2024-02-16

Time to clean ๐Ÿงผ๐Ÿซง the bags and stuff off all the dust ๐Ÿคฏ

Look these nice bare bikes โค๏ธ

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 ๐Ÿ’ฆ
hopefully it lasts!

2024-02-15

What we tooted on our mastdon account exactly 1 year ago ๐Ÿคฉ

Its good to look back and see the route we took, the struggles we've went through and the progress we made
๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšดโค๏ธ ๐ŸŒ

๐ŸŽฌ odysee.com/@sharinggoodmoments

2024-02-11

sundaymood

2024-02-01

Happy to announce:
our newest video 'cycling middle east l' is online ๐Ÿฅณ

odysee.com/@sharinggoodmoments

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 ๐Ÿ˜ on our odysee channel ๐Ÿคฉ

2024-02-10

'gorbรค', 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. ๐Ÿ˜ธ Happy catursday ๐Ÿ˜น

2024-02-09

With Assad and Aishe we went (by car) across country to ...
Marc: why are there everywhere 'mountains' of seashells?
Assad: Long time ago 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

2024-02-08

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 ๐Ÿ“ท Fujifilm X-E4 camera, was happy to have such a nice playground... ๐Ÿ˜‰

2024-02-07

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...

2024-02-06

It was nice to walk along the beach while low tide and capture the mood of the cloudy day...

2024-02-05

The little village Sarrigan, where we are located, has at the seashore the local 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 ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2024-02-05

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 ๐Ÿ˜…

2024-02-04

About yesterday ๐Ÿ˜Ž
Guess whose we couldn't hide from our lovely hosts... ๐Ÿ˜

They always provided us with glutenfree food solutions โ˜บ๏ธ
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' (for us with oat flour) and baked a delicious oat cake ๐Ÿคฉ

2024-02-02

Assad took us a to the nearby Chahkooh . 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 global geoparc of

2024-02-01

odysee.com/@sharinggoodmoments

Happy to announce:
our newest video 'cycling middle east l' is online ๐Ÿฅณ

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 ๐Ÿ˜ on our odysee channel ๐Ÿคฉ

2024-01-31

Beside chilling and doing a lot of nothing, we drink , of course ๐Ÿ˜…

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 4โ‚ฌ, robusta from Vietnam). Before Assad roasted the beans in an iron pan, Fiona sorted out all the bad beans, like Cinderella ๐Ÿ˜….
What a nice smell during the roasting process! Surprise, surprise the coffee is very tasty!

2024-01-30

We arrived in the little village Sarrigan on the north-western part of the fish shaped island .
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.

2024-01-29

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!

2024-01-29

Our route led us in a zigzag-way over the island . 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...

2024-01-28

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

2024-01-27

'In south 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 ( 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 and postpone our needness of the break...

2024-01-26

Since 16 months we are around the world ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐ŸŒ โค๏ธ
The first months it was the new, exciting , then it became 'normal' life - obvious & totally fine! Open-end is not like ... 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!

2024-01-26

When we arrived on 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 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 ๐Ÿ˜…

2024-01-25

When we pedaled through the so called 'snowy mountains' we felt a little bit like in the swiss mountains ๐Ÿ˜….
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 ๐Ÿ˜, before we left ...

2024-01-25

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 ๐ŸŒˆ
On our first day on , 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 come from?

2024-01-25

After a nice, calm night we tried to take a shortcut inland to the rainbow cave. The gravelpath led us direcly into the ' 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!

2024-01-25

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 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 ๐ŸŒธ ๐Ÿ˜‡
After three days in this little hut without windows we packed, cycled a bit and camped on the islands coastline.

2024-01-25

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.

2024-01-24

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 ๐Ÿ˜‡
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

2024-01-24

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 ๐Ÿ˜‡

2024-01-24

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 thursday and friday is the weekend. And in this 'winter season' at least every weekend it is very crowded on , the also called 'the party island'...
Next stop was the red- and silver beach (red rocks and black sand)

2024-01-24

some more pictures of the salt mountains of ...
Marc tasted it, its real salt ๐Ÿ˜…
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!

2024-01-24

The first viewpont of the tour around 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?

2024-01-24

The first day on 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 ๐Ÿ™ˆ. We met him on the ferry from Dubai to 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 ๐Ÿคฉ

2024-01-20

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 . 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 ๐Ÿ™‚

2024-01-19

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 ๐Ÿฅณ 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 ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ท journey ๐Ÿคฉ, cycled to 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 now towards Pakistan.

2024-01-19

8th of january '24: we left , finally ๐Ÿ˜…
Together with Guillaume we made our way out of the city to . 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 couple ๐Ÿ˜€

2024-01-18

... to reach the 'Alserkal Avenue', the district of contemporary 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 would fall apart imediately.
To see art and creative expression was so good, it had a calm down and refill effect. The pizza had a refill and pure joy effect ๐Ÿ˜‹

2024-01-17

'dubai-mission' nr. 1: collect our Iran visa - โœ… easy and fast
nr. 2: ferry tickets Dubai to Bandar Abbas (Iran) - ๐Ÿคฏ an odysse
๐Ÿ˜… 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 ๐Ÿ™‡โ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿ™‡โ€โ™‚๏ธ
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 ...

2024-01-14

, the city...
We went to see the enormous ski hall in the . 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 we used the time to visit every shop, to collect new tires and other replacement parts. Like at the concept store 'BMC switzerland' we met everywhere super nice and helpful people ๐Ÿ˜

2024-01-13

To see the announced new year's eve fireworks we took the metro to 'Burj Khalifa'. The center of consists only of 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 . 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!

2024-01-13

Last day of the year 2023 ๐Ÿ˜Ž
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.

2024-01-12

through 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 ๐Ÿ˜ฑ to take a ! 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).

2024-01-10

December 30th 2023 was the day to enter . 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.

2024-01-08

... 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 culture ๐Ÿคฉ
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 ๐Ÿ˜

2024-01-06

... '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... ๐Ÿช There we got the privilege to pet these impressive animals. What an experience! ๐Ÿคฉ
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...

2024-01-05

On December 29th 2023 we packed our bikes again and the four of us set off towards . 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! ๐Ÿ™‚
and then Sahid came across...
...to be continued...

2024-01-01

happy new year ๐Ÿฅณ๐Ÿฅ‚๐Ÿ€โค๏ธ
greetings from and all the best for 2024 ๐Ÿฅณ

2023-12-27

Since 5 days we are in ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ช, country nr. 26 ๐Ÿฅณ
Together with Hugo we crossed the border and cycled 10km inland to Wadi Hub, where we met Guillaume, another french cyclist.
The place here is a fancy 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 ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-12-25

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

2023-12-25

Our last camp spots in ...
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.

2023-12-25

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.

2023-12-24

Four days we cycled on the coastal road, mostly along the sea and through the tiny villages near the .
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.

2023-12-23

Back near we met Hugo, a french cyclist. Together we pedaled along the seashore northwestwards.
While 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.

2023-12-22

Cycling through 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 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 ๐Ÿ˜… Nevertheless, we have great moments, love it to be here and see great things on our trip ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-12-22

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!

2023-12-20

In we met lots of cyclists ๐Ÿ˜
We crossed 8 cyclists and shared our route with other 6 cyclist like Felix, Hugo and Lea with Tim and Tobias. Even the cycling champion Omar cycled for 5km with us ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-12-19

Every friday the famous goat market takes place in . 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.

2023-12-18

Nizwa, what a beautiful city in the mountain area of .
We visited the old traditional . Each seller burns incense and sweet smoke goods in his shop, wherefore the entire suk is full of heavy scents...

2023-12-17

Since we are in 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 around us in a soft pink-gold light. After breakfast and we cycled on, on the highway... Everyday we see pickups transporting , but never realised it to take a . When we stopped for lunch at a pakistani restaurant we finally got the chance ๐Ÿช ๐Ÿ“ธ ๐Ÿคฉ
Lunchbreak on the floor was amazing๐Ÿ˜‹

2023-12-17

Marc bought a new set of espresso cups. Now we can invite people for a โ˜•๏ธ coffee or a ๐Ÿซ– tea ๐Ÿ™‚
A tiny thin wire from a burst trucktire caused that day a flat for Felix ๐Ÿซค
We pedaled until sunset, pitched our tent and made a cozy fire ๐Ÿ”ฅ
After a whole day cycling ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿšดon the highway it was wonderful to end the day with cooking on the fire and simply enjoing our life ๐Ÿฅฐ

2023-12-16

Next stop was 'Al Mintirib' and the so called 'door to the '. 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 . 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 next to a soccerfield and the next day we pedaled on direction Nizwa

2023-12-16

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 , exploring the cave and swimming in the refreshing water.

2023-12-14

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 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.

2023-12-13

on the road...
fiona, marc & felix ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿšด ๐Ÿ˜Ž
and the first flat for marc since 3000km ๐Ÿฅณ๐Ÿคช

2023-12-13

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.

2023-12-12

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 ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2023-12-11

The Wadi Shab was amazing.
First we had to take a boat, to cross the water (90m ๐Ÿ˜…), then we walked through the narrow valley and enjoyed the fresh climate caused by the palmtrees and the green garden ๐Ÿ’š
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 ๐Ÿฉต

2023-12-08

For lunch we cooked lentils (dal) with delicious . In the afternoon we pedaled on. On our right hand the vast, deserty 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 . Shortly before sunset we found a 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 ๐Ÿ˜

2023-12-06

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

youtube.com/watch?v=9fOqAakOgU

2023-12-04

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 ๐Ÿ˜…. 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 ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2023-12-04

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.

2023-12-02

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!).

2023-12-02

In the afternoon we pedaled out of . 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 and already 60km on the tacho we hit the road again...

2023-11-30

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.

2023-11-30

We just finished our Balkan video ๐Ÿฅณ
watch and boost ๐Ÿ˜Ž
๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿšด

peertube.linuxrocks.online/w/6

2023-11-30

yea, we arrived at in ๐Ÿ‡ด๐Ÿ‡ฒ
how 62% of you dear voters had guessed ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-11-28

Guess where we are going:

2023-11-28

bye bye , 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. ๐Ÿซถ

Now we are on the move again...
The bicycles are packed and checked in...

2023-11-27

It was nice to stroll through the grand bazar...
I was totally in love with the architecture...
In the end, the omnipresent cats of found their way into my picture gallery...
We turned into 'Migros Kids'... ๐Ÿ˜… dear swiss friends, did you know in turkey they have the Migros supermarkets too?

2023-11-27

by boat, thats the way to explore ๐Ÿ˜

We made it, together with Baptiste, to the nearest possible ferry stop, 'Rumelรฎ Kavagi' on the before the black sea.
And of course we drank รงay, everywhere รงay, heaps of รงay ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-11-27

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.

2023-11-24

We enjoy our time off the bicycles...

2023-11-17

In the evening, after sunset we made it to . From the busstation we cycled through the craaaaaaazy and daaaaaaangerous traffic to the neighbourhood where our host alper waited for us ๐Ÿ˜.
Today we got some first, very nice impressions ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-11-16

Some impressions from the bus to .
we prepared a delicious 'mรผesli' (oat) with in the bus ๐Ÿ˜‹

2023-11-16

Impressions from our recovery walk in ...

2023-11-16

thank you for the many wishes for recovery!
๐Ÿซถ
we are both feeling better again and are now sitting on the bus to istanbul, where (thanks to /xmpp) we have an invitation we are looking forward to ๐Ÿคฉ
praise the open web ๐Ÿ™

2023-11-14

Hey, we have entered a new continent. Hello Asia ๐Ÿคฉ! How cool is that! ๐Ÿฅณ

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!

2023-11-14

The 1915 ร‡anakkale Bridge is the longest and second tallest suspension bridge in the worldโ€”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

2023-11-14

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 ๐Ÿ˜‰
We left the aegean sea and continued our route to Gelibolu where we took the ferry to cross the sea of marmara to Lapseki.

2023-11-13

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.

