Silly Billys Roam the World

New Blog!

2008-08-02T02:41:00.000-07:00

Just letting you know that I have started up a new blog for my latest trip and it is almost as good as this one was :-)

The address is: http://sillybilliesreturn.blogspot.com/

Have fun!

A Camel, a Mall and a Gold Souk in Dubai

2007-12-08T18:46:00.000-08:00

Dubai! What a weird place for us to finish our trip...well at least a very big contrast to Italy. As I only had 3 days there we agreed to do the touristy thing...we stayed in a hotel!! And we visited shopping malls! But the shopping malls did have ski fields, Arabic castles, fountain shows to the theme of mission impossible and looked like palaces. On our first day there we swam on the beach with full view of the 'Sail' hotel which claims to be the only 7 star hotel in the world.

A ski field in a shopping mall. What next?

Swimming in the warm Dubai waters...

For breakfast we ate curry which was a delicious variation from pizza and pasta. On day 2 we went on a 'desert safari' which involved a large amount of hooning around sand dunes in 4wd and rather less camel trekking than we had hoped..but nevertheless the camel was very exciting and I am keen for more (desert and camels that is). We had opted for the overnight safari..which transpired everyone else left at 9.30, Chris and I got left at this camp thing with 2 sleeping bags and many ants! Rather interesting, we sat on a dune in the dark and found some scorpion tracks..yikes!

In the morning we were picked up from the desert then delivered back to the hotel. The roads in Dubai are wide and busy; everyone travels by car, big car, here. We visited the gold souk, a famous gold market brimming with diamonds and gold, then the spice souk. We ate at the food court for dinner (all we could really afford) surrounded by women in black veils and men in white suits and an elaborate Egyptian ceiling.

After a 3 hour long bus ride home (the bus system in Dubai is not so flash!) we started packing for me leaving and Chris staying at 1 am. At 3am we were ready and set the alarm for 6 am, great. All was packaged in our ginormous highly patched yellow pack liner sack (rather eye catching and we got strange looks from the fancy suitcase wheeling types). After a short taxi ride I was headed home for NZ, and Chris on the bus to Abu Dhabi for his adventure race. If you want to see how he gets on check out the race site and Sleepmonsters covers adventure races well too. (Chris's team is Nike).

This is a picture of the NZ team Adventure Sport coming in to land on Day 2 of the race this morning:

I am now back in sunny Christchurch for the next four months, Chris is back after the race...then we are heading off on another adventure to Malaysia and then back to Europe again, so you never know I might just have to let silly billys roam the world again and hopefully entertain you again with my appalling spelling (0: Thanks everyone for reading my blog, it was neat to think people were finding out about our adventures as we had them!

Goodbye and Ciao for now,

Mmmmm...looks like scorpions to me!

The Last of Sicily

2007-12-08T18:31:00.000-08:00

After Mt Etna we spent a few days in 'recovery mode', well I did, but Chris spent many hours bobbling about in the sea in a wee kayak. We attempted to sell the bikes in Catania, but had hilarious episodes trying to mime out 'sell bikes' to the shop owners who didn't get it at all. Eventually we got one shop to understand, only to be offered a miserable sum. So we biked back to the campground dejected, only to discover the campground owner was super keen for two new bikes and bought them for a bit more.

Below: Chris enters the choppy waters in Catania...

Below: Chris's bike looking all shiny and clean before it was sold (note his beloved red tyre).

The following day it was raining as we ran (running very late) to the station, missed the train and had to wait 3 hours for another through the centre of Sicily out to Cefalu on the Northern Coast. We found a nice hotel and splashed out on our last Italian pizza. In the morning we swam on the pretty beach and wandered around the town of Cefalu with its large rock. In the afternoon we headed to Oliveri to camp.

We woke early with the intention of catching the train to Milazzo hoping to maybe get out to the Volcano Islands. But, at the station the grumpy little Mr Bean conductor said 'No, no trano till 12 oclock', great. Miserably we wandered around pukey little Oliveri with our large yellow sack. At midday we returned to be told 'No, no trano.....ever...its schobero,...schobero...no trano! No!' And with that he went and hid in his office! Panicked we asked others only to be told sadly 'schobero, yes, schobero'. And no trains came at all. So we went back to the campground to uncover the mistery of this schobero thingee, and discovered that in fact it was a national strike and there were no trains, no planes, no buses and no boats running all day!

So in Oliveri we remained and in the evening discovered a very nice bit of beach just along from our camp spot. In the morning we caught the 7 oclock train to Messina, and then the ferry, and then the 7 hour train up and finally back into bustling Rome. We bused way out to a campsite (were ironically it turned out there was no camping, only cabins?). On Dec 2 we trained to the airport and flew away from a place where we had had some great (if a tad crazy and frustrating) adventures over the past few months!

The Mount Etna Mission!

2007-11-26T11:10:00.000-08:00

At 3300 Mt Etna is biggest and supposedly most active volcano in Europe. We decided to tackle it in a day from sea to summit as it sounded like a worthy challenge! We were told we had to take a guide to get up the last 15 mins to tje crater so we resigned ourselves to that, but decided to skip the gondola and jeep part that would just be cheating. The road goes to 1900 and after cycling that we would go on foot. Realising 3300 climb is rather large undertaking so we set off at 6 am. We cycled through the city in the dark and climbed up to Nicolosi where the city finally ends. It was drizzling and we were worried if our plan would succeed. Finally out of the 'city' the clouds cleared a bit as we cycled through giant old lava fields. Rather tired we finally reached the Refugio Sapienza at 9.45 am where the road ends.

We had been told there was an info centre there, but no such thing could we find, only the grumpy gondola man who could tell us nothing. So we headed up the rocky slope and reached the top of the gondola in about an hour and a half having climbed over some lava flows and up some steep screes. There seemed to be no track whatsoever. It was very misty and only a few people were around and no jeeps seemed to be running at all!

We continued up until we reached the top of hut where we were supposed to get guides, but there was noone there at all. We continued up through some snow folowing some old footprints. Then we came to a snow patch where many large boulders seemed to have landed - overtop of the footprints - without makingany trails int he snow in large craters as if they had landed form some height - a tad unnerved we continued up over hot ground covered in steam and sulfur. Suddenly the cloud cleared amd we could see the crater rim ahead of us. The whole landscape was reveiled and it was spectacular.

We could see miles down into the Catania below several layers of clouds like we were in an aeroplane it felt so high. Beside us was the Southwest crater billowing huge quantities of steam and below us we could see other craters spread out across the slopes. The crater we stood beside was billowing steam which was horribly smelly when it came our way so we didn't stay too long on the summit.

