Before the Pyramids...

Brittany is crammed with old stones. At Carnac, the largest neolithic site in the world, there is a linear forest of 3,000 menhirs (standing stone pillars) within four kilometres. 4000 - 1500 BC (the Stone Age and early Bronze Age) was a period of rapid and revolutionary advance in western Europe. European people made pottery, tamed animals, built houses and moved from cave-painting to the building of elaborate stone and earth monuments. Many years before the Egyptian pyramids, the Neolithic culture was constructing carefully plotted and painstakingly laboured alignments and circles of standing stones. There are 3,000 of them in Britain, Ireland and Brittany alone.

Sean and I were incredibly excited to make our way to Brittany to see some of these wonders for ourselves, but found more than we expected to.
It was wet, very very wet. It was somewhat a shock to the system, after having 3 months of near perfect weather (except for the middle week of the Pyrenees). All of a sudden we found ourselves battling wind and rain, always in raincoats, and packing up a wet tent every morning, setting up a sodden tent every night. Did I mention it was wet?

Still, all that rain, makes for stunning landscape. From the first kms we found ourselves in an amazingly beautiful countryside, and we got to visit the coolest historic monuments. We were happier than pigs in mud. The particularly large and important ones were fenced in and you paid lots of money to cram inside squishy dolmens with 30 other tourists.

Our favourites were actually the ones that weren't on the 'historically important' trail. You could just pick a tumulus on the map and ride right up to it. No one else was around and you had to go in with a torch to see anything. Some of them were very long and deep, and super atmospheric, we felt very Indiana Jones.

Then there were the gorgeous towns, the beautifully rugged coastlines and the awesome, awesome crepes. They put anything on those babies. From the typical sugar or chocolate, to eggs, sausages, whatever takes your fancy. Sean's favourite was an organic seaweed and blue cheese crepe in a tiny old place in Rennes.
Despite the weather (and the millions of other tourists), we adored Brittany. Possibly more than the Loire, possibly almost as much as the Pyrenees. We figure the weather is what made it such a ripe landscape for the rapid expansion of humankind.

Lastly we just really skimmed past Normandy. We wanted to see a little more but had completely run out of time. So we made the visit to Mont Saint Michel - a magnificent fortified abbey with soaring impossibly amazing architecture.

Le Loire a velo

Ahh, le Valle de la Loire, home of Kings and powerful Queens, their beautiful chateaux rising from the woods and forests next to the rivers, blessed with good wine and great cheeses, what more could we ask for?

After our 6 days luxurious rest we were more than ready to be back on the open road. This lasted all of, oh a long days ride, when we made another stop.
We were lucky enough to be invited along to a weekend gathering of family and friends at Antoine's parents house in the countryside. We arrived with perhaps a little trepidation at knowing only 1 person at this huge gathering, but we needn't have worried at all. Everyone was wonderful to us (despite our not great French) and we had a hugely fun weekend. As well as good french food and wine (and beer, aperitif and even sangria), there was dancing, games, singing, and lots of relaxing too. It was so good to spend time with the French, rather than just moving through their country side as outsiders.

Then it was back on the open road again, this time for real. It's been a lovely few days cycling small roads and the occasional cycle path, with very relaxed gradients. We haven't done a lot of K's either, as we have been far too busy sightseeing.

Our first night in the Loire was to be a stay in a chateau - but we found this beautiful Abbey just near Blois. It was an awesome buidling (the on in the photo above) on a lovely spot by the river, with beautiful rooms. Absolutely magnificent. We topped off the experience with a lovely Chinese/Thai meal - our finest French dining yet!



A most unexpected delight was when Prita and I found that there is a cycle route, on paths and small roads, all the from the Atlantic outreach of the Loire all the way to the east of Germany, and plans to extend it from there to the shores of the Black sea. It meant we could largely travel off the roads. Not only does it make for far quieter, less stressful riding, but we can ride side by side and enjoy the route together.
Now if only we could manage another few months ...

