PEDALPUMPKINS

10 Day Meditation...

2007-12-17T18:25:00.000-08:00

Back in Thailand, we headed straight to Bangkok. This time bangkok didn't hit us as hard as the first time with all its busyness all it's tourist madness because we knew what to expect and where to go. Shortly after we arrived we met Dennis and Sarah which is the most random thing ever, because we met them first in Australia on the barry way in the victorian alps which is in the middle of nowhere exactly on the day George's tyre was cut open on the side and we had to fill it with bark to continue and we ran out of food...older blog entry...anyway they passed us on this gravel road and George recognized their faces again on Khao San road even though we just saw them for half a minute in winter hats. So we had a really nice time with them before we went to the meditation course with the public bus north to Phitsanulok. Up in the mountains is this beautiful Vipassana meditation center completely run by volunteers. Everybody got shown the own little room just with a bed and a cupboard men and women in separated dormitory blocks and the noble silence began which means no eye contact, no talk or gestures. The meditation form was invented by Buddha itself and it basically is designed to break the habit pattern of the body to get rid of all the cravings and aversions and, in the end become enlightened. The day started with a bell at 4 in the morning and ended after about 10 to 12 hours of meditation in the lotus position with breaks and really good vegan food 3 times a day. It also brings up all the old sankaras which are the cravings and addictions emotionally or physically and we both had hard time between crying and pain on one hand and 1 hour orgasmic feelings on the other hand. It was a really amazing and revealing experience but basically it is the start of live of meditation with the goal to become the master of your mind, live in the present moment and understand on the experiencing level that everything in the universe is coming and going and there is nothing which is permanent... we can't describe it but it definitely changed our lives and opened up a whole new world for us...try it out!

Now we are back in Bangkok and about to make further plans for Christmas... update coming soon! Hard to decide which direction to go but we don't want to spend it in bangkok!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYBODY FROM THE PUMPKINS!!!!
Have fun in the cold weather, we will be thinking of you, ha ha!

From Phnom Penh to Thailand

2007-11-29T02:11:00.000-08:00

the easy way to fix a child onto a bike
Bayon Temple
they call her pie, georgepie

in former times the elephants were carrying the stones for the tempel, now they carry fat tourist i wonder what is worse...

the pumpkins

there is only one shady spot for this guard

monkey business

busloads of these creatures swirling around the temples

my lovely steel horse
the boatracers training for the big day

siem reap at night

slow motion
rice farmers always say hello

four! kids on a bike

one of the stonemason take away stalls

its lilly season

monks on their way back to temple after collecting food

Long time no see, but finally we managed to sit down and write again!

The place we are writing from is actually country number 2 of our trip, Thailand. How we came here we tell you now:
So after our 10 nights in Phnom Penh that we really enjoyed we took of first North to a little town called Skon and then westwards on the northern site of the big lake that kind of divides cambodia, called Tonle Sap. The roads were pretty good and the traffic only light. Actually we really really enjoyed the ride because the countryside is just beautiful! It is pancake flat, mostly wet land which means flooded rice fields or little ponds are dotted along the way beside the street and every house is build on stilts, like in the mekong delta vietnam. The people are just the friendliest people we ever met in asia, the food is delicious and cheap...nothing to complain about! On the way to Siem Riep we slept in some pretty remote places but we always felt welcome as people were smiling their heads of. We were a little bit in a hurry to get to Siem Riep because we heard that the Water festival is on which is the biggest happening for the Khmer people in the whole year. We arrived actually right in time since the whole river in the city was crowded with people preparing for the big boat race while at night hundreds of lights in the trees were shining in different colours.

The main reason most people come to Siem Reap is the mighty Angkor Thom, which is the ancient capital of the khmer empire, in former times including thailand, laos and vietnam also known as Angkor Wat.

There is not much to tell because this is something you really have to see! Splattered over many many miles are a lot of temples originated from the 9th to the 16th century and they are unbelievable beautiful and impressing! You can't see it on the pictures in its full grace and still after 3 days of visit we have only seen a little bit of it. We were cycling every day about 60kms around the area to visit the temples and escape the tour busses that flood the area from about 8.30am with flash firing armies of all nations and ages. Still there is always a way to go around the busy places or come very early in the morning to see the sun rising and we had a great time watching the monkeys play and the light change in the temples. It all has a special feel about it and one day we cycled around on top of the old outer wall were nobody else seems to go. There were massive old fig trees towering high into the sky, growing on top of the old walls made out of stone once transported there on the back of elephants from 70kms away...

The 4 Days in a busy town made it easy for us to continue our way into the sticks again, this time not as easy going because of the surface of the road. 30kms west of Siem Reap the pavement stopped on the main highway which connects Siem Reap with Bangkok, we heard it doesn't get paved because there is an national airline which is very very interested to maintain that the plane is more apealing than the bus and good old bakschisch (bribes) does its work.

After we got used to it, it wasn't too bad and we still managed to make 60 to 80kms a day with headwind and monotone food supply (soup). Once we turned of the main highway north we were as much in the sticks as never before and the people just stared at us like we were some animals from the zoo. (Actually we might have looked a bit wild with all the red dust everywhere) This 200kms of rough dirt road with potholes that can swallow a whole truck paid its toll in form of flat tire and a broken pannier mount, fixed with a shoe lace. The road got smaller and the villages were shrinking, it made us hardly believe that there would be an international border crossing but after climbing over the final hill of mud and holes we made it.

As soon as we crossed the border we found ourselves back in civilization and on billiard smooth pavement, driving on the left side again, and 7elevens to buy huge much needed ice coffees!

So long, we hope you enjoy the pictures!

We love you all

Love us back!

Write in our GUESTBOOK! (No Swearwords!!!!)

you may not hear from us for a while because we going to do a ten day meditation course in a temple in the jungle in the north of thailand with no speak no see no nothing just us and our thoughts, called vipssana.

We will write you afterwards if we haven't gone insane...

byebye

A Day At The Orphanage

2007-11-13T03:29:00.000-08:00

Hello!

so we have crossed the border into Cambodia and relaxing in Phnom Penh. Crossing the border was nice and easy, even though it looked as though it was closing time and we had to wake the sleeping visa man to get into the country and stamp our passports it ook no time at all! Instead of taking it easy we decided to get up really early the next day and peddle all the way to Phnom Penh. We ended up doing 135km to get here, but went through beautiful rice fields, the first 10/20 kms was just a straight path and on either sides rice fields as far as the eyes could see..amazing. locals were farming in them or paddling through with wooden boats. Our stop for lunch ended up being pretty eye opening. The only thing the lady had to eat was what looked like hard boiled eggs, so we ordered two. After the first crack we were a bit puzzled why the liquid coming out was all gooey and non egg like color. Nils opened his first(very thankfully) and found a half cooked chicken inside, full with bones, feathers, wings etc. It was cooked just in time for it to be not quite a baby chicken and the yolk was still there ready to eat. I nearly spewed everywhere and couldn't watch, Nils managed to tuck in and polish mine off as well due to the fact we didn't want to look rude as they don't have much to eat themselves and throwing away what to them is great food seemed wrong! The lady looked at me as though it was pretty stupid to have this reaction but im still calling Nils abortion eater and never would like to see one again!