We ran down the shingly slopes admiring all we hadnot seen in the mist on the way up. We got down to the gondola and had a much needed refuel in the afternoon sun, thenm ran the final bit down to the bikes. It was a surreal cruise down the hairpins amongst huge lava flows with the sun setting and we 'whoopeeeed' as we went. Then Chris got 2 more flat tyres! (but luckily by now he was gettingsuper fast at fixing them!) With our flashing lights we entered Catania and negotiated the terrifying traffic to finally arrive safely back at the campspot at 6pm for a well deserved feed.

Later in the evening we spoke to the camp guy who said there had been an eruption of the southwest crater the night before which explained all the mysterious boulders in the snow!! Yikes!!

Since the Mt Etna Mission we have had two more days in Catania doing some more paddling in some interesting seas! (as shown in the photos and video below!). Tommorrow we are going on a train trip to the North Coast for our last few days in Sicily where we hope to visit the Volcano Islands! Today we are trying to sell our now shiny, clean bikes )0: On Dec 2 we fly out from Rome heading for Dubai! So ciao for now (0:

The Amalfie Coast and Southwards

2007-11-26T08:50:00.000-08:00

Finally it was time to depart the happy orangegrove of Pompei after 1 enjoyable week. On a gray rainy morning we packed the paniers and set out first on the train to Sorrento, then on the bikes up over the ridge and down onto the famous Amalfie Coast. The road winds around high up on the cliffs and drops down steeply to blue blue sea. There are villages scattered in the most unlikely places. Other campers at the orange grove had said that the road was notorious for dangerous traffic, but we found it pretty quiet and not too bad, if a tad narrow at times. However, the large quantity of barb wire fences, rubbish, and lack of beach access did detract from it a little.

We continued around the coast and had made it as far as Amalfir township itself when disastor struck. Chris's back rim cracked entirely for no reason! This was rather bad (see below).

So he ran the next 5 km in Minori where there was supposedly a bike shop. Unfortunalty that didn't open till4.30 so we had to muck around for 2 hours. Consequently Chris turned into a monkey and climbed a tree.

When it finally opened the shop sold Chris a new wheel and cluster for a bargain 30 euro (it was pretty crappy stuff, but better than nothing!). So we were off - but unfortunatly now it was 5.30 and dark! So we had a nasty hour riding round the last bit of coast with lots of traffic until we reached Salerno. There we went to the railway station and bought tickets for the 20 min train ride to Paestum. It was late when we arrived, and we started biking towards the campground past the temples which were all lit up in the dark. Then there was a loud growl as a large thunder storm hit, so we arrived drenched at the campground and splashed out on a cabin.

In the morning it was still raining so we wandered to the Greek temples for a look. We went back to the cabin and had some delicious brew ups for the rest of the day. The next day was still pouring, so some interneting and wanderiong along the stormy beach outside the cabin was undertaken.

Finally the next morning was a little clearer so we forked out our money for a wander amoungst the funky temples, then cycled our way into the Cilento National Park on the coast which is baisically just an ugly citiafied coastline and I have no idea why it is called a national park. The ride was gray and the angry dogs barked while rubbish lined the roads...then Chris got a flat tyre, then another. Finally on dark we snuck into a closed campground which felt safe and we slept well.

In the morning we cycled round to Palinuro, hoping to exit the so called national park asap! Just after Palinuro we found a beach we could actually get down to, a rubbishy pine forest and beach but no houses!! So we picnicked then continued round a nicer stretch of coast to a pleasant Marina di Calabris.

From there we headed up a steep clòimb that was supposed to lead us over a 500 m pass to Sapri. However Mr Chris I Am A Good Navigator took us up the wrong hill! So we had to go all the way back down, then round and up the correct 500m pass where there were more barking dogs. Then Chris had a massive tyre blow out on the way down and it was dark - things were looking grim! Luckily we managed to hitch a lift in one of the classic Italien 3 wheel trucks to the railway, got to a bike shop to fix the puncture and caught a train to Sapri. At Apri we cooked dinner on the platform, then caught the 2 hour train ride to Palmi where we knew there was a campground.At 11 pm at night Palmi is a very scray place with big barb fences, not a sole around and lots of big barking dogs. And low and behold the large unclimable gates of the campground was shut and noone answered the buzzer. After some panicking I spotted the large flashing neon HOTEL sign , so that is where we went! It was a 4 star hotel, but the nice man offered us a cheaper rate so it wasn't too expensive and we had a luxiourious sleep both vowing not to let that happen again!

The next day we decided to head away from mainland Italy and it was off to Sicily with train, then a 1 euro ferry ride, then more training to a campground 60 km South along the coast which was definatly supposed to be open. But it was shut! Getting very frustrated we asked some Italiens if they knew somewhere we could stay and they pointed to the seaside. So we found a nice cheap bad and breakfast run by a big Italien lady who spoke no english and we were the only guests. But it was nice and even had a verandah overlooking the beach where we could cook tea. We were in Letojanni, a very small village.

In the morning we decided to head up the Alcantara gorge which had an eyeball on our map which usually means its good. So off along the coast on the bikes , the Taormina headland was nice to lòook at, but all the beaches are owned privatly by hotels which really sucks. We cycled on the busy roads to the big gorge turn off sign and headed in to be told we had to pay 3 euro to go down to the gorge from this big ticket office thing, so we grudgingly paid. The gorge was really nice with large volcanic rocks and we sat and enjoyed our lunch.

We wandered into the cold water of the gorge and up to a wee waterfall.

On our return we noticed another track and headed up that to discover it was a free entrance with no payment required! So we went back and asked for our money back which of course did not go down well and we got no money back. We headed back to our room for a yummy dinner.

We headed off on the following day to Catania by bike. The cycle was not so lovely, pretty dirty, alot of traffic and Chris got 2 more flatties. The coast was lined with factories and rubbish, not what one pictures of idyllic sicillian beaches.We finally reached the outskirts of Catania and located camping Jonio which is right on the seaside. It is a very rocky coast, big black volcanic rocks and very wild at the moment. We set up camp relievd to have for once made it there before dark.

Chris was keen for some paddle practise for Dubai so in the morning we discovered that the campground miraculously hired out little canoe sity on top of things. Getting in and out was pretty tricky with big swells pounding againgst sharp rocks you had to wait for a calm patch then jump in quickly and scramble onto the kayak. We headed round to the Catania port and the coast was pretty ugly, but the swell made it exciting!

When we got backl the guy who lent us them looked rather relieved - i think he thought we were a bit crazy! The Italians wont swim at the moment because the 20 degree balmy water is too cold! In the afternoon we organised oursleves for the grand finale of our cycle touring adventure - the Mount Etna Mission!

