It’s now almost 4 years since we arrived back home in Point Lonsdale, near Melbourne, Australia and we thought it was time for a little update. At the end of our 18,000km bicycle tour we were quite ready to arrive at home and be stationary for a while. As we lived overseas for so long, we have been quite busy getting settled back in here. So far we have been very lucky and were able to house sit for relatives and test drive some areas that we might be interested to live in. We feel particularly at home in…
A Bike Journey
Roam MTB – Mountain Bike Trail Maps
I wanted to introduce a new app I have been working on, Roam MTB. It is a revolutionary app for mountain bike trail navigation that uses real time 3D maps. View your exact location on the innovative and interactive 3D maps and easily navigate your way through a mountain bike trail network. Each map has a complete trail list with valuable information on each trail. Best of all the app works completely offline. It’s like having a local guide with you on every ride! Our aim is to compile a comprehensive and accurate trail network that assists current and future…
Thank You
Now that we have finished our 18,000km bicycle tour and basked in the glory of our achievement for the past few weeks, it’s time to admit that we never could have done it without the many kind souls who helped us out along the way. || While we planned our trip, we read many inspiring blogs and books and contacted several experienced cyclists for advice. Special mentions go to Anne Mustoe’s book A Bike Ride, which was our first inspiration for cycle touring, and Alastair Humphrey’s brilliant…
How It All Started
"The object of life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out shouting holy shit, what a ride" – Mavis Leyrer A few people have asked us how we came up with the idea of cycling to Australia. We were both regular cyclists during our younger years but never did anything extreme. When travelling in Cambodia in 2003 we hired some bicycles to explore the ruins of Angkor Wat for a few days. This gave us our first taste of bicycle travel in a…
Crossing the Finish Line
Skenes Creek – Point Lonsdale The Great Ocean Road really is a cycling mecca. The smooth road winds its way over gentle hills alongside the dramatic Southern Ocean. Every few kilometres a viewing area promises photo opportunities looking back over the stunning coastline, and on a weekday in early spring, the traffic is almost non-existent. It’s no wonder that Australia’s cycling elite favours this area and even the current Tour de France champion Cadel Evans lives down here, just 15 minutes down the road from Guy’s parents house. || Guy’s dad had alerted some family…
10 Things We’ll Miss
With the end in sight we have been thinking about the things we’ll miss most when our 15 month cycle tour comes to an end. Here is our list: 1. The freedom and the adventure. 2. Connecting instantly with other like minded cycle tourers. 3. The ability to get “under the skin” of the countries we passed through and at times feeling like minor celebrities with all the attention our bikes commanded. 4. Wild camping in the Australian Outback – sitting around our camp fire at night and star gazing, and waking up in the morning…
18,000 km Photo
It felt unreal to be standing at the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, so close to home, after 15 months on the road and with 18,000km under our wheels. This is our final kilometre marker photo, which is a little sad but all good things come to an end. We just feel so fortunate that we have been able to follow our dream and that we made it this far. ||…
The Great Ocean Road
Timboon – Skenes Creek Rejoining the Great Ocean Road, we stopped at some of the numerous rock formations that have been formed by the powerful seas crashing into the coast line. The day we arrived storm clouds formed a menacing backdrop as winds whipped up a huge swell that slammed into the coast with all its destructive might. The surf report for the local spots simply read: “Too big”.|| Until 1990, London Bridge (see image below) was actually connected to the land, forming a natural bridge with two arches. One of the arches had caved in, leaving two…
A Taste of Victoria
Robe – Timboon Leaving Robe, the tailwinds persisted and the sunshine made for a perfect day of cycling. For lunch, we stopped at Beachport, a sleepy fishing village surrounded by surf beaches. We camped in Millicent and not feeling like tackling the big lights of Mount Gambier we zigzagged on quite rural roads towards the Victorian border. || The Mount Gambier area is famous for its sinkholes so we were chuffed to stumble across one, materialising out of the surrounding farm land. Formed due to the corrosion of limestone rocks, some sinks…
Cruising the Coorong
Adelaide – Robe Pouring over maps, we came to the realization that there was simply no way of getting out of Adelaide without a major hill climb. Eventually we picked a quiet route with a fairly gentle 500m climb leading us east towards the Murray River. The morning of our departure presented us with the worst weather we had had in our entire 17 days in Adelaide: rain and wind. Raincoats and lights on, we said goodbye to our friends and headed down to the river. We followed the bike path along the river for about 12km out of…