Phnom Penh is a really interesting city, much smaller than Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh, the poverty is much more noticeable and spills out on every street. We are staying on the lake side, the rooms are very basic with a bed and what seems to be cardboard for walls, but the building struts out onto the lake and the view is great, especially at sun set, just on the right is a big mosque with a huge golden roof that shines in the sun and all the way around you can see the small shacks and buildings the locals live in. We are sharing the place with about 1000 mosquito's however! There are many children everywhere begging or just playing in the roads, all of whom are very playful and want to speak to you and say hello, some in the more tourist areas are just plain cheeky, but great fun. We hired a tuk tuk for the day and made our way around the tourist traps. Firstly we were taken to a prison used in the pol pot time for torture, killing and interrogation. This was mind blowing. We were able to see the rooms and equipment they used and see the mug shots of many of the 1000s that were killed. After, we then visited the killing fields. Funny as it sounds the area now is very pretty, and the shrine filled with the skulls and the bones of the victims like a temple, but we saw the mass graves and after the prison and this we had had enough death for one day. Phnom Penh has an amazing grand palace($6 for tourists and 50c for locals!), huge grounds with many different temples and praying areas. The place was busy with monks with whom we sat and chatted with and is definatley the most beautiful we have seen in Asia so far.

We have stopped here for longer than expected but the city has so much to see, every road or park or market is just so interesting. We also bumped into some people we met in Vietnam and spent some time with them.

Yesterday we visited the orphanage, its something i have wanted to do since being in Asia, and the experience was great. we bought rice, fruit, toys, pens with us and as soon as we got there we were accosted by the children holding hands and asking us questions. There are about 140 children living in this one, the space is pretty small, they have a small room for teaching and a stage for play and music workshops. All the children had smiles and were beautiful. I sat and played with the girls, we did each others hair, talked and drew pictures. Nils enjoyed picking up the kids and swinging them around and playing drums. It was so hot in there and they had so much energy, after having two on each arm and one on your shoulders shouting and running around a few hours took it out of you! They rely a lot on visitors as the government doesn't help at all with funding, and even though they seem happy you can see that there is a shortage of food, equipment and facilities. It was also interesting to talk with some of the older guys who had lived there for 5/6 years and in there 20's.

We hope you like the pictures, this day was a highlight of our trip and it was hard to chose which ones to add! So far Cambodia is fantastic, the culture and people are so friendly and cant wait to visit more.

Although we bought lots of toys they all much preferred the cardboard boxes! nils had at least 2 at a time in 1 box swinging them around...great fun!

The living, play and sleeping area

This is the entrance to the orphanage

Nils learning the bongos, they had a small area for drums and wooden blocks

Piggy backs and jumping around was the favorite game

Mark, one of the guys with us with some of the kids

I took along my tattoo pens, which the girls loved. This girl had been living here for 5 years and now is 20 years old

we brought with us all kinds of fruits and toys for the children

As soon as we got to the orphanage, this girl grabbed my hand and took me to her sleeping area to chat and draw pictures

Welcome to Country 5! Cambodia!

2007-11-08T05:23:00.000-08:00

riceballs fried with vegetables, 1000r for two {30cent }
Banana bike!
We stopped at this ladies stall for lunch
Dirt roads, thankfully we didnt have to take this one, however there are many to come!

Many of these drove past us

This is one of the side stalls, this fruit was a bitter tasting pomegranite

Local market
Monks on their way to the temple

Cambodian school

Last days of Vietnam

2007-11-05T04:10:00.000-08:00

Still wearing the sexy hat!

Boat on the Mekong

One crazy family, we stopped for a pepsi and Nils amd i nearly got married off to the sons and daughters,Nils would have been luckier than me, and we nearly aquired there young child! Think we were the first westoners to have stopped here!

Villages alongside the mekong

relaxing by the pool side!

Enjoying some sweet potatos

Steve and Julia, two other cycle tourers from Canada we spent a few days in Ho Chi Minh with

Off to the Cu Chi war tunnels, Nils fully enjoyed the busy trafic although my smile the rest of the journey was in fear of my life!!

One of the many bicycle repair men, who fixed by wheel, put a new tyre and break pads on for all of $4

From the Sea to Coffee and Tea

2007-10-28T04:37:00.000-07:00

just another coffee plantation, and it tastes so fresh and lovely from the small stalls besides the road.

rolling down from the mountains

Coffee and tea plantations

Our hotel in Dalat

The feather duster lady

George buying rubbish again!

Dalat sky line

The dried fruit and tea section of dalat market
The city of Dalat

Vegetarians look away,every part of the pig or cow was available to buy
mmmmmmm where shall we stay?

Shrimps anyone? the red piles that look like lentils are tiny shrimps!

Ladies and limes
Fish at dalat market

1,2,3 Drink!! (again)

Hello again to the wild Vietnam Adventure!

Finally we left Nha Thrang and cycled south again always towards Ho Chi Minh City. This time we decided to aim for some mountains for a change. Once we turned of towards Dalat the road was winding its way up from sea level to 1600m on the newly built road which had already some decent pot holes in it. We went through many hill villages who never seem to have seen westerners before let alone two dreadlocked cyclists. After turning off hwy 1 we stopped at a pretty small place for the night which was a rundown government "spa resort" which included the only guesthouse in town. After a hard day of cycling we decided to take advantage of this hot water and payed one dollar each to relax in some hot mineral water in a concrete bowl (the water was actually more piss warm), anyway, this relaxation did not last long as a bigger vietnamese family with a few crates of beer and food arrived at the pool next door. Soon we found ourselves completely invited and included in the pretty rapid drinking action. As we still can't manage a conversation in vietnamese and they could not speak a word english the only thing left was cheering and laughing...after a while everybody was drunk and the vietnamese people decided that we can't stay in this place and we have to come with them to their village at the same night. So we packed all our stuff in a hurry and very drunk, payed half the night, loaded the bikes on the lorry and in the car they came with and off we went. After half an hour drive (luckily in the direction we wanted to cycle the next day!) we stopped in a restaurant and we were invited to really yummy food and, of course, more beer. This time there were some other people on the table next to us which made us drink some homedestilled schnaps as well...so thats how vietnamese man celebrate anything at all! Even more drunk we left in hope of a bed, but not quite yet! Our very excited hosts had to show us around in their village and of went to awake the grandparents, have a tea, smile and nod. Eventually we just had to drive another half an hour in the car with the son to fetch his girlfriend and go for a coffee...by the time we got home we were really ready for a good sleep! 6 in the morning we woke for breakfast..as the vietnamese do...never sleep longer than 5 or 6 in the morning. After breakfast we had to look at all the family photos to find out how many relatives they had and then we went all dressed up to meet all of them for lunch in the house of the brother. This turned out to be a real treat, we all sat on the floor and ate, drank (of course beer and schnaps) and by the end of it we were all invited to come back after dalat and stay another night...this was a really intense adventure because we were in the middle of the attention all the time, everything we ate, we drank, the direction of our looks...strongly observed. However it was a great time and we now have a home in vietnam. Still we managed to leave again half drunk in the afternoon to tackle the hill up to Dalat where we arrived completely soaked from the rain which should last the next 2 days without a break.

