed picnicing on a meadow. The second morning, we were lucky; we had packed our tent and could escape to the nearby soccer field before it started to rain. The reserve bench gave us shelter while breakfasting. Later in the afternoon, the sky darkened from big rain clouds. We fled with the #bicycles into a bus station, where we waited for the heavy rain... nothing happened 😅
The clouds disappeared, and it was sunny again 😍
#cycling

🇮🇪 #Ireland #rewiev

9 days (4 cycling-days, 5 rest-days 😇) 222km

- well-signed #EuroVelo
- very friendly people
- tasty strawberries, blueberrys, black currants...
- caramelized onion
- oats instead of wheat in most products (great for us)
- large villas and single-family homes resembling catalog houses scattered throughout the countryside
- very green
- rainy, wet and even cold in summer

#Route:
Rosslare -> Woodstown -> Waterford-> Dungarvan -> Midleton

#cyclingtheworld #BikeTooter

Our 'goodbye' from the lovely family was also a goodbye to #Ireland.
In #Dublin we quickly cooked some vegan burger, made our way through the busy city and rolled on board of the #ferry. The weather was quite bad, we had strong wind and rain. Therefore the #ocean crossing was a shaky affair what we felt in our stomach area 🥴. But everything went well. The next morning we were near #France, the wind had died down, the sea was calm and the sun was shining.
What a welcome 😎
#BikeTooter #cycling

As we entered a supermarket in Midleton, tired and famished, we met the O'Connors. The family of five spontaneously invited us to their home. We spent wonderful days with great conversations, time to recover, having fun (on the slide 🤣) and soldering stuff. The energetic children and their wonderful parents reminded us to explore the world with ease and curiosity, in a playful and positive manner.
Saying goodbye to the family was hard. We'll keep em in our ❤️
#cycling #travellife
#ireland

We took the nice #Greenway from Waterford to Dungarvan
#oldRailway
#Bahntrassenradweg
#ireland #cycling

first evening / night in #Ireland 🤩
yes, that view was amazing! And the sound of the waves too!

The temperature drop during night made us shiver (~7°C) and the peble stones as well as the tilt of the tent were really uncomfortable.
The next morning we had sunshine alternating with dark clouds and wind. We stayed there until midday, tried to recover and to catch every single sunray 😎

#sunset #sunsetphotography #beach #CelticSea

we created an about page containing links to the visited countrys and info about us:

https://brandisbrandisbrand.com/about.html#countrys

digital work is not always easy as #cycling #nomads 🤓

p.s.
does anyone know how to jump/link to a specific post in the #mastodon timeline?
the current solution is a masto-copy with setting id= anchors.

#nerd #hacking #linux

Our last few sleepingspots 😴

#cyclinglife #cyclingadventures #travelphotography #wildcamping #tent #nature

Route: Poole -> Dorchester -> Colyton -> Exeter -> Chagford -> Tavystock -> Okehampton -> Barnstape -> Tenby -> Pembroke

#cyclingtheworld

The country (where we cycled through) seems to have a serious issue with #liberty. Everything is fenced with barbed wire and monitored by video cameras. The few public spaces are locked at night. Everywhere signs indicating how to contact police when seeing something suspicious.
Therefore it was tricky to find spots to set up our tent.
#cctv #unitedkingdom #england
#unfencenature #wildcamping

🇬🇧 & 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 #southengland & #wales #review

9 days 383km

Super friendly and helpful people.
Lots of cows, sheep and horses.
Tall hedges, we mostly only saw the narrow street and those very same green hedges.
Even in June it was so cold and wet that we wore warm jackets under our rain gear.
Very hard to find #drinkingwater.
Many #glutenfree and #vegan products available.
Even if the country is on the pricier side, bicycle spares are quite affordable.

