Tag: planning

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bikes european bike epic general

planning for europe

As I’ve been whiling my time away looking at accounts of bike tours, it suddenly occurred to me that my two rear panniers (Deuter Rack Pack I think they are) probably wouldn’t carry enough stuff for cycling round Europe for four months. Even if I lashed things on top of them. There would be water and food and camping gear, and maybe, just maybe, tying everything to the back of my bike would be do-able, but would not necessarily be very rideable. Lots of people seemed to have front panniers. Also, I would really need somewhere to put my camera bag. I could get a basket and tie it to the front of my bike, and put the camera bag in that. This solution wouldn’t be very waterproof though. Or dustproof. Or shakeproof. So I got all consumeriffic and started looking for things online. Then somehow managed to order everything, just like that…

So I’m soon to be the proud new owner of a small Ortlieb rackpack/duffel bag:

 

 

Ortlieb Classic Front Roller panniers:

 

 

A Tubus Tara Lowrider Front Rack Black to carry them:

 

 

And an Ortlieb Ultimate 5 Classic Bar Bag – to be padded with foam to provide a nice solid camera carrying case:

 

 

The plan is not to fill these all up, just because I’ll have the space now, but instead to have spare room available for extra things like food and water – so we don’t always have to be reliant on food shops being open, or water being where you need it. So now I have all the bits I need for cycling wherever I want. Hurrah! The most horrifying part of all of this is that my order came to about AUD$340 (with postage free) – but pricing these things at Australian shops comes to around AUD$700.

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general

the internet is a terrible place

I started off just planning to have a look for any descriptions of the Milford Track, or the Routeburn, or one of those other tracks in New Zealand that are so well known – just to get an idea what they’re each like, how long they are, and how busy they are. Then I turned up a National Geographic list of the Best! Hikes! Ever! And then I started reading about the Kungsladen in the far north of Sweden…

“In the extreme north of Sweden, a hundred miles (160 kilometers) inside the Arctic Circle, hides the last remote wilderness in Western Europe. This is Lapland, and through it runs Kungsleden, the “King of Trails,” a 275-mile (443-kilometer) route through an expansive landscape of birch forests, hidden glaciers, powerful rivers, and the highest mountains in Sweden. The sheer scale of the Kungsleden hits home when, at the end of a 16-mile (26-kilometer) day, you realize you’ve only traversed half of the undulating, glacier-carved valley that you dropped into that morning.”

And started thinking – well, that would be fun to do. And then someone mentioned the Cirque of the Unclimbables, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, with the unforgettable Lotus Flower Tower route, and I spend half an hour staring at photos and route descriptions and trip reports, pondering how I could afford to pay for a share of the charter plane to get there.

And then someone links me to the blog Up In Alaska, and I sit there reading and reading and thinking “Wow, snow biking in Alaska! That sounds like lots of fun! I should start biking in the snow more often. Maybe I can do it when it gets cold and I can’t get distracted by all these other activities there are to do in the Rockies in Summer (hiking, climbing and that sort of thing). And I could get a Pugsley! And have a fat wheel bike! I’ll fit in in somewhere between all the telemarking I want to do, and backcountry touring, and ice climbing…. So many things to do, and places to go (and the luxury to be able to choose to do the things that fascinate you – provided you can actually find the money).

Categories
canada general

places to go in toronto

As I will have a day to waste in Toronto in June, I have started compiling a list of places to go. Here it is:

Street of Death

Here we see a plaque from the street of death
 

 

Courtesy of henryjdalton, an amusing young man from the internet.

Categories
general

llama attack!

No, they’re not really llamas. As per usual, they are the vicious Australian Alpaca. I think they thought I might have food, hence the desperate hurry over to the fence to sniff at me.

My quest to find llamas may finally come to an end if I go to Chile next year. Which I might do. As well as llamas it has fjords, volcanoes, deserts and a sofa to crash on in Santiago. What more could you ask for?

Categories
general travel

the queensland plan

So my attempts to get my thesis in by the latest deadline were in vain. Having moved back the Queensland flights once already, I decided I may as well just go, and worry about the thesis again later.

Brisbane – Arrive, collect supplies
Main Range NP – Camp at Spicer’s Gap, hike
Mt French NP – Visit Frog Buttress
Border Ranges NP – Camp and listen to the bellbirds
Nimbin – Drive through with a quick stop to wander around and be amazed at all the tourist rubbish and doped out hippies
Byron Bay – Swim in the ocean, visit the lighthouse and the Eastern-most point of mainland Australia
Nightcap NP – Camp overnight, find a tick on me shortly before going to bed, generally dislike the spooky atmosphere
Lamington NP – Visit alpacas on the way up, be amazed at the windy road with all its one way sections, set up camp surrounded by brush turkeys and pademelons, do some day hikes, then an overnight hike out to Echo Point
Brisbane – Collect supplies on the way through
Nambour area – Stay overnight in relative civilisation, visit a guinea pig called Sid who lives with a harem of other guinea pigs, and a bunch of lorikeets that continually run around in the cage chasing the guinea pigs around, and out of the hollow logs lying on the ground, visit glassblowers
Great Sandy NP, Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Sands – Wander around and camp the night
Glasshouse Mountains – Hike up Ngungun, climb at Ngungun, do some hikes around the area, fail to ascend either Beerwah or Tibrogargan due to the extreme windiness, and curse the fact
Brisbane – A couple of climbs at Kangaroo Point, and catch the flight home again