30th May, 2008
Why? Why now? Why leave your jobs? Why did you choose that route? Why not backpack? Why not take a sabbatical? Why, why, why? It seems to be the first question on most people's lips once we have told them our plan. Friends and family were not very shocked that Dave and I had decided to go. Neither of us have particular conventional outlooks, but to give up our first secure jobs that we have had in a long time? To rent out our flat that we have only recently brought? Or say goodbye to our friends that we have worked so hard to make, upon settling in Dorset? "I thought you were happy? I thought you were settling down?" my mum cried.
Dave and I have always had a "big cycle adventure" planted in the back of our minds since returning five years ago from a five week cycling trip on the Camino de Santiago and around Spain and Portugal.
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Working as a Tour Leader in Peru. Waiting for Kelly to come through the Sun Gate.
Dave and I used to meet at Macchu Picchu every few weeks when our tours crossed. |
Dave and I had met whitewater rafting in Peru whilst we were both tour leaders for Explore (www.explore.co.uk). Both our Peru contracts were coming to an end, so we decided a five week cycle adventure would be the perfect opportunity for Dave and I to get to know each other a little more. I had glossed over the fact that I hadn't ridden in years, had only practised on a bike a few days before in the flat countryside just outside Cambridge and I didn't really know Dave very well. However, despite tired and sore muscles, cycling over the Pyrenees and living in a tent the entire time, my cycling and my relationship with Dave flourished. Both of us were hooked on cycle touring. We ran out of money after five weeks, otherwise I feel that we both would have continued to chase the sunset.
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Cycling through Spain; Bilbao to Malaga via the Camino de Santiago and Portugal.
Left: Kelly eating her way through Spain. |
It was October last year, whilst walking down to Chapman's Pool on the Dorset coastline that we were discussing what we should try to work towards over the next few years. We had already achieved the 4 year aim that we had set ourselves when we moved to Dorset. I had trained as a primary school teacher, and love working with the children. Dave was working as a sea survival instructor for the RNLI and together we had learnt to kayak, which we both loved. We discussed all the possibilities and pitfalls of various options - Open up our own kayak business? Move further up the career ladder? Children? Buy a house? Move abroad? Ultimately the question came up - if you could do anything in the world, what would you do?
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October, 2007. Chapman�s Pool, Dorset.
This is the day we decided to cycle the Americas
(or possibly the world!) |
Both of us came up with the same answer - to cycle. Cycle the world! And so it was agreed, we had a one year plan. October 2008 we would go. In the meantime, we needed to save as much money as we could in order to fund our adventure, cut our spending and start to think about a route, equipment and begin to prepare our families for another upheaval. When we arrived home we delved into the internet world of cycle touring and have been inspired by people's journeys, photos and self discovery ever since. After much deliberation we decided on the Argentina to Alaska route.
Over the past few months, in answer to the questions why? We have discovered that there are far more overriding reasons why we should pack our panniers and follow the road rather than stay put. Not only will it be a journey of a lifetime, but we will be raising money to help two children's charities with the aim to raise 20,000 pounds (to donate click onto www.justgiving.com/cyclingnomads). We want to look back on our lives and think, "Well at least we gave it a go." Neither of us are particularly materialistic and with events that have happened in our lives recently, we realized that you have to grab life and live it to the full before it passes you by. Money or time should never be obstacles to achieving your dream. I have been amazed at how many people have asked, "What are you going to do when you come back?" For us, if all goes to plan, we will be away for about 18 months to 2 years. We aren't going to worry too much what we will do when/if we return - our focus is upon enjoying the challenge, finding out about the countries that we will be visiting, learning Spanish (for me) and having the opportunity to meet interesting people from all over the world.
We have five months left to go. What stage are we at?
I have handed my notice in, my class and school have been informed.
The website is finally live. With no previous website experience, I have somehow managed to make this one and get it up and running. I hope that you have enjoyed visiting the site and will return again soon. I am still looking for a decent photo gallery site that we can use whilst we are away - any suggestions?
We have just booked our flights and are leaving on the 29th October 2008, London to Ushuaia via Buenos Aires. We are really excited to have Explore Worldwide Ltd on board, being supporters of our adventure and sponsoring our charities.
Bike frames have been bought. Both of us have gone for steel framed Specialized Rockhoppers, that we have purchased cheaply from Ebay. Dave has taught me how to strip the bike down and has guided me in rebuilding it, teaching me the names of all the parts of a bike. Although I have to say he has more patience than I do tweaking all the bits! I am off to take my bike for a spin for the first time later on today and must learn to use SPD shoes, which I am not looking forward to as I still have scars from the last time I tried!
If you are like Dave and interested in finding out about bike parts, then I will tell you a little more, so far we have gone for Hope hubs, Brooks saddles, Sun Rhyno Lite welded rims, Schwalbe tyres and a BOB Yak trailer (for Dave). We are yet to purchase the pannier racks and bags. We will let you know how we get on with the parts once we are on the road. If you are planning a similar adventure, feel free to contact us if you have any questions about bike parts once we are on the gravel. You can find more information about what we are taking on our Equipment Page.
Once we have all the final bits of kit arrive, we will then able to start approaching the media, schools and organizations. We are hoping to give talks to schools in September and October before we go and in return, hope that they will support us en-route and use some of our resources to learn a little bit more about the world we live in. If you have any media contacts we would love to hear from you!
We have taken a joint decision that we will have plenty of time on the road to train and build up, and don�t want to injure ourselves unnecessarily! So to that end we have decided that the training can wait until September or October and in the meantime we are concentrating our fitness on kayaking. At the end of July Dave and I, along with our friends Barbara and Ian will be kayaking 400 km following the South West Coast path. We will be starting in Weston-super-mare and finishing in Fowey, to complete the South West Coastal route that we started last year. In addition, Dave is currently learning how to kayak in a double with Barbara, once they have got their stability and strokes synchronized, they will begin training for the Eddystone race, a 40 km kayaking race taking place in Plymouth.
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Dave and Barbara will be kayaking in a Kirton Njord double kayak kindly on loan to them by Jeff Allen of Sea Kayaking Cornwall. |
We are now both off to find out about the plethora of injections that we both require...