2023-11-13

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 ๐Ÿ˜ and got turkish รงai before on. At we stopped, to search for food, cash and a simcard... Quite tricky!
To get cash cost enormous fees ๐Ÿ’ธ
To get one of the expensive simcards took time โณ but wih coffee, eeeasy ๐Ÿ˜…
Vegi- and glutenfree food ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™€๏ธ (not talking about vegan!)
Lets see how we can adapt ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-11-13

In we found us cycling on a four lane . 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 couple. They had set up behind the station and the owner offered us to pitch ours in the garage. ๐Ÿ˜‡

2023-11-13

Very excited we crossed the border and entered ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ท country nr. 24
with 16'200km on our odometer... ๐Ÿฅณ

ps: never seen such a nice borderbuilding ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-11-12

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 ๐Ÿฌ ๐Ÿคฉ
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!

2023-11-11

We left the georgeous island to move on. After only 1 day of some km half around the island without luggage it felt so hard to pedal again with the fully loaded bikes ๐Ÿ™ˆ
While waiting to bark on the we enjoyed the mandatory from our with an amazing view onto the Fengari (1611m).

2023-11-11

Last but not least the different statues of the beautiful and famous of . 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... ๐Ÿค”

2023-11-11

Of course we don't want to withhold the pictures of the masterpiece from you!

2023-11-11

The 'Sanctuary of the Great Gods' is an ancient site located on in . It was a renowned center for mystery cults and was dedicated to the worship of the great gods, a group of deities with 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 purification.
We spent a mesmerizing two hours wandering through this captivating location.

2023-11-08

2023-11-06

... The ferry brought us to the island of ๐Ÿ˜

We found an easy studio, had a shower and stayed inside for the following 36hours ๐Ÿ˜‡ relaxing our legs ๐Ÿ˜Ž
Outside it was crazy super windy and rainy, really no reason to go outside ๐Ÿ˜…
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 ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-11-06

In the Harbour of Alexandroupoli we took the ferry...

2023-11-06

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 . It was awesome! After that, we rode our bikes through some small neighborhood streets to get to where we said goodbye to Oda and Clemens.

2023-11-05

To take a shower at the empty beach it was a tiny bit to chilly this morning ๐Ÿ˜…
And luckily the road wasn't that rough like expected from the roadsign ๐Ÿ˜…
But we had to free Oda's mudguard from the sticky mud...

2023-11-05

Finally, the sun broke through, and we continued . 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 ๐Ÿ˜

2023-11-04

Oh! by sheer coincidence, I captured 16,000km ๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿฅณ

2023-11-04

We woke up before sunrise to a brief rain shower. Luckily we managed to escape the second downpour at a cafรฉ 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 . 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...

2023-11-03

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 . 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 with tents...

2023-11-02

the coastal route from Asprovalta to Cape Appolonia, we stumbled upon the most amazing campspot with an incredible 180ยฐ panoramic view of the sea. It was the perfect spot to witness both the awe-inspiring and the breathtaking the next morning.

2023-11-01

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.

2023-10-31

We took a train from Katerini to , 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 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 's national day.

2023-10-31

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 . 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 ๐Ÿ˜…, to fall asleep to the sound of the waves that night.

2023-10-30

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.

2023-10-29

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.

2023-10-28

four last pictures... ๐Ÿ˜…

The Greek word Meteora means โ€œsuspended in the airโ€

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

2023-10-28

For that day we had different plans...
Marc wanted to do the advertised e-mountain bike tour to explore this unique and challenging without any luggage. Fiona opted for a regular tour. She joined the other tourists, was transported from to spot to capture the picturesque scenery with her camera. What an experience...๐Ÿ˜…
Unfortunately, Marc's desired tour did not take place. So he enjoyed the rising sun on a , where Fiona coincidentally met him ๐Ÿฅฐ

2023-10-28

, 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)

2023-10-25

There was a bear ๐Ÿป close to our tent. We guess he decided to watch us quietly on how we run behind a fox ๐ŸฆŠ during the night ๐Ÿคฃ
โ‚ฌ1 piece for size comparison ๐Ÿ˜‰
The still showed signs of the flood from a few months ago ๐Ÿ˜ฑ

2023-10-24

Approximately 7km before we reached Kalabaka, we found an ok'ish place to pitch our tent.
At Fiona woke up because some'thing' knocked at our tent... ๐Ÿค”
When she opened the zipper a ๐ŸฆŠ stood there...
watch the marc cutted of that special visit ๐Ÿคฃ

peertube.linuxrocks.online/w/w

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

2023-10-24

We had been 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 ๐Ÿ˜ฑ imagine to sleep in your tent underneath this nice tree and out of a sudden the whole piece of land slides down the slope ๐Ÿ˜ฑ

2023-10-24

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

2023-10-23

The rest of the day, from Longades we pedaled uphill... nothing else than uphill! ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ ๐Ÿšต
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 beside the road. And a swiss overtook us. After a short chat he had to move on, since he only has a limited amount of time...

2023-10-23

2023-10-23

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 of eastwards.

2023-10-22

in north west of and the region 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.

2023-10-22

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

2023-10-20

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 . The of leads over the river 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.

2023-10-20

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ท ๐Ÿฅณ
we reached country nr. 23 ๐Ÿคฉ

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 the same evening, restocked food and, by chance, discovered the (length 36m/ height 20m) that leads over the river. The 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.

2023-10-19

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. ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ ๐Ÿšต ๐Ÿ˜Ž
Here in the eastern part of we loved the and were impressed about the .

2023-10-19

There are lots of bridges to cross the Vjosรซ river. But its very important to keep an eye open before pedaling... ๐Ÿซฃ ๐Ÿ˜œ

2023-10-19

In the evening, we made a big fire. And in the morning we made our italian espresso coffee in the in the remaining embers. ๐Ÿฅฐ โ˜•๏ธ

2023-10-19

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 Vjosรซ. We were eager to cool off, so we took a refreshing dip in the . It was so relaxing in the warm and under our bicycle-blanket-shade-shelter ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2023-10-19

and more pictures from the day we made our way downhill into the Vjosรซ valley...
๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ ๐Ÿšต ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2023-10-19

Some more landscape pictures from our adventurous uphill trip in the albanian mountains between the Osum- and the Vjosรซ valley ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2023-09-17

Fiona and Marc are cycling the globe since september 2022. ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšด๐ŸŒ๏ธ
They got married โค๏ธ, 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.

peertube.linuxrocks.online/w/i

2023-10-15

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 ๐Ÿ˜…
Down in the valley we treated us with delicious vegetarian food ๐Ÿ˜‹
and rolled along the crazy blue river Vjose.

2023-10-15

And then, again... we expected a narrow but ridable road over the into the Vjosรซ valley... After 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 until we reached the top of the mountain and tired but happy found an easy campspot for the night.

2023-10-15

After a night next to the river Osum we could admire the rocky for the following 10km.

2023-10-14

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 and the great around us, drank coffee in small villages, brushed our teeth at a fantastic viewpoint and were amazed when we finally reached the and saw the massive, gigantic, pillar-like rock walls.

2023-10-14

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 schรถรถne oobe' ๐Ÿคฃ
We had a safe night ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-10-13

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 ๐Ÿคฃ
Our 'donkeys' are our 'everything' and they are dragged along everywhere ๐Ÿ˜
The castle ruins and the view over the pretty town of were worth the effort.

2023-10-13

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. ๐Ÿ˜Ž
We tackled the steep cobblestone path to the castle late in the afternoon.

2023-10-11

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.

2023-10-09

showed us his agricultural landscape and the sea-side. The people are very friendly, loughing and greeting us ๐Ÿ˜Ž
our route so far:
Hani Hotit -> Shkoder -> Lezhรซ -> Fushรซ-Krujรซ -> Durrรซs -> Rrogozhinรซ

2023-10-07

๐Ÿฅณ yesterday, exactly when we reached the sea, after almost 2 months cycling in the mountains, our odometer showed the number 15'000 ๐Ÿฅณ

2023-10-07

1300m downhill ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ˜Ž
we headed to the border of and . 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 in the so far cycled through balkan countries slovenia, croatia, bosnia & herzegovina and montenegro. (combine the dots to get our route ๐Ÿ˜‰). We mark every spot in .

2023-10-07

Cycling in the mountains of is amazing. ๐Ÿ˜

2023-10-06

Brandi, our new dog, has turned our lives upside down. ๐Ÿ•โค๏ธ
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. ๐Ÿ˜ข๐Ÿ’”

2023-10-06

From Uvaฤ this cute little dog run with us. ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ•
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 โค๏ธ 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.

2023-10-05

From ลฝabljak 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 ๐Ÿ˜

2023-10-04

The 15km and 655m descend was fantastic, but the beautiful region turned into an ugly touristic mountain village. However, in we spent two cold nights (6ยฐC) on a campground. It was time to take a shower with hot water ๐Ÿ˜… ๐Ÿ› and it was good to meet other people, wonderful to socialize and talk to others in our mothertongue, german and english...

2023-10-04

And then the 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.

2023-10-03

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.

2023-10-03

After a dayride along the Sutjeska valley on both sides of the river we crossed the border to . 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.

2023-09-30

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 in 1943. Designed by sculptor Miodrag Ivkovi and Ranko Radovic. The monument consists of two 20 metre 'wings' and took seven years to build.

2023-09-30

two days with a lot of thunderstorms, rain and black clouds... The on road towards and the Nationalpark was breathtaking!

2023-09-29

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!

2023-09-26

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.

2023-09-26

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 ๐Ÿ˜…
in the valleys we also always find surprisingly nice places to eat lunch, rest and even to take a bath ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-09-25

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 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' ๐Ÿคฉ!

2023-09-25

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!

2023-09-24

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 ๐Ÿ˜ฑ

2023-09-24

Along the Jablaniฤko 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 ๐Ÿ˜ฑ). 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.

2023-09-24

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

2023-09-23

We heard a lot of storys about the dangerous wild dogs in the balkan...
..this family of quite big protected us the whole night and they where very friendly. Every night we meet new dogs, but we somehow always become friends quite fast ๐Ÿฅฐ

2023-09-22

The first uphillride towards Tomislavgrad we had sunny and quite hot weather, we sweated a lot ๐Ÿ˜…
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 ๐Ÿ˜‡
One hour later, the temperature had dropped down dramatically, the rain stopped and we could pedale on with dry feet.

2023-09-21

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 Buลกko jezero lake. It was a super rec.! we stayed there, chilling on the beach for two days ๐Ÿ˜Ž.

2023-09-21

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.

2023-09-21

Later on we reached the natural spring . Because we spotted it on 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 appears suddenly at one point directly out of the ground.

2023-09-21

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

2023-09-20

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!

2023-09-17

Fiona and Marc are cycling the globe since september 2022. ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšด๐ŸŒ๏ธ
They got married โค๏ธ, 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.

peertube.linuxrocks.online/w/i

2023-09-17

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

2023-09-16

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

2023-09-16

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.

2023-09-15

and it really works ๐Ÿค“

2023-09-15

Not far from Gospiฤ‡ 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.

2023-09-14

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.

2023-09-13

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

2023-09-13

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 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 10ยฐC in the early morning hours. Time to take and breakfast in the tent ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-09-13

what a feeling when you suddenly get a glimpse of an eye of the deep blue sea, the 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 8 track taking mostly the same route.

Beautiful, wild nature, really amazing and highly recomendable for !

2023-09-11

As soon as we find a calm and save campspot we start to improve and our stuff. ๐Ÿ˜…
This day in the of we siliconized our bags to make them more and Marc
fixed our with an usb powered soldering iron ๐Ÿ˜Ž


2023-09-08

At Fuลพine we decided to keep on pedaling on the small tarmac road via Liฤ. 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 and the view over the and sometimes even to the was breathtaking!

2023-09-08

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 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.

2023-09-08

After 2 days totaly in 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' ๐Ÿ™ˆ. 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 ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-09-06

We entered 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!

2023-09-05

On the 4th of september we celebrated our 1 year-cyclingtrip-anniversary
๐Ÿฅณ ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™‚๏ธ ๐ŸŒ๏ธ

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
โค๏ธ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšด ๐ŸŒ๏ธ

2023-09-03

โค๏ธ today is our wedding anniversary โค๏ธ

what a magical ceremony and great party we had back then. In we memorise this day โค๏ธ

2023-09-02

Summer is back ๐Ÿ˜

2023-08-31

๐Ÿ˜Ž captured while cycling... ๐Ÿ“ธ

2023-08-30

Suddenly the sunny and hot periode was finished. During the night it started to out of buckets. So we waited inside the until midday. Happy we had choosen a 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 ๐Ÿฅณ
Yesterday we rested in a little appartment, tried to dry our stuff and used the tv-screen as a biggee computer screen to work...