Dalat itself is flooded with hostels, quite a large town in the middle of the mountains and sure it looks prettier in the sun, however it has its own feeling to it which makes it attractive. It is the prefered honeymoon spot for many vietnamese couples so its the Paris of vietnam, ha ha.

A huge market made the rainy days bearable for us as we discovered everything living and dead you are able to buy there, very interesting! We had a big laundry action going on which took 2,5 days to dry due to the rainy weather and the cold temperatures.

Finally we left and had some sun while rolling the same hill down we were entering the coffee and tea plantation area and the scenery was just stunning until a huge cloud came and flooded us and the road again...nevermind. We are only 177km away from Ho Chi Minh..wahoo! Did anybody read this far?

Around Nha Thrang

2007-10-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

Mineral hot springs.

does our skin look more radiant?!!!

This was a 38 degree swimming pool, we were happy that it was raining outside as it would have been unbearable in the sun.

Nils!
Mud bath full also about 40 degrees
Hot mineral shower 40 degrees

Morning catch-huge sword fishes.
Cycling to the mud baths.
The Mud baths! Before we were waist high init.

Nils tucking into some yummy rice rolls, this day we visited the resturant twice! for a huge plate and refils when want the whole meal costs 50p each!
A rice roll party in Nha Thrang with new friends.
Dread making a new rastafari is born!!!
Ruben from the well known capital of the Basque country called Vittoria! And Jani from malaysia,

We love you!

Some more pictures of our time in Nha Thrang for you. We have managed to stay here much longer than expected, nearly 2 weeks now. Made some great friends and had a few partys and enjoyed chilling out! Its going to be hard to leave.

2007-10-12T05:02:00.000-07:00

A barber shop in the small streets of Nha trang

Just outside the tourist area of Nha Trang

Get that body tanned miss Cobley!

A typical barber on the side of the road, this is an early sat morning hair cut!

Nha Trang beach. Blue sea and clad with palm and coconut trees.

Today we splashed out all of $2 for the luxury of laying on one of these,soaking in the sun and atmosphere and well...doing nothing! Luxury!!!

These machines are everywhere, they push through sugar cane to get the juice out and serve with lime, yummy and good for power on the bike.

we passed beautiful beaches along the way

Our typical tea break, a pot of loose fresh green tea and strong Vietnamese coffee.

flooded rice fields

Cycling along the coast

The view from our cheep government lodgings for a few days, the beach was deserted.

Fermenting coconut along the road side, this smells like rotting cheese and its everywhere!

My rain attire!

UH Oh! think I lost Nils!

Hoi An ancient village and port.

From Hoi An onwards it rained and rained thankfully we didn't get hit by the typhoon in the north, but plenty of rice fields and villages were flooded, and an excuse to buy some fetching rain clothes!

Get that motor running!

Tailor made shoes for $12, no confusion to whos shoes they may be!!

Hoi An, and a cheeky looking Nils!?

Street vendors catch of the day

Small street in Hoi An, drying palm leaves for wrapping food in.

First Vietnam Pictures!

2007-10-11T00:06:00.001-07:00

my updated cycling outfit looks just stunning!

if you ever wonder how stones for driveways are made in Vietnam, here is the answer:
1)choose a big boulder somewhere in the landscape
2) Hammer and chisel big quarters apart
3) Divide the big quarter into small quarters, again just with hammer and chisel!

Great Beaches, green and blue Sea, Palm trees! After some stressful days in the sticks and three days with more than 120km in a row that was exactly what we needed! And thats what you find besides many other tourists in Nha Thrang. So we could get some change to our foe' diet, which is the noodle soup with veggies and some dubious meet which you don't know what it is...sounds not too bad but if you have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner it becomes less appealing and doesn't give you much energy for cycling. We never thought that a normal pizza would be so adorable and it took us 5 minutes to explain to the waitress that we want the biggest pizza they have because we just cycled 135km more or less on breakfast alone.

So on the way between the touristy city's, mentioned in the lonely planet you find the real nice spots and you don't pay the tourist prices if you let them know that you know that a room is not normally 10 dollars but more like 5 for a standard room and after some haggling and attempts to go away you normally end up paying the normal price. Although after a long day of cycling in the heat the haggling bit is the least you want but just to get some food and a shower. So we discovered an old government run bungalow style hotel directly on a wonderful beach where we stayed in a room with 3 beds for 60000VND which is about 4 dollars for the both of us. The lonely planet doesn't even mention this hotel, but, of course the more expensive one's close to the highway where you pay 10 dollars. Of course you rather prefer an air conditioned room close to the highway than a room with sea view but only with fan and a little bit older! So for anyone who is still fond of lonely planet guidebooks, this was just one example for wrong, missing or just overpriced hotels listed and we can really recommend the Rough Guide which at least gives you the chance to choose between the possibility's...so enough bitching about lonely planet for today!

So, we are in the very tourist area of Nha Trang. This is a beautiful but very built up area with a long beach clad with palm trees and coconut trees. We are staying in a fairly cheep hotel that has a slight beach view, and the weather, (well except from today) is just hot hot hot! Yesterday it was so hot we even gave in and paid 40000 dong ( $2.50) to have the pleasure of reclining on a huge sun bed with a palm tree roof for shade, that and a very over priced beer looking out to the aqua blue sea and small islands was expensive heaven!! We have inquired about some snorkeling around these islands and hopefully we will do a trip tomorrow, the pictures look great, and we will def get to see lots of finding nemos. We both feel we are on holiday at the moment, sounds funny prob to you as we have been for a while but we are actually relaxing and doing no cycling or anything for that matter....love it! except eating!

