Cycling trip from England to Australia

Life in Australia.

2010-08-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hello all it's been a long time since I last posted anything on here but just encase someone might still check up on here I'll give a brief update on what's been going on.
I (Mohan) worked and lived in Australia for 3 months primarily in Byron Bay with my good friend Max who recently moved to Byron from England as an Australian citizen, but also worked in north Queeensland picking pineapples which was a scratchy experience...
We then flew to Asia (Singapore) to meet some of our English friends, and slowly plodded north mostly via bus but also the odd train. I travelled through some of the places I'd cycled through (krabi, johor B, Alor setar etc) which was a bit of an odd feeling, bringing back lots of good memories!
We all made our through Malaysia, Thailand and then Laos where we all went our separate ways. I stayed on, on my own as I fell in love with Laos and got a job in a bar. But got very sick and after a week of being violently ill, I recovered in a tender state and decided to book my flight back to Australia (Max had already flown back).
Now here I am back in Byron Bay with a one year working holiday VISA, the plan at the moment is to move down to Melbourne, and rent a house with two of my friends Max and Tom.
We're now working hard to get the money back up after nearly two months of Asia.
All is well though generally!!! My bike is well serviced and with me here in Byron, operating like a stallion as usual!

Just want to express how much I appreciate everyone's help and generosity for all who contributed in some way to making this cycling trip happen, because there are so many people who helped and who it would not have been possible without, whether it was in the preperation, financial side, mechanical side, and people we met on the way who made our ride a perfect one (showers, accommodation, food, routes advice ETC). We've just had favours thrown at us and it's made me feel the need to give back to the world of lovely people!

Big thank-you to our Sponsors too!

Mayo Wynne Baxter solicitors

Gossypium fairtrade clothing
www.gossypium.co.uk

Terre à Terre one of Brightons leading restaurants

Fireworks paint your own pottery - Lewes

And lastly a big thank you to The British Red Cross www.redcross.org.uk

You can see our Donation page with the amount we've raised for the Red Cross on:

www.justgiving.com/cycle2australia

BIG LOVE TO ALL!

Max's car all packed with our stuff ready to leave Byron and head north in search of fruit picking work to fund our already booked one way ticket to Asia holiday

Beautiful afternoon views as we drove north to Queensland from New South Wales

Stuck in the mud! - We got caught in some sloppy grass while looking for a wild campspot
Max trying to get us out by wedging some carpet underneath the muddy wheel

Camping wild on our first stop on the drive after eventually getting out our ditch

Hervy Bay beach!

South Thailand to Singapore!

2010-04-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

After a good finish of Thailand and a massive last dose of noodle soup, we crossed the border into Malaysia!
Quite a noticable change in culture and general scenery. The most prominant was the large number of muslims in Malaysia.
The (roadside) food is also quite different, in Thailand we were mainly living off sasuages, and bbq'd meat and noodle soup, which is all very cheap. But here it's also roughly the same price but our main meals consist of a plate of rice and decent serving of good quality free range chicken! (together costs about 60p for a meal!).
We've powered ourselves off fruit a lot of the time, as it is a good, cheap, VERY tasty and efficient and broadly available way of getting places quickly. A common lunch time meal we have is a large amount of fruit such as 3kg of mango's or a big pineapple each, which have seemed to be the most effective way to get good energy.
We have also been drinking about a litre of soya milk each per day as it is cheap, and is avaible EVERYWHERE here. And it's a good source of protein.

We had a LOT of headwinds in south Thailand and north Malaysia, and they made it quite tough for us at times, not so much physically, but more psychologically, they demotivate you and make goals seem less achievable and generally make you feel a bit low, but it was always only a short term thing when it happened! You forget all about it when you get rewarded with amazing views and fruits etc.The west-to-east road was probably the toughest leg of Malaysia, while we were doing that bit it was the hottest weather, and this road crosses the tough Malaysian mountain range which is carried south from Thailand (which we'd already gone over in Thailand when we came from east to west). And also another big challenge was the fact that this area is so desolate. There are very few villiages (or even ANY houses) on the west-to-east road and we having to carefully plan our supplies of food and water.
We have been doing a lot of jungle camping and what can i say... its pretty sweaty.
My (Mohan) synthetic antarctica sleeping bag wasnt really designed for the Malaysian jungle, and i found when I lay on it it would be a big sponge of sweat after 10 min.
But we have acclimatised to the conditions as much as our genetics will take us I think, we always sweat in the tent when we sleep but it's lessened and we have learnt to deal with it.
After the long west to east cycle, we followed the "no.3" road all the way down the east coast of Malaysia to Singapore!
This road was very nice, and we had plently of good swims in the sea and we were also occasionally blessed with a tailwind after all the headwinds we were suffering up north.
It went reasonably smoothly, the main low points (which we're laughing over now but were pretty tough at the time), were all tent-related.
We got caught in a storm one night and ended up sleeping in a cafe entrance without the tent - which was a big mistake as we got completely eaten by various tropical and hungry insects - mainly mosquitos! and we were too hot to cover ourselves with our sleeping bags to stop them!
The worst experience we had was when we camped on the beach and there was a HUGE storm which started at midnight. Huge puddles formed in the tent and we decided it was the right move to retreat to the only bit of shelter which was the beach hotel we were camped near, in their terraced reception. We took our valuables which we didnt want to get wet and a few bits like a towel each and ran to the reception in our boxers which was about 200m away. We got SOAKED, and then were welcomed by a HUGE swarm of hungry mosquitos.
They tucked in well and we soon were stuck on what to do, we were determined to not pay the 7 quid each for a room and make it to the morning. We hung around helplessly trying to fight mosquitos for about 2 hours and then the rain finally reduced to light showers, and we decided to retreat to the wet, but insect free tent.
We poured the swimming pool of water mostly out the tent and the rest just at the foot of the tent so only our feet got soaked, and we put lots of layers down to absorb the water and lie down.
I pulled out my battery powered speakers which my sister got me for my birthday (thankyou!) and plugged in the mp3 player to try and make us at least a bit happier.
Unexpectedly we both managed to get a couple of hours sleep!
We got up early the next day and left the scene we never wanted to return to after a night of torture!
We had an amazing breakfast at a roadside restaurant about 20km away and that lifted our spirits and we actually ended up doing an alright distance!
If you've followed our route on the map, you will see that we've zig-zagged around a bit, this IS for a reason. We were lucky enough to meet someone in bangkok who'd cycled all around the Malaysia/Thailand area many-a-time and he advised us on our route, aparently south-east Thailand (the coast) is very built up and not a pleasant cycle, and the west on the other hand is beautiful, and the east coast of Malaysia has big, deserted beautiful beaches with cycle-perfect quiet roads. Which we all found to be true. It was definately a wise move!
I took a photo of his 1985 map which had his drawings of good routes highlighted on my camera before we left, and we enlarged the photo, and printed it off at a net cafe in colour so saved buying a map of Malaysia and it worked well!! Only a few things have changed...
So from now, we are going to stay in Singapore til the 7th in the VERY KIND hospitality of Jo & Chris Harrison - Finns stepdads sister and family.
Finn will be flying back to England where he will work for the summer and then head to Manchester Uni, and I will fly to Australia to look around and decide what path I'm going to take in life from here!

Some photos! -

jungle river

snoozing buffalos

a big, dead snake

beautiful sunsut

sunset on road

beautiful jungle hills

The beasts we had to cycle over in the distance!

a muddy jungle river

more hills

a nice road

bridge

finn and our beautiful bike

storm clouds forming!

A big jungle ant claiming his dinner..

nice big armoured thing

where we camped one night when we anticipated a storm (under shelter).

My eye infection which is now better (I got it checked out and given medicine FREE, due to a friendly Malaysian Doc)

Sunrise!

Beautiful.

Our bikes having a rest and admiring the view

A perfect midday energy booster (3kg of amazing mangos)

A nice, deserted beach we camped on - east coast of Malaysia.