#cyclingtheworld #travel #england

Yess! finally, after at least one month of searching in every bikeshop on our way I found a suitable handlebar tape at Pembroke's bikeshop 'Bierspool cycles' 💖

As we did in the past few days, we got up with the sun on this day, at 4:50. Just then, it started raining. We had barely cycled when Fiona couldn't shift gears anymore and when we checked the gear cable snapped. Oh no! We had a spare cable, but changing it on the narrow country road in the rain wasn't an option. So Fiona cycled the 20km to #pembroke with her single-speed #bike where we repaired the gear cable. Since the weather didn't change, we spend the time servicing our bikes.
#cyclinglife

🤩
#schnapszahl
#odo
#11111km
#cyclingtheworld

#Tenby, what a cute little town at the coast of #SouthWestWales 🤩

At #Barnstaple we decided to skip the hedges and take the train to #Wales via #Cardiff (where we met a sympathetic cycling couple and had a nice chat together) to #Tenby.

Taking the bikes on the train was no problem. Btw. trains here roll on diesel.
Whilst the 7.5h journey we watched the green nature through the window and tried to plan the next few steps.

#cycling #cyclingtheworld #BikeTooter #unitedkingdom

Green, wet and chilly...

Route: Postbridge -> Tavystock (there at 'Church Lane' we ate to best Glutenfree and Vegan Pizza ever 😋) -> Okehampton -> Great Torrington -> Barnstaple

#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #england #unitedkingdom

#dartmoor #england #unitedkingdom

finally we reached the wide and open #dartmoor 🤩

#cycling #BikeTooter #england #unitedkingdom #wildcamping

Route: Poole -> Dorchester -> Bridport -> Seaton -> Beer -> Exeter -> Moretonhamstead -> Blackingstone Rock -> Chagford -> Assycombe Hill

#blackingstoneRock #devon #dorset #dartmoor #unitedkingdom #england

Thanks Anne-Marie! We were very happy to pitch the tent in your patio, to sleep out, to take a hot shower, to make laundry, to cook #vegan food with several pans 😄 and to have nice conversations with you!
We liked the #transitiontown #exeter. It seemed to us like there are lots of openminded, creative and alternative people. We visited the local bikeshop 'hardy cycles' to change marc's broken unbreakable-carbon-bottleholder and Rob gave us good information about where to go on our further trip.

we pedaled days on narrow roads between hedges, asking our self:
what the heck are we doing here? there is nothing to see in #england, its just narrow and green.
kind of depressed we reached #exeter

people here are so unexpected friendly, we met Roy and Aaron, Tobi and Anne-Marie who all offered us a place to stay and encouraged us to cycle on.

#cycling #biketouring #england #unitedkingdom

2nd day in england.
yes, the weather showed its english side 😂
foggy, rainy, windy, sunny (got an amazing view from Hardy Monument)
lucky we found a scottisch brand tent on sale (they should know the climate here) to spend dry nights on 😅

#cycling #BikeTooter #england #unitedkingdom #landscapephotography

Near #Dorchester, we literally stumbled over the archaeological site 'Maiden Castle', an Iron Age hill fort. These circular-shaped hill walls are impressive.
Due changing weather, we decided to sleep on the car park. Heavy rain during the night soaked all our bags including us in the tent. 🤪

#cycling #cyclinglife #bikepacking #BikeTooter #england #unitedkingdom #maidencastle #landscapephotography #camping

A ferry took us to Poole, #SouthEngland. Like we did it almost every night, we tried to find a campspot in the little woods outside of town. Sadly, really every piece of land here is fenced and even the woods are filled with gates, barbwire, cameras and 'private, keep out' signs. (what are people scared of here?). So we ended up very late at a simple campground with a drunken ward, exhausted but happy to pitch our tent.
next day, at #Dorchester we found a #drinkingwater bottlerefill station 😎

🇯🇪#jersey #cycling #review

2 days 69km

Jersey is a very dense populated country on a 120km2 island. The country has a large financial services industry and is one of the world's largest offshore finance centres.

There is a lot going on on the island, we encountered a triathlon, an around-the-island walk and everybody seems to be on the move. Especially in big and wide cars on the narrow and unclear roads, which was stressfull to us....

The second day on Jersey island it rained. The view therefore was mostly foggy and overcast what partly created a mystical atmosphere. Especialy when we reached the south coast. The tide was down and the beach with the visible seaground looked like a moon landscape. The rain had stopped, the sun pushed through the clouds and the steam rose up from the seaground. wow, what natural magic.

