Wildlife Encounters of the Sunshine Coast. Vancouver and beyond.

There are just 2 small screws remaining when, after 90 minutes of squatting on the carpet in the baggage hall, our pile of cardboard, plastic and tape has magically transformed back into 2 touring bikes and luggage.
I wouldn’t care if it was an IKEA flat pack but the screws niggle at me as we finally push out of customs and into the bright sunshine of Vancouver airport arrivals.
After being on the move for nearly 24 hours it’s a relief that we and the bikes have made it. The start of 12 months of round the world travel here we come…. or maybe not as, switching on the garmins to pull up the route we realise that, of all the things on our long to do list, we may have forgotten to load the maps for North America. My screen shows an arrow amidst a bland sea of blue. Good start!

Another Bike Box in Another Hall

Until recently I’ve never slept in so many different places. Over the past 3 months we’ve rarely spent more than one or 2 nights in the same place and only a handful of stops have been for longer. In fact, until now, I think I’ve only fully unpacked my panniers and hung up my clothes once.

It’s amazing how quickly you can get used to living out of a bag and to moving on every day or so. I’ve become very adept at being able to reach into my clothes bag and select by feel the item I want to wear. To be honest it’s not a massive choice, but it means I rarely need to unpack everything.

Until now.

Talking the talk; Podcasting and pushing boundaries!

I had a conversation recently about the joys of reflection and of looking back through the tunnel of time, especially in relation to cycle touring.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve found many times that it’s near impossible to process an experience when you’re actually involved in it, especially a big experience.

Being on a long, solo cycle tour is a perfect example as it often means that you’re dealing with many, many kinds of things at once, physical, practical, emotional, directional (!) and that’s way too much stimulation to make sense of. So, at the time, to get through, we do what we need to to make it through the day and fulfil our basic needs. Everything else, the small observations, the larger feelings, sort of just get filed on the ‘to think about later’ pile. 

But do we ever take time to fully revisit all those feelings and experiences, to bring them out in to the light again and examine them with the benefit of time and distance and if so, then how?

How to write a book in just 2000 days

So, it seems that after a mere 2190-ish days (or a paltry 6 years) I have finally written and published a book.

Yes it’s about cycling.

Yes it’s about cycling in a skirt.

Cycling in a skirt, solo, across Canada to be precise.

New Year’s Revolution

With mid-January fast approaching, for some the shine is already wearing off of all those sparkly 2015 resolutions….

Not for me, but only because I gave up making those kinds of promises a long time ago! This was in equal parts due to a distinct lack of will power and a contrary nature which means that as soon as I’m forbidden to do something (even by myself) I automatically want to do that thing… a lot.