The sketchy bridge we had to cross over after the storm we were caught in on the beach - you can see the high water levels!

cycling on low tide sand

Our bikes perched waiting for us to finish a midday dip.

under cover in some nasty rain we had earlier today!!

bangkok to krabi thailand so far

2010-03-16T06:56:00.000-07:00

our view from the jungle hut we stayed in by the lake.

our first snake in thailand

mohan overtaking an elephant.

the view of the jungle from the top of a nasty hill.

cycling past a beach near chumpon

morning time as the sun clears the mist.

us with the children at yaowawit school

We have made it to Krabi a nice town in southern thailand. The cycling has been at times a real struggle because of the heat. We recently found out why its been sooo hot.... its summer in thailand! Therefore weve been adopting new tactics such as getting up really early, cycling all morning until around 12.30pm when it gets to about 38degrees!!! Then sitting in the shade and eating until 3.30 when it starts to cool down. Then cycling until around 6.30 when it gets dark. With this new strategy we have been managing to cover around 120 kilometres a day. Weve had a few amazing nights in random places in the jungle such as last night, where we ended up in Yaowawit school of hospitality in kapong. It is an amazing place, a school for orphaned children who are educated there, european football coaches go there to teach the children and all the staff are volunteers. It was incredible as we were just about to camp when we decided to check out the strange sign for a lodge, an hour later we were in a luxury room, and were meeting loads of orphaned children. Its a non profit organisation and all the profit goes to the children at the school. Their website is www.yaowawit.com , they have an amazing hotel and restuarant in the centre of the school, i recommend it to anyone, and the jungle views are amazing. We were very unenthusiastic when we left them this morning but after a hard mountainous cycle weve made it to krabi. The thai roads are perfect so far not a pot hole in sight, weve been flying along, if it wasnt for the heat we would probably be in singapore already. We are heading towards the border now not far to go!!!!

Blood, sweat and sore gooches - The beginning of the cycle from Bangkok to Singapore.

2010-03-09T03:53:00.000-08:00

We have started the wonderful cycle from Bangkok to Singapore.
We started off central Bangkok at about 8.am
The plan(ish) was to cycle out of Bangkok using a 3 page google map printout, which had the directions for us to get out of the city and onto the road which leads us to our next desired town, which our map of thailand shows (we don't have a map of Bangkok - only the whole of Thailand).
However, we ran into a problem (as you do). We'd assumed the road out would be small enough for bicycles to be permitted to use. But we were wrong. Traffic police shouted and whistled at us as we tried to get through the toll gates which led us onto the main road.
So then we were back to square one, but without the time of the night before to plan our route...
We decided to TRY to use our map... after about 1 to 2 hours of hopelessness - asking taxi drivers who pointed us in what we thought was the right direction until we followed it and got pointed in another direction by the next taxi driver, we decided to get the train to the next stop out of the city.
BUT this wasn't as easy as it sounded when we said it. We then had to find the train staion of course!
But luckily we were about 1 km away and we were given correct directions.
So we got the train to the next stop in that direction which was Phetchaburi, which was a really nice town! Nice people, nice scenery and no traffic or pollution.
After a couple of days of nice cycling now, we're in a town called prachuap khiri khan. Which is pretty nice.
On the first days cycling we did 60km to a nice town called Cha-am and then followed it by a 100km cycle to this town! We've had moderate headwinds on both days which isn't great as our legs are still re-adjusting to the cycling, after our break, but the roads are brilliantly smooth, and I have a new front wheel which I got in bangkok to replace my tractor wheel I picked up in India to replace my broken one. So now I have a new hub with new smooth bearing which makes it a lot easier to cycle! Finn also got a new front pannier rack, because it broke, and he was using it, bungee-corded to his handlebars. Mine is in a ridiculous state but the bodge should hold, I dont' think it's worth paying for a new one. But the wheel was important, because I couldnt even brake properly because the Indian rim was so wide it JUST fitted in between my brake pads, with about 1mm of leeway to use or not use the brakes.

Anyway on the whole, we're both happy to be back on the road and are enjoying the smooth roads, and jungle views and happy thai people, as we continue south, powered by the cheap roadside food of noodle soup with veg and meat.
Give it a week and hopefully we'll have adjusted to the intense heat here. After a days cycle we feel sandy from all the salt on our skin from the evaporated sweat (and yes dont worry we're eating lots of salty food to replace it).

We've already got a few good pics, but will upload them on the next post.
Hope you're managing to stay warm in England! ;)

We have been kindly sponsored and supported by:

Mayo Wynne Baxter
http://www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk/o.uk
01273 477071
Mayo Wynne Baxter is one of the leading law firms in the South East with offices throughout Sussex.
&

Gossypium is a leading brand in Fairtrade-certified organic cotton fashion:
All our products are Fairtrade & organic - we're the real thing
We only use good quality cotton; organic, pure & strong
We are responsible for how our products are made
The eco-system & environment are never far from our thoughts
We're independent: working together as a family - in business
www.gossypium.co.uk
&

(click image to expand)
&
Located in the south lanes close to the seafront Terre à Terre is one of Brighton's leading restaurants and continuously retaining the prestigious AA Two Rosettes and Michelin: ” Bib Gourmand” awards.
www.terreaterre.co.uk

from chennai to thailand via andaman islands

2010-02-10T01:43:00.000-08:00

we are now on the andaman and nicobar islands. Had a very interesting boat journey from chennai. Was three days long and we decided to save money and get bunk tickets.... possibly worst idea of the trip. The ship was massive and stuffed full of people, the bunks were at the bottom of the ship, really reminded me of titanic with the first class bunks at the top and the cheapest bunks in the disgusting hold of the ship. I (Finn) got ill after a day or so, this was mainly due to sleeping in the bunks. Cockroaches everywhere, no air con and because its the bottom of the ship no air really gets down there, we were sleeping with maybe a hundred indians in our room, rows and rows of bunks with no privacy at all. After 3 days it stunk! lots of the indians lived off grapes for the three days and they dried them out on the bunks so after 3 days they were mouldy, rotting and covered in insects!!
But all this has made the Andaman islands all the more amazing and spectacular. we were planning to hitch a lift with a cargo ship or a private boat of some kind to thailand. But we discovered that the only boats going from the islands to thailand were small private yachts. We tried in Port Blair to find a suitable boat but most of them were too small and didnt want to cram us in their boat. We were advised to go to Havelock island, because most the private yacht owners anchor their yachts there, because it's meant to be the nicest. we spent a week on Havelock island (paradise island) lying on the beach snorkling the coral reefs and relaxing in hammocks! Was very rewarding after our ordeal on the boat from Chennai. We asked ALL the yacht owners in Havelock, by lying on the beach next to their dinghy boats which they use to get to their yachts which are quite far out from the land, and when we saw anyone getting in a dinghy we asked if they were willing to take us on. Most were not going to Thailand, but those who were didn't have a big enough boat, plus probably couldn't be bothered to take us on because it's not exactly a touch on the romantic mood having us with them (a lot of couples were sailing). We even braved it and swam to a couple of yachts, because we didnt catch a them off their boat at all. So eventually with no luck, we reluctantly decided to book a flight to bangkok. We are now flying tomorrow from Port Blair and are planning on spending a few weeks on one of the small islands off thailand before cycling from Bangkok to Singapore. This route is approximately 2000km long by main road according to google maps, but will probably end up at 3,000 for us as we will be on the smaller roads which are nicer but more zig-zaggy and have more hills. We have heard a lot (positive things) about the roads from Bangkok to Singapore and are both looking forward to it!!! Hopefully our legs will remember how to cycle. We are hoping to arrive in australia around mid April, but that is an estimation.

We will update the blog once again with pictures from thailand, we are all very sad to be leaving india and will be waggling our heads at everyone we meet in thailand.

A few pics and the end of Goa.