Spartacus and the Quest for the Blue Grotto

2007-11-14T05:51:00.000-08:00

Another post for you avid readers! We are now in Pompei and have been for the last week, after catching a train straight here from Rome. We have ahad a cool week basing ourselves in the Spartacus campground beneath brimming orange trees right opposite the Pompei excavations!

We left Rome having finally made it into the collosseum after several attempts (there were very large ques and restricted opening times!). We had an interesting trip down on the train, nearly being charged 50 euro cos we hadn't stamped our ticket (which we were never even told we had to stamp!) The horrible ticket man made Chris get off at a stop, run madly the length of the train to the stamp machine and then jump back on just as the train departed! But Chris jumped in a different door which i didn't see and the ticket man told me the train had left without him! He was a horrible horrible man.

Pompei

The next morning we got up and splashed out on audio guides for Pompei, and spent about 8 hours wandering through the ruins. We really enjoyed it and the audio guides which we would normally cringe a bit at made it even cooler. There were not many people there (it was cold and grey) so we could explore the ruins on our own.

Mt Vesuvius

The next day was the day to conquer Visuvius. We headed panierless up the hill on our bikes, past barking dogs and endless piles of smelly rubbish lining the streets till we had panted our way about half way up the mountain. Then we reached a locked gate. The national park was 'shut'! Furiously we stormed back downhill and it turned out we had to go up a completly different way to get up. So we cuaght the train round to Ercolano, up another busy smelly road, and finally out of sprawling Naples into the National Park. The road had large barb wire fences on either side, bcause the national park is 'off limits' except for many roaming stray dogs and rubbish. We were rather annoyed and when we reached the top carpark were faced with a steep fee to wlak up a narrow track which went along the crator but not to the summit. We did get great views across Naples and Pompei, but vesuvius was an eye opening experience into Italys management of its National Parks.

Kayaking!

The following days mission was to somehow go sea kayaking. Tricky, when almost everything is closed for winter, but we attempted it anyway. We caught the train to Sorrento which is a very pretty city on the coast towards Capri. There we hunted around in vain until we spotted some kayaks on the beach. After asking about 6 different people we assitained they belonged to some sort of club. There was a model boat contest on, and the president amongst them was apparently the one to ask. However, an officila looking guy kept sending us away, so when he disapeared for a coffee we snuck in and Chris went round saying 'President? President?' till up popped the very friendly President who lent us a double sea kayak for the whole day for free!

We kayaked along the coast which almost entirely vertical sea cliff with little houses perched everywhere. It was great fun, we explored some caves and blowholes. After catching the train back to the campground we went out to dinner with 4 friendly Australians who were staying in the campground too.

Blob Day

The next day was rainy so we blobbed.

Capri and the Blue Grotto!

Well, this really was the exciting bit, and what you've all been waiting for. We headed back to Sorrento on the train (it was a nice sunny day, not super hot, but not too cold either). Once in Sorrento we caught the ferry out to Capri. The Island is very cool with steep sided cliff, and all those coloured mediteranian houses all on the cliffs. The 'Blue Grotto' is a sea cave on one side of the island with a one metre wide entrance and inside is a big blue pool. You can only get in by swimming in the sea. Of course Chris wanted to go there (suprise surprise). Normally they go in there in these little boats, but the sea was apparently too rough so noone could go there.

We met two friendly germans, Tim and Albert, who were also drawn to the allure of the evasive blue grotto. However, after some consideration we all settled on a boat trip round another part of the Island. The sea was pretty rough, and it was quite exciting going underneath the big arch.

After the boat ride Chris and I dived into the inky blue sea at the Marina Piccolo to the amazement of some of the locals, but at 20 degrees the water seemed pretty warm to us!

After lunch we parted with the germans who had given up on the blue grotto. But Chris had not! We bused up to Anacapri town, then walked through a maze of streets past barking dogs till eventually we found a hidden little path which led downwards.....

There were some fishermen fishing, but not another sole in sight when we got to the Grotto. The sky was grey, it was cold, there was a sign saying it was forbidden to swim in the grotto, but nevertheless we had to do it. (We had seen photographic evidence of people swimming in the grotto in books and postcards all round the town, and our boat driver assured us everyone does it!). So, ignoring all the deterrents we jumped into the sea and swam into the grotto (about 5ms swimming just in case I was making this sound too difficult). The grotto was an awesome blue, and you could sea hundreds of metres down below your feet. Just as we swam out a big cruise boat turned up and the people on board thought it was hilarious, waving and clapping.

Unfortunatly our fantastic movie of the grotto is too big to put on here and the photos are not so exciting (no delicious blue colour shows)...

So this picture here shows what it did to look like:

So, victorious, we wandered up to the highest point of the Island for a beautiful view as it got dark and all the lights went on. Our German friends were most jealous when they saw our video and I think the pull of not swimming in the blue grotto may well lure them back to Capri (0:

When we got back to the orange grove we were fed dinner in the caravan of two very friendly older Italien men who hardly spoke any english, but insisted on filling us with a good italian pasta and coffee to follow.

Now we are in Pompei again, and its raining, yucky. But tommorrow we plan to finally leave our orange grove and cycle round the famous Amalfie coast to Paestum. Then onwards South to the warm Isles of Sicliy. Back to eating more oranges!

A week in Tuscany

2007-11-06T02:40:00.000-08:00

We have made it to Rome after a week filled with a mixture of cycling, catching trains and avoiding crazy hunters! We left Florence on a fine day after a couple of days exploring Florence and sheltering in our house tent from the rain, with the plan to cycle through to Pisa beach that day. However, after abour two hours making our way through the crazy streets of Florence and some rediculously busy roads we decided the train sounded much more appealing. After following some confusing signs we located the station, bought tickets and had an interesting time carrying pannier laden bikes up and down steps and onto the train. Once onboard it was a relief to watch the countryside whizz by and not have to be amongst the traffic. We caught the train as far as Lucca.

Lucca is a cool wee city with old city walls and was a lot less busy than Florence. We ate ice creams before heading off on our bikes to Pisa. The natural park were we wanted to camp was was closed, so we had to continue into central Pisa, where all the camping grounds were shut! So we biked a few km out of Pisa and camped in a really nice piece of forest not far from Marina Di Pisa which we visited in the morning. We then returned to Pisa central and ate lunch beneath the leaning tower on the grassy lawn which was very pleasant.

Then we decided we would continue on with the train to Sienna, seeing as the trains seemed cheap and pretty easy with the bikes. They have a bike compartment at either the front and the back where we can stash the bikes.