2023-08-29

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 and .
from there we pedaled on, still moreoften on well signed cyclingroutes towards Feltre and then Ponte di Piave.

2023-08-29

It rolls very well on this cyclepath along the river Adige towards and ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšด

2023-08-29

After a lunch break at lake Reschen, we continued pedaling on the Claudia Augusta cycling route. It's a super easy and nice path with long stretches separated from the traffic ๐Ÿ˜….

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 . Apple lined up one after another.

2023-08-28

After 12 days from Basel to the very eastern point of ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ญ (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 ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡น. Approximately 2hours and exactly 10km later, after the we entered country nr. 18: ๐Ÿ˜Ž ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น

2023-08-27

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 . We took the oportunity to take a bath in the clear and fresh water. It was so good to wash the sweat off ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-08-27

So lovely the in . ๐Ÿ˜
Of course we filled oure bottles with the healthy mineral water in , pedaled along the river Inn eastwards until we found a nice place to have a picnic. ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2023-08-27

We took the route via Guarda, , Ftan to , so happy about our decision to cycle through these wonderful parts of . ๐Ÿ˜
Sorry that we are that much hyped ๐Ÿ˜†
Can you discover the castle of ? 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' ๐Ÿฅฐ

2023-08-27

looking for a , some wires and a iron to our solar panel!

anyone in between , , and , can help us out?

2023-08-27

Serendipitously we stumbled upon this magical . 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.

2023-08-26

In the valley of the river , amongst the remnants of a medieval monastery and set against the backdrop of alpine mountains we crossed it was a big inspiration and reminded Marc of his past in the scene...

2023-08-25

At 6.20pm we started the descend from the 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.

2023-08-25

On top of the you get rewarded... but the ascend?! is f... crazy long and steep! ๐Ÿฅต

2023-08-24

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

2023-08-24

Through the , uphill to Versam and on the other side of the Mountain down via the old bridge 'alte Versamertobelbrรผcke', where we had a bicycle- and selfie-shooting ๐Ÿ“ธ ๐Ÿ˜Ž to Bonaduz.
This is a verry nice route for ! Every couple of meters you get a new sight of the valley and the rocky mountains.

2023-08-22

Next day we started after midday. The track lead us along the right bank of the 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.

2023-08-21

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!

2023-08-19

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

2023-08-19

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

2023-08-17


Yess, we did it ๐Ÿ˜… ๐Ÿšต ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ

On top we got invited for lunch from Johanna and Heinz while talking about the last 11 months ๐Ÿ˜ thank you so much!

the uphill was hard but we got rewardet with the nice descend towards Wassen ๐Ÿฅณ

2023-08-16

This super cute guy (pic 1) greeted us in the early morning when we started pedaling. What a beautiful day to climb the !
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!

2023-08-16

From Meiringen Marc planned a route with .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 ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšต ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™‚๏ธ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 โ›ˆ๏ธ The following 3.5km took us around 3h ๐Ÿ˜ฑ The path was suuuper narrow, steep and slippery!

2023-08-15

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

2023-08-15

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.

2023-08-15

After one week in the region of we decided to pedal on, before falling back into the burning hamsterwheel ๐Ÿ˜…

Yess, the jurney goes on ๐Ÿฅณ
Guess where we are going to ride ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ ๐Ÿšต

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

2023-08-15

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 who replaced Fiona's broken brakelever in notime.

2023-08-15

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 through the Jura. Luckily we found shelter to cook lunch on our new gasoline stove. In , 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.

2023-08-13

End of july, rain and headwind along the river . With an average of 28km/h we overtook a lot of ebikes and only a flat could stop us ๐Ÿ”‹

2023-08-13

Our showed us the funny number 12345 ๐Ÿค“

2023-08-12

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

2023-08-12

With nice tailwind we cycled the beautiful cycle path along the 'Rur' towards . Very lovely the 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.

2023-08-08

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 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!

2023-08-03

My (Fiona's) phone was run over by a car ๐Ÿ˜ฑ
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 ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-08-03

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.

2023-07-26

Finally reached the highest point (700m) of ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-07-26

We cycled along the , an route that stretches from Troisvierges Luxembourg through to Aachen in Germany. During our journey, we crossed the Lac de Robertville in , 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.

2023-07-23

In the north of , we pedaled across the national border with exactly 12,000 kilometers on the odometer at that very moment. From , 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 ๐Ÿ˜…



2023-07-23

Arrived in the charming town of 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 .

2023-07-23

Along the border of the river ...
beautiful ๐Ÿ˜


2023-07-23

pic 1: marc made (for the first time) caramelized onions ๐Ÿ˜‹
pic 2: found a nice spot near a little river where we coocked dinner and pitched our tent ๐Ÿคฉ
pic 3: fixing a flat... (caused from broken glass in the woods ๐Ÿคฌ)

That afternoon we crossed the border from to ๐Ÿฅณ

pic 4: campspot at Anseremme in middle of a little island surrounded of the river ๐Ÿ˜‡

2023-07-22

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

2023-07-21

any / recommondations for Germany?

We are in , longer goal is Hungary...

anyone?

2023-07-18

Exploring the enchanting region in , 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! ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšด๐ŸŒณ

2023-07-17

our route led us through miles and miles of cornfields... and we enjoyed tailwind for the first time since Sahara๐Ÿ˜Š

2023-07-17

impressed us. We were really blown away by its incredible 'Palace de la Justice' and the famous 'Gros Horloge'. The stood out to us in particularโ€”it reminded us of that famous in Bern and especially Fiona felt for some seconds a little bit like coming home ๐Ÿ˜
In front of the we talked a while with a very sypathetic couple. They are combining and houssitting. We love theire way of and staying at a place for a while!

2023-07-17

Back in France! ๐Ÿ˜Š
First day, a warm and 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 into a bus station, where we waited for the heavy rain... nothing happened ๐Ÿ˜…
The clouds disappeared, and it was sunny again ๐Ÿ˜

2023-07-16

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช

9 days (4 cycling-days, 5 rest-days ๐Ÿ˜‡) 222km

- well-signed
- 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

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

2023-07-09

Our 'goodbye' from the lovely family was also a goodbye to .
In we quickly cooked some vegan burger, made our way through the busy city and rolled on board of the . The weather was quite bad, we had strong wind and rain. Therefore the crossing was a shaky affair what we felt in our stomach area ๐Ÿฅด. But everything went well. The next morning we were near , the wind had died down, the sea was calm and the sun was shining.
What a welcome ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2023-07-08

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 ๐Ÿคฃ) 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 โค๏ธ

2023-07-07

We took the nice from Waterford to Dungarvan


2023-07-01

first evening / night in ๐Ÿคฉ
yes, that view was amazing! And the sound of the waves too!

The temperature drop during night made us shiver (~7ยฐC) 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 ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2023-06-30

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

brandisbrandisbrand.com/about.

digital work is not always easy as ๐Ÿค“

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

2023-06-30

2023-06-30

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

2023-06-30

The country (where we cycled through) seems to have a serious issue with . 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.

2023-06-30

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง & ๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ &

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 .
Many and products available.
Even if the country is on the pricier side, bicycle spares are quite affordable.

2023-06-30

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' ๐Ÿ’–

2023-06-30

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 with her single-speed where we repaired the gear cable. Since the weather didn't change, we spend the time servicing our bikes.

2023-06-28

, what a cute little town at the coast of ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-06-28

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

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.

2023-06-28

Green, wet and chilly...

Route: Postbridge -> Tavystock (there at 'Church Lane' we ate to best Glutenfree and Vegan Pizza ever ๐Ÿ˜‹) -> Okehampton -> Great Torrington -> Barnstaple

2023-06-27

finally we reached the wide and open ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-06-26

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

2023-06-25

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 food with several pans ๐Ÿ˜„ and to have nice conversations with you!
We liked the . 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.

2023-06-25

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

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.

2023-06-25

2nd day in england.
yes, the weather showed its english side ๐Ÿ˜‚
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 ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-06-25

Near , 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. ๐Ÿคช

2023-06-23

A ferry took us to Poole, . 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 we found a bottlerefill station ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2023-06-22

๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ช

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....

2023-06-19

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.


2023-06-19

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! ๐Ÿ˜
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 ๐Ÿ˜Ž. We started clockwise. At the south western corner we enjoyed the view over the nice cliffy coastline.

2023-06-19

While checking the map we discovered the country . Spontaniously we decided to visit this 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 . Happily we cought the last tickets, jumped on board and waved 'good bye ' ๐Ÿ‘‹


2023-06-19

2023-06-18

Fullfilled from the wonderful hours at the garden and the inspiring exchange we pedaled on. At the border of the little lake ร‰tang des Caves we found a calm . 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 ๐Ÿคฉ).

2023-06-17

The next day Laureleen invited us to visit her familys place 12km further.
Imagine a huge oasis, a garden with greenhouses built into the ground๐Ÿ˜ An innovative concept to benefit from the earth's temperature regulation capability. The built in 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.

2023-06-17

Near La Bourdiniรจre, 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 We were so often involved in conversations and invited to homes.

2023-06-14

After a week break from , 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 in , we see many large fields dedicated to agriculture and we were amazed to see a huge field with withered poppys.

2023-06-10

Last week our kids came to visit us and we spent all day long quality time together ๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿ‘งโ€๐Ÿ‘ฆ โค๏ธ


2023-06-09

Our tentfloor is leaking. Sadly the conversation with & ended without constructive solution. They blamed us for using the (wrong) tent.
Time to our own floor!
While buying a tarp (waterproof fabric) in we discovered their fablab. We talked with Dorothรฉe & 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 ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-06-06

living as a does not mean to nourish us with boring and bland like noodlesoup, canned beans or nasa-food...
We take pride in cooking delicious, healthy and visually nice dishes on our single pot stove ๐Ÿคฉ ๐Ÿ˜‹ ๐Ÿ’š
and

2023-06-04

We do love the country! The and is so diverse and the colors are so bright, especially in the spring/early summer season.
From we cycled the old abandoned '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 ...

2023-06-03

maybe you expected the next , actually two ๐Ÿ˜…

to celebrate this day we washed our bikes ๐Ÿšฒ๏ธ๐Ÿ›๐Ÿคฉ



2023-06-02

๐Ÿฅณ

9999km
9 countries
9 months

2023-06-02

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


2023-06-02

Our route led us through the nice village where we saw how they practice a local (basque) handball.
Near the coastal town Zumaia the 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 here in the country. The is so stunning and the road condition is perfect.

2023-06-01

We traveled from Salamanca to Vitoria-Gasteiz by train.
In Vitoria-Gasteiz, we came across a restaurant by chance. The founder of the Root-Project / (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 on the direction north.

2023-06-01

Thanks to the project 'Galeria Urbana', which was launched by a local neighborhood association and cultural creators several years ago, in 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 and were amazed by the and their messages.

2023-05-29

Exploring for one day without our beloved 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 pastry shop 'Celi&Co' ๐Ÿฅฐ

2023-05-29

At we hunted for shoes. Fiona found some pretty sneakers and ditched her litterly falling apart bike-shoes.
Our seemingly perfect campspot turned out to be in a city park. At 3:20 am the sprinkler system startet drenching our 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!

2023-05-27

Just like in Portugal, 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 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.

2023-05-26

๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡น
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

2023-05-24

hola ๐Ÿคฉ
heading to salamanca...

2023-05-23

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 via Vila Franca das Naves we reached Almeida and found a beautiful, wind-sheltered campspot about 5km before the border to . We spent two nights there and fully enjoyed our rest-day in !

2023-05-21

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!

2023-05-20

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



2023-05-20

Hooray!
we reached the with its curious Covรฃo 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.

2023-05-19

we stayed at the youth hostel (1500m) before we continued uphill. Suddenly a young caught up with us. Paul cycled together with us to the (1,993m), the highest point in mainland. During a well-deserved break at the , 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 !