2010-01-18T04:04:00.000-08:00

We are now in Chennai. It's a big crowded city, parallel to Goa but on the east coast instead of west.
We met my (Mohan) sister in Goa who is going to stick with us for the boat trips from here to the Andaman islands and finally to Thailand when she will fly off, and we will cycle on.
We got an internal flight from Goa to Chennai which costed us 50 quid. The next boat from Chennai to the islands is on the 22nd and we have been spending our time here getting our Thai visas (which we collect tomorrow) and getting our tickets for the boat which is a lot harder than it sounds here.
The boat takes 3 days to get to Port blair (the major town of the Andaman islands), and we've been told it's going to be pretty grimey. And of course we got the lowest class. Good times.

The plan from there is to enjoy the islands for a little, maybe try and hire a bike for Myvany (my sister) and go on a little mission around the small islands and then we're going to try and hitch a ride on a cargo ship or something similar to take us to Thailand, because there are no public boats which go from the islands to Thailand. We're not just doing this blindly - we've heard of people who have managed to do this in the past, so fingers crossed.

Here are a few pictures, as we havent put any up for quite a while!

Bengal tiger!

Some nice locals we met when we were pitching our tent next to the below pic.

This was the next morning after camping, there was morning mist on the river and a beautiful sunrise!

A road safety sign on the road from Mumbai to Goa which made us laugh.
Very true though.

The 3 lads at the beach in Goa!

Anjuna beach, Goa.

Palolem beach, south Goa.

Palolem sea. View from a little wooden boat we were on which took us to a local mini island.

Anyway, all is well generally! We will update again when we get to the islands and fill you in on the gory details of the boat trip.

Goa.

2009-12-29T23:50:00.000-08:00

We made it to Goa around 2 weeks ago, and have spent time off our bikes, enjoying the beaches, meeting new people and relaxing.
Our plan is to stay here until after new years, and then head for Chennai, on the east coast to get the boat to the Andaman islands around the 5th of Jan. From there we will get our Thai visa's, get the boat to the islands, and try and hitch a ride to Thailand.
There are no public boats which go from the islands to Thailand, but a lot of regular cargo goods ships etc. We met a cycle tourer in Istanbul who's friend had done this ok, by just throwing the people a few hundred rupees so we will see.
Goa is not really like India, it's more a western county plodded in India. Everything is different, there's LOADS of tourists maybe around half the people within Goa aren't Indian. We've been enjoying being able to talk to people, as 99% of the people here can speak English, which is a huge change from all the countries we've spent the last 4 months in.
Apart from that, not much to report, we've got some decent pictures, which we'll be uploading on here in a couple of days when we come to the netcaf with our cameras.

Heard about the snow in the UK. Seems mad to think that it could be snowing somewhere.. we spent xmas day lying on the beach which felt a bit weird, but no complaints!

Happy Christmas people!

India continues

2009-12-05T01:37:00.000-08:00

we are now in the town of sawai metaphur. the roads have been horrendous mostly so far so has been really slow going. lots of pot holes and tracks. our bikes have been feeling the strain and moes front rim which was old when we left england, has finally bent. so we had to buy an indian front rim... about 4 inches thick, made of steel so super heavy. its hilarious but very strong built to withstand the pot holes of india. However roads did get better as we went further south, and we finally reached ranthambore national park. It is amazing here the landscape is incredible. we went on a safari a couple of days ago and out of sheer luck saw two wild benghal tigers only 15ft away from us!! so amazing got lots of cool pictures. As the roads are ridiculously bad hear and we wont be able to get to Mumbai for another 2 months at this rate we have decided to get a train. we are planning to get to Mumbai and then cycle down to goa and then to chennai. hopefuly the roads will be better down south and we will be able to actually cover distance without destroying our bikes. However we will have to face the 24 hour train journey with our bikes in the luggage appartment, it should be very stressful. We also stumbled across the maharajas palace whilst cycling to this national park. the hotel is called banwar villas in karauli and is probably the best hotel ive ever stayed in! We met the princess who kindly treated us to free meals and a massive discount on the price of rooms. The staff were all amazingly kind and i will definately be returning. the website is www.karauli.com and i definately recommend everyone should go there. The town of karauli is lovely we visited the local temple and experienced the intense hindu ceremony. Another cool place we stayed at on our way a cool little hindu temple near karaugon. the hindu monk raguberdas let us stay there and fed us. Everyone here is very kind and we have been treated well everywhere we go.
Sorry we havnt been updating the blog regularly their are very few computer caffes around this area and most of the computers dont actually work. But hopefuly when were down south their will be more computers and better roads!

The end of Turkey and The beginning of India.

2009-11-12T00:44:00.000-08:00

We have been kindly sponsored and supported by:

Mayo Wynne Baxter

www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk

01273 477071

Mayo Wynne Baxter is one of the leading law firms
in the South East with offices throughout Sussex.

Gossypium is a leading brand in Fairtrade-certified organic cotton fashion:

All our products are Fairtrade & organic - we're the real thing
We only use good quality cotton; organic, pure & strong
We are responsible for how our products are made
The eco-system & environment are never far from our thoughts
We're independent: working together as a family - in business

www.gossypium.co.uk

(click image to expand)

Located in the south lanes close to the seafront Terre à Terre is one of Brighton's leading
restaurants and continuously retaining the prestigious AA Two Rosettes and Michelin: ” Bib Gourmand” awards.

www.terreaterre.co.uk

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPONSOR US, YOU STILL CAN!

We are obviously trying to raise as much money as possible for the Red Cross, and the default sponsorship donation goes 50/50 for the Red Cross and towards the costs of the trip (Visas, Food, Internet Cafes, Maps etc). We are budgeting as much as possible but it is still difficult to keep the costs down because we cannot control the majority of our spending which is not on food or any other variable but on things like VISAS (It costs £95 for Iranian VISA alone) and maps and unexpected repairs such as my front pannier rack which has given way. Any excess sponsorship cost covering money will go to the Red Cross once we have finished the trip if there is any too.
If you would still like to sponsor us you can by:

Emailing me the amount you have sponsored us, your name, and the amount you want to go to the Red Cross and amount you want to put towards covering the costs of the trip, if any.
The bank account I have set up for the sponsorship money is:

Nationwide
Mr Mohan Everett
account no: 72433983
sort code: 07 00 30

You can pay money into that bank account via phone banking, online banking, cash (in bank) or by cheque.
I'm set up with online banking and will be basing my budgets and checking balance/transferring money with it throughout the whole trip, whenever I'm near a computer.

You can also pay via Paypal to:
Moohan13@gmail.com

Thankyou!

Blog update:

