While the Carretera Austral provided so many visual delights from the road, even bicycles were too fast at times. So when we got a message from our cycling friend Jochen begging “pleeeeeease, hike the shit outta that place!”, we had no problem obliging. Here's a run down of all our non-wheeled misadventures.
Everything seems to be taking longer at the moment. Cycling, rest breaks, blog writing (sorry, James!) - we’ve slowed down. In fact, I wrote this blog post about our time in the Lake District two months after it happened, in deepest Patagonia. Christmas has just been and gone and, while we still have a way … Continue reading One pedal stroke at a time: cycling through Chile’s Lake District
Before writing up this blog post, I looked back on my diary to remind myself of all the little details of that time. “My god”, I turned to Chillo, “I was a grumpy cow”. If you were to draw a graph of our collective mood swings that week, there would be lots of zig zags, jumping up as dramatically as they plummet down. However, after reminding myself of all the little challenges and victories along the way, I’d say the overall trajectory would most definitely be an upwards one.
Our last couple of weeks in Bolivia - ghost towns, canyons and dodgy wine
Our trip so far has had the odd setback, and generally we're always able to find positives and come out better the other side. But there are bound to be some days that really put you through the ringer. The day we did the "Death Road" was one of those. Not, as you might imagine, … Continue reading A series of unfortunate events
That classic traveller's tale of stumbling across a special moment with "the locals" My stomach was rumbling and all I could think about was pedalling as hard as I could to the next town, in the hope there would be a “comedor” selling some form of chicken and rice. I’m not a good cyclist on … Continue reading Donde estamos?
If you’ve been following our progress, or at least trying to, I imagine we’ve painted a slightly disjointed picture of our trip since we arrived in South America a month ago, which is sort of how it’s felt. But now we’re on the road and looking back on our first few weeks in Peru, we … Continue reading Finding our feet in Peru
Week 4: Poiters to Toulouse The week following Poitiers felt like it went by in a strange sort of blur, to the extent that when new people we met asked us about the route we’d travelled, Chillo and I would struggle to say where we’d been and when. This is especially odd when we spend … Continue reading The kindness of strangers
Week 3: Angers to Poitiers I don't think there's a better way to start a (birthday) day's cycling than in newly-laundered clothes, freshly showered, fuelled by half a loaf of brioche (chased down by the obligatory pain au chocolat), and singing along to your favourite musicals obnoxiously loudly while bombing along a river path. But … Continue reading Birthdays, rest days and BIG cycling days
Chills and Mills 