The cycling has been a breeze, it has been great wandering through the stately rooms of the rich and famous. My favourites so far have been the last home of Leonardo Da Vinci, le Clos Lucé in Amboise, which the king granted him as a retreat. It was amazing to see his house, with quotes from his writings, and models of his inventions in the basement. But more amazing for me was the gardens which he wandered in, making scetches for his paintings from the water plants and woods around the Chateau.

In the garden there were projections of his drawings, large scale models of his inventions, and everywhere running water and ponds, and renaissance singing coming from everywhere and nowhere (but actually I think it came from the overpriced restaurant where they served you in renaissance garb. I don't know about you but I didn't fancy one of those sleeves in my gratin!) Inside we found a waterdamaged but still stunning print of the Mona Lisa, and we joked that this was as close as we would get, given the security and crowds in the Louvre! All in all it was a magical, peaceful visit, and possibly the best lunch stop (in the gardens) so far.

For our last night in the Loire valley we went for a romantic moonlight kayak on the river. We started out at about 9 and paddled as we watched the sun set, then on in the darkness, guided by the torch at the front of the boat. We arrived at about 11pm for some cheese and wine. Ahhh, just perfect. It was a real highlight.

Waiting for the Tour

So now that all the dust has settled and we have seen the winners and the sad look on Cadel's face on the podium that pierced my heart, here's our Tour experience.

It all started in the Pyrenees. Imagine cycling up these massive passes, the ones they call 'hors categorie', beyond classification (personally I think that shows a lack of imagination or arithmetic or both, but it does illustrate how steep they are nicely), and seeing the names of the greats emblazoned on the road. It inspires one to feats of greatness, as we battled to the top of the Col de Marie Blanc, Col d'Aspin, Peyresourde, D'Aubusque. And it was all so beautiful; simply gorgeous.


And then, one hot summer afternoon, we stood in the baking sun for hours by a roadside in Nimes and were greeted by the specactle of .... a car shapped like a lion, and scantily clad women throwing things into the crowd. It was the cargo cult of the Tour, the caravan of cars and vans giving out little trinkets to the crowd, who fought to get the key chains, magnets, etc. It was incredible how much these people desperately wanted these bits of plastic (not that i was immune, I am now the proud owner of a yellow cap!)

And finally we saw 'our' Cadel and the whole peleton of greats pass to the
finishing line in a vivid flash, it was fantastic.



The next day we rode out to watch them again but from a smaller town 30 km down the road. The road was already closed off and lined with people waiting to watch them come through. The police were mostly happy for us to proceed cautiously, on the incorrect side of the road (it was closed
so there was no oncoming traffic), and as we road along those waiting crowds cheered and waved us. The whole thing was a hoot; the people were really cute and we played it up with some waving and victory dancing from the bikes. Felt like we were doing the Tour ourselves :-)

From Provence we headed away from the cities to national park for what
we thought would be some quiet country riding and kayaking. It wasn't
the least bit quiet. We shared the 'Remote Cevennes' with half a
million or so German; Dutch and Belgian camper tourists; having their
annual summer holiday in the south of France. Oh well, aside from the crowded roads and rivers and hideously noisy campsites, it was unimaginably beautiful and the kayaking heaps of fun (thanks for the present Clare!!).



Last week my front rack snapped and went straight into my wheel. It completely mangled itself, and bent and broke a few spokes of my wheel. Fortunately I managed to stop the bike immediately and I was fine. We (ok, Sean) managed to replace the broken spoke and true the wheel well enough to get into a town the next day. Unfortunately, replacing my rack is proving impossible and I'm riding around with my extra pannier strapped to the back.

Here is a picture of the rack after we had bent it back into shape in order to get it out of the wheel



Now after almost 10 weeks on the road and more than 4,500 kilometres on the bikes, Sean and I are finally having a rest. A wedding present was a weeks stay in Sue and David's place in a tiny hamlet in south west France. The timing of having it this week is perfect, for our bodies and our souls.
We have been luxuriating in the simple comforts of being in a house rather than a tent. It is so divine to have a super comfy bed, clean toilets with paper, shower with continuous hot water, oven, fridge, multiple cooking implements, music...