#cycling #cyclingadventures #biketoote
#jersey #island

#Jersey welcomed us with open arms, as it seemed to us. We were quite overwhelmed when the crew of a bike shop showed us such kindness and interest in our trip and the gear. wow! 😍
On the island there are several cycling routes. Nr. 1 leads around the whole island and of course we decided to pedal this round tour 😎. We started clockwise. At the south western corner we enjoyed the view over the nice cliffy coastline.

While checking the map we discovered the country #Jersey. Spontaniously we decided to visit this #island and pedaled 106km until we reached the port of St. Malo at 2 o'clock in the morning. Near the port we found a grasscovered corner aside the street where we laid down and slept for 3 hours. Light rain started at 6.30 when we came to the #ferry. Happily we cought the last tickets, jumped on board and waved 'good bye #france' 👋

#stmalo #saintmalo
#cycling #cycletouring #BikeTooter

mont saint michel 🤩

#montsaintmichel #france
#cycling #cyclinglife #bikepacking #BikeTooter

Fullfilled from the wonderful hours at the #permaculture garden and the inspiring exchange we pedaled on. At the border of the little lake Étang des Caves we found a calm #campspot. We were surprised the next morning when fishermen came very early to throw there fishing rod into the water. After another one and half day of pedaling and a night out in the wild we reached... (our very first goal we had last september when we started this jurney 🤩).
#cycling #cyclinglife #biketoot #nature #france

The next day Laureleen invited us to visit her familys place 12km further.
Imagine a huge oasis, a #permaculture garden with greenhouses built into the ground😍 An innovative concept to benefit from the earth's temperature regulation capability. The built in #aquaponics create a tropical climate to grow a diverse assortment of eatable plants. Melon, cucumber, pumkin, even passionfruit climbing towards the ceiling, delicious strawberrys, salad etc covering the soil.
#cycling #BikeTooter #france

Near La Bourdinière, Marc, a friendly frenchmen stopped us on to road to ask where we are going to sleep. Shortly after, we sat in his house and ate dinner together with his son Matti and girlfriend Laureleen.
We had a good time at their place.

The french people have a great culture of #travelling We were so often involved in conversations and invited to homes.

#cycling #biketooter #france #hospitality

After a week break from #cycling, it was nice to feel the wind on our face again. Since we cycled the wonderful Velodyssee (Eurovelo 1) from La Rochelle to Biarritz last autumn, we decided to skip this part by train. From La Rochelle, we briefly followed Eurovelo 1 before turning north towards Mont Saint Michel.
Here in the #countryside in #France, we see many large fields dedicated to agriculture and we were amazed to see a huge field with withered poppys.
#BikeTooter #cyclingeurope

Last week our kids came to visit us and we spent all day long quality time together 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 ❤️

#family #familytime #familylove #loveislove
#hendaye #france

Our tentfloor is leaking. Sadly the conversation with #bigagnes & #transa ended without constructive solution. They blamed us for using the (wrong) tent.
Time to #diy our own floor!
While buying a tarp (waterproof fabric) in #decathlon we discovered their fablab. We talked with Dorothée & Pantxika who spontanious invited us to use their "Le Prototypage". It was amazing and inspiring to work with their equipment and having support from Pantxika and the team.
Thanks!!
Now we sleep dry again 🤩

#schnapszahl
#odo
#10101km
#cyclingaroundtheworld

living as a #nomad does not mean to nourish us with boring and bland #food like noodlesoup, canned beans or nasa-food...
We take pride in cooking delicious, healthy and visually nice dishes on our single pot stove 🤩 😋 💚
#glutenfree and #vegan

We do love the #basque country! The #landscape and #nature is so diverse and the colors are so bright, especially in the spring/early summer season.
From #SanSebastian we cycled the old abandoned #railway 'Arditurriko bidegorria' through the valley of the Oria river. At the end of the cyclable path we found the entrance to a big cave- and tunnel-system from a mining-site. Suddenly sunny and warm weather changed to cloudy and foggy what made the site quite #mystical...

#cycling #BikeTooter

maybe you expected the next #schnapszahl, actually two 😅

to celebrate this day we washed our bikes 🚲️🛁🤩

#odo #10000km #10001km
#sansebastian #spain
#cycling #BikeTooter

#schnapszahl 🥳

9999km #odo
9 countries
9 months #cyclingaroundtheworld

The road we took from Iraeta to Donostia San Sebastian was a mix between roads full of traffic, paved little streets, #gravel roads, #hiking paths and single trails. We had such a fun day and enjoyed beside the varied roads the wonderful hilly #landscape and impressive steep #coastline.