2023-05-19

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 Fundรฃo via Alto das Piรงarrinhas to Penhas da Saรบde. This was challenging to ride, we had to push our bikes frequently. After a chilly night 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.

2023-05-19

Joyfully reunited! โค๏ธ
Fiona cought up with Marc in 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 restaurant , 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. ๐Ÿ’› Next day we cycled towards the . How beautiful the was in the mountainous region! ๐Ÿ’š

2023-05-18

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.

2023-05-16

fiona and marc cycled through the green, agriculturally cultivated valley 'vale verde' to the town . 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?

2023-05-16

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!

2023-05-14

Today we did 100 verified changes on
rocks!

2023-05-11

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

2023-05-08

through a green hill-valley-landscape we pedaled on, to the nice coast of . wonderful this darkblue ocean, the yellow beaches and the rugged cliffs! here it is known for . 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 ๐Ÿ˜…


2023-05-08

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.

2023-05-08

the region of was full of wild fields (kapuzinerkresse). so beautiful and super tasty in our salad ๐Ÿ˜‹

2023-05-05

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. ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-05-05

on the bikes again we headed to
Trรณia, took the ferry to Setรบbal and from Almada a ferry to .
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 ๐Ÿ˜…

route:
Aljezur -> Odemira -> Vila Nova de Santo Andrรฉ -> Trรณia -> Setรบbal -> Almada -> Lisbon

2023-05-02

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!

2023-05-02

thanks to we camped @ kasper's property near . 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 leaked. luckily we had a tube of seam grip glue with us. so we could glue the leaking areas.


2023-04-22

at 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 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.


2023-04-21

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


2023-04-21

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.


2023-04-19

since our friend miho sent the spare parts to the post office in , 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 .


2023-04-16

2023-04-16

as in every country, we have to figure out how to gain 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.


2023-04-12

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 ๐Ÿ˜…
the next morning we pushed down the same way ๐Ÿคฏ

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



2023-04-07

in near we spent a few nights on a campground (the last campground was the almost abandoned one at 'lac rose' in senegal 09.02.23).

it was time to remove and wash all bags, clean the bikes, tighten all nuts and bolts and replace the chains after another 5600km with the very durable one from (our first chain from wore out much faster).

2023-04-06

our first night in portugal ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-04-06

with a small ferry, it had space for a few passengers and 4 cars, we crossed over to .

2023-04-06

challenging to find a campspot around

2023-04-06

the route led us along orange plantations. the sweet scent of the blooming trees could be smelled from afar.
from Gibraleรณn we took the 'vias verdes', our favorised cycling path. this one is in a quite neglected condition. but for these ~50km it was fun to cycle the rough trail through overgrown nature...

route: Matalascaรฑas -> Huelva -> Gibraleรณn -> Ayamonte

2023-04-05

Doรฑana National Park in is beautiful.
just keep in mind that it might take the whole day to do the 30km on the beachroad.

route: Tarifa -> Vejer de la Frontera -> Cรกdiz -> Sanlรบcar de Barrameda -> Doรฑana National Park

2023-03-30

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ณ -conakry
17days ~600km

- hilly backcountry, great for hiking and enduro
- nice built houses
- many flys
- destroyed nature & wildlife
- people are friendly but very annoying
- it needs a lot of physical and mental energy to cycle here
- kids will surround and hunt you
- not a lot of food options, mostly rice
- nothing to buy
- everyone is lethargic

route:
Gadha Louguรฉ - Sebhori - Labรฉ - Pita - Mamou - Kindia - Conakry

2023-03-30

exhausted of and its neverending demanding people we decided to take a flight from Conakry to Casablanca, a bus to Tanger and the ferry to Tarifa. the 5000km which we cycled south the last 4 months we now rushed back north within 32 hours.

we are so incredibly happy to be back!

within no time we shared good moments with good people, thank you Detlef, thank you Jens for the inspiring conversations.

2023-03-27

sometimes you have to throw all the principles out the window and change the plan.

its all about "sharing good moments with good people"

2023-03-26

from Mamou direction the streets are mostly new (made by chinese) but very very dusty. the landscape changes from the vivid green dense jungle to more and more deforested and burned down area. it is a pity to see how the forest is disappearing here too. for us (and all the animals, cows, sheep, goats out there) its quite dificult to find shade to rest during midday.


2023-03-26

our detour into the wild and past the waterfall was great. we could gain again a little bit of energy...

route: kambadaga waterfall -> dalaba -> mamou

2023-03-26

changing tousands of cfa to millions of gnf
its all about

2023-03-26

the legendary west african work ethic
๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿคฃ

2023-03-26

we reached the near
wonderful nature! ๐Ÿ’š

2023-03-26

one very adventourous day out in the wild ๐Ÿคฉ
we were rewarded with stunning nature ๐Ÿ˜


2023-03-26

what would be without the millions of yellow oil canisters they fill with every day?
and how would they gain water without the european made waterwells/pumps?

we are happy about the chlor free

2023-03-26

after daily experiences with the many children, we fled some km further into what seemed to us a quiet area. we needed time to process all the experiences here in and . we rested, red each other from the book 'the divide', 's blog, phoned with family and friends and discussed a lot.

questions like:
why are we here? what were our expectations? what do we want? what are our next steps?

2023-03-26

from Labรฉ we cycled to a from . the next morning, when marc made coffee, the first came by. oh dear, there was a school nearby... at lunchtime up to ~50 were sitting around us, watching us making fire, cooking, eating, drinking coffee, packing our stuff.

to be honest; it was a real !
at the picture it might look nice and harmless, but in reality it wasn't. they scream, shout, push each other against the fire or finger the bicycles...

2023-03-23

before we got into the citycenter of Labรฉ and its lively, bustling, colorful and noisy marketplace we treated ourselves with a 'cafรฉ noir' in one of the typical wooden coffee or foodstalls.

can you spot marc in the fourth picture?



2023-03-23

it was evening when we came to Labรฉ, already too late for us to ride through the city and here it was too heavily populated to camp. we asked at one of the houses if we could camp in the courtyard. mamadou ramata answered why we didn't want to sleep in her living room. so we spent a night inside, listening to the cockroaches instead of ants and chirping crickets while falling asleep.
next morning the whole family and neighborhood wanted to take pictures with us.

2023-03-23

what is the max. roofload in kg again?

2023-03-19

marc watched out for thrown away metal cans and wire to build the 'maximus prime' where we now cook every meal on it. it works suprisingly well!

2023-03-19

pedal through the river or cross over the wooden bridge? ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-03-19

we are pedaling through amazing and wonderful !

route: Gadha Louguรฉ -> Kaouma -> Sรฉbhori -> Yembering -> Labรฉ


2023-03-16

half a year on the road now!

its not always just fun, it welds the relationship together, but also pulls at the nerves way over the known limits.

with all the ups and downs,
with all the struggles and successes,
we keep on beeing

2023-03-16

13.03.23

westafrica,
you teached us your lessons,
we learned to love you,
we start to hate you.

westafrica,
with your endless growing population,
with all your lazyness,
still demanding,
demanding for more failed developement aid,
demanding for money and gifts.

westafrica,
you are sucking our energy,
you are taking our motivation.
why are you so destroyed,
with all your waste, dirt and friendlyness.

westafrica,
what happened,
westafrica
we are done, done with you.

2023-03-16

12.03.23

so far we didn't capture wildlife in guinea.
the only thing which really scares us are hundreds of schoolkids running after us shouting for money. when the whole crowd starts to run and we pedal as hard as we can, with gears and chain full of dust, it feels very strange.
sadly, this problem is caused by



2023-03-16

11.03.23

the guinean road is rough, extremely dusty and very steep.
we spent a night on the 1357m Sรฉbhori. the track to this place reminded marc of some downhill tracks in . its so incredibly quiet and we enjoy the wonderful nature without any motor sounds.

12ยฐ00โ€ฒ53.79โ€ณN, 12ยฐ20โ€ฒ15.6โ€ณW



2023-03-16

we got free warranty replacement shipped to a friends swiss address.
thank you !!

now we need to figure out how to get the cogs to or

anyone?

2023-03-16

10.03.23

we got the exit stamps of in Segou, 13km away from the Guinean Gadha Louguรฉ border point.
we fighted the really steep and rocky track uphill towards . the sun was brutal and we both got dehydrated and catched a heatstroke. not funny!
we found shade on the main road where we saw the packed 'taxi busses'.
finally we fighted our way (with 'schรผttelfrost') to the Guine border to collect our entry stamp.

route:
Kedougou -> Segou -> Gadha Louguรฉ

2023-03-16

- not always easy to gain drinking
- food is easy available
- along the street women sell peanuts
- in almost every village they sell fruits
- shops sometimes have a fridge containing joghurt and sรผssgetrรคnke
- dishes: spiced rice with veggies and fish/piece of meat or the fried omlett with onions and potatoes

route:
Diama -> Saint-Louis -> Lac Rose -> Rufisque -> M'bour -> Palmarin -> Ndangane -> Fatique -> Foundiougne -> Kaolak -> Kaffrine -> Tambacounda -> Kedougou -> Segou

2023-03-16

๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ณ
41days ~1200km

- country is flat
- inland it gets very hot 40-50ยฐC
- easy wildcamping
- accomodation ridicilous expensive
- people are friendly and keep reminding you all the time that you are white (toubab) and that they want money, gifts and your bicycle
- many kids will surround you as soon as you stop, you will never feel lonely
- everyone is lethargic easy going


2023-03-09

finally ๐Ÿฅณ
thanks to our friend miho who made a large amount of phonecalls and organised us the correct contacts to get the visa. we could finally print the fancy piece of paper in a copyshop (whos owner is from guinea ๐Ÿ˜…)

2023-03-09

we had the chance to get it once. very delicious! currently its saison of bissap- (hibiscus) or rarely lemon-sorbet in little plastic bags. ๐Ÿ˜‹

2023-03-08

i miss my toolshop, i miss my lathe, i miss my spare-parts box, i miss my 3d printer, i miss my caliper...
the bearing of the derailleur cog said good bye.

hope this will work without bearing for the next few tousand kilometers...


2023-03-06

we visited a 'michelin' this morning who repaired us a tube.
btw.: he offered us to buy our patched tube (there is no 28" tube available in kedougou)

later we bought a truck tube and created ourself tire inlays as thorn protection and we repaired the tube again. its so hot that even the patches from the 'michelin' do not really stick.
๐Ÿคž


2023-03-06

still waiting for marc's guinea visa (fiona got hers).

spending the day searching for a new o-ring to fix the broken stove. in the end we decided to build a new stove out of trash found on the street and our knife. boiling 1l water takes around 30 minutes_

pic4: we borrowed a local made stove to make us a coffee

we might be a bit naive, but at least we are equipped with creative brains ๐Ÿ˜Ž


2023-03-05

we by to have the possibility to see and observe .

pic 1: here in we see almost every day . we love them ๐Ÿ˜
pic 2: we saved the lives of these two cute babys by taking them off the road into the bushes.
pic 3: this morning while observing the bushfire marc made friends with a little toad.
pic 4: in in the evening a big black, dangerous looking scorpion crossed our path.

from the apes and the wonderful colored birds we didn't take fotos...

2023-03-05

we spent 3 nights in the wild bushes of dindefelo, while waiting for the visa.
last night we heard the bushfire crackling and we saw it flickering... with the wind we did not feel comfortable but had no other option to hide, so we put the alarmclock every hour to check if we are safe or already burning.
we run out of food and today we returned on the very sandy road to kedougou.


2023-03-05

is known because of its .
we tried to get there by , but with this rocky hikingpath we had no chance. so we hid them and went on by foot.
the air and water were really refreshing and finally we could fill our bottles with tasty water. ๐Ÿ˜‹


2023-03-05

pedaling from to near the border of .
the sandy dirt road is the main road...

at dindefelo we had to fix one tube. luckily we got a helping hand from the little "michelin man" ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-03-02

while waiting for the Guinea visa, we take refreshing baths in the gambia river.