We still have our British SIM in the mobile if people want to text or call that. We sorry for not being in touch at all. Life on the bike is busier than we expected and finding payphones that take money (they don't accept our australian credit cards) or internet cafes that have computers (as opposed to wifi) has proven difficult.

Finished!!!

We finished! In time! It was amazing to get our last stamp at the little border town of Cerbere, having just traversed the Pyrenees fro, the Atlantic to the Mediterranean in 10 days over 28 passes!!! Here's a profile of the randonneur route, they only do 18 passes (but then they are doing it all in 100 hours ...) - http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/odds_and_ends/cycle_tour_raid.html

More photos here - Picassa pyrenee album


Phew. So now we are resting up in preparation for Bastille day in Perpignan - sadly our first contact with a place with more than 12 inhabitants coincided with a sunday, so pretty much everything except this place is closed.

But I digress. The raid was challenging, exhausting and fun - although sometimes as we dragged ourselves and 20kg of baggage up the last pass of the day I could be heard muttering other descriptors.



The weather alternated between searingly hot - and then climbing 800 metres in 10 kms feels impossible - and foggy and misty and cloudy (is there a difference?) I think the Pyreeneens as they are known have about 100 words for fog. Oh, and then there was the thunder and lightning!

We cycled through ancient oak forests, through alpine areas with clanking cow bells and the wind in our faces, descended sharply (and then inevitably had to rise again just as sharply - sigh) which sometimes felt like we were gliding off the mountain. It was amazing and unforgettable. We had our plans disrupted half way up the col du tourmalet by an etape of the Tour de France - where amateurs can try a stage of the tour themselves - and some needed a little help - we pumped up two tyres for competitors, I guess once cycle angels always cycle angels :)

That we had to get stamps at tourist offices or town halls along the way in tiny villages with strange closing times made it feel like a 10 day race against the clock, which really brought out our competitive team work edge - we would descend into a checkpoint town, one to seek the office and brevet, another to find a restaurant or bread cheese and other goodies for lunch.

It was simply incredible, an amazing unforgettable experience.

Contact details

We have been in France for 6 days and already I completely adore it.

We are half way through the 10 day Raid Pyreneen, it is as hard and as incredible as we expected.

I cannot write much as it is early morning here and we are about to assault another coll (the first of 3 today). Just wanted to let people know that our current contact number is our UK SIM:

+ 44 7833 975 867

back soon with more exciting updates

Seans top 5 in spain

Well, we are in France! We crossed the border yesterday, a rather underwhelming experience as they are in the EU these days ... the croissants are better and the coffee worse! so with these thoughts in my head, heres my spain top 5

1. the generally great coffee anywhere we stopped. the bad coffees we had were invariably at ritzy overpriced places, or places run by english people ...

2. the *generally* extremely considerate cars and trucks. Even huge trucks usually gave us a good margin.

3. the feeling of riding around a corner and being confronted with a crusader castle looming over an ancient town, moorish pleasure palace, or ancient church, every 20 minutes to half an hour. Really made the cycling incredible. even tiny towns not on the map had a castle! and we never got sick of them!

4; the few people who were excited by what we were doing

5. the reasonably high number of people who were willing to work with me through my incredibly poor spanish. Gracias.

well, other top 5s will have to wait; were off to the pyrenees!!!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Prita, happy birthday to yoooooou!

We´re in Bilbao, city of art and decent croissants, celebrating Prita´s birthday! Happy birthday Beautiful.

Sean

Cordoba, the end of Andalucia in sight ...

