Every burst of sunlight is an immediate thrust of a lance, straight through my brain and heart and the only decision on such winter days are which way I go. Left or right? It isn’t that difficult, yet with the knowledge that neither left nor right is anything to see, I have to be positive and find something to go to. The cabinet of my brain is filled with connections to forgotten tombs and chapels. I can braid together the multiple forests paths to a maze of sense. Read more
A few days sun means I could make a short kickbike tour to the hills. They will feed my needed portion of wonderment. Even though the nearby Hungarian hills are not that spectacular, it will give me more the view that bald trees provide me with. Read more
To continue with where I left in part I, about disturbing factors, it perhaps comes down to what is written a bit further down. On one of my long travels through India I wanted to form a more sturdy opinion about ashrams than what I’d red in books. Though two books in particular that I red in ashrams were eye opening (and my opinion about ashrams? That I keep for another time).
Two posts about being different and how that is not at all an issue. Until you realize you’re misunderstood by the different standard of living compared to others. Two write-ups to make you aware of the possible outcome of traveling long time solo. And also a little bit about to go your own way, to depend on your own gut feeling.
August 2023. The inheritance of solitude. A write-up about the awareness of the possible outcome of traveling long time solo. And also a little bit about to go your own way, to depend on your own gut feeling
August 2023. ‘The cat woman with a sharp nose’. Fueled when I felt misunderstood by the different standard of how I prefer living. It reminded me of (not so pleasant) woman I met in Yemen, but whom I understand better nowadays.
Five weeks off-grid, buried in the Florida woods
August 2020, USA. A most odd experience in the woods of Florida. I never knew how spectacular a seemingly boring patch of woods could be. In times of Corona we were homeless, hiding and alert. View post…
The uninvited twists of the mind: broken boredom
September 2018, Uruguay. Aloneness, solitude, quietude is one thing. But too much of it is not doing good either. To my rescue comes a beautiful hearted woman who takes me in her home for some time. Just what I needed. View post…
This was formerly another post, hence the comments do not fit.
I was inspired to work on this write-up aftera very kind someone asked me several times to go by car and have beverages at a cafe in town, as ‘I needed a change of environment’. Soon after a second happening surprised me: the dependency of another very kind person’s expectations way beyond what has become my natural way of living.
It is not about a journey but the effects of a journey.
A set-up of any form of transport is important. Not when you are cycling or rolling back and forth to the bakery but when you try to get some distance done, it better be the right set-up for you. We did not had the chance to test any kickbike before we started the journey through the USA. We ordered straight from the Kickbike supplier and that is not the way I’d recommend. When I ordered my bicycle years prior I had it more or less custom made. This is crazily expensive, something I would not recommend either.
It’s different than cycling. Obviously. The challenge, after cycling the world 5 years, had vanished and I searched for a new demanding way of transport and travel. Because our society allows me, I discovered something so amusing as the kickbike… and I knew instantly, intuitively, that I would love it.
I have used all sorts of stoves, from Primus and Optimus Multi Fuel when I started a 5 year worldwide bicycle trip to an Optimus Svea 123. I tried a gas stove, a self-made hobo stove, an alcohol stove and plain wood fires.
‘When cycling you will often be seen as someone doing something extra ordinary. This lift up your ego after a while. After years of this extra attention you get used to it and thus it becomes normal.’
‘Adding the fact that ‘doing good’ comes from the heart, does not mean the mind has no say in this. Building toilets for ‘poor black’ but able Africans or distributing bags of rice to people along the fertile bushroad is not smart.’
Yes, you can. In fact, anyone can. Just start. It helps getting a decent bicycle and a little bit of knowledge about mechanics, although you will soon learn those skills on the road. Truing a wheel is not easy but I am sure you can fix a puncture in an inner tube, isn’t it? If the answer is yes you might seriously be in for cycling around the world! Read ‘Adventure Cyle-Touring Handbook’ to make you warm, or definitely decide otherwise.
Before you set out it is handy to know you really like cycling. For me, I cycled every day to my work and back home from work, an hour a day in total. That’s not much to set your goals on cycling half around the world. I wanted to know for sure I would like cycling each day at least 60 kilometer, camp and eat anywhere my stomach would requires me. So I took my mom’s bicycle, not a very fancy model. I cycled about 150 kilometer up and back and I was hooked.
