Here’s a quick plug for two new bicycle films that are coming out soon.
The first comes from bicycle adventurer Tom Allen. It tells the story of his solo journey into the Sahara Desert and an unexpected romantic encounter.
The next film is a trailer for a documentary that follows the adventures of Hap Cameron and Mandy Todd, as they attempt to help implement a sustainable bike workshop in rural Namiba, with a container load secondhand donated bikes from Australia. You can sign up to be alerted when the documentary is released.
Thanks to a bit of random web surfing, we stumbled on this video. Watch and learn as six Australians bike tour around the Baltic and use their good ol’ Aussie sense of humour to share some bike touring tips…
Want to be inspired? Check out this fantastic film of a 2,200km cycling tour through the Southwestern U.S. including the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.
It’s from our bike touring friends friends Dennis & Marijcke, and they’ve also made their GPS tracks and photos available on their website. Happy viewing!
You can find translations for the brief parts of spoken Dutch on Vimeo.
Last weekend, we travelled north of Amsterdam to visit steel touring bike maker Vittorio Bicycles and their annual bike touring fair.
Here’s a short video with the highlights of the day, including a look at the new Marathon Mondial touring tires, the favourite things that bike tourists Saskia & Jan-Willem take on tour and an amazing bike built for an expedition over a frozen river in Russia!
*Sorry for the video quality. It isn’t great because we were testing the video function on a new camera. As we learned, it doesn’t focus very well!
In summer 2011, Dutch cyclists Blanche & Douwe spent a month cycling through Georgia, in eastern Europe.
They experienced amazing hospitality, breathtaking landscapes (with plenty of places to wild camp!) and delicious food.
Blanche made a video about their trip, and we love the story that it tells. Below the video you’ll find extra tips from Blanche & Douwe, to help in planning your own bike trip in Georgia.
1. What were your cycling highlights of Georgia – the places you’d tell other cyclists that they should absolutely visit?
The Svaneti stretch between Mestia and Lentekhi via Usghuli was amazing cycling. Imagine very rough off-road roads that take you through small mountain villages, beautiful nature and alongside glaciers.
We also loved the route from the Vardzia monastry towards Tbilisi: green hills with many birds, flat grasslands, rustic villages with a kind of cowboy-like attitude, and flat grasslands with lovely wild camping spots at the lakes.
The region of Tusheti was nice, but next time we’ll go walking around Omalo as the hills are too steep for bicycles that are loaded down with luggage.
2. What time of year do you think is best to visit?
We visited in July but it was too hot and humid for comfort, and we were glad to leave before the worst of the heat in August. June would be a great month as the snow has disappeared and heat is not yet that fierce. Watch out for landslides though!
3. Are there any resources you can recommend, for cyclists planning a trip around Georgia?
In summer 2011, Dutch cyclists 
as guidebook, and a waterproof map from Reise Know How. There were also these very helpful (and free!) 
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