We are now in India!
There's a lot to mention since we last updated... I dont know where to start.
Firstly from Turkey. We had to pinball around a bit in order to get our Indian VISAs. We had to buy a letter of recommendation from the brit consulate for 70 quid. And then wait around for our visas to process, meanwhile we were fishing around for flights on phone, finding out different airlines policy on bicycles and excess baggage etc as this, alongside the actual flying price is the main thing really, as most airlines were charging about 30 euro per extra kg of luggage over 20kg which is a big prob for us.
Anyway, we got a good deal with emirates in the end, with 37kg of free allowance, so just stripped our stuff down which maybe was a good thing anyway. And booked our flights as soon as our VISA processed (7 days). We got the flight cheap and last minute which was a result, and flew to Delhi!
As we were waiting around for our VISAs I spoke to a friend in England. Miguel who had been checking our blog etc and wanted to join in from Delhi til somewhere in Thailand, going back alone when he felt like it.
Me and Finn thought it would be sweet, but we were flying to Delhi in about a week from when we were speaking, and asked him how it would work, seeing as he didnt even have a bicycle etc!
I half didnt think he was being serious but this changed as he desperately started asking me stuff about kit, jabs, malaria tabs, insurance etcccc.
So two days after we arrived in Delhi, he joins in, with a good bike and full kit! He must of had had a manic week...
As me and Finn were waiting, in Istanbul, we were speaking to Thomas (management of Gossypium), and filled him in on what we were up to.
Then, out the blue, told us he would treat us to our first night in Delhi, at Ashok country resort, a luxurious hotel in Delhi as a welcome present to India from Gossypium!
Me and Finn were very chuffed and grateful as you would be!
We jumped on our plane, had a 17 hour wait at dubai for our connection which was grim, but we didnt really care as we knew we had this to look forward to.
We had a couple of hours sleep on the airport marbel floor (in our shorts brrrr)
And the time of our flight eventually did come.
We enjoyed the comfort of the plane and got picked up in Delhi at 8pm by the hotel driver, our bicycles coming out the other end (practically) markless, which was a relief.
We then got to the hotel and were told that not only had Gossypium paid for our room, but also a dinner and breakfast!
We were the happiest of happy. And enjoyed a lovely, hefty meal which sent us straight to bed...
Next day we swam, ate an amazing breakfast, and set our minds on getting our first day done....
This stalled completely when we went to set our bikes up - we had to repump our tyres as they had been deflated (as a requirement of bringing them on the plane) and found that BOTH our pumps broke at the same time, completely unprovoked, just didnt work anymore when we tried them (valve attatchment was messed up on mine, and the connecting tube on Finns had split).
The hotel didnt have a pump so we ended up taking our wheels off, getting a lift with the friendly hotel staff to a tyre pumping station about 1km away.
By the time we were on the road it was late afternoon, and this was our first introduction to Indian traffic.
As the hotel was a bit out of the main town area of Delhi, we had about a 35 km cycle to the main bit again, and we made plans to adjust a bit, while waiting in a cheap hotel near to the airport, waiting for Miguel.
When Miguel arrived, we stayed another night there to allow him to recover from the time difference and flight, and then set off, towards Agra.
We started off slow to allow Miguels legs to adjust, and for all of us to adjust to the different culture and way of cycling. And how to deal with the MASSES of people who bombard you, trying to speak to you, taking pictures of you etc. This makes us feel like celebrities/freakshows. Most the people out of the main towns seem to have never seen a brit or something.
They're all very curious and want to speak to you etc, which is nice, but it has quickly lost its novelty as we ended up covering hardly any distance, and ended up speaking more than cycling.
One of our favourite things about this amazing place is our 'pit stops' - chai men every few hundred metres haha. We LOVE indian chai, and it is the perfect energy booster, and tastes amazing. And costs around 4p a cup which is a bonus.
The road conditions are nothing but mad.
Sometimes it has been like cycling on a a road full of rubble, sometimes it has been like a european road (rarely). So this is another 'obstacle' of cycling here. But even though the place is absolutely MAD in some ways, once you adjust to it, its calmer than european traffic. Everyone spends about as much time not beeping as they do beeping, which at first gets on your nerves, but we soon learnt the difference in meaning between English beeping ''you f**cking twat! get off the road!!!'' and here, where it's ''I'm here, and I'm overtaking you, so dont randomly jerk out to the right and bash into me please''.
After lots of mad times, meeting loooads of friendly people, sleeping in the courtyard of a hindu church (with permission) and sharing our cooked dinner on our now working stove, we are in Agra.
We went to see the Taj Mahal yesterday, which was amazing. And we bought a nice, loose, cotton indian-president (apparently) style suit each.
We look pretty funny to be honest, but it had to be done. And its soooo comfy. We wore them to the Taj, and got indians coming to us and asking to get pics of us haha.
Anyway, the story on the whole is... lovely country, lovely people, perfect weather, dodgy roads but just about cyclable on (so far), and operating day to day on far below our budget!
Miguel brought the latest edition of the India lonelyplanet guide which was a good move, and we have partially planned our route around this.
We're thinking of heading towards bombay from here, though we're not sure if we actually want to pass through it, because all it means is lots of traffic, beggars and pollution.
But thats our rough direction from here (south-west), and we will head south from the down the coast. Then we are thinking of heading east, towards channai, where we are going to give hitching a boat to the Andaman islands a shot, and then to Thailand from there, as we spoke to a cyclist in Istanbul whose friend had done this with ease. But we will see, at the moment we're soaking in the difference in culture and enjoying this amazing country.

START FROM TOP TO BOTTOM AND CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE.

Me trying to get some kip in Dubai airport

Cheeky monkeys

Miguel explaining his gears on his bicycle to the indians.

The people who we befriended while we stopped for chai at their stall

Cute elephant!

Miguel after his first day cycling, struggling to stay awake during dinner.

Some nice kid we met at a chai stall...

Camel! They're so big here!

Egg man!!

The decorators we made friends with at the hindu church where we camped one night.

Setting up camp in the grounds of the church.

They swapped belts haha.

Their brothers (the next morning)

Us outside the hindu church with their youngers.

One of many thousand chai man!

The Taj Mahal!

Beautiful.

The tomb of the emperors wife (If you know about the Taj you will know what I'm on about)

Finn, me, Miguel and some random people who wanted a pic with us, in the grounds of the Taj Mahal. In our legendary Indian cotton suits!

Pictures from Finns camera

2009-11-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

We have been kindly sponsored and supported by:

Mayo Wynne Baxter

www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk

01273 477071

Mayo Wynne Baxter is one of the leading law firms
in the South East with offices throughout Sussex.

Gossypium is a leading brand in Fairtrade-certified organic cotton fashion:

All our products are Fairtrade & organic - we're the real thing
We only use good quality cotton; organic, pure & strong
We are responsible for how our products are made
The eco-system & environment are never far from our thoughts
We're independent: working together as a family - in business

www.gossypium.co.uk

(click image to expand)

www.terreaterre.co.uk

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPONSOR US, YOU STILL CAN!

After we had recoverd from our horrible cycle we had finally dried most of our clothes and shoes. We were back on the road very hilly but amazing views.

The abandoned caffe we sheltered in for 1 day and night in Ioannina. This was just before we cycled in the rain with no food up a mountain away from any towns or shelter or food haha.

Exhausted after a long cycle uphill in the heat.

One of the many preying mantis we narrowly missed squashing as we cycled through greece.
A wild dog pup who looked exactly like a wolf, and was living with a herd of sheep on the mountain side.
One of the many amazing views we witnessed as we cycled up and down the amazıng moutains of greece.
The view from our campsite of the mountins ahead.

The next morning we were both a bit ill and very tired. Insects everywhere and this enourmas spider was one of the animals we found as we dryed out our stuff.

The next day we left Nicola and John and headed north, the weather got bad quickly and this was the result. We were caught in a thunder storm and our tent was tested. It definately failed and within minutes the floor was one big puddle. Everything was soaked including sleeping bags and i definately had the worst sleep of my life. This picture shows our attempts to stop the rain and we had to wake up repeatedly and take it in turns to empty the pot outside haha.

Our private beach was lovely and we enjoyed snorkling here.
Our firs proper day in greece and we met Nıcola and John from the lake district. They had cycled here through the northern route of Romania, Albania ect. They are wicked was so good to meet other english people after so long. We traded books, and spent the night on this small beach.
An amazıng beach in a small town we went through.
Back on the road whith our repaid bikes. The scenery is amazıng as we approach the most south east point of italy.
Thıs was after my collision with a car in the town of Bali. My front wheel was completely bent and we attempted to fix it using the spoke tool. But after about 20mins of trying to bend the rim back into shape we decided i would need a new wheel. We pushed the bike into town and eventually after some very enthusiastic directions from a group of italian guys. We found a small bike shop which didnt look very useful. The shop was more of a museum. The owner had no spare parts only tools, and the walls were lined with pictures of him winning bicycle compatitions. It was amazing, he took my broken wheel inside and we watched as he speedily flew the wheel round and adjusted spokes like a true master. He bent the rim back into shape and in about 2 minutes my unfixable wheel was better than it had ever been. Anyway this picture is what the mechanic did to moes broken front rack. The rack is now super strong and although it looks a bit dodgy, the bit of metal he put in has saved us another lot of money. He charged us 10 euro for the lot which saved my about 60 euro for a new wheel.
This was an amazing sunrise from the roadside. We had woken up especially early because of our slightly dodgy camping spot ın a restuarant lawn. But had a wicked early morning cycle and covered a lot of miles towards greece.
One of our many afternoon lunch swims. The beaches were amazıng and kept getting better as we went further south.