The search for a good bicycle could start now!
Read on forums and other people’s weblogs what you think you want and according your way of purchasing, set out. The more simple the bicycle, the lesser can break down. Over the years my style of buying is very manlike: one shop, a long search and I am set. No endless doubting, searching and going back to the first shop to end with nothing. Go to a shop where they have it all.
Decide you need cooking gear and a tent. Without your folding home and mini kitchen you cycle way lighter, but if you are addicted to masala chai, then a kitchen might come in handy. Your own kitchen and synthetic home give you total freedom in terms of where you stay the night. That is if you got no security behind you who keeps no low profile and forbid you to sleep in the desert. I would always opt for a well hidden spot to camp. Not only that a clearly in sight spot would attract too many visitors or make yourself a one woman show, but rather not to scare off the locals too much. In general people don’t rob nor rape you, but sleeping in the open is less comfi than invisible in the bush. Unless you have no choice or really no one is around. Be the nomad you always wanted to be!
How do you handle being in an unknown country with aliens?
I assume when you set out on a tour half around the world, or just in one continent, you are not unworldly. You neither have to be good at speaking for a large crowd, no way you have to have capability to be a intermediate, or counselor. It does help though. You often are all those, and on your own if you set out alone. It sure can be all very daunting. Either you love it, you like it, you start dealing with it or you never will.
How much does it cost?
In general you could easily live by a daily budget of €15 a day. Not including the visa fees. A lot of camping can drop the average down to about €7 a day (Ghana) but countries like Liberia multiplied with visa requirements, thus sleeping and waiting in hotels, adds up to an average of €29 a day! Just get yourself accustomed to wild camping quickly and you safe money. The most expensive visa I paid for were the ones from Côte d’Ivoire (€110) and (a second entry for) Guinea Conakry (€93) (never stamped nor seen though). It pays to check prices beforehand ’cause in some countries visa are cheaper to obtain. Yet in some countries they won’t issue at all.
Add up the costs of your bicycle, gear, insurance, unexpected flights, doctor and double the food intake : )
I have the luck to be able to store everything I owe (not much) at my parents house. Actually, that’s where I live when I am not traveling. I am not traveling when my money is finished and thus need to save money. In the past I always came back to the Netherlands to find work and save a decent amount until I could set off again.
How can I fit all my equipment in those tiny bags?
You can’t. Initially you will take too much with you. All you have in mind to take with you, won’t fit. And I can reassure you, you will never use it anyway. Cycling is a main task. It is a very high maintenance life style. Way higher than backpacking! The tasks you are busy with are finding food, fetching drinkable water, washing your dirty clothes, preparing a nutritious meal and finding a spot to sleep. You really hardly got time to sketch a drawing, read a book or repair your clothes. This life style is very back to basic, and so it’s very time consuming, but as rewarding as well.
The arrangements drive me crazy before I even started it!
Although I never had to deliver a real life baby, consider it the same. Your head is full with things to do as if it were your belly is growing each day. Lists are ever increasing and only dissolving the last day, the day of the delivery of you into the never ending beauty of the world. Be prepared to organize a health insurance while traveling, get yourself registered as a non-citizen in case you are gone for more than 8 months (if you are Dutch) in order not to pay double health insurance. Perhaps a second passport? Carry documents you think you might need them. Buy all the screws, nuts, bolts and spare parts you won’t come by in parts of the world other than where you live. Decide whether you want to support the pharmaceutical industry by buying pills against malaria. Perhaps you like to set out a general route? Maybe start writing stories so your family knows what cycling is all about? Good luck: start your own weblog. But keep in mind this is something you mostly do for your own sake, as not many people got time to read the fantastic adventures you experience. Camera? Smartphone? GPS or maps? Shoes? Clothes? This is all gear and what do you need and what will you certainly not use? This you will find out on the road…
The day you leave, you feel free. All the notes become unimportant. All the to-do list seems so silly. Are silly. Thus, all the things you have not finished are not important. Make not too many plans, they will change. Follow the road, it’s people. Dare to get lost, follow your heart. Off you are!
How did I start choosing a bicycle over public transport?
