Cycling in Europe.
With mixed feelings and hesitation I hit the enter button, moments later a flight back to Europe is a fact… To say farewell to this cycling life in a decent way, we have booked a flight to London to cycle the final leg back to the Netherlands. We want to end this journey in style!
A new Santos Travel Lite 29-er, let’s test it! We drove to the Ardennes in Belgium to ride the La Redoute, a 20% steep hill, among many other little climbs. Fully loaded, a nice camping weekend.
We have three days of, so what better to do than spend these days cycling? A good training for our upcoming world trip in the Belgium hills. We pack our new Hilleberg Nammatj 3GT tent, new Cumulus sleeping bags and our new Optimus stove. Weather forecast: cold and dry!
New Years 2012. We take our Santos Travelmaster 2.6 bicycles to Epen in Southern Limburg and with camera gear packed we hit National Park Hoge Venen in Belgium. We’ve had lots of rain the passed few days, so the tracks are muddy, which make for a good adventure. We end the day with champagne in a New Year!
Scotland from the saddle: a short video of our bicycle touring trip around Scotland. Watch it now!
After the rolling hills we are looking at the first long climb, the Bealach na Ba pass towards Applecross. With 626 meter the highest pass in Scotland. What? No more than 626 meter? That’s nothing! Well, in 9 kilometers and with 20%+ grades it’s a killer!
An important test for us: our first cycling trip after the unhappy ending in China. How will Elmar hold? Well, actually very good! He’s back! Happy to be cycling again and enjoying our freedom on the bicycle, together.
Let’s do something different! Let’s go hiking in Norway! Ok, it’s still early in the season, but why not? So, bicycle junkies become hiking junkies! Watch the movie now.
With a soft push I open the old, wooden door. For a short moment the conversations are silenced and about twenty pairs of eyes are staring at me. I nod with a smile and behind me the door closes. In the small, but overcrowded restaurant is barely enough space for two, but I find us a seat in the corner.
In front of us lies a black track through no-man’s-land. Rocky and sandy, finding its way across Iceland with a backdrop of snow peaked mountains. A lonely lake is the ideal place to pitch our tent, if it wasn’t for the stormy wind pulling the pegs out with a force unknown to us. “Hold on to the tent-pole, Ellen!” Elmar rushes outside to pitch the pegs back into the ground. This wind is fierce!