May the 24th
We are now in Kentucky.

The flight from Chile to the States went well, and again no bike was damaged and no luggage was lost.
Helene's mother came to visit us in Mobile Alabama. for a few days we lived in luxury, eating in restaurants, sleeping in deep comfortable beds and waking up late. But we usually wake up late anyway.

We visited New Orleans, went to the Jazz Festival and had a very good time.

Then, after a week it was time to reassemble the bikes, to clean them and to leave.

First we didn't enjoy the ride too much. We had some bad T-storms and after the Chilean snow capped mountains, the landscapes we rode trough seemed a little bit too flat. Luckily, we met very nice people on the way and were invited by people to sleep near their houses very often.

And then, little by little, the road beacame more hilly and more interesting. The sun came back too, and we met 3 others cyclists. 2 South Africans and a Canadian. We have beeen riding with them for a week now.

We are now almost half way from the Canadian border, and try to keep riding at a steady pace, as we have to meet a friend in Toronto by the end of June.

A few days ago, we reached the 10 000 kilometers and were quit happy to. We put some albums with our US pictures...

Thank you to all the people who hosted in the US and who helped us.

Cheers

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4/9/09
When Helene started this "News in English" category, I told her I was not sure we would have enough time to update it regularly. I was wrong ! We just update it every 5 months.

So what happened to us since Western Australia ?

We flew to Melbourne and then cycled to Sydney. That was very different from our previous experience in Western Australia : the roads were extremely busy and a little bit too dangerous to really enjoy the ride. Except for the first hundreds kilometers trough the Snowy Mountains and the Kosziusco National Park. I'm quite sure, the spelling is wrong. The ride was not the best but on the other hand, we met there many awesome people who invited us home. Thank you Allen, Frankie, John, Virginia, Jenny, Warwick !


From Sydney, we flew to Christchurch and then started to cruise on the South Island. We cycled from Picton all the way down to Balclutha (1,500 kilometers). The We(s)t Coast was really nice and little bit crowded with sandflies. Again we met nice peoples and, for the first time we cycled with other cylotourists.
Thank you Kerry and Gabriella for your help in Saint-Arnaud. You might be happy to know that your backpack will go back to Angelus hut, as we gave it to the Bloomfield family (thank you too !) who will certainly go hiking there very soon.

In the South of the South Island, we started to think that the weather was a little bit wet and cold. We didn't know what was waiting for us next...in Patagonia !
We arrived in Punta Arenas, in the very South of Chile. We started from there because we knew we were a little bit late : the best periods are unfortunately the same in NZ and patagonia. But we were hoping that, going North, the weather would be better. Not really. Of course we had some good sunny days and the landscape are often breathtaking. But when it's raining, you can wear Goretex or whatever you like, at the end of the day you will be wet. And then you have to sleep in your tent, which is dry, but only the first day. In NZ, in 6 weeks we cycled 1500km. In patagtonia we did 850 in the same time. Not that we were lazy but it was really tough. We had the worst head wind you can imagine in Argentina, and the wetest rain in Chile.

On the 20th of April, we fly to Mobile, USA. We have to dig in our paniers to find the swimming suit and the sun scream...We will try to let you know what happen to us next before we reach Paris...or before you learn french.

Francis & Helene





After travelling during three months in Europe, we are now in Australia. We arrived in Perth three weeks ago, did a little shopping and left to cycle on the Munda Biddi Mountainbike trail with our recumbents. It was really great, except for the weather, which was a little rainy.
Then we followed the coast to Albany, passing by Northcliffe, Walpole and Denmark. The scenery was awesome, with blue-green water and empty beaches (Green's Pool and Elephant Rocks are magic), nice inlets, ...
We met many travellers on the coast, mainly French speaking young guys in Australia for one year with the Holiday & Travel Visa, and australian people travelling in camping cars.