Well, it´s hot. Really, really hot. Even early in the morning the pavement sizzles - well, almost. We are in Cordoba, whcih was the seat of the Caliphate of Al-Andalus when Andalucia was ruled by the Moors. It is now a rather pleasant small city. What brings the tourists is the Mezquita, which I kept calling the mosquito until Prita asked me to stop. It is a large mosque with the most delicate columns shaped to represent palm trees, topped with reddish and cream patterns and carvings, the whole would be a beautiful, open space, apparently an attempt by this caliphate to bring in a more democratic worship than that of the damascus caliphate.

Would be, except that after the reconquista, they stuck a cathedral in the middle. Yep, in the middle. Didn´t knock it down, just plonked one into the space. It´s quite bizarre. Aerial photos are almost surreal - the flat roof of the mosque and then in the middle it gives way to the classic shape of a cathedral roof, steeple, etc. Despite this, the mosque is still beautiful, and the tiling of the mqtada where the imam would have prayed was enchanting, delicate floral motifs.

Also in Cordoba we had our first experience of Flamenco, the Andalucian passion (or so said the brochure). At first I thought this was going to be another òverpriced tourist rip off, complete with "one free drink", being your choice of watered down beer, sangria or wine ... but it was enchanting, the two guitars and the two men sang first, and then the dancers, stamping and whirling, staccato and then flowing. All of this in an outdoor courtyard in the warm spanish night made it a beautiful experience.

Cordoba was one of the more low key tourist cities, and I loved wandering around the city, the bridge with a winged and haloed victory angel and ruins of water mills in the river was spectacualr as the sun set.

From Cordoba we had decided to end our Andalucian odyssey and head for more northerly and hopefully cooler climes ...

Granada, city of the Pomegranate

Well, Granada inspires. It is an incredible city, one I would vist again. I have to say though, the little history of the place has made me dislike Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand - architects of the reconquista and driving the last moors from spain. They lost a lot in their dogged and puritan pursuit of catholicism.

We spent our first day here orienting ourselves to the city and staying in a truly awful pensione. We discovered the massive cathedral, the huge and ornate burial site of Isable and Ferdinand, and the beautiful squares of this city. Mind you, they were beautiful because we saw them at 8am, rather than later when they are swarming with tourists! Then we rode slowly up the massive hill toward the fort on top, the alhambra, a place I have wanted to visit forever ... The hill is covered in rich woodlands planted by the Duke of Wellington apparently. It was lovely and cool and it was a delight to be climbing but not in the full sun!

When we reached the top we were apporached by a guard - initally cautious - as Prita noted before, we have not had much luck with authority figures in Spain, he was lovely when we said we were staying at the hotel america, one of only two hotels actually inside the Alhambra.

We droppped our bags, explored our suite (ahhh, I could get used to this ... ) and then explored the town some more before our Arab bath (thanks Tash!) . We had to drag ourselves back to the hotel in our langorous state.

The next day we explored the Alhambra, whcih invovled waiting in along queue and then rushing back to where we had come from for our viewing of the Nasrid palace. This is the apogee of Moorish architecture in SPain, and it was a delight, light filled patios, perfect carvings in every nook and cranny, which would have been richly decorated with paint and gold leaf. The whole is set off by gardens and the tinkle of fountains and pools designed to reflect the architecture. Sadly the lions in the lion courtyard were being restored.

It is hard to describe the delight of being in this light and airy space, filled with artwork and beauty, but always with a sense that this is the decayed remnant of grandeur. What it must have looked like in its heyday is a little difficult to imagine though the Govt seems to have put a lot of work into restoring the gardens and some of the interiors. We loved just wandering around, and it was large enough that even though this place gets apparently 6000 visitors a day, it didn´t feel *too* crowded.

Then after all of that we needed a beer with our lunch - luckily one of the tourist kiosks obliged. Here´s us outside the appropriately named gate of the vine.

After our lovely stay we pakced our bags and headed for Malaga.