#spain #basque #SanSebastian
#cycling #bikeTooter

Our route led us through the nice village #Azkoitia where we saw how they practice a local (basque) handball.
Near the coastal town Zumaia the #cycling path ended. The last part of this vias verdes is still unfinished. We took the chance and camped there in front of a overgrown tunnel.

btw. we highly recomend to cycle the #viasVerdes here in the #basque country. The #nature is so stunning and the road condition is perfect.

#cyclingaroundtheworld #bikebacking #bikeTooter #spain

We traveled from Salamanca to Vitoria-Gasteiz by train.
In Vitoria-Gasteiz, we came across a #vegan restaurant by chance. The founder of the Root-Project / #rootgasteiz (on instagram) kindly inviteded us to bring our bicycles inside. We were impressed! After a very delicious meal and nice chats with Jim, we cycled into the night until we found a dry place to sleep. The whole next day we could cycle in the amazing green #nature on the #viasVerdes direction north.

Thanks to the project 'Galeria Urbana', which was launched by a local neighborhood association and cultural creators several years ago, #streetart in #Salamanca is alive and visitors can discover an urban art museum in addition to a classic city tour. As part of a contest, the metal shutters of shops were painted with vivid images.

We spent hours exploring all these #murals and were amazed by the #creativity and their messages.

Exploring #Salamanca for one day without our beloved #bikes was nice. We strolled through the old city with the impressive cathedrals, the 'casa de las conchas' and near the plaza mayor we enjoyed chocolate croissants at the #glutenfree pastry shop 'Celi&Co' 🥰

#cyclingtheworld #nomadlife

At #Salamanca we hunted for shoes. Fiona found some pretty sneakers and ditched her litterly falling apart #scott bike-shoes.
Our seemingly perfect campspot turned out to be in a city park. At 3:20 am the sprinkler system startet drenching our #bigAgnes tent for 30min. Luckily the glued seams held up, but the next morning we discovered the entire floor was leaking. Everything was soaked from below. We are so frustrated about all the expensive hi-tech material!
#spain #cycling #biketoot #cycling

Just like in Portugal, #Spain greeted us with chilly and wet "April weather". However, one noticeable difference was that the Spanish ground is fully utilized by farmers. Every piece of land is fenced off, which made it very difficult for us to find picnic- and camp-spots. We don't want to complain, the #landscape is beautiful. There are countless ancient trees under which the pigs hopefully live somewhat freer and more beautiful, and lush flower meadows where cows can feast.
#cycling

🇵🇹 #portugal #review
78 days ~ 980km

- nice climate
- melodic birds singing
- beautiful colorful flowerfields
- stunning cliffs and rock arches (algarve)
- trees mostly planted in square patterns
- many abandoned houses and factories
- country seems to be on sale
- cars drive ruthless & very dangerous
- densely populated (coast)
- many fenced properties

Route: V.R.S.A. -> Faro -> Sagres -> Aljezur -> Lisbon -> Ericeira -> Castelo Branco -> Torre (Serra Estrela) -> Vale da Mula

hola #espania 🤩
heading to salamanca...
#cyclingtheworld #cycling #BikeTooter
#nomadlife #spain

After a camping-night together in Seia. Paul headed towards Porto while we continued north-east. Because of strong headwinds once again, we were even less motivated to pedal hard after the challenging days in the Serra Estrela Mountains. Within 3 days of #cycling via Vila Franca das Naves we reached Almeida and found a beautiful, wind-sheltered campspot about 5km before the border to #Spain. We spent two nights there and fully enjoyed our rest-day in #nature!
#portugal #BikeTooter

Beside the lake, we cooked ourselves a delicious lunch. All of our and Paul's supplies were combined, so we had rice with chickpeas, spinach, and fried mushrooms. Together we ate from our daily usedp Senegal bowl. Meanwhile, clouds gathered and the sky became darker. We hurried to get down into the valley. The long (~1300 meters in altitude and 23 km) descent on an old, unused road towards Seia was really great!
The whole day was well worth it!
#cycling #BikeTooter #vegan #glutenfree #portugal

Some more photos of the climb to the highest point of Portugal mainland, the Torre...