We reached Sienna quite late and faced the same problem as in Pisa, all the accomodation was either closed or completly full. So off into the forest we went for another camp. We spent the next day wandering round Sienna's pretty bussling streets. By late afternoon we cruised out of the city and into the rolling hills of Tuscany farmland. We both breathed a little sigh of relief at another peaceful stretch in the hills - as cool as the cities are it is nice to get out of them!

As we cruised down another hill I heard a mighty crash behind me to see Chris panniers flying through the air! His pannier attachment had completly broken, so we spent some time manufacturing a new one. Then we continued on to a pretty foresty spot to camp.

In the morning we were woken to the usual sounds of guns of the thousands of hunters who seem to roam the countryside. Only this morning there were even more of them! We continued through the forests on a well marked walking and 4wd track only to find ourselves in a grove of hunters! They we all hiding in wee camoflage sheds shooting at birds! So we retreated very quickly! Once back on the road we agreed that sad as it was we would have to avoid all forest camping and forests in general! There were hunters everywhere and the whole day the sound of guns reverberated around the beautiful countryside.

We continued on along the big ups and downs, all the villages seem to be located on the tops of hills and the roads went to all of them. Later in the afternoon we came across a very strong sulfur smell and found oursleves amidst hundreds of campervans, and beneath the road some great steaming hot pools! So we stripped and joined the throngs in the pools, it was like an extensive superior Sylvia Flats.

After a good soak, and some chilly dips in the cold river we jumped back on the bikes and continued through the countryside. It was a lovely balmy warm day making a great change from our normal frigid climes. We camped in a paddock in the wide open, deciding that being told off was less scary than being shot!

Noone disturbed us and in the morning headed into Grossetto back on the Mediteranian coast. We wanted to find out some info about all the hunters and where we should go, or not go, but there don't seem to be helpful information centres anywhere, unlike the Dolomites. So in the end we decided to finish with Tuscany, too dangerous, and continue our journey South. We caught the train to Rome, and carefully cycled through the busy roads to our preplanned campground. The Vatican was all lit up in the night.

Rome, we have decided, is much more suited to cars and buses and trains than little bikes so we have caught the local bus to see the sights. Today we are planning to go see the Collosseum which looks very exciting! Then we catch the train to Pompei tommorrow where we head off on another adventure through a bit of National Park along the coast.

Finally in Florence

2007-10-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

So we have arrived in Flornce after a 7 day journey to get here. The ride out from Venice to Commachio on day 1 was, to be honest, horrible. It was a bleak day and even the supposedly quiet road we travelled along was full of trucks. We left late (that is a surprise) and we still had 60km to go when it got dark, opps. Luckily we bought a map in Adria, and managed to ride very quiet roads and cycle paths and avoid all traffic, it seemed much better in the dark!

We got back to the coast and found a spot amongst the dunes in the rain and nestled into the tent to the sound of the surf after 140km of flat riding. In the morning I woke up to find I could hardly see because my eyes were really swollen from mosquito bites! Great, I had to spend the whole day hidden behind Chris's big dark glasses. We arrived in Comachio, which is like a tiny Venice, and wandered for an hour or two, Chris proudly managing to jump across an entire canal to my horror (and amazement!).

Then we continued through to Ravenna, got completly lost leaving town, rode across some thistle bushes and Chris got 3 punctures successivley! By now it was 11.30 at night, and by the time we biked to where we had been planning to go it was 1 am while we cooked our tea in the forest... not so good!

In the morning it was still raining, and I was still Miss Puffy eyes. We biked into Forli and huddled in a warm bakery for lunch, located another topo map for the next section of our trip and a bike map for much needed brake pads and cables. Then we went shopping for supplies and rode up the hill (in the dark, again!) to find a nice spot in a random paddock thing.

No skimping on goodies to keep us going. That fellow in the centre is our friend Tiramisu (nicknamed terry...so delicious for 1.70 euro!

The next day we vowed things would work out and we would not ride in the dark...but calamity struck again. We set of earlier for change and rode on up the hill, then sensibly skipped a mtb section because the weather was still crappy. We dropped down to Prousteccio, had a warmupachino, then up a 600m climb to the pass. There we turned off onto the planned mtb route along to a wee refugio shown on the map. It was getting dark (yes it really was) andraining. Then the snow got deeper and deeper, till we were pushing, then shuttling one bike at a time, and it took both of us to push one bike along!

By 9pm we were still going and both rather tired! Our arms were dead! By 10pm we finally got my bike to the refuge, which thankfully had the back window open, so we snuck in and it looked good with a wee potbelly and plenty of wood (I presume it was shut for winter). Back down for one last push of Chris's bike and finally we were there! We got the pot belly going and ate tiramisu cake...delicious. At 2pm we finally went to bed!

Ok, so that was finally the end of such sillyness! The next day was still raining, so we spent most of the day by our friend pot belly. Then we pushed the bikes the final hour out to the road, checked out a couple of the other refuges marked on the map, but none of them were open so it was back up the hill to our friend Mr Potbelly for a relaxing warm evening.

The next day was nicer, so we cruised out from the hut (the snow was beginning to melt and our tracks from the day before made it a bit easier). Then we biked down the hill before turning onto another mtb track which was quite fun, but involved lifting the bikes of fallen trees and through the odd slip. The trees were all golden and before the sun set we found a pretty campspot and made a delicous fire to sit beside. We ran out of petrol for the stove so cooked on the fire and looked up at the stars.

In the morning we attached some new brake pads so we actually had some brakes again, then continued along the muddy track. We reached the road and drifted down through the yellow trees in the sun into Prattovecchio. From there we climbed over a small pass then down valley 30km into Florence where we had already cunningly sussed out a cool campground to stay at.

We found ourselves a 'house tent' at the Michaelangelo campground amongst olive trees from the 13 century which has a view over the whole of Venice, it seems very pleasant. We had a meal at a pizzeria, and ended up through some serious miscommunication ordering 1.0 liters of white wine, then Chris thought it was water so started guzzling it. But we had asked for red wine, so Chris asked to swap...and we ended up with .5 litres of red as well! So then we had to get through 1.5 liters of wine! We sat there for some hours...and eventually managed to make our way through most of it returning home thinking it was all rather hilarious (0:

Today was spent wandering round Florence admiring interesting reproductions of 'David' and the lady in the conch shell by (?), and lots of beautiful architecture, and some icecreams and pizzas, mmmm. Tommorrow we will continue our towards Pisa which I suspect will take 3-4 days. So thats us for now...back to that cozy wee house tent!

Venezia!

2007-10-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well, in the end we spent 5 days in Venice because our cosy little cabin with its very own heat pump was sooo luxourious. The cabin was in a campground in Mestre, which is a suburb on the mainland and to get our to Venice proper you have to cross a big bridge over the lagoon to the island.