Cycling through Vietnam so far has been beautiful, the landscapes are ever changing from paddy fields to great mountains on either side, we have been doing some very long distances with mostly over 100kms a day but the views have been well worth it, although the traffic is sometimes a little crazy, its part of the fun and experience, and i have fully enjoyed getting fitter and recently giving Nils a run for his money with speed and endurance!!! ha ha I now cycle in the front! well sometimes but its enough to scare him with thunder thighs Cobley and her amazing talents that just get better and better!!!

oh and for the record, would be cool to get some comments from people! no one so far since Asia where are you guys...! Love to hear from you

Love George and Nils

Cycling, Teaching and Learning

2007-09-29T04:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody, after a couple of wonderfull days in the ancient city of Hue' we made our way over the mighty Hai Van pass, the highest one in beautiful Vietnam. One night we spent in a sleepy little beach village called Lang Co. When we walked around the old part of town a local approached us and asked us to come to his house because he is teaching English to his family and some children in the neighbourhood. We were ambushed in to his house by about 30 children! Here we were sat on little plastic chairs on the tiled floor and asked numerous questions, and spelt words on the small blackboard in the corner. All the children wanted their pictures taken and very keen to talk,touch and learn. Hai ( the teacher), after asking the girls, invited us to have dinner with him and family and after to go to the cafe for a coffee. Nils and I felt very privileged, nearly the whole neighbourhood watched us eat with them, in the back room. This was a very special thing as the family hardly had much and they cooked us a most georgeous pudding of corn and peanut stuff of which they insisted was just for us, although not one of them had eaten much at all. After dinner we walked with Hai and his neices arm in arm to the small cafe, and as all local places sat on children sized chairs and bought them all a drink. It was a really lovely experience and the children so wonderful. We agreed to meet them all before school time again to say good bye, and as school starts for them at 7 in the morning we were back in the cafe at 6am!! Hai also insisted that he buy us breakfast, even though he was running late for a friends wedding.

Due to such an early start we were on the road again heading south earlier than normal in the rain! However rain was welcomed due to the climb ahead of the Hai Van pass, and the views from the top were well worth the hours climb. Down on the other side the climate changed to a bit more tropical weather, and the air smelt completely different. Our day stopped in the busy industrial city od Da Nang, the traffic and business hit us suddenly so we couldnt wait to get out again and spent the night in watching tv!! A rare luxury for us! Today we have cycled to the ancient town of Hoi An. Along the way we stopped for breakfast by the beach and followed its coast line. Hoi An is really relaxed and we are plannin to stay here for atleast a few days to explore, and get a visa extension. Despite all the political Chaos in Burma, Vietnam is far away from all of this and each day is presenting new beautiful landscapes and people. No one needs to worry!

Hope everyone is doing well, stay in touch Nils and George x x

Good morning Vietnam!

2007-09-22T04:14:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

so we have arrived in Vietnam! We cycled over the border yesterday, after a bit of interest into the validity of our passports and pictures it was pretty easy! We spent the last few days in Laos takng in the scenery and relaxed atmosphere, as we had heard that Vietnam, unlike its neighbour was busy and noisy. Wow and how true they were. Its not as busy as a weston country, however the contrast from Laos is great. Where there are 10 million living in Laos, there are 80 million here! how funny it is to cross a magic dividing line and be greeted with such difference. Here they like to use the horn, and its a constant noise from any vehical, unlike our car horns they are much louder and regular, like fog horns. However the people especially the children are as equally friendly, no corner turned without the hearing of "hello" or "where you go?". Nearly all children and some adults have bicycles, and they have been riding along side us talking and chatting away, and often looking for a race! These children are amazing on their 1 geared bike and we both found it pretty hard to keep up with them, especially when it started to down pour with rain and whilst climbing up the mountain!

The scenery so far has been great, since the border we have, more than not been descending through the dividing mountains. We have seen some tanks and reminants of the war along the way and been through small villages. Our first town today-Dang Ha, where we have decided to splash out and celebrate by booking into our most expensive hotel to date(all of $10!), with hot shower and tv!

Again we can't upload the photos but we should be in a bigger city very soon, until then .......The Pumpkins. x x x x x

Still cycling in Laos

2007-09-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

Sabaidee!
So now our next attempt to include some photos but it is very slow..two photos in 20 minutes...anyway, therefore you get a little bit more text!
We made it to the capital Vietiane with our speedy japanese friend and spent a few very needed relaxing days in the city. Very small, not too much to see but relaxing all the same. Found a great Scandinavian bakery and thanks to the french colonisation some great baguettes. Sadly we here had to say goodbye to Tadashi as his next and last journey ends cycling to Bangkok, we thoroughly enjoyed the cycling experience and stories (of which he had plenty) and would love to meet again.
Off again on ourselves, this time heading south where not many tourist ever venture. The scenery changed completely, giving us flat roads as long as we followed the mekong river which stretched about 300kms. Only a few guest houses along the way, which are often used as love hotels at the same time! A lot of the Thai or Lao business man have at least another girl next to their wife which she doesn't know about??? anyway, this is the place to meet and we were wondering sometimes why it is all pink and very cheesy romantic rooms...but very clean and we just had no other choice, ether!
We hit on a small problem on day 2 after leaving the city. getting to one of the larger towns we had seen late in the afternoon we found a guest house and relised that our money had run out completley, we located a bank only to find out there was no atm and could only change travellers cheques, but having left these at the room and it closing in 5 minutes we asked wether we could do the transaction the day after. the only problem travelling is that you seem to loose track of days and thinking it was fri we walked to the bank early the next day and stood at the gates wondering why it was closed ad what to do next. After quite a while we relised it was sat, the local bank shuts on the weekend and we were stuck. Aggggghhhhh, the lovely boy from our guest house had to lend us the bus fare to go back to the city and we retraced our last 2 days on bus to reach an atm!! The joueney was def an experience however as there was no more space for us so we sat on very wobbly plastic chairs in the isle the whole way, praying for our lives as the driver seemed to have a death wish and by inches missed a small child crossing the road swerving to the other side of the road and creating an uproar on the bus!
Problem solved and back on the road south we stopped for the night only to bump into 4 other bike tourers staying at the same place! 2 from Thailand who have been cycling for 6 years around the world and 2 french guys who have juat finnished India and Bangladesh, great to meet others and hear there stories.It was here that Nils got his first offer from a Laos lady who fell in love with his beard and hairs both of which are never seen on a Laos man! However we think she wanted to get her daughter in with a westoner! After a short and funny conversation with our new Thai friends they all decided that it was one of the French guys who was the most handsome without a girlfriend so the heat was taken away and mr French soon went a shade of red!
Today we cycled 100kms almost with no break, very exhausting although pretty flat, however we didnt want to stop as once we did our bodies sweated more sweat than we cound have though possible, sweat in the eyes is never a fun thing, so pedaling the whole day is actually a much nicer experience. We visited a few schools along the way and handed out books to the head teachers that we had bought in Luang Probang, as most schools do not have such things and it was really great to give something to the children.Outside is one huge rain storm thankfully one that has waited untill after cycling, lightning and thunder and possibly some floods tomorrow. Although we are quite experienced now at cycling through floods as hopefully a few pictures will show. One day we went through a whole village that was washed out and the water came up to our knees! The locals watched as we sped through and cheered us with laughs and splashes.

so, now finally some photos, like always in random order and supersizable when you double click on the pic. Enjoy!!

Tadashi and George fighting through the floods
Goodbye Tadashi!!!

rain brings flooding every year
today we dress like locals, he he!

(don't repeat this at home, special qualified doubles)

A close encounter with a racing pig!
A well needed break in a village along the way
At the top!