I wanted to buy a motorbike but the Indian Sahib did not want to sell me one. I thought he might have a point with me having no license nor skills nor experience. The only option left would be a bicycle. I did not fancy the idea of ploughing a bicycle, so I continued by public transport until I start missing adventure and challenge. Knowing that I start missing those things while staying too long in the deeply troubled backstreets of Kashmir, traveling through unstable Afghanistan and mystic Yemen, and living for a year in fabulous Pakistan. Not coincidentally, while liberated from Kashmir, I passed two cyclists on a most difficult stretch in Zanskar, and I knew: this is it!
Okay! This I get. Now, do you need to be fit?
I think you don’t need to be, but you inevitable will become very fit. Me, as a saleswoman I stand on my two feet each and every day, and I walk constantly all day. I cycle an hour a day but never did any sport. My height is 158 centimeter and my weight was 48 kilo. A perfect BMI. People who were jealous said I had anorexia, I knew better: I was having a healthy life style. And I still have. A fact is that when you are light, you carry the same amount as a more heavy person, thus in comparison you carry too much for your weight. Get used to it. Right after coming back from Cameroon I have gained about 5 kilogram. But I ate a lot, a lot of food while I did not cycle for two weeks. Your body will tell you to eat more and more, even though you stopped cycling for a few weeks. While on the road your body needs plenty of food, in the beginning it will even ask for it in the middle of the night. In the beginning you’ll eat the weirdest things, like bags of chips before going to have your dinner. Until the moment comes your body is well maintained and predictable. I gained weight and my legs have become clearly more built. Your most real power, by the way, is not in your body, but in your mind. If your mind says you can, you can.
Books are written about this topic, and no way I am going to try to do the same on this page. I recommend this book and a few websites, to start your own challenge.
Have you decided to explore the world on a bicycle, then camping is part of it. As the outside seems so much more spooky than a house, the first thing that comes to mind is: ‘Is it not dangerous?’ On the contrary, in fact, it is not so much about danger. Much more camping is about management of daily changing circumstances and how to deal with them. Rather exciting and never dull indeed!
There’s – little – difference between a man and a woman when it comes to strength. A man is often physically obviously stronger. A woman often mentally. There are, however, significant differences: being a woman requires other items. This is a post for woman in the saddle. Yet, when we are both strong, but on other fields, women do need other stuff than men.
Heike made a post where she asks 4 other experienced solo female cyclists about wild camping. Since we are lone women, many people think this is extra dangerous. But the truth is, it is not, at all. On the contrary.
Very often I ask myself the question ‘why?’ This is tiresome, but I need to ask it in order to understand the country and it’s people. I need to ask it myself in order to get answers. And so, now and then, when I allow myself, here comes a lengthy viewpoint of mine…
My sister was a model for some time, on a pearl white beach where the palm trees were outfitted with electricity outlets. She modelled in the sultry Caribbean, she withstood the wind and she splashed into the lazuli colored water as if she were a pro. She never was one, but more than I ever could be.
Let’s get this weblog more clear. After over 40,000 kilometer and 4 years on the road (mostly, as I have been home in The Netherlands to be with mom, and dad) with Shanti bicycle I am going to lead you around:
Cycling the Electricity Highway which provides energy to the world once biggest copper mine in Chile. I have made an inland turn, to meet with some one special, again!
December 2016: That’s what cycling without a plan does: unexpected surprises come your way. I was meeting with an old-time friend. Not in Argentina where I was, but in Lima. Peru. I took a bus, 4 days on end. Going back I wanted to avoid more busses.
June 2016: this post is another of my reflections about life on and off a bicycle. Since all of my blogposts are coming into your inbox, this one follows just like all the previous. Just skip it if you’re not into posturing; a non-travel post. Instead, a travelers thought.
Desires: Libya, Algeria, Niger, Saudi Arabia, Namibia, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Guyana’s, Kirgizstan and Mongolia.
How incredible much I longed for openness in Nature, able to pitch my tent where ever I desire and to do some trekking. I bought sturdy Goretex shoes, and a backpack I already have. Initially I choose Iceland. Then the sun came out in the Netherlands. Did I really want to battle some more wind and rain and cycle in a loop?
Eind december bereik ik Dubai, na de pedalen van mijn fiets stevig verzet te hebben zoef ik vanuit Turks Koerdistan door Iraaks Koerdistan en tenslotte Iran.