Amazıng views as we cycled down the Italian coast. The scenery just kept getting better the further south we went. This was taken from a brıdge crossing one of the many small rivers that join the sea.

Gradually as we woke up more and more fisherman appeard until we were surrounded by them. I didnt see any of them catch anything though.
Waking up to find a new nabour the local fisherman who was probably fishing from about 3am. He carried on until we left at about 10.30am. He didnt seem to notice us sleeping in the middle of the beach.

Pictures from Mohans camera.

2009-11-08T01:05:00.000-08:00

We have been kindly sponsored and supported by:

Mayo Wynne Baxter

www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk

01273 477071

Mayo Wynne Baxter is one of the leading law firms
in the South East with offices throughout Sussex.

Gossypium is a leading brand in Fairtrade-certified organic cotton fashion:

All our products are Fairtrade & organic - we're the real thing
We only use good quality cotton; organic, pure & strong
We are responsible for how our products are made
The eco-system & environment are never far from our thoughts
We're independent: working together as a family - in business

www.gossypium.co.uk

(click image to expand)

www.terreaterre.co.uk

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPONSOR US, YOU STILL CAN!

Fresh fish stall! This sold cheap fish which was caught by fishermen who were all on the big bridge of istanbul about 100m from here!

The DIAMOND of a man we met in Istanbul!!
We were on a search for a new O-ring for our stove (after a tip off that we could get them in Istanbul, from Friedel who commented our last post - thankyou!) This man went around loads of shops in istanbul with us for about half an hour trying to find an O ring that fitted our stoves piston! The last place we tried had the right fitting for our piston-case but not the right size hole to clip onto the piston itself. So the man cut a smaller one to the right size with a scalpal blade. He did this 3 times so we had spares and didnt charge us!

Finn getting his hair cut by a LEGENDARY Turkish barber! He left a tail on the end of his head til right at the end of his hair cut and convinced finn that he would leave it! Haha! He also left that big tuft on the front of his head for most of it... It was so cheap! Cost us about the equivalent of £1.75!!!

Our stove broke after we had bought about 3 days worth of stove cooking food, so we had a feast when we got this baby started! Tea, pasta and rice for everyone.

A fire in the Turkish woods.

Cute laughing little stray kıtten. It scrounged lots of cheese off us.

The hut of gloom. We slept here for 3 nights during a 3 day storm it was GRIM. Bad but funny memories.

A view from a greek mountain we cycled up. (Yes that is a motorway down there).

If that hut had a roof we probably would have slept in it...

A translucent mist covering the beautiful Greek countryside we were cycling over/past.

A roadside snack of pineapple..

haha.

Another hut we slept in...

Close up of our bodget made hut.

The hut from a distance.

One of our home which we slept in, in the Greek mountains. It was a skeleton of a hut. So we fastened our groundsheets, tent waterproofing, and polythene lining sheets on the walls to reduce the wind and potential rain. It was a cold nights sleep because we were pretty high up, but I was fine because of my beautiful Snugpak sleeping bag... Finn was not so lucky even though he slept in all his clothes, my jumper, his sleeping bag and my bivvy bag.

This picture has more to it than you can see-
We were caught in some light rain which started to develop as we set up our tent. This worried us but it wasnt heavy enough to penetrate our easily water permable tent. However, in the morning after a good sleep the rain started to get very strong and the clouds were very dark. We quickly packed it away and cycled off set to the nearest bit of half decent shelter to eat breakfast in and wait to see if the rain would reduce.
We found a big sheltered terrace type thing which was part of the restaurant we were sitting outside. The place was being refurbished and as it was a sunday the builders were not there.
We sat under it eating a nice breakfast of choc spread on a mashed up loaf of bread (it had been stuffed in one of our panniers for a couple of days) and had multiple cups of tea. And cocoa.
The rain carried on and on... and it was far too heavy to cycle in. As the evening came and still no sign of the rain reducing, we decided we would stay there. We spent the evening deciding on what we would do the next morning if the rain was still the same as we didnt want to stay there and also the builders would probably continue their job on the restaurant. We decided that we would cycle and so we made sure all our stuff was double waterproofed - we wrapped our clothes in our groundsheets in our panniers etc.
We then slept in our usual sleeping gear but without the tent, and got up at 5.am. Ate a breakfast of just plain rice and mentally prepped ourselves for the big cycle. It was absolutely grim weather! Torrential rain with lots of fog. We decided we would just wear our shorts and a t shirt because we could power as fast as we could to keep ourselves warm and it would mean we would keep most our clothes warm. We also had a mountain to cycle up so thought that it would be ok seeing as we'd be powering uphill.
We made two wally mistakes.
The first was that we didnt waterproof our shoes! and the second was that we actually went ahead with this not thinking that mountains are not all uphill - there is a downhill on the other side. So we powered it up the mountain and got SOAKED. We then came flying down the other side absolutely FREEZİNG! We had to stop every 300m or so to do star jumps because we felt dangerously cold. It is the coldest I reckon I've ever been! Not good! We then saw a sign saying the next town was 10km away ...nooo!
We both agreed we didnt think our bodies would take us that far in their current condition let alone mentally. So we eventually found a house with a garage which didnt have door which we rolled into and got out all our wet clothes. Dried ourselves with our towels and got into our dry warm clothes and sleeping bags desperately trying to warm up.
The fact we were both starving did not help and we had no food and had used the last of our petrol in the stove cooking our rice which we ate for breakfast!
We made a lot of BIG mistakes in quite a few areas! But we learnt from it.... the hard way.
This photo is Finn pouring the water out his shoe when we were in the Garage after we had warmed up and the rain had cleared!!! And we went (cycling in flip flops and socks because our shoes were soaked) and found a petrol station soon after which sold biscuits which took us to the next town.

Our temporary home with the lovely view.

The night after the storm we found this and the sky was cloudy so we slept here to avoid the same thing happening before we had been fully recovered. It turns out it did not rain at all but the hut was a lovely nights sleep and meant no fiddling with assembling tents and less packing!
A tramps paradise!

After the worst nights sleep of the trip to date.
-After a strong storm which lasted all night and soaked the whole tent. It was like a little crap cold swimming pool all night. Both of our sleeping bags were soaked through and we struggled to stay warm. It was like sleeping in a big wet sponge. We both felt very crap the next day, but at least it was sunny, or we would have been baaad! This pic shows us drying all our kit the next morning!

My beautiful bike on the Greek beach.

Finn having a very blue swim.

Finn with Nic and Jon.

Having a swim and snorkle (taken by the brits we met)
On a little secluded beach ın Igoumenitsa where we camped with the English cyclists Jon and Nic.

Treating the upper body a bit!

Chin ups on the ferry from Italy to Greece!

Nice view as we came down the other side and went through an olive tree forest.

The hills coming closer

Mountains in the distance!

Sunrise (from where we woke up) After a night without the tent.

Cloud of mosquitos

Nice view as we walked over a bridge in İtaly

Finn using the very low cashpoint.

Kilo of pasta! :)

Swim

Italian beach in the morning.

Our veggie dinner in Italy. We got it from a roadside stall.

Cold Istanbul.