2023-02-27

when in senegal, make sure to buy a traditional foodbowl (pic1) on the first local market you find.
then you can watch out for a restaurant (pic2) to get djibudjenne (pic3), which is spiced rice with vegetables and a piece of fish for around xof 1000.--
or you buy fish and let it be prepared with vegetables and fries (pic4).



2023-02-26

today we took a bath, washed our clothes in the nice fresh water of the gambia river and watched the quite busy 'traffic' on the road which leads through the river into the national park niokolokoba.

2023-02-26

we love this setup, very similar to ours :)

2023-02-25

why use cars if you have a ?

2023-02-25

we red in the news today that 'the european commission aims to present its plan for new truck emission standards'...

..and we thought is good for our lungs ๐Ÿคž

2023-02-23

today it was impossible to find tap or canistered . the first time we really face the water problem. in the end we had to buy bottled water.

for the daily routine, which feels like , we treated us 2dl each.
notice how clean the water is after washing hands, face and feet ๐Ÿคช

2023-02-23

due the temperatures of over 40ยฐC in the shade, we try to start riding as early and do as many km as possible before noon.

we took a break in the shade of a tree on the side of the road and suddenly a bushfire approached us quickly. what a shock. we never packed up so fast...
in addition to the high temperatures our adrenaline level is permanently high. the N1 autoroute direction Tambacounda is filled with overloaded camions which force us honking to go off the road, we are talking about cm...

2023-02-21

'cheikh' who tailored us some clothes, invited us to stay in 'gaguรฉ bokar'. they where setting up tents for an event. we stayed there for 2 nights. we drunk a lot of tee together. tasted from their traditional 'tschibutschien' and 'mafรฉ' and cooked vegetables with rice and bouillonsoup for them.

1. cheikh and paco
2. fiona taking portraits
3. marc learning how to handle a donkey
4. the tents for the event

2023-02-21

we have more than 40ยฐ C in the shade ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-02-20

its hot here, we have more than 30ยฐC

route:
ndangane -> fatick -> niamdiarokh -> foundiougne -> gaguรฉ -> kaolack


2023-02-20

when we arrived at the village 'mar lodj' we realised on what touristic tour 'sido' took us ๐Ÿ™ˆ
1. the holy baobab tree
they feed with milk, pray, celebrate and have wrestling competitions

2. the tam tam telephone
to drum if there is a child born, if someone died or to spread other important messages

3. sand painting art

4. 'sido', our pirogue driver

2023-02-19

at 'ndangane' we took the chance to explore nature on one of the nice colored boat. we chugged through the of the sine saloum delta, saw many , different herons and lots of other birds. we even spotted an otter on one shore.

2023-02-17

after spending 2,5 months in muslim regions we are facing now also catholic/christian villages: there are pigs on the street, jesus symbols, people drink alcohol and smoke.
questions about which religion we practice is now daily program. due to our turban, they think we are mauritanians from sahara ๐Ÿคฃ
1. at the bar of 'jean-baptiste' drinking a cold beer (realising we do not like alcohol anymore)
2. 'pierre' visiting us at our campsite this morning, asking endless times for money and gifts

2023-02-16

any brand or magazine looking for testers???
here we are!!!

just send us tires and tubes, we will test them around the globe, promised!


2023-02-16

we spent for sure 5 minutes in the saddle today.
while repairing fionas flat, marc's bike decided to go flat as well.
๐Ÿ’จ
around the world?

2023-02-15

fiona and marc with pauline and madmags ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿšด๐ŸŒโค๏ธ

2023-02-15

on the way to 'ndangane' we pedaled through nearly dryed out wetland.
what a crazy landscape, especially with the yellow-grey sky and the dusty wind.
the sandy track was encrusted with salt, which made cycling on it a lot easier.

2023-02-14

"for more than a century its inhabitants have been harvesting molluscs, scooping the meat out and using the empty shells to make their little island. the seashells have accumulated over many years and held together by the roots of mangroves, reeds and giant baobabs..." as 'amusingplanet.com' writes.

we fought our way through the headwind to the wooden that connects the to the mainland to find out that the island can't be entered with the . what a pitty!

2023-02-14

1.official
enter. find a responsible person. if not, move on. explain you want a bungalow or setting up tent. wait until phone calls are made. after watching a bungalow they realise all are booked. setting up the tent, where ever you want is ok, except where you feel safe of wind and weather. ask if there is a ๐Ÿ›€. negociating the price is impossible. accept and notice the shower is broken...

2.
fill all bottles, find a spot where you feel safe, cook, setup tent, sleep ๐Ÿ˜‡

2023-02-12

if we are marc makes wherever we are ๐Ÿ˜‹

this time on the side of a busy street ๐Ÿ˜…
locals and tourists in their cars looked astonished at the crazy white cyclists ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿšด



2023-02-11

last days we didn't make a lot of kilometers, instead we pushed our bikes through lots of sand...
we reached the 'lagune de somone', a lovely place to stay and enjoy ๐Ÿฅฐ


2023-02-09

thanks for all your comments, energy starts to flow again ๐Ÿฅฐ

this morning we decided to stay positive and focus the beauty.
before we swang our asses into the saddle we watched a lizard eating ants in the sun ๐Ÿ˜
marc's loud wish for coffee and omlette got heard; a few minutes later a lady offered us both for free. unbeleivable โค๏ธ
we pedaled safe through the busy suburbs of dakar, found a supermarket with glutenfree products and even as fiona fall down on the sandy road, people helped her up ๐Ÿ˜…

2023-02-09

today is one of those days where we ask ourself: what are we doing here?

after pedaling through villages where thousands of kids are yelling:
"toubab, argent! argent!
toubab, donnez mois ton velo!"

sometimes followed by throwing sticks and stones.
where the horrible traffic and sandy roads suck all energy out of your body.
In a country where you pay โ‚ฌ10 to stay on a very rundown campground without electricity and an ugly toilet...

will it get better or worse?
how can we refill our energy?

2023-02-07

route:
zebrabar - lรฉona - thieppe - lompoul-sur-mer - darou - mboro


2023-02-07

we had a calm and safe night beside the house of generous grandmother fatima. wow, what a person ๐Ÿฅฐ

next morning every child wanted to ride the bikes ๐Ÿ˜…


2023-02-06

its fiona's birthday today!

after a few resting days we moved on direction dakar. in lompoul-sur-mer we asked a lady where to get food and we got invited to the family home... what a birthday present๐Ÿคฉ



2023-02-04

life is beautiful!
we just got a sleeping mat donated from duncan ๐Ÿคฉ
thank you, this made our day (or night ๐Ÿคฃ)
we always meet so many friendly and helpful people, unbeleivable ๐Ÿ˜

2023-02-03

equipment fail nr.3:

we both bought the same nemoequipment sleeping mat for our trip around the globe.
the one fiona has, leaks every 2nd day somewhere else.
tonight she sticked the 6th patch onto it.
we are in africa, its not easy to get a new airbed and you realize how importand it is to have reliable equipment.
we hope they will send us a warranty replacement very soon, waking up on the floor in the night is not fun!

2023-02-03

its marc's birthday today!

fiona organized a birthday cheescake with candles ๐Ÿ˜

while 150 people from the paris dakar race entered the campground and it feels like eating the cake in a motorcycle workshop. noise and smell of petrol driven vehicles. we feel very small and unseen with our minimal setup between the high equipped trucks, cars and bikes.

2023-02-03

the zebra bar is a little paradise. we enjoy the the time here, walking at the beach, watching at the many beautiful birds and the cheeky monkeys.

on the first evening here, we met tinu. we understood each other right away and had nice conversations. it was so overwhelming when we suddenly found out that tinu sponsored us a few nights!

2023-02-02

together with jรผrgen we cooked a super delicious dinner with the fish, potatoes and green beans from the market... ๐Ÿ˜‹

with his great humor we had a funny time together ๐Ÿ˜‚

2023-02-02

in saint-louis we went shopping at the local market ๐Ÿ˜ wow, these colors! we love it!

a guy tried to sell us hats and bracelets. marc told him that he would rather have his shoes fixeded. he took marc by the hand and went with him to a shoe repairer. some minutes later the seam was sewn like new again. ๐Ÿคฉ we are amazed! what europeans would throw away gets fixed in africa.



2023-02-01

when we had the exit stamp on the mauritanian side of the river 'senegal', we pushed the bikes over the bridge to get the entry stamp for ๐Ÿฅณ
already at the border a completely different country welcomed us. the people seemed very happy to us and it was colorful everywhere.
we realised that since morocco we have seen very few women and even fewer unveiled women.
after we had a delicious lunch on the street, refilled our foodbags we reached the zebra bar just before sunset. ๐ŸŒ… ๐Ÿคฉ ๐Ÿป

2023-01-31

the closer we got to the senegalese border, the greener the landscape became.




2023-01-31

our three campspots in mauretania:
- behind a lonely mosque
- behind a police checkpoint with very friendly officers
- in a national park just before diama border; where we only slept in our sleeping bags on the picnic blanket because of the many thorns (we where afraid that our airbeds get punctured), this night was accordingly hard ๐Ÿคช
in the morning we run out of petrol. to get our coffee we hat to be creative with one of the empty cola cans ๐Ÿ˜‹

2023-01-30

in houses are painted in turquoise and yellow
no more blue ๐Ÿ˜‰
it looks like colored cubes in a large sandpit.

of course we searched for ...
and we found sometimes water in deep water wells, sometimes we could refill our bottles out of huge blue water bags or we got water from a restaurants tap.



2023-01-29

๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฆ + ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ญ
54 days ~ 2500km

- delicious coffee
- tasty drinkingwater in the mountains
- no alcohol...
- great selection of fresh food and everything you ever need at the marketplaces
- friendy people, for us sometimes too demanding and intrusive
- wildcamping is legal but the officials force you to move to a 'safe' (paid and fenced) place
- westernsahara has long stretches without supply and a harsh conditions
- no modern bike spareparts

2023-01-29

mauretania is a transit country.
people are friendly but extremely layedback.

everyone we met, no matter if police officer or kid, asked us on how to get to europe.

there is a huge gap between rich and poor, no middle class.

literally everything is imported, since they do not yet grow vegetables in the hot desert.
and there are europeans bringing cars, bicycles, tv's, fridges and other stuff here to trade.

route:
nouakchott -> tiguent -> border of diama


2023-01-28

the roads in are made of tarmac mixed with seashells.

the cars (mercedes c190 and renault21) are driving like crazy, in contrast to morocco they use the signals and lights to communicate between each other.

we never faced so many dead animals on the road, camels, goats, dogs, cats, cows...
luck for you we cant post the smell...

2023-01-25

2023-01-25

the road in mauretania is quite narrow and in bad condition...

after the frenchies fixed one of the camions along the road we reached late night.

we are so happy that we met these guys! it was a pleasure to travel together down the long deserty land. hopefully we will meet again! pour cuisinier un menu vrai pour vous ๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿณ๐Ÿ˜…

we spent a day at auberge samiraa and this morning we packed our bicycles, said goodbye to our new friends and started pedaling direction south ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿšด

2023-01-25

we made it through the 5km long nomansland between the westernsahara and mauretania ๐Ÿฅณ

we were quite nervous before the border since there exist so many 'horror'-stories about the dangerousity of this strech! ๐Ÿ˜‚



2023-01-23

what a lucky coincidence that we could take the oportunity to drive from dakhla to the mauretanian border (377km) with our french friends through the deserty
it was fun to spend these hours together! ๐Ÿคฉ

2023-01-22

at it has a museum about antoine de saint-exupรฉry, the french writer of the famous book 'le petit prince', we took a view on the fort 'casa del mar' surrounded by the sea and passed the sunken ship outside of town.

2023-01-22

on our way, cycling through the northern part of westsahara we crossed the longest conveyor belt of the world (it is even visible from space). it transports phosphate ore from the mining operation in bou craa 61 miles to the harbour town of marsa near el aaiรนn.
the towns, which can be counted on one hand, seem like fatamorganas to us. we couldn't see many people, but often new and luxury shinig buildings and clean sidewalks.