Deze vraag wordt me wel eens gesteld. Mijn doel is simpel en het antwoord lang: ik wil het leven voelen, zien, ruiken, proeven en ontdekken. Mijn doel is om dat nu op de fiets te doen. Niet Mongolië of 50.000 kilometer op de teller te hebben, maar het leven zelf. Mijn doel is het leven te léven en niet geleefd te worden.
Once you decide to live a life on the road, especially as a single woman, there are some tips and tricks which might come in very handy. I wrote quite a few post ranging from handy items particularly for women, tips on how to react and behave in difficult situations.
Een heel simpele en een heel voorstelbare vraag en iedereen die op deze manier reist zal ongeveer hetzelfde antwoord hierop hebben. Iedereen die intensief en langdurig over de wereld reist, zal zich er ook nog wel iets bij voor kunnen stellen. Behalve ik zelf.
Het contact voor deze productie werd al gelegd in februari. Tijdens de Meet en Match van de stichting betrokken ondernemers Breda liepen wij Marijke den Ridder van stichting Focus on Education en Cindy tegen het lijf.
Tuesday May 15th is the day, finally, that I have an intimate appointment in my heavenly upstairs room. Not with one person, mais non… no less than two persons. Count your blessings, princess Cindy! With the three of us we will share my bed. Or rather, let me be slightly more detailed: I will lay in the bed while I get shot on film by one and recorded on sound by another.
Dinsdag 15 mei is de dag dat ik een afspraak heb in mijn boudoir om niet één, maar twee mensen te ontvangen. Wij gaan met ons drieën naar bed. Of eigenlijk is het nog iets genuanceerder: ik ga alleen naar bed en word gefilmd terwijl de ander me opneemt.
Maandag 14 mei komen Marijke, Jacques en Miriam van de stichting Focus on Education samen met Edwin en Eva van Pasta Media Productions op de school ‘De Zeggewijzer’ in Terheijden.
I do fall in love now and then, but up to now, I also always moved on. Something like this is what the bigger letters in the text says. The headline says ‘worldtraveller for a good cause’. The friendly reported who interviewed me, who did this 5 years ago too, was amazed that I am forty years old! So she asked me: ‘Don’t you ever want to settle down?’
De twee vrije weken voor vertrek zijn maandag van start gegaan. In volle vaart zijn Marijke, Jacques, hun zoon Jeroen en ik samen gekomen: maandag een kennismakingsgesprek met Thomas, een jonge student met onstuimige krullen die zich ook vrijwillig in wil zetten voor de stichting. Hij weet vast meer van social media dan Jacques, Marijke en mij, wel social maar niet op een media-achtige manier.
Dinsdag een interview met Marja voor BN de Stem en laat het duidelijk zijn: mijn doel in Afrika is Congo. Ik had mijzelf eerst geen duidelijk doel gesteld, behalve dat ik naar voodoo minnend Benin wilde. De medische school voor ex-kind soldaten en wezen in Kiliba, oost Congo is een mooi -maar heel moeilijk- eerste doel.
De eerste ronde fietstassen inpakken heb ik gedaan, nu volgen er minstens nog een stuk of vier. Alles wat ik heb past er in ieder geval wel in: de keuken, een slaapplaats, de kledingkast, de verzorgende en medicinale afdeling, een technische afdeling, een ontspannende als ook een creatief departement.
Mijn Amerikaanse fietspartner voor de Sahara is in Rome aangekomen en baant zich langzaam een weg door de regen naar Zuid Spanje.
Verdere updates zijn medicamenten en smeersels die na lang nadenken toch aangeschaft zijn ter voorkoming en onderdrukking van malaria: 232 doxycyclinepillen, 8 Malerone pillen, en een tube gyno-miconazolnitraat, net zo eng als het klinkt (16 wegwerp applicatoren voor een schimmelinfectie, een bijverschijnsel van doxycycline).
Nu ga ik een korte broek maken, nóg een kledingstuk. De kledingkast samenstellen voor een onderneming als deze is misschien wel één van de moeilijkste dingen. Als ik niet in volle vaart vooruit kom weet ik waar het aan ligt.
Verder voelt het gewoon fijn om vrij te zijn. Het voelt verfrissend, onwerkelijk en zacht…
De dag begon met diarree. De nacht die eraan vooraf ging kwam ik niet makkelijk in slaap terwijl ik wel moe was en hoewel ik die middag een kort dutje had gedaan, was ik daardoor niet klaarwakker.