A few tips for cyclotourists and travellers

Cycling Europe
- itinerary
We went from Paris to Athens with our recumbents. There are no dirt roads in Western Europe and the sealed roads are all quite busy. We took the smallests we could but there were still much more cars than in Western Australia.
From Paris we followed the Seine and the Marne rivers, then the Canal de Bourgogne (Burgundy canal) till Pouilly-en-Auxois, then the Rhone river valley to Aix-en-Provence, Toulon and Saint Raphael. Then we basically followed the western Italian riviera (except for San Gimignano and Siena) to Naples. From Naples we crossed the Apenine mountains to the west coast and then cycled south to Barri, where we took the ferry to Patras (greek harbour). From Patras to Athens we followed the northern coast of the Peloponese (southern peninsula of Grece).
This itinerary was great, and we saw many beautiful cities of Italy that way. The Peloponese coast was not too hilly and we could swim all the time.
- cycling paths
We found very few cycling paths in both Italy and Grece.
In France, we found a few of them and we really appreciated :
• The canal de Bourgogne : you follow the canal, so that it is very flat. Some parts are sealed, some are not sealed yet. You come across camping places and small villages where you can buy some food. It starts in $$$ and finishes in $$$
• the "voie verte", which starts in $$$ and finishes in $$$. It should go to Lyon one day (some parts are already done) This one you really have to cycle. It was on old railway line so it is very flat. It is sealed, large and very well organized. You can find water and picnic areas all the way. You can camp in Taize for free (it is a youth christian camp with mass three times a day which you do not have to attend, although the atmosphere and the singing are worth trying. People go there from all over the world and the songs and prayers are in various languages)
• The French riviera cycling path starts in Toulon and finishes in Saint Raphael. It is nice to have a cycling path in this busy area, but it is not finished at all. Small bits are done one after another, and at a slow pace. But it is sealed, a little hilly, and you go through nice places such as the Esterel, which is the wildest area you can find on this coastline.
- campsites
Camping places in Europe are never free. Sometimes, it is owned by the town ("camping municipal"), so that the fee is not expensive. For 2 people with a tent, it can cost from 10 euros to 30 euros for one night. In Italy, the camping areas are even more expensive sometimes, and the showers are not always included. You are not allowed to camp anywhere you want, and it is often hard to find an isolated place. The best way is probably to ask people if you can put your tent in their garden or field. That way you often meet nice people, but some people say no.

The Munda Biddi Mountainbike trail

This cycling trail starts in Mundaring (near Perth) and should finish in Albany one day. The first section from Mundaring to Collie was done about 10 years ago. But the second section from Collie to Nannup is not officially opened yet, although it is finished. The maps of this section can be obtained only from the department of Nature and Conservation. If you send them the money, they will send you the map (Sheffone of the Dwelling Up tourist information center got it for us. Thank you very much once again). You can find the maps of the first section in many places (bike shops and bookshops in Perth, information desk in Mundaring, Jarrahdale, Dwelling Up, Collie, Nannup).

The maps are very useful, since some of the direction signs are missing. For us, we also realized after our first day on the Munda Biddi that some parts were too bumpy for recumbents. It was generally the parts written as "challenging" on the maps. So we decided to do the "easy" and "medium" parts on the trail and just skipped the "challenging" ones by taking the roads following the trail.

With a mountainbike, it seems this trail should not be very hard. The sun could be the hardest thing (try to avoid the summer). There are a few uphills, but 10 days from Mundaring to Nannup should leave you enough time to admire the Nature you come across.

The campsites are really great. Apparently, they were built by convicts. They can host from 10 to 20 people, although we always were alone. There is a main shelter with two picnic tables outside. The main shelter where you can sleep is open, so bring a warm sleeping bad (it can be very cold outside, even in the summer) and maybe a head mosquito net, although we used only repellent. There are always two rainwatertanks, and a bush toilet.
You are not supposed to make a fire, but we did, because there really was no risk, and it was cold in the evening, and we were damp ourselves.

You can buy some food in many places (jarrahdale, collie, boyanup, nannup), so you shouldn't need to have more than three days of food with you. Of course you always have to take lots of water. You cannot drink the water from the tanks right away, so we used a gravity filter during the night and had the freshwater in the morning. You can also use the pills, but we prefer avoiding drinking too much of these chemicals.

The scenery is very nice on this trail. You spend most of your time in the forest of Jarrah and Karri trees. Wild animals go across the trail all the time (kangaroos, wallabies, bobtails, rabbits, wonderful birds...) You meet very few people and cars. Just do it !