One thirsty George after a day of climbing Looking back at our path upwards

Setting off for our Laos adventure
Up and away in the mountains of Northern Laos

After 5 days one silk scarf is finnished
Wading through the flooded walkways of the waterfall

2007-09-10T23:10:00.000-07:00

Bridget, Ben, Chris and George

Birthday party of one of the workers in green valley

our little bungalow we stayed in for two weeks
Nils cracking his first coconut fresh from the tree

Laos i want to marry you....

2007-09-08T03:53:00.000-07:00

Hello you, thanks for calling in again!

We made our way down to Vang Vieng, had some hard days of cycling but some very good experiences. Let's start at the beginning, Luang Prabang, the old residence city of the king when Laos was still a monarchy is very beautiful and has a very relaxing vibe to it and lots to see and do. We didn't plan to but we ended up meeting a very nice French couple which are traveling the world since 4 years and went kayaking together with them for two days. There were some massive rapids in between the flat bits and everybody capsized at least once, but it was great fun and the stay in a little village over night was very interesting. We slept together with all the locals in a big bedroom everybody together without walls in between, no shower except water out of buckets and the men wash first before the women allowed to wash...at night we had to drink the self made Lao Lao (which is a schnaps made from rice and tasted like old meet, about 50% alcohol) and teached them to play mau mau which they loved...

When we came back to our Guesthouse we had some pastis with our french friends and found out a japanese cyclist arrived. Takashi Sato his name, cycling around the word since 6 years (made far over 100000kms already), just cycled down from tibet through china, waited one more day so we can cycle together down to Vietiane (the new Capital city). The first day took us up into the mountains, over two hills, more than 80kms and 2200m uphill and the last 4 hours in pouring rain... the whole thing on a diet of noodle soup and cake. But we finally made it and the views on the next day which we spent over 1600m were so wonderful that we did not mind all the effort. After a 44km downhill we arrived in Kasi and the views again, never seen anything like that before! There on the market we saw our first dog to eat, they had a little market store with only dog meat, like small puppies fresh from the barbecue or bigger dogs with or without fur, yummy! In all the villages we came past we had to say sabaidee ten thousand times because the children would come running out on the street and want to do high five, waving while you are rolling past, really amazingly friendly! The last day we did a relaxing 60kms to Vang Vieng, where i am sitting now, sad because i cannot upload photos again, because they use satellite internet. Well, you will be rewarded with some very nice photos soon...

Anyway, except of some of Montezuma revenge we do have a great time here and it is just such an fascinating country, come and visit!

You will hear from us soon again, stay tuned for the photos!

the pumpkins

Climbing Ton Sai and Cycling from Chiang Mai

2007-09-01T23:25:00.000-07:00

hello!

So... from Bangkok we went straight to Ton Sai, for a bit of relaxation and of course climbing! After a pretty long journey on bus and boat we were happy to get to a beach not only beautiful but surrounded by climbing heaven! thinking we would only stay for a week, we eventually ended up there for 2(would have been much longer if Nils got his way!). We did a lot of climbing, bouldering,deep water soloing and kayaking. maybe not the most relaxing beach holiday! think we will re visit this beautiful part of Thailand as there is definatley much more rock un climbed or found.

After, much discussion we decided not to stay down south, we could have easily blown our budget on more climbing, snorkling,diving ... but decided we wanted to get on our bikes before our visa's ran out, so back to bangkok it was. Thankfully the bikes were still neatly kept in the storage room as we left then, and we head off that day to the train station(which is not as easy as it sounds with the Bangkok madness of traffic). This then lead to a 15hr journey in 3rd class to Ciang Mai, however uncomfortable it was a great way to see the countryside around you and experience proper thai travel.

Chiang Mai is a really lovely city, easy to get around by bike, lots of temples and markets to visit, very arty and lots of culture, very different to the south. We visited the zoo and saw many animals that we learnt will be in the wild in laos, so we are on the look out now for approaching tigers, pumas, elephants,bears,snakes and crocodiles!! Still a city is a city...lots of traffic and people and we quickly got on the bikes and started to cycle up(up,up,up...) to the countryside. Wow this just got better and better, we cycled through remote farming villages, hill tribes,lush jungle, steep rice fields on the hills and for a week we were the only white people we saw. The heat of the day time is amazing and venturing up nearly 2000meters in the increasingly hot weather was to say the least challenging! but the people egged us on chearing and waving as we passed, sweating like pigs on a barbie and trying to conserve water, we made it! i could not describe how lush and beautiful the scenery is , its just breath taking, and views like i have never seen before. we came very close to the burmese border, and finally hit the mekong where we looked over and could see laos only a few meters away across the river which flows all the way from Tibet. Something we both found amazing and hard to comprehend. Once we reached the boarder town we travelled down this river for 2 days, to Luang Probang(laos). Again this journey is pretty slow and hard on the bum, but well worth it. And here we are, in laos, chilling in the world heritage city for a bit and then back on the bikes to head south. We hope you like the pictures( these will be added soon when we find an internet cafe that lets you upload). Life is good,and we are getting increasingly brown and getting into the asian life style. Love to you all the Pumpkins! x x x

Bangkok

2007-08-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody, this time from Asia!

The pumpkins on a new continent!

Very exciting for us, especially for Nils, because he has not been here before! We had about 10 hours flight instead of 7 hours because of the strong headwind, couple of times we had to put our seatbelts on because of the turbulences in the 747-300 from Jetstar, "Touristbomber" is the right word because it is crammed and you don't have much space.
Arriving in the brand new Airport with the second highest capacity of planes landing and starting in the world didn't seem to be the same country than outside. One step in front of the door and you get blasted away from the humidity and temperature, about 32C, that means sweating a LOT!!!
Fortunately it was much easier than we thought to get the bikes to the city and we travelled by local bus to Khao San Road, the only place we new, crowed by westerners and lots of cheap accomodation. Very easy to find a room, double with fan for about 380 baat, 11 Au$, not even 4 pounds. Quite hot and with no daylight but after our adventures day we didn't care too much, anyway better than a tent and no cockroaches in sight!
We were really lucky that we made it finally to bangkok because when we arrived at the airport in brisbane, luckily quite early, wanting to check in, they told us that there was no ticket booked and we wouldn't be able to fly. After a while we were advised that to travel to bangkok you need a valid ticket going out of thailand, to a valid destination, meaning england or germany in our case. That hit us hard because neither of us had money to pay a flight that we didn't really need, bargains were not available at the airport and all that under time pressure because our flight was waiting. After a lengthy conversation with a very nice and patient Quantas lady we knew what to do: we had to buy a fully refundable flight to london or frankfurt and than call them once in bangkok to get the refund. Fully refundable means not cheap, over 8000 Au$!!!! So we stood there, thinking, if we couldn't get 8000$ from somewhere we would loose our flights and the money we payd to bangkok, get stuck in australia so george would overstay her visa which means possibly a fine, excellent! After trying all the cards we had, we could just cover one flight. So we had to phone Nils father and get him to pay over the phone for the other flight and convince him that he gets the money refunded...the time was getting very close to check in time but we finally made it after all this unexpected trouble.