#cycling #bikepacking #BikeTooter #cyclingtheworld
#SerraEstrela #portugal
#nature #landscape

Hooray!
we reached the #lake with its curious #attraction Covão dos Conchos, which looks like a bathtub drain.
In the media it's described that it gives the impression of a surreal portal that seems to lead directly into the earth's core or another world...
Actually it's a man-made tunnel constructed in 1955. The purpose of the tunnel was to redirect water from Ribeira das Naves to Lagoa Comprida.
#CovãoDosConchos #SerraEstrelaNaturalPark
#Portugal

we stayed at the youth hostel (1500m) before we continued uphill. Suddenly a young #bikepacker caught up with us. Paul cycled together with us to the #Torre (1,993m), the highest point in #Portugal mainland. During a well-deserved #coffee break at the #summit, Marc and Fiona planned the next route section, a shortcut on a hiking trail... Paul joined us, and the three of us stumbled for 3 hours through scrub and bushes over huge rocks, uphill and downhill searching for a path. what an #adventure!

#OrganicMaps directed us to our next destination (a special lake) via a long and steep climb on the main road.
To avoid this, we followed the hiking route from Fundão via Alto das Piçarrinhas to Penhas da Saúde. This #shortcut was challenging to ride, we had to push our bikes frequently. After a chilly night #camping in a pine forest at an altitude of ~850m, we spent the second day mostly pushing our bikes again. although we enjoyed being alone with nature and listening to the birds singing.

Joyfully reunited! ❤️
Fiona cought up with Marc in #CasteloBranco by pedaling one stretch with the bike, taking a bus and the train to complete the journey. To celebrate the day, we ate at a randomly found #vegan restaurant #MãosDeHorta, where they prepare only one menu with vegetables from their own garden. We haven't had such a delicious and diverse menu for a long time. 💛 Next day we cycled towards the #SerraEstrela #Mountains. How beautiful the #nature was in the mountainous region! 💚

during the week off, fiona treated herself a week of intensive yoga and self-care to regain balance, calm and energy. the Almashala with samu and lavi was the right place. the yoga classes, meditation sessions, the vegan food, the nice garden and the participants were wonderful.

marc enjoyed the time to be for himself, pedaling at his own pace and structuring the day in his own rhythm. he discovered the beautiful valley of Rio Tejo.

#yoga #selfcare #almashala #vegan #cycling #portugal

fiona and marc cycled through the green, agriculturally cultivated valley 'vale verde' to the town #Mafra. it is best known for the magnificent baroque-style national palace, a UNESCO world heritage site.
after a coffee we said goodbye to each other for the following 5 days.
its the first time on this journey each one has time to do something for themself. guess what fiona needed and what marc chose to recharge?

#cyclingtheworld #portugal

and finally, after exactly 8 months on the road, we met someone from the family. marc's uncle circles the iberian peninsula (counterclockwise) on his bike and our routes crossed in Ericeira. we enjoyed an evening with Peter in the same guesthouse, cooked together and talked about our travels. the next morning we pedaled a few km the same route until we had to say goodbye.
it was so great!

Today we did 100 verified changes on #osm #openstreetmap
#opensource rocks!

Our lives have undergone a dramatic change since we began #travelling. We have time to do various interesting experiments, such as exploring new #hygiene practices:

We clean our bodies solely with water, avoiding the use of soap or other detergents. Over time, we notice that there is no unpleasant odor of sweat, its astonishing. For our hair, we apply freshly pressed lemon juice to restore its natural shine and luster. Of corse we still wash our hands or visible dirty parts with #soap...

through a green hill-valley-landscape we pedaled on, to the nice coast of #ericeira. wonderful this darkblue ocean, the yellow beaches and the rugged cliffs! here it is known for #surfing. accordingly there are a lot of surf schools and surf hostels here. after a long time only camping we took a room in a hostel. oh that was great on one hand, but kinda weird on the other hand sleeping in a bed and having 4 solid walls around us 😅

#portugal
#cyclingaroundtheworld

#Sintra is known for his historical buildings like the colorful Pena Palace on the top of a hill. we were pedaled already halfway up to visite this interesting monument when two tourists told us that it is super crowdy up there and the waiting time to buy a ticket for the park around 2 hours. yes, that is the big disadvantage of places worth seeing... so we satisfyed with the glimps of an eye through the trees.