2023-01-21

late in the evening we reached and pitched our tent between the cars of the frenchies. despite the wind shadow, the tent was shaken badly throughout the night. the wind even managed to open the zippers on the outer tent. ๐Ÿ™‰

now we are here, in this incredibly modern city between the sheer infinite and the vast sea.

btw.
our minds are trying to realize that 1500km around us is only desert, wind, a handful gasoline stations and vast of nothing...

2023-01-20

while drinking coffee at the one and only gasoline station on the way to boujdour, preparing mentaly for the 81km we still have to pedal through the deserty nothing, we met the italian guy ( www.vespup.com ) traveling the world on his vespa ๐Ÿฅณ
and we met 4 french guys on there way to dakar. we asked them to give us a lift to dakhla and we are so lucky they have space! so now we are admiring the landscape from the car window. unbelievable how fast you can move forward by car ๐Ÿ™ˆ

2023-01-20

the desert is tough ๐Ÿคช
we did 170km yesterday with top speeds of 45km/h. luckily there is tailwind ๐Ÿ˜‡

we have to plan well ahead according food, water, wind and shelter. its cold and monotone, the few cities we cross are totally surreal. the chain needs lube every day, the sand is everywhere and good music helps ๐ŸŽต

2023-01-18

is rough to cycle,
strong winds and rain today...

pushing 90 - 120km/day trough sandy landscapes, its beautiful, adventurous as well as boring.
we underesteminated the strong winds when setting up the tent in the sand, it was a shaky night with sand everywhere, even between the teeth ๐Ÿ˜

route:
guelmin - tantan - el ouatia - akhfennir - naรฏla

2023-01-16

2023-01-15

yeah we did it ๐Ÿฅณ odo 5555km



2023-01-14

in this small town full of surfers, backpackers and camper travelers we stayed a few days to cure fiona's persistent cold.
thanks Lelibeli, my dearest daughter for the remote medical advice.

2023-01-10

on the road to mirleft we crossed a herd of respectively
๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿช

it was nice to pedal along the , breathe the fresh sea air and watch the waves.

2023-01-10

some impressions of .
we visited the city and the silver-souk where almost all ateliers and shops where closed because it was sunday, we met hugo, a cyclist from belgium and fixed a flat tire...

2023-01-10

with washed feets we were ready to hit the road again. ๐Ÿ˜…

the landscape at the coast turned greener, cliffy and hilly.

route: sidi rabat -> tiznit ->mirleft -> sidi ifni


2023-01-10

marc made his famous french-fries and we enjoyed the time with a german family (mo__biel on instagram). we met them first in marrakesh and had the possibility to order spare brakepads to their home, at agadir we met them to collect these brakepads and now we met again ๐Ÿ˜„

these days were fullfilled with meeting nice people!
rosie & nick, zoe & martin we had such a nice time!
and we met therese from switzerland again ๐Ÿ˜„
its so cool to meet people several times while !

2023-01-10

we visited a very nice painted cave from inside, had some traditional and walked for through the national park (with the binoculard we could see some flamingos, grey heron, different ducks and some birds from europe on their winter-holidays)

2023-01-07

still missing 101km to the next ๐Ÿ˜œ

2023-01-06

on the beach there are super pretty fishing caves carved into the rocks.


2023-01-06

we figured out that we are in paradise now ๐Ÿคฉ


2023-01-05

in we found a super nice campspot. on top of the cliff with view over the ๐Ÿคฉ

immediately we made new ๐Ÿ•๏ธ

in the morning we had heaps of sand in the tent ๐Ÿ™ˆ thanks to the wind ๐Ÿ˜†



2023-01-05

from we headed south.
the paved road ended as a uncyclable narrow sandy fireroad and led us through a huge vegetable-growing area.

now we know where the vegetables we buy on the market are grown. wow, they are able to grow in pure sand! ๐Ÿ…๐Ÿฅ•๐Ÿฅฌ

unfortunately not everything is so pretty green. behind the beautifully watered fields lies mountains of dried up plants overlaid with in every form. and on top of it sheep are looking for something to eat...

2023-01-04

today is our 4 months anniversary of
the world ๐Ÿฅณ

we are heading south direction

happy new year to everyone!


2023-01-02

we reached zagora tired and quite exhausted after 700km, 12 days in a row of pedaling and the climb of two mountain passes (tichka 2260m and tizi n'uguent zegsaoun 2639m) ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ˜…
now we need a few rest days. spontaneously we decided to take the bus overnight to agadir and arrived with a few hours delay around noon of 31.12.22.

pic 1: our packed bikes
pic 2: sleepy in the bus
pic 3: having a really good freshly brewed coffee from a coffee car along the road
pic 4: agadir beach

2023-01-02

each of us had 2 flat tires because of these huge thorns ๐Ÿ™ˆ
sometimes we are even glad about this forced break, so we have time to enjoy a coffee.

2023-01-01

it felt good to 'just' ride the bikes.
we had to process the many impressions of the last few days: the incredibly impressive landscapes, the encounters with people, the contrast between rich and poor and the recurring question 'who we are'...

in 'alnif' we were invited to sleep in the salon of the restaurant 'repos des nomades' and got a delicious berber omlette for breakfast. near 'ait mnad' we slept under the beautiful starry sky and marc prepared a great cornbread for breakfast.

2023-01-01

during the second breakfast break we decided to change our route and thus skip the desert. on the way south we will cycle through enough desert (mauritania, western sahara...) and we are currently not in the mood to go to the probably quite turistic region of erg chebby.
on bikeroutrouter.de we created a new route directly to zagora. with music via headphones, we pressed the pedals and rushed along the mostly flat, straight road through the very barren landscape.

2023-01-01

since we left marrakech, we cycled for 10 days through mostly dry and rocky landscapes. so it was beautiful and soothing to our eyes to see this valley delta full of palm trees and vibrant greenery.
the contrast to the red mountains in the background was great too.


2022-12-29

in the desert of morocco
contributed to via @organicmaps

2022-12-27

a bit shocking were the kids running from nowhere to the gravelroad, trying to stop us and begging for food and money.
after giving first ones some food (and they wanted more and more), we realized that it is better to rush through.
it also made us think about how exposed we are as cyclists.

2022-12-27

we made it... ๐Ÿฅณ
...pedaled over the pass 'tizi n'uguent zegsaoun' (2639m)
what an impressive view ๐Ÿ˜

half way up the street was paved, then it changed to gravel. to ride the long downhill was a blast!

sadly it is not possible to show all our experiences on the fotos!

route: m'semrir -> tizi n'uguent zegsaoun -> tamtatouchte -> todgha gorges

2022-12-27

following the dadรจs valley to m'semrir

2022-12-27

delicious 'jatvood immim' (phonetic in berber language*) breakfast at our hotel 'la vallee des pommes'.
now, at 9 o'clock it is -2ยฐC
luckily we had enough blankets ๐Ÿ˜œ

we are in m'semrir now and very excited to cross the high atlas via
pass 'tizi n'uguent zegsaoun' (2639m) to tamtatouchte.

*again we are learning a new language ๐Ÿค“ in this region of morocco talk



2022-12-26

route: skoura -> boumalne dadรจs

2022-12-25

4 photos are not enough; here are more photos to provide you the amazing view ๐Ÿคฉ

2022-12-24

it took us a while to figure this out:

the here in morocco sometimes is very tasty milk chocolate filled with almonds and sometimes its more dark cooking chocolate with 3 or 4 almonds.
we think one of them is fake brand.

guess which one is the good one...

left or right?

2022-12-24

restock our supply in for the next few days.
lentiles, sugar, rice, corn flour, bouillon, dates, oatmeal, all in a local store.
bananas, mandarines, vegetables on the street and yoghurt from the fridge.

we saw s lot of waste on the countryside and try to buy as much as possible unpacked stuff packed in our leftover plasticbags.

2022-12-23

valley

stunning descente to -ben-haddou where they filmed and other movies

2022-12-23

on the other side of the tichka-pass we followed the road 'rp1506' direction to . another day with georgeous landscapes.


2022-12-23

yes, we made it over the pass ๐Ÿฅณ

2022-12-21

notice the snow on the peak!

the scenery is quite rough.
we are amazed about this view and happy to climb the mountain on a well paved road.

2022-12-21

we are getting closer to the high atlas mountains. the street is like a canion in the red hills.



2022-12-19

its always a pleasure to find a spring.
the tap-water often smells like a swimming pool or recently a bit salty.

of corse we contribute to and you can even roughly follow our route by the changeset ๐Ÿค“

route:
marrakesh -> ait ourir -> taddart

2022-12-19

we met Redouane at a gasoline station and we ate a tangine together. he offered us a place to sleep in his old barn.
another african experience on our trip ๐Ÿ˜‰

2022-12-17

with cleaned shoes we are ready to head to the atlas-mountains ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ

2022-12-17

we too...
we found some fabric, zipper and a store with threads in all color variations. for iteration 2 of the triangle bags.
restdays are also important to clean and check the bikes.

2022-12-17

is quite busy...

2022-12-16

2022-12-16

the wind turned to a storm, we could't pedal anymore, had to push the bikes and lean against the storm. the dry soil from the fields filled the air and sandblasted our faces. we found shelter in an unfinished gasoline station. the storm got even worse with heavy rain in addition. happy sheltered, but also a little bit trapped we spent 3 hours waiting until we surprisingly could stop a bus to marrakesh.

2022-12-15

after two days pedaling along the coast with (again) strong headwind and annoying traffic, we turned inland (direction ).
the landscape changed, we drove through tiny villages and agricultural areas.
the road surface changed too: gravel, soil, mud, sand, destroyed tarmac...
our mood went a bit downhill. buying (and for markus htttps://markusschorn.de ) at the local kiosk and eating it in record time helped
๐Ÿซ+๐Ÿช=๐Ÿš€
๐Ÿšด๐Ÿšดโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿšดโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿ•๏ธ = ๐Ÿ˜…

2022-12-14

and finally, the first open fire on our trip ๐Ÿคฉ

2022-12-14

at the coast we found nice in the dunes and marc took a refreshing footbath in the rough .
is legal in morocco, but if you don't hide well enough you might get trouble with officials telling you to go to a 'safe place'...

route:
dar bouazza (near casablanca) -> haouzia -> el jadida

2022-12-13

for the last 3.5 months we cycled 4444km, from biel/bienne ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ญ to 'bni hilal' ๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฆ
๐Ÿฅณ


2022-12-12


At the moment of the final whistle we reached a village where the moroccans where celebrating their success.
ุงู„ู‚ุฏู…

2022-12-11

we are pedaling through and visited the ( sadly we could't go inside. its only possible to visit the mosque with a guide in the morning )

in the afternoon the streets were almost empty because everyone was watching football ๐Ÿ˜…



2022-12-10

pro-cycleshop along the road ๐Ÿ˜…


2022-12-09

since we met markus with his dog 'vesuvio' ( www.markusschorn.de ) at the camping from we are pedaling together down the coast in directtion to casablanca. we are enjoying the time time together.

at the coast between and , where the king of has some houses, there are men cleaning the street.

2022-12-06

we love to buy unpacked food on local markets. here in morocco they are open till late evening.

until now we are able to ask 'how much' in arabic (bschรฆl), ask for some fruits (oranges = brzochal, pommegranates = romรฆn, and eggs = baid) and order two coffee (schusch cahua). they are always delighted and help us to with the pronunciation.


2022-12-06

what a party here in kรฉnitra ๐Ÿฅณ
๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฆ 3:0 ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฆ

2022-12-05

after a day in the rain combined with headwind, we reached completely done and exhausted after 82km. For the last few kilometers it was already dark and our adrenaline level quite high.

the bikes need washing and oil.

2022-12-05

near Had Kourt we got invited to a farmers house, to watch the animals and drinking tee together.

they gifted us with fresh eggs ๐Ÿ˜‹

2022-12-05

Due to rain we stayed at a local hostel in
with shared bathroom facilities.