Roads are made to be travelled

Most of our days have been so different that it is difficult to sum up our time to date in a pithy sentence.
Being on the bike so much is quite heavenly. It is undoubtably the best way to travel. There are so many good reasons for it, environmental, health etc etc. But the truth is, just having the wind in my hair, and making my way through the country side at such a slow (but not too slow) pace, is reason enough for me. I even adore the difficult ups almost as much as I enjoy the exhilarating downs. The pace is truly perfect for sightseeing (well most of the time if the surface is good and the bike isn´t having a mechanical!)


After leaving Benicarlo we rode for days through the country side by the coast, which consisted of mostly orange trees, filled with huge bunches of juicy sumptuous looking oranges. After oranges came almonds, stone fruit, cherries, and lots of olive groves. It was quite gorgeous. Many times I was tempted to reach out my hand and grab an orange or nectarine. But I was far too worried that there were snipers hidden in the bushes, just waiting for happless passing tourists like myself, foolish enough to touch the forbidden fruit. Actually gunshot noises were not so uncommon to hear, and I was sure they were the tourists silly enough to touch the fruit being picked off one by one.

I don´t adore the busy cities and the traffic in Spain, but actually most of the cars and trucks give us a surprisingly wide berth. A local told us that a professional cyclist was killed when he was hit in the head by a mirror a couple of years ago. Following this event the laws were amended so that vehicles have to give 2 metres space when passing cyclists, and if the road is not wide enough to do so, they must wait. It doesn´t feel like 2 metres when we are passed, but it does feel like a lot more than at home, and usually sufficient.

Valencia was fantastic for riding. At first we hated the over-congested roads but we found lots and lots of bike paths. It was amazing. Big bicycle superhighways with signs and everything. Awesome to be on. The most fantastic part of the city itself is the massive park they have build in the diverted river bed. It is now gardens and a bike path and stadiums, golf courses, parks etc. Really beautiful and peaceful and gorgeous to have right in the centre of town.

Now days we are mostly avoiding cities, and just going through little towns. I think what we miss out on in the cities is more than made up for by the countryside, and not having to put up with the frustration and danger of city traffic.

Shortly after leaving Valencia we decided to leave the coast. While the natural landscape is quite lovely, the effect is destroyed by the massive building developments that line the coastline, the contruction, the industry, the masses of rubbish (everywhere - along all the roads and filling every gutter). Also the crowds and traffic got a bit much. Although the riding became much more demanding (hotter, steeper and very windy), it was a good choice to make. The roads became ever so steep, and progress really slowed. But the climbing and the heat were well worth the awesome views, the quite roads, and the clean mountain air.

The fruit orchids gave way to rice and wine, and then just country side with huge wind turbines (apparenty betwen 30-50 m tall) and kilometres of solar panels. They look very strange but we are very excited by all the clean energy being harnessed. Eventually the country side gave way to desert, lots and lots of hot, windy, desert. It made for some hard riding.

But we eventually made our way to the Sierra Nevada, Spains highest mountain range. The landscape changed from desert to bushy vegetation and the mountains there are truly spectacular. It was by far our favorite bit, although the most difficult cycling just because of the steep climbing and the heat. On our first dayup into the mountains from sea level, it did what felt like the equivalent of Falls Creek twice, in wind and heat, with fully loaded bikes! Slow going, but awesomely spectacular. There was a surprising amount of snow on top, and I found out later that you can ski there up until May (summer really).

The interactions with the locals has been incredibly mixed. Sometimes it is frustrating and negative, like the super vigilant shopping mall security guard that treated us like criminals for carrying our panniers in a shopping trolley through the mall (a trolley we had paid 1 euro for). At other times we have the most wonderful experiences. Like the bike mechanic in Valencia that fixed Sean´s wheel for free and then gave us the number of his pastor and parents in Gibraltor. And a couple of days ago we made a random stop to buy gas when passing through a small country town. Guillermo who served us gave us the gas for free and then took us out for a beautiful lunch. These experiences make us feel very affectionate towards the locals, and mostly forget the ones that are awful.

Till next time... (From Prita, although it appears as posted by Sean).