Back to bangkok, very busy city, all the locals quite used to foreigner, called farang here, just stalls and stalls and stalls, everything you can dream of and pay for it you can buy here very cheap. So we spend most of the first day, while recovering from the long flight, eating and exploring around the city. The next days we had exciting things to do like the first tuk tuk drive(got ripped off straight away, we found out later), looking at temples, trying all kinds of food, wandering around the Chinatown, very crazy place! One highlight was the floating market where we were the only farang around and sat together with locals eating freshly cooked food (radfish and battered chilli tofu with veges)yummy! Every moment here is adventure for us because it all works a bit different, like haggling for everything you buy (george still pays full price because to friendly to haggle, ha ha!)and we try to learn a couple of phrases in thai language. Quite difficult because one word can have five meanings depends on the tone in which you say it in!

We are now waiting for a bus that takes us to a 12 hour or more bus drive down south to Krabi. (Costs about 10Au$) We are looking forward to see the rural areas and locals that are maybe not as used to farang and the coast, climbing...

So stay tuned you will hear from us soon....

the pumpkins

assembling the bikes in our room
Khao San Road, shaped for tourists
good bye Australia, flying out of Brisbane
our bikes in boxes getting loaded in the plane
temple on the Chao Phraya River

The Grand palace in the distance
outdoor restaurant...great food and very spicy
tuk tuks in action in the always crowded streets

nursery in the suburbs
the floating market
eating on floating pontons
monks depend on daily offerings from locals because there are not aloud to have any posessions

no rules on the streets, cars and motorbikes squeezing through every little gap
public school
lots of markets supply the food for the 9 million people living in bangkok

Pet cows, Great beaches and off we go...

2007-08-01T01:37:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the last edition of our blog written in beautiful Australia!

We are just spending our last hours in brisbane before we leave to Bangkok tomorrow early in the morning, and it is very exciting! After long back and forth we decided to take the bikes and the climbing equipment over, which means there is no space for anything else on the plane...George had to go through a huge amount of pain and had to let go of most of her clothes to reach the limit of 20+7 kg which has to include the bike and some climbing stuff...very painful!
The last leg of the trip has taken us up along the coast along very beautiful beaches, national parks and much warmer, nicer weather! All of which was much welcomed! We tried to stick to the coast and even manage to ride on the beach for about 100kms altogether and avoided a couple of kilometers on the highway instead! It was a whole new experience to us, especially when we had no choice and had to ride 30kms through an RAAF shooting range. The locals said they only shoot at night and not directly on the beach...we rode pretty fast and didn't stop...until we had to push over a dune and came to the other side, thankfully without any unnatural holes in our bodies. The adventure for this part was that on a unavoidable Highway stretch north of Macksville, just after Nils tried to break the local all you can eat pancake record hold by an Norwegian with 38. The manager heard Nils accent and got slightly worried but he only managed to eat twelve. (He must have been a big big Norwegian-pancake-trained-piggy). So well fueled Nils maybe had to much energy and snapped his chain, just on the highway. So there we stood and no bikeshop around but hope came soon after pushing the bike to the next junction we met Wooooozz at the only place open...gardenshop. He offered us to take us back to Macksville where the next bikeshop was. It, of course, was closed on monday but nevermind that gave us the opportunity to stay a night in the beautiful place of Tracy&Woooza, which ended up beeing two nights and definetly a highlight to our cycling trip. We went fishing, met our first pet cow and just had a really nice and relaxing time altogether, thank you guys!!!! You made us feel very welcome!

So, once the bike was fixed we caught a train to catch up the time schedule and cycled on to byron bay, where we enjoyed some nice hours in the sun to bongo music and dolphins surfing the waves on the beach. The last days to surfers paradise were quiet easy going flat and sunny so cycling in shorts and getting a tan was unavoidable.

This beautiful cycling time finished in surfers paradise, which is far to busy to be a paradise, and we both will never forget the time and people we met, strongly recommended!

At the moment we are sitting in Bangkok just of Khao San Road, just assembled our bikes together in our room and what a culture difference! Nils just had his first tuk tuk ride and is so hot that we can't imagine cycling yet...but every day feels better and we are just happy beeing able to experience the new culture and the cheap food and drinks...

You will hear from us soon with new adventures, this time highly likely from the vertical world because we are heading south to Krabi! yeahhhhh!

Fishing Wooz and Nils
The Roof for two nights
Nambuca head

us with tracy and wooz
the first Dingo we saw
Moocha the pet cow, knows his name and likes to go for a walk with his leash

Sally didn't fit in our panniers
Nils rescueing the boat
surfer paradise...the end of our trip...huhuuhhh, cry

this bat was just hanging around our tent at night
cycling byron bay is great fun
surfers paradise at sunset

our first surgarcane chewing

the smallest post office in the world

there were only a couple of cars, some of them quite new, burried in our way

Back To The Mainland And Heading North

2007-07-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

The pedalpumpkins trip continued...

Again the pictures are in random order but everybody must be used to it by now... and don't forget to click on them to see the full size!

The final days in Tasmania took us up to the north coast to burnie where we saw a cargo ship in the harbour, so we asked if they can give us a lift to melbourne and save us the final leg on the highway to devonport...thankfully they said yes and off we left within the hour with a truckload of sheep and truckdrivers! The next morning we arrived after a fairly bumpy ride in melbourne where we stayed for one night to sort some things out and defreeze ourselves and dry all the equipment. A train took us out of the city the next morning and we continued our ride in much nicer temperatures than Tassie but marked by the floods through a town called Sale than Stockdale-Bairnsdale-Buchan where our ascent into the victorian alps and the following adventure really begun.

As we don't like it to be flat we took the hard route up through the Snowy River and Kosciuszko National Park what was quiet a mission:

Every day we climbed a fair bit up and down again and the temperatures of course went lower as the views got better...As we took of into nearly 180kms of wilderness and hard climbs after Buchan we had to carry food for what we thought 2 or 3 days but things got a bit difficult...there is no store or any other kind of reliable foodsource or life on the way and half of it is pretty nasty muddy road or gravel road with nasty sharp big stones on it. These stones destroyed George's rear tyre about 10kms before we came to Suggan Buggan so the inner tube got punctured all the time and the first time in my travels i wasn't able to fix the bl...dy tyre to make it working...so the last chance was filling the hole tyre with bark from the trees which doesn't make a comfy ride but at least keeps the rim alive. So with this kind of riding we weren't very fast and it was cold, very exhausting so we ate a lot and quickly run out of food. The one and only car that passed us the first two days couldnt help us out but we were lucky and at the end of the day another nice car came along and the driver gave us 4 sausages and a steak what was nearly gone off...thankfully this meant we didn't have to cycle through the night to Jindabyne and enough energy to tackle the last day...George was definitely the hero off this adventure as she cycled nearly 100kms on a bark filled rear tyre which is very hard and very bumpy especially with not much food and a constant climb on the last day from 200m onto 1200m on bad muddy gravel.
Nonetheless we don't regret cycling through this beautifull and remote landscape with stunning views!