On the first day we headed out to the island we had a rather interesting time. The information lady informed us 'everyone bikes and walks over to the island...they all do it'. You cannot bike or drive on the island, but apparently this was a usual way to get out there. So off we went...but before long we were on a big horrible motorway with no retreat..yikes! After some terrifying time we reached the bridge, where in the middle of nowhere a cycle path miraculously appeared..i have no idea how you are supposed to get onto it! So we biked across and locked up bikes up. There were NO other bikes around and I am confident we are amongst a rare few to have breved the gaunlet to get out there!!

We wandered the canaled streets and Chris even got confused there are so many narrow alleyways! The $180 gondola rides proved a little beyond us sadly and Chris had to turn down the funky $800 Venetian glass vase because it wouldnt quite fit in his pannier (0:

At the end of the day it was time to brave the motorway again, yikes, this time in a thunder storm in the dark! But we survived through an ingenious route involving grass wheeling, bush bashing, lifting bikes over fences, train tracks, and small buildings and never biked on the road at all!

Leaving our little home..

Needless to say, the following two days we took the pleasant 15 minute train ride out to the island. A lot more relaxing! Eventually we decided it was time to depart Venice and we packed our gear and we were on the road again...

The Great Altopiano Maze...and the conquering of Mt Forno!

2007-10-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

I write this post from an internet cafe in Venice! Yes, it is amazing but we have finally reached Venice. The two previous posts which are also new were written in Levico Terme, but the silly librarian decided we weren't allowed to use the internet again, so I couldn't publish them till now, grrr! So apologies for the delay.

Anyway, we got here and now I will tell you how.

From Levico Terme we bought a map, and spoted the Altopiano dei Sette Comuni, a 'highplain' riddled with old 4WD tracks that sat between us and Venice, including a peak named Monte Forno. We had to go there. So we began yet another huge grind (a 1500m climb day) up a very windy, very very narrow little road to Passo Vezzena (1404).

Then the road we took continued around gradually climbing up to the Alto Piano. It was a remarkably warm sunny day, with lots of Italians out for a sunny sunday stroll, and the friendly farmland reminded us of Banks Peninsula. We had a picnic in the sun, and then continued on past mushroom pickers and walkers alike. As it got later the road got trickier, big stones which were very difficult with our panniers and skinny tyres.

Luckily we reached the first of several bivvies we had seen on the map, and despite its tiny size and simplicity, it proved a comfortable wee home for the night. It was in a cool spot surronded by tussocky hills, and some ruins from the war. The whole Altopiano was the scene of battle in WW1 between Italy and Austria, and is covered in tunnels and ruins. We had some candles and a bottle of red wine...what more could we need?

We had a late start for a pretty cruisy day, continuing up the difficult rocky mountain bike road, testing our balance skills. We came across a pretty well and filled up with water, then walked 30 minutes into the coolest bivvy ever! It had a wonderful view back over the Dolomites, and was super cozy with a roaring fire (there were 2 Italian guys already staying there) a mezzanine with one big mattress were Chris and I slept, and heaps of supplies like candles, running water, sugar etc etc. In the setting sun we decided to walk to the highest peak of the Altopiano called Cima Dodici, which took about 30 mins and we got an amazing view over the ranges we had been over the last 2 weeks. It was wonderful.

Back at the hut the Italian guys treated us to their '8 Star' hosptiality, and plied us with beer, fancy cheese, chocolates, cakes till we were bursting! Then we slept in the 'Sahara' that was the top bunk - a bit too hot! We got up really late and returned to the bikes just after lunch time..opps. Back on to the 'battle with the rocks' we continued down the road to Mt Forno, a rather insignificant summit, perhaps, but nevertheless it had to be climbed. We bush bashed through the pines, and Chris emerged victorious at the top for a photoshot on his very own mountain (o:

Then it was on down through the Altopiano maze... our map was hopeless and there were tracks everywhere. It took hours of biking on rough tracks up and down before we finally emerged from the maze just as it got dark! We reached Asiago, then biked up into a further maze in the pine forests above Asiago on the hunt for a campspot. The area was full of War Graves, and in the dark the looming pine trees made it rather eerie, and we crept thankfully into our friendly wee tent and fell asleep. We were woken to the sound of gunfire, and for some time thought we had travelled back in time! We hastily packed up, and biked further through the pine maze to discover there were hunters everywhere blasting away despite the fact there were actually lots of walkers about...we decided they had obviously forgotten the war was over!

Thankfully we exited the maze after some hours, and descended over 1000m into the haze of the plains! We reached Ballano by midday, ate lunch, then decided to tackle the nasty final stretch into Venice. Unfortunatly our map for this section was also terrible, and the roads were so so busy. Trucks grumbled past, and we ended up diving of sideroads to try and escape. As a result we biked far more then the 60 km, and after 4.5 hour solid biking finally arrived on the outskirts of Venice.

It was another mission to find our prebooked abin at a campground, due to unpassable motorways, roads, train tracks, etc.. but by 9 oclock we had finally found it, and collapsed gratefully on the comfortable beds in our warm cabin. What a relief! So that's how we got here! Now we plan to have a couple of days here, go and explore Venice proper, then continue South on another adventure across through Tuscany to Pisa, following some Mountainbike routes we have on a neat map Albert gave us, which should take about 10 days. After that...well..you will have to wait and see! Goodbye! (Text al la Em, photos al la Chris).

Molto Belluno Dolomites

2007-10-18T04:41:00.000-07:00

Another plan hatched in the tent begins! So as the light of morning entered our tent in our camp spot just out of Alleghe we reluctantly rose to a chilly morning with frost everywhere. We continued down the valley to our lowest point so far- a puny 663 at Cencenighe Agordino, then turned hard right and began climbing again (surprise!) to Falcade for a few more supplies just bacause our lugsacks weren't quite full enough. We decided we were the first ever 'roving pantries' carrying with us all food supplies necessary for a four course meal and more, great when you are about to climb over 1400m in one go!

So it was up up up to Passo di Valles (2031), and we roared up the final 800m to the pass at a climb rate which would have worked out to a 24 minute Dyers time, which with our luggers and mountain bikes seemed pretty speedy! We both wished we could pop home for a quick time trial up Dyers on our race bikes and set some new personal bests (-: The road going up to the pass was wonderfully quiet, and we sat on the top of the pass for a snack wondering why, until we realised we were both absolutly freezing and then we remembered it was becoming winter! So we biked down the hill to the turn off to our 'bikes only' route up the Val Venegia. The valley was beautiful even if very cold. The bikes were stashed yet again, and we prepared for a steep climb up into the mountains where we planned to do a 3 day tramp before returning to the bikes.

