The Greater San Fransisco Area

Continuing my quest to travel the world.

It has been my quest to cycle around the world for a very long time, although I have ticked off 16 countries to date, I still haven't achieved the ultimate goal of cycling the world. I cannot wait any longer for the conditions to be perfect, age is catching up with me, so it is now or never.

picture drawn by Jim my Step - Father on our trip across Australia

picture drawn by Jim my Step - Father on our trip across Australia
After our trip to Vietnam in 2012.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Generous Friends


The 'two gay girls' tent.
Karyn and Jane are arguably the nicest people on the planet. With planning for Niels 'Global Bike Race' speeding up, our two friends have generously gifted us some money to buy a tent. With us on such a tight budget and Niel leaving work to concentrate on training and fixing up the house, the gift of money was kindness beyond measure. Not only that, we can legitimately call them our first sponsors.

Karyn has cycle raced for many years and has done long distance events with Niel. They would be called Audax events in Europe, so she knows what Niel is capable of. Her and Jane's sponsorship shows they believe in him and his chances. Do you know how good that feels? Unbelievably good.

Niel said they could name the tent. So now it is called 'Two Gay Girls'. So that Niel can claim that he's the only competitor to sleep with 2 gay girls!!

Every competitor is given a global bike race logo in a different colour, so as they travel across the globe you can follow their colour. Niel's colour is brown. so if you want to follow him search or join the open 'Global Bike Race' site and follow his progress as the brown cyclist.

Look out for the brown cyclist.

I've been busy perfecting his route and correct amount of kilometres, so that we have dates we can give our travel agent for the bits he needs to fly. I couldn't believe it when he said : " It doesn't matter how far the distance is each day, it's not the cycling that bothers me, it's the loneliness". I couldn't believe it, because if he had to do 250 kms one day, he reckons it's no problem.  And he's such a self sufficient loner anyway, so if anyone could cope with the loneliness - he'd be the perfect candidate.

Oh to have that strength. And it makes me feel pretty special that he'd miss me that much ............
unless it's the house, sofa and chocolate he'll be missing.............. no, no I'm sure it's me. I'll miss him too terribly -  6 months is a long time to be apart, but it's a good opportunity to start my book.

I'm not sure when I'll get my next overseas cycling trip. Niel won't be able to face another trip for a while once he gets home from his global adventure. Maybe he could manage a few weeks in Vietnam at an Adi pace, surely that's not too much to ask? I'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, as part of his training,we will be Vespa/ biking  together around the South Island of NZ in January, each carrying our own gear, He can do 200 kms a day -testing out his gear, and I can zoom alongside on 'Fart  - Bottom' the Vespa. I may strap my bike on and ride back to met him from our destination - that way I get some exercise as well. It will be lovely to have that time together before he leaves for London.

The garden is just a cacophony of colour at the moment, everything is in flower [even the weeds]. There are petals everywhere. You'd think autumn is a busy time for sweeping paths of leaves, but spring means petals galore.It's a beautiful time of year for cycle touring.

Flowers everywhere.



Petals everywhere.

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