2009-11-01T22:17:00.001-08:00

We are now fınally ın Istanbul!
Fırst thıng to report really ıs the temperature!! Its FREEZING!
It was 2 degrees C at 15.30 when we arrıved here 2 days ago!!! mad.
It ıs now around 7 C and ıt ıs 8.20am here.
Despıte beıng cold ıt ıs really nıce here ıt ıs SO dıfferent to Europe already!
We have already been hassled to buy chaı tea too many tımes and a man ınsısted on cleanıng Fınns shoes whıch he refused haha.
We arrıved here two days ago and the sıtuatıon was raın dark cold etc.... We made for the nearest (I say nearest but we ended up pushıng our bıkes about 4km) Hotel whıch was cheap ısh. As there was and ıs NOWHERE to camp as you may be able to ımagıne ın a cıty as bıg as Istanbul.
It was also peeıng ıt down as a bonus whıch we were eager to avoıd havıng been soaked ın the tent the prevıous nıght and havıng to get out of the tent ınto the ıntense wınd to put pegs back ın whıch had been yanked out by the wınd.
So we found a cheap crap hotel happıly and crashed out...
The next day (day 2 ın Istanbul) we ran to the nearest ınternet cafe and searched all hostels ın ıstanbul and settled for the cheapest one whıch was 10km away ın the central area.
We eventually found ıt wıth the help of frıendly Turkısh polıce after lots of cold searchıng and cyclıng round ın cırcles (we have no map) dıscoverıng that we cycled past ıt twıce.
We have put our bıkes away safely here and started the logıstıcs of our next move - gettıng an Indıan VISA ın Turkey whıch seems to have been quıte problem for some people accordıng to the Lonely planet websıte forum etc.
Aparantly they are not keen on ıssuıng VISAs to non-turkısh natıonals. BUT a few people have got them fıne wıth the help of the Brıtısh consulate wrıtıng a 'note verbal' whıch basıcally confırms that you are the holder of your passport whıch ıs a bıt stupıd because ıt's just a letter whıch would obvıously be easıer for forge than a passport!
The maın drawback of thıs ıs that the Brıts charge you 70quıd each for thıs!!!
But I guess ıf ıt's gotta be done then ıts gotta be done!
It was Sunday yesterday so the Consulates were closed and we are now about to head down to the Consulate and try wıthout the letter and see how ıt goes.
The plan/only optıon ıs that we stay here tıl/ıf our VISA has been processed then book the next flıght to Indıa (you can book 4days ın advance wıthout ıt beıng more expensıve than bookıng months ahead wıth the aırlıne we are lookıng at).
Once we have establıshed the vısa sıtuatıon we are goıng to order a new pump for our stove whıch has packed ın (the O-rıng on the pıston has torn) so we have no pressure ın our stove.
Basıcally we just want to know that we havent got to go to Ankara to the Embassıes there (as the are just the consulates here) as the stove pump would probably take a week or so to arrıve so we want to know that we are goıng to def be here!
Anyway all ıs well apart from all the confusıng paper work sıde of everythıng :)
Thıs hostel ıs cheap and decent so we are happy.
Wıll re update wıth more blog-vıdeos whıch we havent uploaded yet as soon as we are ın the waıtıng posıtıon here.

early greece

2009-10-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

thıs was the day after we got SOAKED ın a bıg storm ın early Greece. We slept about 2 hours and felt BAD.

You can vıew ALL our photos on facebook - even ıf you are not a member. They are quıck to put on there but they are all low resolutıon.

THESE ARE MOHANS PICS FROM HIS CAM. FINN ALSO HAS HIS TO ADD

Here ıs the fırst album

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=157268&id=711391577&l=4d4de108ca

& here ıs the Swıtzerland and Italy album

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=160947&id=711391577&l=29a4ec2da2

& here ıs Italy and the start of Greece

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=167555&id=711391577&l=1a7a41198c

& here ıs the end of Greece!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=170403&id=711391577&l=fccebefd07

We are well and ın Turkey now!

quick greek update

2009-10-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

We are now in Greece, and have a few bits to report.
we have done a video update, but this net cafe wont let us see our videos when we plug in the cam, only pics.
have yammed a few on here: www.photobucket.com/cycle2australia

am trying to get more on, but takes a long time to upload and time is money in internet cafes and you know we're doing this on a budget...

to give you a quick update in words - we met some lovely english cyclists as soon as we got into greece, spent the night camping with them, and then the next night got caught in a mad violent storm which gave our tent the ultimate test.... and it failed miserably. we got soaked all our stuff in or out the tent was wet. our sleeping bags were big sponges and we both had a couple of hours of sleep each. The next day we both felt a bit ill and I (Mo) was very bunged up.
Luckily we were blessed with sunshine which dried our stuff, so we chilled for that day, and slept the next night in a little brick hut we found on the side of the road which was lovely... and had about 11 hours sleep each.
we then had a big mountain cycle which was great, and enjoyed some sunshine and good greek countryside views.

The weather seems to be holding out, the sun is very strong but you can feel autumn in the air, it has a slight bite, which we are soon escaping from; our latest thoughts are that we will fly from turkey to north india, where we will cycle down the south from top to bottom and maybe even touch on Sri lanka. We will then fly to Kunming, china or somewhere similar and cycle into Laos, Thailand etc as planned.
The reason we are avoiding Iran and Pakistan is that firstly that the Pakistani situation has worsened, which you may be aware of, recent suicide bombings etc and the FCO strongly advises against westerners travelling through it. And another reason is that flights from Iran are more than double that from Turkey, and Iran is gonna be COLD!

Hope all is well from where you are!

Mo & Finn.

Rimini to Brindisi

2009-10-13T02:39:00.000-07:00

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPONSOR US, YOU STILL CAN!

Mayo Wynne Baxter

http://www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk/o.uk

01273 477071

Mayo Wynne Baxter is one of the leading law firms
in the South East with offices throughout Sussex.

Gossypium is a leading brand in Fairtrade-certified organic cotton fashion:

All our products are Fairtrade & organic - we're the real thing

We only use good quality cotton; organic, pure & strong

We are responsible for how our products are made

The eco-system & environment are never far from our thoughts

We're independent: working together as a family - in business

www.gossypium.co.uk

(click image to expand)

www.terreaterre.co.uk

Blog update:

We have reached the town of Brindisi after a week of cycling from Rimini. A lot has happened in this week and Italy has been incredible. After a week of relaxation in Rimini whilst waiting for our package from the UK to arrive, our legs had got used to the lack of cycling unfortunately they have a lot more work to do.
The people at our hostel were very nice they even sold duff beer??? We have had an amazing cycle down the coast of italy the scenery has got steadily nicer and more tropical as we go. The towns have got less touristy and much more friendly the further we have gone.
The weather has been perfect until today, and it has only rained once since we entered italy.
We have slept outside most nights this last week, as the weather has been good and its much faster to pack up in the morning.
Mo has suffered the first puncture of the trip, and i am proud to say that i have cycled to greece without getting a puncture i wonder how long this luck will last.
Weve met a lot more people now we are out of the tourist zones of italy, the locals are much more interested in us. Everyone we have spoken to has said "mumma mia" when we tell them how far we have cycled hahaha.
We had a nasty nights sleep after cycling 150km, we slept on a rock solid ploud field. It was freezing and our sleeping bags were already soaked from the dew from the night before. It wasnt the highlight of the trip thats for sure.
I had a very close escape as we cycled through Bari, a car pulled out as i was going down a hill, and i swerved but went into the side of the car. luckily i was unhurt, and the car was undamaged. But when i started to cycle away i noticed that my front wheel was completely bent. We attempted to adjust the spokes and bend the rim back, but it wasnt happening. Luckily we pushed the bike into town and some very enthusiastic italian men showed us the local bike mechanics shop. The mechanic obviously knew his stuff, we were convinced i would need a new wheel which would cost me around 60 euro. But the mechanic spent a few minutes adjusting the spokes, bent the rim slightly and my wheel was better than before the crash, he was a genius. All for 10 euro he even reinforced mohan's front pannier rack, we believe it will last him to australia thanks to this mechanic, he saved the day!
We set ourselves the challenge of reaching Brindisi for this mornings ferry. After 5 and a half hours of cycling yesterday and another hour this morning we arrived, to discover that the ferry isnt until 6.30 this evening. To make matters worse the final cycle to Brinidisi was all against the wind making it twice as difficult and twice as unpleasant. But it is over now and we have greece to look forward to, though we have the unexpected inconvenience of arriving at 2.am!

ps. we are trying to upload high resolution pics to photobucket, but most the pcs we use are too slow for it! watch this space though, we have some good pics and are working on it.