The track zig zagged steeply up through the very yellow pines, then onto a scree slope. It was a stiff 600m climb up to the Refugio del Mulaz, and on the way we saw 8 mountain goats, but not a soul. We got to the cold hut just on dark and searched every door hoping for a winterroom. All were locked....until I climbed some wee stairs and found a cozy winter room for us hidden on the top floor of the hut, pheeweee. We cooked up a feast and snuggled into the cozy blankets provided by the hut.

It was very misty in the morning, and we didn't emerge from the hut till about midday. The Ref Mulaz was shaded by a huge tower, so at this time of year it practically doesn't get any sun. With all our warm gear on we climbed up the snowy slope and followed our marked route up and over Passo delle Farangole (2969) which had an awesome section of easy via Ferrata leading us into the next valley. Here Chris was keen for a climb up to an even higher pass, so I reluctantly followed (I was tired from our mere 2000m altitude gain the day before!). We scrambled up a scree slope, then a snowy one which we had to kick steps into to Passo Bureloni (3139). On the way down my drink bottle decided to commit suicide, and bombed its way down an insanely steep gully, opps.

So, as it got colder again we sidled round the very steep hillside on another bit of cool via Ferrata, then into a flat basin and up to the rocky plain where Refugio Rosetta (2581) is situated. The landscape was neat, a sort of rocky Mt Owen. The winterroom in the hut was very cozy, with a great view out the window, and we had the whole place to oursleves.

We had a big day ahead of us as we planned to get close to Borgo Valsugana, which would involve another 2000m climb on the bikes, plus the 3 hour walk back down to pick them up. We set off by 8.30am (!) and headed down a very steep track into the valley. We passed the ugliest gondola with montstrous buildings at each end. The whole valley really would have looked much better without it.

Then on down into lovely red, gold and yellow forest and up to Passo del Mulaz. From there we dumped our packs and jogged down to the bikes, grabbed them, and biked back up the shingle road to the pass. We ate lunch in the variable sun and looked up at the spectacular towers were we had walked the day before. Then it was down from the Pass to join up with Passo Rolle. Then a huge descent from there into Mezzano, then up a 300m to Passo di Gobbera (nicknamed the gobbler by Emily). From there we dropped down into Canal San Bovo, before a 700m climb up to Passo del Brocon (1615). The heights of the passes were now lower - but we were starting from lower so the climbs were still massive.

Still, we knew there were now not so many passes left before we would reach the flat lands near Venice, so 'we'd better savour them' (quote: Chris). It was getting dark when we arrived at the top of the pass so we found a campspot just off the road and I got into my sleeping bag while Chris cooked the dinner (my treat after such a mission day!).

The next day was sunny, but nevertheless we put on all our warm gear for a massive descent down into Borgo Valsugana, and a well deserved sumptuous breafast. From there our mission was of a slightly different variety: clean clothes, clean selves, get hepatitus shots(?). The third task was a result of the shots we already had in Munich and we were supposed to get a follow up shot 5 weeks later.

This proved rather an adventure:

Step 1: go to information centre: they say go to doctors clinic
Step 2: Doctors clinic = they send us to hospital
Step 3: Lost wandering round wards, see hospital information sign
Step 4: Man at information speaks no english, spends much time yabbering rapid italian on phone, eventually send us away with some crazy directions.
Step 5: Into another ward, wandering round, patients everywhere, oh dear...
Step 6: helpful lady, no english, consults fellow nurse.
Step 7: fellow nurse leads us to another building with sign 'vaccinations!'
Step 8: 2 friendly doctors, not one word english.
Step 9: they phone someone on their cell phone who speaks english and we make progress.
Step 10: needles prepared.
Step 11:Much much more fast Italian discussion while we sit and wait...
Step 12: Success! Amazingly, we got our injections after some hours (0:

Anyway, that was very funny. That night we reached Levico Terme were it turned out all the campgrounds were shut, so we had a quick naked dip in the lake, and washed our gear at the local Laundriette (poor laundriette ladies - it was sooo smelly), then camped over night beside the lake. And we were out of the Dolomites, and now ready for our final foray in the mountains before the plains of Italy.

Below: Chris proudly showing off our clean clothes all neatly packaged in these little plastic bags...just like new!

The 'Selle Runde' and more!

2007-10-13T02:27:00.000-07:00

Back to the posts after a long time in the hills! My last post, as you will probably know, was sent from Cortina D'Ampezzo, where we stayed in Carravanamania campground. Hundreds of caravans, virtually nowhere to tent and the place was desserted, very odd. We spent a day there lazing around before packing up and taking a 'shortcut' up to Falzarego pass, via a rediculously steep 4wd track, and then a walking track that is illustrated wonderfully in the following image! Chris's 'Fantastic Short Cut', hmmmm!

So, after some time shuttling bikes, panniers etc we made it to the main road, for a remarkably gentle climb up to Falzarego Pass (2016) and another warmupachino. Then we cruised over the final bit of the pass in the evening light and were given the most amazing view down valley with all the pines turning golden. We drifted down valley, excited that all the snow seemed to have melted and found a nice spot beside a pretty lake to camp just before it got dark.

Emily cooking the most gigantic Italian pasta shells!

In the morning we continued down valley and located a supermarket to do another big load up. We seem to be terrible at buying vast quantities of food to lug, because we can't be bothered stopping at supermarkets all the time, and keep planning overnight excursions into the mountains. So with laden panniers we climbed the Passo Gardenia, part of the Gruppo di Selle which is a loop over four passes in the Dolomites. We planned to only do 3 of the passes, bacause that fitted in better with our plans.

The pass was a 600m climb, then a descent to about 1800m, then another 400m climb to Passo Selle. There were heaps of Roadies out, it seems this is a very popular cycle route (and lots of buses and motorbikes too).

Unfortunatly (and for a reason that will not be disclosed in this blog!) we ended up having to drop down 800m to the town of Canazie from the Passo Selle(2244) instead of continuing up to Passo Pordoi (2388). Then in Canazei we had to keep going down to Pozzo di Fassa, so by the time we had sorted out what we needed to sort out we had over 1000m to climb back up to where we needed to be! We got back to Canazie in time for a yummy pasta dinner, then continued up the winding road to Pordoi in the dark. The few cars that drove past must really have wondered what we were up to.

We camped in the forest, and in the morning it was raining with some thunder (brrr), so we waited in the tent till it stopped around 1 pm. After that we cruised the last 400m climb up to Passo Pordoi in time for yet another warmuppachino and a repack for another little hiking mission.

We stashed the bikes up the hill beneath a gigantic gondola, then wandered up the steep rocky slopes to the first Refugie, which was shut. Then on up to the Piz Boè (3152) there was a wee sign pointing us down to the winterroom at the next hut about 30 mins away. So we descended on a bit of easy via Ferrata, and made it to a very cozy little winterroom (a wee room with some bunks) just on dark.

