Archive for May, 2007
Monday, May 28th, 2007
New tires! Schwalbe is in, Vredestein is out
After 12,000km on the road, it was definitely time for some new tires. The first couple pictures on the left show how cracked and worn our old Vredestein Spiders were. We were very happy with them though - not a single flat after all this time! Unfortunately, we couldn’t buy them again since no one seemed to have them in stock. Even Vredestein’s official distributors said they didn’t have any to sell us and an email to Vredestein’s customer service department went unanswered. A real shame that poor availability prevented us from staying with what we think is a great tire. Instead, we’ve plumped for the famous Schwalbe Marathon XRs. The standard has been set by the Vredesteins and we’ve heard so many good reports about the Marathon XRs. We’ll let you know in another 12,000km how the two compare.
No Comments » - Posted in Cycling Trips, France, Random Ramblings, Trip Equipment by friedel
Saturday, May 26th, 2007
Baaaaaawk bawwwwk bawwwk… chickens!
A lot of people ask what we get out of our current activity: working for room and board on a farm. Well, the latest “life skill” we’ve learned is how to catch a chicken! Four red hens are the latest addition to La Chatte Gitane and every night we have to put them in their house to keep them safe from cats, foxes and any other wildlife that might fancy a midnight snack. This involves a comical chase around the chicken coop, much squawking and flapping and quite a few near misses on our parts as the chickens run between our legs, until we finally manage to scoop up the hens and put them to bed. We have been getting better from our first attempts, quickening our reflexes and learning which corners of the coop offer the best chicken-catching chance. You’ll see Andrew is looking particularly proud in one picture with his “prize”. The hen is less pleased about the whole situation!
No Comments » - Posted in Cycling Trips, France, Random Ramblings by friedel
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
Kayaking on the Ardeche
Yesterday we left the road and took to the water for a 24km kayak adventure down the Ardeche river. The scenery was beautiful with birds soaring in the skies and the walls of the gorge towering above us. The route also gave our upper bodies a workout, after months of toning our calves by cycling kilometer after kilometer. Neither of us had much kayaking experience, so we flipped over once, after hitting a rock right in the middle of a rapid, but in a strange way this was a good thing. The cool water felt so refreshing compared to the heat of the sun shining down on us. There were quite a few people out on the river but not so many that we felt crowded. It might be quite different in July and August. Apparently in the high season there can be as many as 8,000 people on the river each day.
No Comments » - Posted in France, Random Ramblings by andrew
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
The Ardeche: a photo essay
We’ve returned to La Chatte Gitane, a peaceful corner of the Ardeche where our friends Bert and Patricia happily give us tasks like building stone walls and weeding the garden in exchange for room and board. This really is paradise for us, a quiet place to relax and take a break from our bikes. It’s spring here and everything is beautiful so today we took some pictures and put them into a groovy new slideshow program we found. Just click on the photo to start. We may add more shots over the next 3 weeks.
1 Comment » - Posted in France, Random Ramblings, Slideshows by andrew
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
You know you’re on a bike tour when…
This made us laugh. We can’t take credit for it, but we’re sure you will enjoy it if you’re a bike tourist, and even if you’re not this is as good an insight as any into our daily lives! Thanks to Dave and Suzi and their tour journal for our daily smile.
Top signs you’re on a bike tour:
- You hoard plastic bags to use at camp for trash, etc.
- You call using a couple of wet wipes a ’shower’
- You eat every lunch outside a grocery store, usually while sitting against its wall
- You make sure your jersey pockets are always well stocked with bread
- You dry your sweaty clothes from the day before by attaching them to various parts of your bike while riding the next day
- It’s a rest day and you miss riding your bike
- You feel strange sleeping indoors
- Your biggest clothing decision is which lycra to wear that day
- You eat a whole loaf of bread for lunch
- You greet livestock as you’re riding by
- It doesn’t faze you much to ride 90km on a busy freeway.