Current cycling distance

2009-10-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

We have been kindly sponsored and supported by:

Mayo Wynne Baxter

www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk

01273 477071

Mayo Wynne Baxter is one of the leading law firms
in the South East with offices throughout Sussex.

Gossypium is a leading brand in Fairtrade-certified organic cotton fashion:

All our products are Fairtrade & organic - we're the real thing
We only use good quality cotton; organic, pure & strong
We are responsible for how our products are made
The eco-system & environment are never far from our thoughts
We're independent: working together as a family - in business

www.gossypium.co.uk

(click image to expand)

www.terreaterre.co.uk

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPONSOR US, YOU STILL CAN!

Blog update:
Just a quick update with some data from the cycle computer.

We bought it in Vesoul in France (right next to switzerland), so have also worked out our cycling distance with google maps from dieppe to vesoul, so will have a total distance.

Distance we worked out from our route from dieppe to Vesoul with google maps - 717km

Distance we have cycled since Vesoul to Rimini where we are now from cycle computer - 1,411km

Therefore current total distance to date - 2,128km

average cycling speed since Vesoul - 21.82km per hour

top speed 83.4 km per hour

All 4 of our legs are fully rested now and dont ache for the first time in 28 days!
Our parcel which we are waiting for at the hostel still hasnt arrived so our parents have paid for another night here which we cant complain about! Check out time is 11am tomorrow, so hopefully it will arrive before then!
we are digging in to some cheap pizza from the local supermarket using the hostels OVEN. madness all these luxuries!
We have had an amazing day resting, lying in the sun on the beach showering frequently etc!
its amazing! We spent the late morning /afternoon on the beach chilling, and then spent the rest of the day doing a bit more planning for the next leg of our trip - Greece and Turkey.
We will be getting the ferry from Brindisi, a port at the south east of Italy. And the cycle down there looks promising on all fronts.
The ferry will take us to Igoumenitsa. Which is a port on the west coast of Greece. Its a small 100ish mile dip across.

We have checked some data for Iran too, on the weather average weather conditions for when we reckon we are going to get there and it does not look nice at all! Finn will definately need to invest in a new sleeping bag if he is getting cold sleeping in Italy at night! He got bonus points by ripping it too!
Iran is forecasted to be about 10 degrees in the day, and 2 degrees at night! its gonna be tough!
Another thing is that its bloody massive! Its going to be about 3,000 miles not KM! MILES! from where we enter it and leave it. So it may be a bit tough, but Im sure the country has some beauty to inspire us a bit to keep us powering on.
From then on we have Pakistan which is where things start heating up, and India is out the question for too cold. I will be wishing for Finns sleeping bag at this point if he still has it!
We will experience hot humid conditions, which will keep all our clothes and tent nice and mouldy. Happy days.

We have also spent some of our free time re doing our budget which made us groan, but what can you do! We are operating on as little funds as possible! We will see how it goes!

Hope all is well and the sun is shining where ever you readers are!
x

ps Am in the process of sorting pics on Photobucket. Which is a website which allows you to store and share high quality photos and videos, so will put a link from here to the public account once we have stuck all our stuff on there, which will mean captioned pics, videos etc and therefore hopefully slightly clearer viewing for you guys! These free hostel pcs are free for a reason... They operate on approx 1 pic a minute for upload speed which isnt popular when you have a queue of people waiting to use the pcs!
-Sorry for disorganised pics/videos etc on this blog at the mo, will hopefully clear it once we have the photobucket running and we can just put a couple of pics on here and majority on that.

Feature in Italian paper.

2009-09-30T04:20:00.000-07:00

We have been kindly sponsored and supported by:

Mayo Wynne Baxter

www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk

01273 477071

Mayo Wynne Baxter is one of the leading law firms
in the South East with offices throughout Sussex.

Gossypium is a leading brand in Fairtrade-certified organic cotton fashion:

All our products are Fairtrade & organic - we're the real thing
We only use good quality cotton; organic, pure & strong
We are responsible for how our products are made
The eco-system & environment are never far from our thoughts
We're independent: working together as a family - in business

www.gossypium.co.uk

(click image to expand)

www.terreaterre.co.uk

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPONSOR US, YOU STILL CAN!

Hot Italian sun, and some relaxing time to look forward to!

2009-09-29T03:04:00.000-07:00

Just a small update, we have only got a couple of pics so not really worth uploading.
We've arrived in Rimini, a coastal city, this morning at 7 am.
Our parents have treated us by booking us in a B & B in this town so we are going to give our legs and butts a break after cycling 480km in the last 4 days.

time on computer about to run out so have to go!

will update soon.
x

Thankyou's

2009-09-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

We both have a lot of people to thank so just to name a few! Because without them this wouldnt be possible!

both of us would like to thank:
Chris Franks aka dr bike - http://www.lewescycleaction.co.uk
Seasons restaurant of Lewes
All our individual sponsors
all our business sponsors:
Gossypium - www.gossypium.co.uk
Fireworks - www.fireworkslewes.co.uk
terreaterre - www.terreaterre.co.uk
Mayo Wynne Baxter - www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk
Catherine Meakins
The whole of the British Red Cross team, especially Hannah Rosalee
All the top people we have met on the way who have helped us or supported us!

Dominic Feain
The lovely family who took us in in France
Christine Franklin our nurse!
Xian and Emma
Simone Everaere - the lovely lady who gave us a shower and coffee!
Everyone else who we havent yet mentioned!

Mohan would personally like to thank:
Peter and Claire Peeters on the Costa del Sol
His lovely big bro and his lovely soon to be wife Lucy
His sisters
His Grandma and Goetz
Mum and Dad
Teener
Catherine
Rosemary and Dick Meakins
Chris Franks
All the lads!

Finn would personally like to thank:

Mum and Charlie
Rose and Helena
my grandparents
uncle and aunty

Switzerland & the beginning of Italy

2009-09-21T05:47:00.000-07:00

We have been kindly sponsored and supported by:

Mayo Wynne Baxter

www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk

01273 477071

Mayo Wynne Baxter is one of the leading law firms
in the South East with offices throughout Sussex.

Gossypium is a leading brand in Fairtrade-certified organic cotton fashion:

All our products are Fairtrade & organic - we're the real thing
We only use good quality cotton; organic, pure & strong
We are responsible for how our products are made
The eco-system & environment are never far from our thoughts
We're independent: working together as a family - in business

www.gossypium.co.uk

(click image to expand)

www.terreaterre.co.uk

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPONSOR US, YOU STILL CAN!

We are obviously trying to raise as much money as possible for the Red Cross, and the default sponsorship donation goes 50/50 for the Red Cross and towards the costs of the trip (Visas, Food, Internet Cafes, Maps etc). We are budgeting as much as possible but it is still difficult to keep the costs down because we cannot control the majority of our spending which is not on food or any other variable but on things like VISAS (It costs £95 for Iranian VISA alone) and maps and unexpected repairs such as my front pannier rack which has given way. Any excess sponsorship cost covering money will go to the Red Cross once we have finished the trip if there is any too.
If you would still like to sponsor us you can by:

Emailing me the amount you have sponsored us, your name, and the amount you want to go to the Red Cross and amount you want to put towards covering the costs of the trip, if any.
The bank account I have set up for the sponsorship money is:

Nationwide
Mr Mohan Everett
account no: 72433983
sort code: 07 00 30

You can pay money into that bank account via phone banking, online banking, cash (in bank) or by cheque.
I'm set up with online banking and will be basing my budgets and checking balance/transferring money with it throughout the whole trip, whenever I'm near a computer.

You can also pay via Paypal to:
Moohan13@gmail.com

Thankyou!