In the morning we sat out in the sun and laughed at the trails of people making their way out of the gondola towards the huts "early bird catches the worm again" we laughed - it was 10 oclock in the morning! Then we hiked back up to Piz Boe refuge and cooked up a brew in the sun, and admired the spectacular view. We wandered back down to the pass beneath some wonderful towers, admiring all the Via Ferrata routes we will have to come back and do! Once we got back to Passo Pordoi we retrieved our bycycles and headed down some switch backs to another turnoff half way down the pass.

From this point we had yet another cunning plan to bike around some ski roads sidling around the hillside, the to pop over a wee pass up to a bivy we noticed on the map. The late afternoon sun looked great on the tussocky slopes, and it was wierd biking past all these huge buildings and ski tows which were deserted, but looked as if they were bristling in anticipation for the coming ski season. Getting up the pass actually consisted of us pushing our bikes up a freshly mowed ski slope, which was rather tough! Once at the pass we stashed our bikes behind some rocks again, and did another 'transition' to our tramping packs and walked for half an hour up to a cool Bivacco. It was nestled amongst some big rocks, looking directly out towards Mt Marmolada, which is one of the biggest mountains in the Dolomites with a glaciated face and a hut right on top!

The bivvy was cozy, and clearly a climbers hangout. There is a huge via ferrata starting right by the hut. In the morning we wandered up to the very top of the hill and had the most amazing view over the Dolomites, as well as an eerie drop off a cliff looking back down to the valley we had sidled around yesterday. We lazed in the delicious sun for some time before mustering the enthusiasm to head down from the 'molto bella' spot.

This cunning side excursion meant it was only a small descent down a very rocky 4wd road and we were at the top of another pass to add to our belts (-: We hit the main road at Passo Di Fedaia (2057) then wound down the valley on yet another fantastic descent to Alleghe were we bought a record number of new supplies from the supermarket, mmm. We continued down valley and once the sun set it was freezing, so a little hunting and a suitable flat spot was located beside an old 4wd road. Sleep and food... delicous, and we readied ourselves with some map planning for our next expedition starting the following day!

Dolomighty Dolomites!

2007-10-03T08:44:00.000-07:00

Well, just a quick post while we are in Cortina D'Ampezzo (same story - very expensive internet).

The afternoon in Bruneck made an interesting little story - our bag of groceries got nicked. This might not sound that bad, but it contained our precious titanium spoons, and $50 worth of groceries. So while camping in a nice wee spot in the forest near Bruneck I managed to eat dinner with our little spatular, and Chris considered the billy grip, or a tent peg, but resorted to a nacho as the best option - it was highly amusing and we reminisced a similar situation when I recall Joe eating his dinner off a chain whip! It's amazing how irreplaceable spoons are (-:

We went back down to Bruneck in the morning and sadly replaced all the groceries. Just before we left town we went to throw away our rubbish I noticed that the bin contained most of our groceries untouched! So we spent the next half hour quietly delving into the rubbish bin to retrieve all our precious belongings! Phewee.

So away we went up past Enneberg in the rain. Once we reached Enneberg we stopped for another warmupuccino and then continued up the misty valley until we noticed a picnic area with a wee wooden hut. After a brief inspection it was deemed 'an excellent place to stop' and we settled down for a nice dry evening.

In the morning we were woken by the sun, and emerged to a sepctacular steep sided valley. Back on the bikes we continued up the Val Dei Tamersc to the Rifugio Perdu. There the road steepend dramatically and became unsealed and it was a real chug up to a flatter point, then another grunt up to the Faneshuette. There was fresh snow on all the surrounding peaks, and only a few other bikers about and we basked in the sun on the deck of the hut for lunch - it was great. Then a short snowy uphill section and we crossed the Ju de Limo and bumped down a rather tricky gravelly road for several hours till we made it out to the main road. From there we cruised along to Lago Misurina, the lake everyone has told us to go to. It was beautiful, and we could see the famous Tre Cinne di Lavaredo. All coated in fresh snow, unfortunatly including our little campspot in the forest, brrrr.

Another sunny day dawned, and we ate a leisurely breakfast by the lake then started a mission of a climb up to the Auronzohuette right beneath the Tre Cinne. Once there the view out over all the Dolomites made the climb worth it. We repacked our gear, hid our bikes, and set out for a little wander on the track which goes around the Tre Cinne. It was incredibly snowy, and the plan had been to stay at the nice warm hut on the other side of the Cinne, but we passed a man who commented that the hut was 'geschlossen' (shut!).

It was a fantastic evening but we were a bit worried about where we would stay. However, on arrival the hut we discovered a little 'Winterraum' with nice little bunks - just like an NZ hut. So we enjoyed having the beautiful view and hut all to ourselves after the crowds of the daytime.

In the morning it took some time for the crowds to arrive so we enjoyed breakfast on the benches outside the hut in peace. Then we went and some amazing caves up one of the ridges which were built during the war. They went up the mountain for ages with heaps of little holes in the cliff you could peak out from. The climbing and via ferata here also looked awesome, and we are now quite excited to come back in summer with some gear.

In the afternoon we headed back down to Misurina, then into Cortina D'Ampezza to a campground for a much needed shower and some washing after 10 days scungyness (0: Now it's on to planning our continuing journey south, first through the Marmalada, then on down to Venice where we will probably arrive in about ten days. Well, better get biking!

Brrrrrrrrrrrr Brunico...

2007-09-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

Again from the warmth and free interneting of a fantastic public library I write another post! This time in Brunico Italy! (Make sure you also check out the ´Lienzer Dolomiten´post I also published a few minutes ago).

After a rainy night camped beside the riverbank in Lienz we cruised off up another valley towards yet another pass. The forecast was not good, and it was very chilly so we coaxed ourselves along by the prospect of a warm coffee in St Leonard.

Biking in the wet and cold is horrible, I now officially declare! So, as we reached St Leonard, due to a small break in the rain and a few wee arguments between a sodden Emily and a sodden Chris we continued up valley. The weather was supposed to get even worse on the following day (Friday) and climbing the pass before the snow got thicker did seem the sensible if unappealing decision.

We turned off up towards Klammjoch Pass (2288) which is a recommended cycle route and shingle road. The valley was beautiful and would have been a fantastic bike route were it not for the rain come sleet come snow. We stopped for a hot coffee at the Oberhausalm and put new brake pads on the bikes seeing as neither of us really had any brakes left.