#portugal

the region of #sintra was full of wild #nasturtium fields (kapuzinerkresse). so beautiful and super tasty in our salad 😋

#portugal #nature

the next day it was cloudy and rainy.
we pedaled only some km north. somewhere at the bottom of a hill we left the bikes and took a very narrow footpath through high blooming bushes to explore a nice cave. its always the none touristic sites which fullfill us. 🤩

#cyclingtheworld #nature #hiking

on the bikes again we headed to
Tróia, took the ferry to Setúbal and from Almada a ferry to #Lisbon.
when we arrived in the bustling city of Lisbon we realized that its not fun to cycle here. the busy and ruthless traffic on the steep roads was way too crazy for us! so we decided to leave the city at night and cycled until we found a campspot at 2 o'clock in the morning 😅

route:
Aljezur -> Odemira -> Vila Nova de Santo André -> Tróia -> Setúbal -> Almada -> Lisbon

#biketooter #cycling

in the last 7 months we learned that its good to have big and long racks. it was not as easy as marc thought to find tubes, a workshop and a welder to build v2.0 of our stainless steel ones.

@ kasper's we found some old racks in his propertys forest and where allowed to use his arsenal of tools to fit them on our frames. so marc cutted them, driled some holes and used a heavy hammer to bring them in shape.
there was also a seewing machine to sew a cotton handlebar tape.

thanks kasper!
#diy

thanks to #trustroots we camped @ kasper's property near #Aljezur. it was so lovely to share time with interesting and inspiring people that we stayed 5 days to chat, eat and help around the house. marc installed a kitchen sink in the shed and fiona mounted the water connection together with one of the other guests.

due some strong rain we realised that our #tent leaked. luckily we had a tube of seam grip glue with us. so we could glue the leaking areas.

#bigagnes
#cyclingaroundtheworld

#sagres #beer #sagresportugal #portugal

at #lagos we found a public laundry where we washed our clothes and sleepingbaginlays. to dry it we went to the beach.

since we are back in europe we are searching for a place to weld rack extensions and sew some things. on #osm we found a fab-farm, located near to lagos. we decided to have a look at this place. late in the afternoon we arrived there but sadly were told that the fab-farm is not yet open to the public. Nearby we found a quiet spot to sleep out.

#portugal #algarve
#fabLab

route: albufeira -> xorino cave -> gruta de benagil -> carvoeira -> lagos

#xorinoCave #grutaDeBenagil #aBoneca
#portugal

in the algarve coast we visited the famous caves and rock arches.
wow, the color of the ocean was so intense.
we were impressed by the speedboats filled with tourists, which roared along the cliff one after the other and amazed about the many kayaks that swayed in the waves in between.

#algar #algarve #portugal
#cycling #biketooter

since our friend miho sent the #garbaruk spare parts to the post office in #faro, we rode back to the city. in front of the post office we met elisabeth and andreas, a cycling couple from germany. we talked for a while in until we decided to camp together to continue chatting. we enjoyed the exchange! the next day we pedaled together on the ev1 through villa districts, past countless golf courses and through the wetlands to #albufeira.

#cycling #BikeTooter
#portugal

#schnapszahl of the day 🥳

#od #odometer
#cyclingtheworld

as in every country, we have to figure out how to gain #drinkingwater here in portugal.

we learned, that in regions where there are many villas and holiday homes, all the swimmingpools in the gardens are filled with fresh water, but the wells and waterholes are blocked or the springs are dried out. luckily we found a spring that we first had to clear of rubbish and leaves and the next day an antique fountain that could be operated with a flywheel.
#osm #organicmaps
#algarve #portugal
#cycling

the easter weekend we cycled into the hills behind Faro. for our first destination, the peak Guilhim (313m), we had to push the bikes up the steep trail 😅
the next morning we pushed down the same way 🤯

we enjoyed the sunny days chilling on the meadows under blooming trees.

#cycling #BikeTooter
#wildcamping
#portugal #faro