After a recovery day in Jindabyne where we were the only people in a tent and not there for skiing and a new tyre for george we made our way to Nimmitabel, over Mt. Brown where it was snowing and than down into Tathra, our first day on the beach, yeahhh! We met a lovely guy from the Surf' n' Bike Shop in Tathra who organized a spare tyre for George and a free place to camp! In the morning we shared our campground with 10 early rising surfers! So we went north on rolling hills along the coast through Narooma with the nice people at the visitor centre who took pitty on two smelly cyclist and gave us a much needed shower and coffee, thanks guys!

Because the next leg to sydney we would have to cycle only on the highway and together with some time pressure we made the decision to take the bus into sydney and out of sydney to escape the terrible traffic around there. So now we are in Laurieton after some beautifull days of cycling along the coast with many great surfing beaches and lovely people. We were even surprisingly invited by a lovely family in Nelson bay and could sleep for one night on a matress in a house and have some conversation and television! Thanks Angie and Peter! Very great to meet you and your girls!

We have to stop now, the joint is closing and we need to pitch the tent!

Hope you guys enjoy reading and looking at the pictures!

the pumpkins

Good morning melbourne!

thats one of our shortcuts
big seagulls in forster
The lovely Arnold family in Smithton, Tasmania
George in her Hometown but not really...
The cargoship, us, and the truckers

a well needed kip in the botanical gardens in sydney
Cockatoos, also functional as alarm clock
george and bird
our bikes on the patriotic ferry from Nelson bay to Tea Garden
Surf at the booti booti national park

the sun was with us most of the time
the friendly team from Narooma visitor centre
Sydney opera house and a much better icecream
sydney harbour bridge (bridgewalk 140$, you can see the people!)
the opera thing again

leaving the alps (mount brown)
coming closer to the coast
sunset
finally on the coast!
typicall australian postboxes?

typical dirtroad
trees and sky
road, hill, ....monaro high country is beautifull
winter gear required on top of Mt. Brown
after rolling down mt. brown my face was frozen...

looking back onto the 90kms of bark comfort and the climb
the bark...
camping at lake jindabyne
leaving the ski area
little caffee and the treat of the day

buchan campground in the morning
a wild dog, shot, very appealing if you don't have food left!
the beautifull but tamed snowy river

nearly on the hill towards jindabyne

final swing on the treehouse in Melbourne
the housemates
rolling down to buchan
kookaburrah sits on the old (gum) tree... Kangaroo making friends with another wild animal!

Up and down and up and down and up...

2007-06-30T18:25:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody, here is the second part of the pumpkin trip in the wonderfull tasmania, i guess the pictures are not as stunning anymore partly because of the lack of photographic weather but the love to tasmania was growing more and more nonetheless...

This time we made a photo of our map so you guys can see where we went (the black line from bottom to top).

So, where did we stop?... ah jah: after spending this foggy night in Queenstown we saw that queenstown in daylight is not as bad as we thought and we met some lovely people there in the library where we put our last pictures on. After doing that we took it easy and cycled through lush forest along to strahan, a beautifull little town in a bay. The weather was, except of the cold really sunny and we found a nice little spot in the bay opposite of the town to camp. There was no campground and we thought we would have to sleep in the brand new disabled toilet in the park (the park itself was really lit up at night and big no camping signs) but after looking around a bit you always find a spot! So we just enjoyed the sun and the sea for a whole day, did some washing and more importantly some drying, and had a really good treat (fish and chips). The place itself is a small pretty fishing village and was a great place for us to relax and have a day off from the hills, we even managed to find a man with a power hose to clean our bikes!

Our next day we headed due north towards Zeehan quite late in the morning, past the coast, not far we stopped at what is called the Henty dunes, a 2km sand dune between the sea and the forest. A quite strange sight and special to this area. It was mostly up and down up and down through forest, and just before sunset we pitched tent at the top of a hill. This was one of the best places we have slept, totally in the middle of nowhere, so still and quiet you could hear the sea crashing 20km away!

Corinna was our next destination and we had heard that it was only dirt track for most of the way, sure thing it was, and a quite dramatic drop down. We knew it was going to be one of the most remote places we had been, and to get there we had to stop at the river side and ring the bell for the small boat to come and pick us up to take us to the other side where we found a tiny village, we learnt only 3 people live in. however they did have a few tables and chairs in the small wooden general store and we treated ourselves to a toasted sandwhich, where George tried to motivate herself for the next pending doom of more dirt track! 60kms of a road designed purely for 4wds was the route Nils was determind to conquer, after a coffee I was slightly more optimistic but this was quite short lived with the presentation of hills, hills, hills and gravel! Nils loved the challenge and we made it half way before setting camp at the river side on a wet and damp evening ready for ...yes more dirt road and hills! Well i can safely say if i ever do this route again i will be sitting in a car, enjoying the ride and not with both eyes on the ground hoping not to fall off my bike! Instead of killing Nils i plugged myself into the i pod and just rode waiting for the end whilst he cycled along happily and enjoyed the track. a very challenging day and experience,I am now very happy that we chose this route with a great sense of achievment.

So far to this day we had been very lucky with the weather, we knew it would have to rain sometime and it sure came that afternoon in time for us to find a camping spot in Arthur River. we managed to find a great spot in the eating hut where an electric bbq had been installed and a wooden bench. within 5 miniutes we had called it home and taken it over by emptying the contents of our wet bags and hanging it all where we could find a spot and made what seemed a luxury of toast on the bbq! sleeping next to it as a personal heater (the tent was too wet). Early and rainy we were awoken by the local walking group who we think may have wanted to use the dry facilities but they kindly left us to it and we packed in good time and set off before 9oclock. wet rain gear on, we got to the next village for breakfast...a coffee, massive bag of crisps and an ice cream and decided to do the next 50kms regardless of the weather to our first big town since we left Hobart.

Smithton. The road getting here was the flattest we have experienced in Tasmania, and tail wind the whole way, only taking us an hour or so to get there, through lush green farming land. Nils and I Tried making friends with many of the tassie cows, think Nils could quite possibly have been one in his former life, his cow talk is great! We saw many parrotts which seemed to play chase with us and managed to find a cosy cafe out of the rain for the afternoon for a slap up burger meal! Due to the weather we decided this would be the stop for the night and after asking wether the place had a cinema and being laughed at the next question about a camping area was also granted with the same sort of response. Not quite sure where we were going to sleep that night and keep dry we stopped off at the petrol station to fill up the gas stove ready for probally what was going to be another damp night with pesto and pasta.