Blog update:
Switzerland was a lot tougher than we expected, and also a lot prettier.
The first day we entered switzerland, we didnt have a map and thought about doing it without one at all. We asked some locals directions to the first town we knew was in the right direction and they could speak a bit of english and pointed towards a big downhill. It wasnt a normal downhill, it was a gate with no path let alone road... we asked if they were sure and they said yes. so we slowly rolled down the grass, which led down a roughly 400m hill. Very steep and very bumpy. as we were going down the hill, mohans front pannier rack gave way despite going very slowly and carefully. it was the rack which had previously bent and been bent back so had obviously been weakened. It bent into the spokes and bent some of them and took us about 15min to bend back out without damaging more spokes. We then wheeled the bikes down the rest of the hill and looked for somewhere to sleep. at this point it had got very cold and we couldnt find anywhere suitable as everywhere appeared to be in use and not suitable for randomly sticking our tent on. It was starting to get dark and we were going down a road when we saw a cave about 5m above the road. We questioned the idea of sleeping there, but eventually thought why not. It was full of mozzies and spiders but served us well. despite waking up damp and cold.
The next day we spend a good few hours fixing my front wheel and replacing some spokes which we luckily bought the day before in a french bike shop for spares.
We also got a bicycle computer which means we can update our cycle stats on here.

We found that what we thought was the alps turned out to be a the foothills, and it wasn't until we were close to Italy that the mountins got really big. Finn regretted his cheap sleeping bag after two nights sleeping in tent at 2000 metre altitude. Has also been tricky to dry out clothes and tent in icy conditions. Was also an amazing feeling reaching the final pass of the alps the nufenen pass just outside Italy. This mountin was the highest we had climbed at 2500m and it was definately an amazing moment reaching its peak. We were annoyed at the lack of downhill throughout switzerland until we reached this pass. From there onwards we enjoyed around 70km of downhill all the way into italy. This gave our legs a much needed rest and we eventually got down into warmer weather.
It was strange how as soon as we left this final mountin everything was in italian rather than swiss, even though we were still in switzerland for another 100km.
Switzerland has been very expensive in comparison to france, especially in larger towns.
Overall the people of switzerland have been very kind, we randomly met a man called Roberto who jumped out infront of us in the street. We told him about our travels and he just randomly gave us 10 franks to go and get ourselves a beer each. What a nice guy. That night we bought four beers for the first time since england. We found a nice place to camp next to an ice cold stream in a valley between mountins. We put our beers in the stream to chill while we set up camp. We were shocked by how drunk we got off two beers each was embarrasing. This cycling is definately doing something. The following morning at 6am we went for a refreshing swim in the stream and had a shower under the waterfall, was extremely cold.
One good thing about switzerland is the abundance of beautiful lakes such as the one we discovered called Lagurn. It was bright turquoise colour, positioned in the middle of huge mountains, we enjoyed another swim here before cycling onwards.
I think the worst moment of switzerland was the day we cycled the Grimsel pass. It took us the entire day of cycling to reach the top, it was extremely hot and we were not used to the sun. The slope wasn't particularly steep but it went on for such a long time. It was around 55km of constant uphill before we reached the top. Our legs took a long time to recover, and perhaps the worst thing was the fact we reached the top at about 7.30pm, it was freezing and the only option was to camp at the top or risk going down the mountain in the dark. Mohans sleeping bag was wet and Finn's has holes in it so it wasn't a nice nights sleep.
The next day paid off though. Despite the rain, we had amazing views of snow topped mountains and lots of downhill.
We are now enjoying the warm valleys of Italy. And are both looking forward to getting to the coast as we are missing the sea and are getting sick of insect filled lakes (especially finn as he gets eaten alive by mozzies) we plan to follow the sea all the way down to Brindisi where we will get the ferry to Greece
:)

We will update this post with a few more france pics (from finns camera, as the current ones are just from mohans). And all the photos since.

PS WE ARE GOING TO TRY TO UPDATE BLOG MORE FREQUENTLY NOW, AND SORRY FOR LACK OF CURRENT PHOTOS. THEY WILL BE UP WITHIN NEXT FEW DAYS

A friendly Australian Journalist has taken interest in us and written a good article about us, the link is http://www.northernstar.com.au/story/2009/09/22/uk-boys-set-out-on-long-journey

France

2009-09-10T03:47:00.000-07:00

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

hi everyone.
we are now just by the Swiss border in france.
So far everything has been AMAZING so good!
we havent been rushing too much, just enjoying everything.
So many mad things have happend and we have met so many sound people.
We have had two showers so far haha, first one was from a lovely woman who invited us into her flat to wash after she smelt us haha. Nah we started talking and she thought we might appreciate it, which we did.
And my front pannier rack bent when i came off a curb and me and finn were thinking what to do while cooking lentils and sasuage when a farmer pulled over in his tractor, i thought he was going to kick us off his land but he asked if we were lost or needed help. we explained what happend and he ended up inviting us back to his to fix it and feed and shozer us! we did and he sorted the bike! and then we had a top shower each and fed us a 3 course meal with his family who were all legends! we couldnt speak to them much though, we could speak to him in german cos it was the only language we could both half speak (me finn and him).
we had some top food and local wine then camped in his garden with his tent so ours didnt get wet from the dew in the morning! Absolute diamond what more can i say!

everything is going well and we cant wait to go through switzerland italy now!

i have attached some pics too! hope ur all well! miss u all!

INTRODUCTION TO THE TRIP

2009-08-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

Hello people,

This is a blog which will be updated with new info and pictures of the progress of our cycling trip to Australia. We are leaving on the 3rd of September 2009, aiming for around 9 months to get to Aus.
We will be budgeting as much as possible, sleeping in our tent by night and living off mainly soaked beans and cooked grains, with a bit of veg etc where possible.

We will start by getting the ferry from Newhaven, England, to Dieppe, France, and cycling through Switzerland, down Italy. From the bottom of Italy (Lecce), we will get the ferry to Greece, where we will cycle up through northern Greece into Istanbul, Turkey. We will cycle along the north coast of Turkey, heading east, where we will get to Iran. we might cycle through Iran and Pakistan, but it's a bit up in the air at the mo because of the military conflict in those countries. We might get a bus through them or something! We will see. From Pakistan we will head to Lhasa in China, and head towards the northern border of Laos, where we will head south down Laos into Thailand. From Thailand we will cycle down Malaysia, getting the ferry from the Malaysian islands as close to Australia as possible and eventually get a boat to Darwin, Australia. Where we will cycle to the eastern Australia coastal town of Byron Bay.

This is only a provisional route, it's just a guideline for now, because we might change our minds as we go on what exact route we want to take - See how we feel!
We plan to complete the trip in around 9 months.

We've been raising sponsorship money for this trip which mainly is going towards the British Red Cross, and some (from the people who wanted to) have donated some money towards the costs of the trip.

If you have not sponsored us and want to, you still can!
Email me at moohan13@hotmail.com or moohan13@gmail.com
Or phone me on 07717481041 but only if it's before the 3rd of Sept.
You can still sponsor us after we've left, just email me the amount you have sponsored us, your name, and the amount you want to go to the Red Cross and amount you want to put towards covering the costs of the trip, if any.
The bank account I have set up for the sponsor money is:

Mr Mohan Everett
account no: 72433983
sort code: 07 00 30

You can pay money into that bank account via phone banking, online banking, cash (in bank) or by cheque.
I'm set up with online banking and will be basing my budgets and checking balance/transferring money with it throughout the whole trip, whenever I'm near a computer.

You can also pay via Paypal to:
Moohan13@gmail.com

We've got a mailing list set up so if you want to be added to it, just email me at moohan13@hotmail.com and say the email address(s) that you want to be added.
We'll send emails out when we update our blog and are in local papers etc.
Anyway,
check this blog for updates on our travels and pics.
xx

We have been kindly sponsored and supported by:

Mayo Wynne Baxter

www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk

01273 477071

Mayo Wynne Baxter is one of the leading law firms in the South East with offices throughout Sussex.

&

Gossypium is a leading brand in Fairtrade-certified organic cotton fashion:

All our products are Fairtrade & organic - we're the real thing
We only use good quality cotton; organic, pure & strong
We are responsible for how our products are made
The eco-system & environment are never far from our thoughts
We're independent: working together as a family - in business

www.gossypium.co.uk

&

(click image to expand)

&