2022-12-04

from chefchaouen we headed south. the street wove through the hilly landscape with agriculture and again lots of olive trees (but not in monoculture-style like in spain).

route: chefchaouen -> ouazzane



2022-12-04

bye bye

2022-12-04

route:

roncesvalles -> pamplona -> vittoria-gasteiz -> bilbao -> burgos -> soria -> cuenca -> albacete -> puente de gรฉnave -> granada -> รณrgiva -> motril -> malaga -> estepona -> los barrios -> tarifa

2022-12-04

๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฆ :
45 days ~2300km

Pro:
- many picnic sites/tables
- vias verdes
- beautiful diverse landscapes
- many gravel roads
- a lot of gluten free products
- amazing sweets
- car drivers respect cyclists
- nearly no traffic during the night

Contra:
- no public toilets, there is shit and waste everywhere
- cycling routes not signed or inexistent
- people are reserved (don't expect to meet new people)
- coasts are full of traffic

2022-11-30

and more of the amazing blue ๐Ÿ˜‡

do you know why chefchaouen is painted almost allover in blue color?

there are several different theories...

according to some locals the walls are daubed in all shades of blue to represent the sparkling mediterranean sea. others believe that the blues symbolise the cityโ€™s ras el-maa waterfall where they get their drinking water. there are those who believe that it deter mosquitoes and some locals say that the blue helps keep their homes cool...

๐Ÿ’™

2022-11-30

we arrived the blue city ๐Ÿ’™

2022-11-30

picture 1: best coffee we ever drunk! in a bar where locals smoked their pot-pipes.
picture 2: bunch of kids on their way home from school, stunning and running beside us.
picture 3: hardworking woman, carrying bushes (firewood?).
picture 4: lunch with coffee at a local restaurant



2022-11-30

the nature and landscape of the coutryside of nothern morocco fills us with great joy!

route:
tanger -> themsila -> bghaghza -> (near) bni idder



2022-11-30

Our most important question was:
How do we get water?

After a while we learned that there are springs and water holes with good tasting freshwater.

we do contribute the watersprings on

2022-11-30

first steps in
we bought a sim card, changed some cash (credit cards are nearly useless here) and seized the opportunity to pedal out of while all moroccans watched their football wm game against belgium and the streets had less traffic.

during the first few kilometers we spoke with more local people than on our whole spain trip.

in we searched a spot to sleep and with some sign language mohamed offered us a place in his unfinished house.

2022-11-30

at 9 o'clock in the morning we catched the ferry from tarifa to tanger.
we did not expect that it would be so easy to get on the boat. tarifa was still very drowsly so it took us only some minutes to buy the ticket and roll on board.
the crossing took a bit more than an hour and we made it to africa ๐Ÿฅณ
hello ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2022-11-28

our two last nights in spain...

route: (along the now well signed ev8 through the countryside)
guadiaro -> castellar nueva de la fronters -> los barrios ->

2022-11-25

Trapped in nowhere... just cars around us.

2022-11-25

While cycling on the official developed 8 (gpx track from the website),
direction from Estepona to Gibraltar (its a f**king 4 lane highway) 2 police cars stopped us in the middle of a roundabout telling us we are not allowed to cycle here. Its a poison area for cyclists here, please remove this track from the map!!

2022-11-25

At 2am we found somewhere between Marbella and Estepona a tiny spot between the $$$ hotels and golf courts to pitch our tent for 5 hours.

Do not try to cycle the southern coast of spain, its just ๐Ÿคฌ๐Ÿคฎ๐Ÿ›ฃ๏ธ madness...

2022-11-24

the 8 (we guess this route exists on but is not built yet ๐Ÿ˜ฑ)
from Malaga -> Marbella

Its a mix between the curb of a highway (autobahn), wooden beach paths (with ๐Ÿšณ signs) and no existing trails in riverbeds.


2022-11-23

our 'penthouse' with astonishing city-skyline-view





2022-11-23

crazy headwinds brought out clouds like spaceships ๐Ÿ˜Ž
the road along the coast with its traffic was a bit disappointing and energy draining despite the beautiful scenery ๐Ÿคฉ

our route:
alfa mar -> nerja -> torre del mar -> malaga





2022-11-22

Found something we are missing a lot:

๐Ÿ˜‹

2022-11-21

we love magic numbers ๐Ÿ˜Ž

fyi:
the abbreviation โ€œODOโ€ stands for odometer. the word comes from the greek word โ€œhodosโ€, which means something like โ€œwayโ€.
the odometer is an instrument that measures the distance traveled by an object or vehicle and records the data in units of length, usually kilometers or miles.

2022-11-21

"breakfast at tiffanys" ... no, much better! at the of costa del sol with bread from "bakery nur" and musli with pomegranate and tangerine from our friends at รณrgiva. love it!


2022-11-20

after one week staying with our friends at รณrgiva chillinโ€˜ our legs, servicing the bikes, washing, sewing, making burocratic stuff and eating delicious food we are back on track ๐Ÿšด๐Ÿšต๐Ÿ˜

route:
รณrgiva -> vรฉlez de benaudalla -> motril -> alfa mar

2022-11-20

Fiona made herself a new bootie/ .
This time we rented an old and very basic sewing machine in the .

We used leftover fabric from Marc's bootie and a shower curtain from the china bazar.




2022-11-17

thanks to support! we could pick up our new silencer @ postoffice in granada ๐Ÿคฉ
it looks like it is a different material ๐Ÿคž

2022-11-17

servicing the bike is mandatory.
we changed the chains and as you see in the picture after 3000km the chain got nearly half a link longer ๐Ÿ˜ณ

2022-11-14

Currently staying at a friends place in
Its a village in the mountains of
We love to stay in the large, diverse and natural garden after nearly 300km monoculture.
Its nice to discuss in our mother tongue and to sleep out without freezing ๐Ÿ˜Ž

2022-11-13

with each we had more questions. marc questioning about technic and logistics topics and claimed about monoculture. fiona asked how old they get or what kind of plants would support an olivetree to grow better ( ).

questions over questions :)

2022-11-12

Olive plantation in :
first few kilometers: "wow, look, thats how they grow olives"
next 50km: "look, every tree has its own waterpipe."
next 100km: "its huge"
after 250km: "will this plantation ever end?"

2022-11-08

bye bye
we enjoyed another couple of km on your nice gravel and the picnic sites ๐Ÿคฉ

route:
balazote โ€“> alcaraz (vias verdes de la sierra de alcaraz)
reolid โ€“> arroyo del ojanco (vias verdes de segura)



2022-11-08

second with breadsticks and and beer to recover energy ๐Ÿ˜œ
after the last really chilly nights we need a lot of energy...




2022-11-06

Marc had 5 flats this day... ๐Ÿคฏ
Flat odysee by thornes

2022-11-06

how beautiful! ๐Ÿคฉ
we pedaled through

2022-11-05

from cuenca we followed a gpx file of the transiberica gravel race (thanks miho).
beautiful landscapes,
rough terrain,
a campspot with sunsetview
and a really frosty night

2022-11-05

In we made another bunch of and dried veggies.
It takes quite a lot of time from finding all the ingredients to cutting and packing...
finally we are happy to have a new, fresh and healthy survival pack.



2022-11-05

we had some 'restdays' at
walked up the nearby hill to have a look down to the nice old town.

2022-11-03

Repairing my mirror with a wine bottle cork. Not sure if they chosen the name because it breaks so fast and has to be repaired with a cork (after drinking the wine first to get a solution) ๐Ÿ˜Ž



2022-10-31

after almost a dayride through the woods and mountains of the 'sierra de albarracin' we deserved the cool descent into the 'serrania de cuenca' with an incredible view.

btw. we didn't know that such a big part of spain is on high altitude ๐Ÿ™ˆ (since the mountains of bilbao we are pedaling between ~600m and 1790m)


2022-10-31

Enjoy freshly found mushrooms in the spanish mountains of -la-mancha



2022-10-31

, taking a , drinking spanish
with locals, enjoying the last , having breakfast on in the middle of nowhere

2022-10-31

changing landscapes...

2022-10-31

The 'via verde' ended very abrupt in Ciria.
Out of nowhere there was a sign ๐Ÿšท and the gravel changed to very rough.
We decided to keep going since osm showed it as a cyclepath, but a few hunderts meter there was this 20m high bridge not looking very cycleable.




2022-10-31

From Ciria we planed a 290 km route to Cuenca.

The landscape changed from green valleys over burned hills to desert style plateaus... the wind was always against us... :(

We found nice freshwater springs and tiny supermarkets inside local bars which had no signs outside. To find them, just ride into a village and check where the few people are walking from or walking to, this might be the bar where you get some pommes-chips, chocolate and sometimes even eggs :)

2022-10-29

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ต review route:

Yverdon(CH) -> Mรฉtabief (FR) -> Chalon-sur-Saรดne -> Moulins -> La Chapelle-Bรขton -> La Rochelle -> รŽle de Rรฉ -> Rochefort -> รres -> Bayonne -> Orthez -> Saint Jean Pied de Port -> Roncesvalles (ES)

2022-10-29

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ต review:
30 Days, ~1'800 km

Pro:
- many free public toilets and water
- well signed cycling routes
- cheap petrol&gas
- farmer markets in every town 2x week
- 'Vrac' stores everywhere :)
- friendly, communicative and hospitable people

Contra:
- Scary men with guns (Hunting every Sa., Su., Thu.)
- Tobacco very expensive (Marc quit smoking)
- Some regions are extremely fenced


2022-10-26

route:
via verde santander mediterraneo
from burgos via soria to ciria






2022-10-26

our campspot, a picnic-site along the via verde near burgos.
we enjoyed the sunny morning to let dry the tent, charge the phone with solar power and eat breakfast.
when we wanted to start pedaling fiona had a flat back-tire. because of the really worn profile we decided to get a new one. sadly saturdays all cycling-shops of burgos are closed so we went to decathlon and changed the terreno dry tires with tuareg. hopefully the new one will last more than 3000km!

2022-10-24

Really?
Is this Sweden quality?
The expensive silencer for the ti stove just broke after 6 weeks daily usage...

wtf

2022-10-22

its crazy windy, no f... stormy!
we are so happy that we changed our plans and went south, 'coz in north the winds are even stronger and still we are fighting every day against heaviest headwind and sometimes it even blows us off the bikes.

2022-10-22

we are fascinated from the landscape along the vias verdes to

2022-10-22

๐Ÿ˜‹

2022-10-22

we were happy to cook underneath the bridge, but it felt not good to stay there for the night. after some km 'night-ride' we found the perfect campspot. inbetween two houses of the old trainstation 'arconada', save from the stormy wind.

2022-10-22

the realy nice gravel road 'vias verdes' (bahntrassenradweg) leads us through wild and lost places. because of heavy wind and rain we found shelter underneath a bridge. so we could prepare food and eat.

route:
bercedo -> medina de pomar -> trespaderne
lences de bureba



2022-10-19

woop woop woop 2222km done ๐Ÿฅณ
and we celebrated it with a tasty bear ๐Ÿ˜‹


2022-10-19

the 'via verde ferrocarril santander mediterraneo' seems to be unfinised yet...



2022-10-19

changing the plan: no more camino del norte or another camino to santiago de compostela ๐Ÿ˜‡
going south now. means another climb over the mountains ๐Ÿคฃ
we catched a very low traffic road, pedaled hoyo mena and enjoyed a lovely descend to ampuero. after a late lunch we climbed the pass 'puerto de los tornos'. ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™‚๏ธ

route:
sonabia (20m) -> hoyo mena (410m) -> ampuero (10m) -> puerto de los tornos (920m) -> bersedo montija (740m)

60km and 2'200hm

2022-10-19

from bilbao we planed to ride the to santiago de compostela.
unluckily the northcoast of spain is not only hilly, there is also a big fat highway destroying our romantic idea of riding along. ๐Ÿ˜

after a stressful dayride we luckily found the nicest campspot. ๐Ÿ˜

route:
bilbao -> la arena -> sonabia (orinon)

2022-10-16

are you curious what we did the last days?

we cooked veggie salsa and dried it to have instant-sauce and made a bunch of power-bars ๐Ÿ˜‹

during baking time we watched youtube (of course documentations ๐Ÿ˜‡ )



2022-10-14

route:
'arrato' -> jugo -> murgia (618m)
-> 'arlobi' (875m) -> 'usategieta' (1187m)
-> ibarra (92m) -> our camp spot (~400m)

the journey of 27km took us a whole day๐Ÿคช

we faced slopes of 38% uphill and 42% downhill
this is crazy steep with a fully packed bike on a mountain hiking trail ๐Ÿ˜…
(our brakes overheated and started to smell ugly).