Well, something magical happened, after inquiring with the man at the station if he knew of anywhere cheep to stay, with no questions asked he offered to let us stay at his home which was just at the top of the hill. Andrew gave us his address and explained that he would be home later but his children were in and they would make us welcome. Wow, this sort of generosity and kindness is not often seen and we knocked at the door to a beautiful house in the country, where his wife showed us where we could have a hot shower, wash our clothes, our own tv with many dvds to watch and home made veggie soup if we were hungry. Thankyou so much for this pleasure, honestly you have a wonderful home and family and it was so great to have met you. You are a special family and i do hope that we will hear from you, safe travells Andrew to Africa. It would be fantastic if you could let us know your e mail address for the future, and our home is always open for any of you to stay or visit, we will just have to decide ourselves where this may be first!

Long time no shop and not many people for us to see, exactly 3 cars passed us in 2 Days

A lot of nice little rivers with very clear water that tasted fantastic

the 'fatman barge' takes you over to corinna, so when you press the button one of the 3 people living there walks down to the river, starts the ferry and gets you over with the only cable ferry in australia!for ca. 500 meters, 10$ each, i know why it is called fatman...

the general store, cafe and information centre in one, owned by mr. fatman as well

these two creatures where following us, we couldn't escape, ha ha!

beautifull campspot between strahan and zeehan

laying in the grass, hearing only the sea and enjoying the sun
good example for the busyness of the roads , terrible!

still waiting for fatman to come...

the pumpkins enjoying the sunset...everybody agreed it was a great happening
we still don't know why clouds look like ganja leaves in tasmania...
the fog was staying in the valleys till about 11 o'clock and created little islands
so much space to cover with outdoor gear, great!

...george is so small i always have to be carefull not to pack her in my panniers...

we smelled really badly but the water was colder than you could ever smell
old pioneer graveyard in zeehan
mmhhh! banana custard, the best friend of the cyclist on special!

the little harbour of strahan
washing and drying...everything!
strahan, three big katamaran cruisers made us not want to be there in the season

henty dunes between strahan and zeehan

strahan with the old skelleton of a ship build by prisoners
sudoku

Frozen Tents and Cosy Cabins

2007-06-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody, we arrived safe in Hobart Airport and managed to assemble our bikes. Our first trip was only a short one to Hobart City where we spent the first night on a childrens playground hidden underneath a tree. The views from the plane onto tassie and the impressions from Hobart were already very exciting and the people very friendly. So we didnt want to wait for long and kept going the next day early towards the central plateau, uphill of course, George loved it! The weather was nice for half of the day, about 3 Celsius but the sun turned into rain in the afternoon and we ended up staying in the lovely Town of Bagdad, on the cricket ground of the community centre. Wet but happy we started our pasta and tomato diet this evening before we peeled our 5 layers off to go into the tent early at 8 o'clock. On the next day were more hills, but a very beautifull landscape up and higher towards the great lake, about 1100 climbing meters, the last 20km on snowy and icy roads, yipieeehh! Along the way often drivers stopped and asked us if we need help, and when it was dark, the temperature dropped to -5C, George was getting no further up the hill we gave in and got a lift the last kms to Miena. This was the highest point of our trip, snow everywhere and he dropped us off the only known establishment...the pub! This 4 people there thought we were crazy that we are going to camp in the snow on the lake, because the temperature dropped the night before to -11c...after a beer Tim invited us to stay in his 'small' hut for the night. Delighted and excited we of course said yes and once we had finnished our beer from infront of the open fire off we peddled behind him inthe snow to find our bed for the night! wow, what a supprise, we definetley had landed on our feet and the small hut actually was a tidy,cosy and warm cabin with a kitchen, bedroom and a sofa.....wahoooo! Thankyou so much Tim for your hospitality and kindness, we couldnt of asked for better, it was so nice we asked to stay an extra night with the magnificent views of the lake and beautiful landscape, who wouldnt?! we spent the day walking to the only general store in the area, 4km away, and in the evening we were invited to tims for scallops of which he had dived for himself..yummy. reluctently, we woke early the next day to start our next adventure, stopping along the way to Duncan and his wife (an English couople who has found solice at the lake side), who convinced us to stop for a morning coffe and home made scones again thankyou and they were beautifull, although leaving later than planned well worth the hour and some great advise.

In this great landscape we decided that we will extend our trip a little bit, and cycle up along the west coast, through the Wild Rivers National Park. The sun was out for us and the drop down from the great plains was breathtaking. We had a great ride and finnished on the beautiful Lake St Claire for the sunset. A possum kept us up this night trying to steal our food, whilst everything froze over. The sunrise again was a sight out of the tent, with all the sparkling frost and the morning mist over the lake.

This day was to be the most memorable so far, as we rolled down into the national park through the forests and along the snowy topped mountains. we had the sun bursting down, no cloud in the sky and beautifull views onto King William, Mount Gell, Frenchmans Cap, and Mount Olympus. very nice winding, and hilly roads, many with the hidden black ice and it didnt take long before George and Nils were on the floor because of it! luckily just the once and both partys were not injured!

At sunset we had already cycled about 70km and were planning just another couple of easy kms to the next village on our map to tuck into a well deserved meal, however when getting here we were presented with 1 street lamp and 4 houses! No general store open at 5 o clock or at all infact. Because we havent had any food left we had to cycle up and down another big hill to Queenstown, which filled George with deepest joy, after the speedmeter showed already 95kms for the day and the temperature foggy -3 C. But we made it anyway, the downhill luckily much longer than the uphill and nearly no car on the road like all the time. So we rolled down into this Queenstown, were probably no Queen would like to stay in winter, because it is a dead little Town drowned in fog and the smell of coal fires. But we managed to find a pizza place, after waiting for only an hour we got the luxury of some nice pizzas (+free garlic bread) and a little campground which was just as nice as the town! So we pitched our tent on the only 2 meters of lawn and while showering George started to feel her toes and fingers again...

Now we are sitting in the National Library of Tasmania in Queenstown and it is bloody expensive but warm and have been given free coffee and biscuits.

We hope you enjoyed our little report, we enjoyed our trip so far, below some pictures for you!

Hobart..childrens play ground night 1.
Mount Olympus and the 2 pumpkins!
Mount Gell.
frenchmans Cap.
On the road to Queenstown at sunset.

Good Morning!
Frozen bags aside Lake St Claire
Our morning view from tent on Lake St Claire
Frozen Road at W. R.National Park
we were sad seeing more echidna on the signs than for real

another lake st. Claire picture

WaWaiting for the pasta to boil Lake Burbury
A frozen morning view.

George testing the ice on Pine Lagoon
Rolling hills on the National park

Franklin River and a perfect stop for lunch
photochromic lenses make you look so good!

Snowman on the Great Lake
Tim in front of his hut!
Dirt Roads down from Miena towards the West Coast

This lovely hut saved us two freezing nights
View onto Great Lake from hut in the Morning
Great Lake

Hobart Harbour and great Fish'n'Chips

First views of Tasmania from Hobart
A parrot, coloured

Bowen bridge

Richmond
The roll down from the first big hill and the cricket ground camp
A funny looking tasmanian cow
Nice trees!!!