Introduction

Hello to all my readers.Thank you for tuning into the Vanderpants station and I hope you enjoy reading about the pain and suffering I am going through and I know that you’re smiling at my every grinding pedal up those a french or italian alps hehehe 🙂

Why am I doing this – After doing the tourist thing around the world and Australia a couple of times now  – I’ve always thought about taking it slowly meandering through villages and eating/drinking my way through lovely little places. I wouldn’t say that I am actually a passionate cyclist to be honest – but moreso a person that loves to go places using a bicycle. I love cycling my way through everywhere and anywhere rain hail or shine and using my legs to get me around from place to place. There is something special and confidence building about using nothing but leg power and determination to navigate your way around to the destinations, coffee shops, friends places, the hills, or Europe for that matter. You actually get a sense of how that place works and you get to smell everything and actually live each town you go through rather than fly through them in a car where you get to see virtually nothing. It’s either that or I could tell you the real truth – I think I am actually escaping from commercials on TV and radio (pet hate), traffic jams and stupid television shows 🙂

I have decided to use this forum in which to blog with as the various others I have tried seem to either not let me post more than one photo per waypoint/day at a time or is filled with too much crap and advertising or is too cumbersome. This one is the best for blogging and adding many pictures for each day and having it all visible in one spot with lots of piccies etc. If you’d like to leave a comment or have any questions about my gear or the trip, you can do so by clicking ‘comment’ at the bottom of each post or page. Or contact me by any other means you have (for ppl back in Australia – an sms might be included in your cap (I know it is in mine when I sms international or if it’s not, it’s around 55c per message I think – FYI)

This is where I take off on my lonesome (thankyou won’t cut it I know but I love you Karina hehe). This will be a mix of my own diary to keep me sane through the cold months in Europe for three months as well as (hopefully) entertaining my friends and family with the stories of this weird red headed pale skinned dude with a big/broken nose shivering in the tent cooking debs mash potatoes and it’s -5 degrees out and this ‘dude’ is thinking WTF am I doing here…..kind of stories. So you will have to endure every day with me if you’re interested and share what I see, feel, think, smell and other senses stuff, with me!That’s right – I’ll be cycling for three months and hopefully covering all the countries you see above you in the title page. After those three months my wife Karina will meet me in Peru where we spend one month together and if all goes well, we will be treking the Inca Trail and hopefully navigating an Amazon jungle tour of some type after than – then resting in Sao Paulo Brazil for a week – what a whirlwind huh!.I have been planning and thinking about this trip for what seems like forever and talking about it to everyone I know (thanks for pretending to be interested in my neverending talks about it peeps). The funny thing is that I have been on a few local solo tours now and am half used to touring on my bicycle solo and with other people as well but my back has become some sort of issue now. I have a bulging disc (I said disc) in my L4/5 section of my lower spine and it has been getting worse over time. I have eased off the exercise and taken all sorts of preventative measures (you don’t have enough time to read all of them trust me) against it but it seems to be getting worse and just lately I have been feeling the same pain on the other side as well and have the crazy feeling i’ve got two areas of concern now.

I have worked two jobs for over two years now and saved my ass off and planned/purchased/read journals (the courier knows me by nickname now hehe) and worked really hard to get here but it’s feeling a bit like a bitter/sweet now to be honest. Sometimes I doubt myself and I have been thinking about pulling out recently or trying to think of other ways I could get the same fulfillment and I am struggling to get enthused as I once was before this pain. Some of the fears I have are;I won’t make it – I won’t have fun due to worrying about the next hill – I can’t cycle as much as I really want to as that’s the whole point of this trip – I Have to pull out and bloody tell everyone again all the why’s and how’s and that I didn’t make it…..and all the other thoughts that go along with that. It’s hard to think that I wanted to cycle through all these towns and places and may not be able to cycle much at all now to be honest. I am not even thinking about the cold weather, finding food and shelter on a daily basis, the sweat, language barrier, sleeping in a tent 8/10 days.These are all the things that don’t bother me and the reason why I want to go over there.**Gives self a pep talk****Pumps fist into air**