2022-10-14

... but that was only level 1 of spanish basques steepness scale โ›ฐ๏ธ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿšตโ€โ™‚๏ธ

'amaritu' was followed by 'armikelo' and 'arrato'. there we were done and rested for a night.



2022-10-14

marc figured out how to plan via . so we headet into the 'parque natural de gorbeia' after we refilled our stockings in an hidden grocery / butcher store.
first peak we reached was 'amaritu' (787m). and we thought this was a steep climb...

route:
vitoria-gasteiz -> apodaka -> amaritu




2022-10-14

@ Bienne homies:

on every water refill we think of you guys and the great moments we shared together!

Thanks for the perfect gifts ๐Ÿคฉ๐Ÿฅฐ

Hope you all are doing fine?!

2022-10-13

from Lerate we rode to Estella-Lizarra and there we took the beautiful Via del Ferrocarril (viasverdes.com) to Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Spain seems to be a paradise :)



2022-10-13

in ,
in the area of pamplon/iruna (navarra)
we discovered a dry and burnt landscape.

our routes:
roncesvalles -> pamplona (eurovelo 3)
etxauri -> lerate

2022-10-09

what an amazing view

downhill from the on the spanish side to 'orreaga/roncesvalles' (to collect our pilgrim stamp)

2022-10-09

from saint-jean-pied-de-port (200m) we took the pilgrims route over 'col de lepoeder' (1441m)
steep, steeper, the steepest
and foggy...
but the downhill on the spanish side was awesome ๐Ÿ˜

2022-10-09

we are facing the french
the hills in are very steep (~ 20% ๐Ÿ˜ณ) and the sheep looking very smart ๐Ÿค“
๐Ÿ˜†

2022-10-07

Did you know that they grow in france?

2022-10-05

so, why did we stay in orthez for two days?
because we needed a new boot for marc.
the friendly staff at let us sew it in their store. ๐Ÿ˜…
thanks a lot for the fancy sticker with our url!

2022-10-05

phil et annie nous ont invitรฉs ร  planter notre tente dans leur jardin ร  orthez. nous avons beaucoup apprรฉciรฉ leur hospitalitรฉ. merci beaucoup!

2022-10-05

spent the night on a golf course near biarritz ๐Ÿ˜…
5 o'clock in the morning the lawn mower man made us stand up and pack the wet (from dew) sleepingbags. so we pedaled through the dark and foggy early morning.

2022-10-05

we reached just before heavy rain and stormy wind. after two relaxing nights in a wooden cabane we started pedaling while the sun was out for a moment, spent the rest of the day in rain.
for the night we found a place to camp under the roof of the tennis club of 'gastes'.

2022-09-30

its getting a little colder again. in the morning hours we are happy to have a wool filled jacket with us. a coffee, some push ups (marc's daily routine) and pedaling helps to get warmer too.

this day it was so windy, that we had to search carefully for a safe place to cook.

in every sense protecting nature is the most important thing to us. be it to prevent forest fires or not to leave trash or even a footprint.


2022-09-30

we are in love with the picturesque landscape of the atlantic coast of france

2022-09-30

For navigation we use a 2nd hand OP6, running connected to a dynamo via usb converter.

The cycle routes in France are very well and we followed them using in cycling mode. If we plan, we use which is excellent.

To find toilets, drinking water or shelters we use via or . We also contribute missing data via from
We believe in and drinkingwater spots are essential (stop bottled water).

2022-09-28

cooking at the beach, watching the surfers and enjoying the stunning nature along the

2022-09-28


๐Ÿ˜‰

2022-09-28

at rochefort we visited the local market and bought a lot of fresh food. the road, la led us over the 'pont des transbordeurs' and through wonderful landscapes.


2022-09-28

the chill-day at the beach was wonderful. we took a bath, enjoyed the sunny weather, sewed (repaired) some stuff, cooked pommes frites, and biwaked under the clear sky. the morning after was cloudy and we packed quite quickly to pedal around the island. the island is nice but in our opinion not amazing. the bicycle roads are (even in low season) quite crowded... when we reached the end of the island we decided to head back, over the bridge and through la rochelle as quick a possible.

2022-09-22

finally we reached the sea after pedaling 1000km ๐Ÿฅณ
last night we stood at the nice city 'la rochelle' and today we take a chill-day at a beach on the island 'l'รฎle de rรฉ' ๐Ÿ˜

@Renb1 spot the tag ๐Ÿ˜œ




2022-09-22

the last 150km before the coast the landscape changes visibly. the fields getting bigger and somehow nicer prepared.

@raff the foto uf the tractor is for you ๐Ÿšœ greets to charlotte!

because of a puncture we needed to make a stop at a bicycle shop, where marc got a new hat too ๐Ÿค 

2022-09-20

thanks for the great time together! we loved to sleep in your garden underneath the silk tree. the taste of your homemade yoghurt with jam stays unforgetable ๐Ÿ˜‹


๐Ÿคฉ

2022-09-19

got invited by mark and marie-laure via mastodon. we met today,
had a swimm in the river and then we where escorted with their to their home.
having a great time together :)

2022-09-18

this day we rode only 32km before we stopped in 'les sources' to visit mic and andrea in their little permaculture-paradise. we were so amazed of the colorful veggies and enjoyed to chat in swissgerman that the decision to stay was made quickly. luckily every friday they serve a homemade menu ๐Ÿ˜‹


2022-09-18

the cute eco-campground named l'alternatif runed by maรฏtรฉ and sรฉbastien has lovely handcrafted cabanes in different styles, homemade food and local beer. sadly the hanging tree-tent was already booked...
next day we pedaled through almost extincted little villages -nice and ideal to take pictures of the bikes ๐Ÿ˜‰

2022-09-17

at the camping we ran into the roof-top-tent festival. it was quite funny for us ๐Ÿ˜‚
we met fred and marie from 'V8-Equipment' and had interesting 'nerd-talk' about inventing and realising bikebags and stuff. he gave us some realy good straps which we will test on our jurney.


2022-09-17

the route is going up and down through the green middle of france. it was quite hot even though sun and clouds are changing every minute. after 'cosne d'aller' we found e nice place to pitch our tent. the night was calm and still dry, but next day, shortly after the first kilometers it started to rain for the whole day. so, when we saw the sign from the campground near 'huriel' we decided to stay there, take a hot shower and enjoy to chat to other travelers.

2022-09-15

as soon as we entered 'moulins' it started to rain. a bit lost, searching our way through the traffic Vincent invited us to stay at his gardenhouse. while we enjoyed the hot shower he coocked us a very delicious dinner with eggs from his own chicken. Merci pour la hopitalite et les figues ๐Ÿคฉ!

2022-09-12

today was wash'n'chill day.
we rested our legs, sorted and repacked all our belongings, both in their own style:

2022-09-11

yesterday late afternoon we asked a man in his garage for water refill (tab water). very happy he brought us water in plastic bottles and we couldnt refuse his generosity (generally we live a plastic- and wasteless life).
some km later we got the permission to stay the night in this cute hunters hut. thanks a lot to the owner! it was a pleasure!
we cooked and ate tomato-rice for dinner in the sunset, wrote blog and journal and slept very peaceful ๐Ÿ˜Š
we love our new life ๐Ÿฅฐ

2022-09-10

on the way to challonโ€“surโ€“saone, amazing nature, crazy weather changes, we always found a shelter in the last minute.

sleeping at a hotel in the city where we arrived when it got dark. ate gluten free bread from a bakery for breakfast and finally we bought a sim card at a sim card selling machine (crazy digital world) to keep you posted about our adventures.

note: how can we get yoghurt in which is not packed in tons of ?

2022-09-09

a great swimm in the morning, mรผesli breakfast, drying all the stuff, pedaling further in cold cloudy conditions, amazing cycling route (voie verte plm, chatillon-perrigny), another wild camping spot in the amazing nature. good sleep with animal background sounds...
next morning cooking dahl curry (took 75min, was starving ๐Ÿคช) for breakfast, feeling fed and well pedaling against the dark clouds.

2022-09-08

day four led us through the hilly, deserted french jura, passing the source of the river 'saine'. at the little town 'foncin le haut' we had lunch. the next thunderstorm quickly arrived while washing the footprint of the tent (because it was still smelly from the barn ๐Ÿฅด ).
the local supermarket gave us shelter from heaviest rain for at least one hour. ๐Ÿ˜…
later on we spotted a realy nice place to spend the night and happy to know a roof over our heads.
and again... thunderstorms...

2022-09-07

rain and strong winds arrived at the same time as we did. scared from the loud thunders we desperately needed shelter and found a barn which was our villa for the night. the smell was strong and unfortunately our smoking sticks where not strong enough to kill the barn-animal-cowshit-smell. tired and happy abot the dry shelter we slept like (cow-)babys.

2022-09-06

our first day pedaling we where quite overwhelmed. the first night we spent at marc's uncle. this was a nice and soft start.
next day we pedaled to yverdon-les-bains and pitched the tent at the campsite near the lake.
after coffee in the morning sun a big raincloud let us wait 'til one o'clock. a 1000hm climb awaited us. marc was faster and made to show me (fiona) the direction. a legendary summit-tea awaited me to worm up before we descended over the border towards metabief.

2022-09-05

after an amazing wedding/good bye celebration with family and lovely friends, we started our journey westward with a tearful and a joyful eye.
the positive thoughts, vibes and energy will accompany us. thank you all!
traveling the world by bicycle, find sustainable communities, share knowledge, escape from destroying consume orientated capitalism, having a good time :)

2022-08-30

sorting our stuff, giving things to homeless people, searching for a place where you do not have to pay to place "the morning business"...
currently very strange feelings... wow, quite a crazy start.

2022-08-29

finally, our flat is empty and we are ready to roll...

2022-08-15

final sandblasting of the racks... now only grinding the welds and no more metal work. next week all of our beloved tools will be away ๐Ÿฅฒ

2022-08-14

today we visited marco from www.kreativhuus.ch
he sewed us these colorful bags out of an old surfing sail.

2022-08-06

after a lot of and we tested our rigs and gear last night.. a few more modifications are needed, but we are getting there :)

2022-08-04

4th August

in exactly one month we will start cycling...

... becoming nervous already :)

(sold the car yesterday, spent the rest of the day doing phonecalls and paperwork. there are so many things you have to cancel and always explain you are going nomad. most of the people are very friendly and helpful.)

2022-08-04

old rainpants resulted in a wonderful framebag:

2022-07-29

yet another frontrack, made with love:

2022-07-26

2022-07-16

currently also minimizing my digital hardware to be ready as a cycling nomad.
do love the community and

2022-07-15

Frontrack with fender/spade.
What brand? Its brandisbrandisbrand!

2022-07-10

nos meubles nous quittent ๐Ÿคฏ๐Ÿ˜… ce qui reste est un mur plein de post-it avec les tรขches ร  accomplir

2022-07-05

frontrack #2

2022-07-04

welding essential parts:

2022-06-22

Fionas ride is born too.... ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

2022-06-20

Time to build a frontrack, but not sure yet how it should look like.. spending hours smoking cigarettes, drinking wine and starring at my fork:

2022-06-19

bialetti holder for and lovers.

handmade in biel/bienne by me :)
brandisbrandisbrand.com

2022-06-10

fiona's first bike build / parts assembling... except the wheels, they are still missing.

2022-05-30

Finally the first bike is put together (was a pain to get all needed parts and to fit them).

Today I am going to the first testride and will also think about bags/racks...fingers crossed.

2022-05-19

Fiona finished my front "kitchen kit" bag, it was not easy to make..

2022-05-15

Since we are selling and giving away all of our stuff, the one room flat is currently a huge mess... Marc sold some racks and their content is now on the floor....

2022-05-10

Fiona is planning and sewing framebags, we got a huge filmfestival banner from a friend to create our custom bags....

2022-05-08

Finally, we could collect our frames in Kleinblittersdorf after almost 1 year of waiting....

2022-04-23

Desperately waiting for our custom made bicycle frames.
They will be handmade in Germany...