Then it was up up up over the pass as the snow fell thickly. Luckily we stayed warm all the way up, and cunnigly put all our warm gear on 100m before the top, so as to descend with some internal climbing warmth remaining. I commented to Chris that this part of the trip was starting to feel a bit like an adventure race! He just grinned in reply.

We descended quickly and found a patch of dry forest right beside the small town of Luttach. After a dinner brew up we jumped into our sleeping bags and gradually began to warm up.

However, Chris got colder in the night, and we couldn´t understand why until we unzipped the tent in the morning to discover lots of fresh snow! We had descended at least 600m below the snow line last night so it had got even colder. So maybe it was just as well we had already climbed the pass.

Above: Chris in the morning in the snow, in the bushes to his left you can just make out our little purple tent.

We put every clothing item we had on and did lots of star jumps before descending another 800m, and continuing down valley to Brunico, where it is not snowy, just grey and rainy. Here we have spent several hours drinking yummy coffee and eating pizza! (What else do you do in Italy?) The forecast is now expected to improve, so we really hope so. Until it does I think coffee and pizzas will be our biggest goal (0:

Above: Emily rides around the ´cycle only´round-about in Brunico! Wooopeee!

A chilly night in the Lienzer Dolomiten

2007-09-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

Above our campspot by the Tristacher See where the orienteering event took place the road wound up the hill into the large granite Lienzer Dolomite mountains. So after some debate the pull of these wonderful looking peaks and the prospect of a cozy hut high up amoungst them lured us back to the lake to camp after our day spent internet hunting in Lienz.

The next day dawned remarkably warm and we enjoyed a slow paced cruise up, up, up through by now very autumnal looking forests. We were able to mountain bike all 1400 m up to the Karlsbader Hütte, and from there the veiw was spetacular.

In the evening we cruised up the nearby ´Rote Turm´which was a easy rock climb (Chris went right to the top...but i didn´t because easy as it was I would still have preferred a rope) (Anne is exclaiming "Christopher!" right now (-: ). I was a little annoyed at not getting to the top.... Anyway, we got back to the hut just as it got dark, and cooked outside in the freezing cold while everyone else bought expensive food in the warm inside, as usual.

In the morning there was snow everywhere! Rather a contrast from the day before and our initial thoughts were to stay at the hut another night, but the owners were not very friendly, and we had the impression we were only welcome if we were spending lots on food...grrr. We don´t like this commercialism in the moutains, we miss happy simple little NZ huts.

So, down we headed, back to Lienz where we found a cozy public library to warm up in... go libraries!

Östereich und das Großglockner Abenteuer!

2007-09-24T08:45:00.000-07:00

Well, back to the internet finally! We´ve had a very cool week and it seems like ages ago since I last added a post. I have to say that it is so hard to get good internet access here in Lienz, Austria, which is rather surprising, but after a whole day hunting around we finally found this place (its now 8 pm), a small smelly pub with 3 PC´s where they have let us use our USB card.

So now I have to think back ten days ago to Sterzing Vipitino where we set out in the sunny afternoon up valley once I finished blogging at the Cafe. After a short climb (and a beesting because one decided it liked my bosom!) we entered a wonderful steep sided valley and cruised up towards Pfitzerjoch Pass (2246). After some time the road turned to gravel and there was no traffic, it was great. About half way up we came out of the forest to a nice flat grassy spot with a magnificent veiw down valley so we decided to camp there. We spent several hours brewing hot soup and coffees.

In the monring the sun was slow to rise so we decided to climb our pass and have breakfats in the sun on top. We got hotter and hotter as we climbed and ended up stripping down layer by layer till i was in my bra and shorts and Chris just his shorts! We looked pretty strange with our towing mechanism also in action, but luckily when we arrived at the Hütte on top there was no one really about. We sat on a bench with a great view and gradually put on more clothes as the clouds rolled in.

Spiders...

After about an hour we set out on the most awsome downhill. The track was more a walking track and provided some tricky mountain biking, much to the amusement of all the predominantly older walkers pouring up the other side of the pass. Eventually we reahed a big lake for lunch, then down the valley into Zell. At Zell we turned off and headed up again towards the Hohe Tauern National Park. As it grew darker we spoted a cycle path and a foresty park and found a good wee shady spot to hide our tent. This spot was to become known as the ´spider spot´because of the hundreds of daddy long legs spiders which kept crawling up us! It was a big relief to zip up the tent!

We ate breakfast in the park, then headed through Gerlos on a hunt for topo maps of the area. We found a map with some moutain bike tracks on it, and decided to take that round the Gerlos Lake, then up the Wildherlostal Valley. The mtb trail turned from a nice open track t a fallen down tree mission which was pretty interesting with panniers and nvlved much pannier then bike lugging, and highly amused an Austrian family out for a walk. After several hours we finally reached the other end of the lake, and collapsed in a heap on the lake shore for a chilly swim and several hours food consumption.

As the sun went down we climbed further up valley till we spotted the Zittauer Hütte high up on the ridge, and decided we really ought to go there. So, we stashed the bikes and panniers and strapped all overnight gear to our daypacks. The route climbed steeply past a waterfall and it was beauiful in the late evening sun walking up surrounded by towering snowy peaks. We managed to halve the estimated track time, and found a cosy and unsnowy wee spot hiden from the Hütte right besdie the lake just before it got dark.

Sunny but windy in the morning and Chris had only just managed to keep warm all night in his thin wee sleeping bag. We ate breakfast in the lake in the sun and watched enviously as two climbers scaled the snow capped summits of the peak abve the lake. We decided to wander up to the upper lake, which proved interesting due to many large boulders with snow which you fell through up to your waist! We found it easier just to slide on our stomachs in the end, and we reached the lake after several hours which should have taken about 20 mins!

A little frustrated and rather wet, we trudged back down to our cycles in the valley, then out for a 70 km blast through Kramml and Mittersill to Zell Am See where we camped. We glanced up at the snowy peaks asd they whizzed past and wondered which ones it was that Ed climbed a few weeks earlier.

Großglockner Hochalpenstraße

In the morning it was the big climb up over the Großglockner Hochalpine Strasse! So we set off early (for Em and Chris) and with our towing technique down pat we flew up the mountain past heaps of other cyclits, much to the amusement of a bunch of French motorbikers who later tooted and cheered as they past us again. The weather deteritorated as we neared the top, and as we entered the tunnel on the top of the pass we both felt pretty knackered and even Chris thought it was time for a rest day! We had climbed for about 3 hours solid.

We piled on the clothes and descended to a Hütte for heiße Pommes, Apfelstrudel und Kaffee mmmm(our usual favorites by now). It turned out the waiter had spent 3 years in NZ as a ski instructor, and he gave us a good weather report (which was bad, actually) a free hot tea, and a serious warning that our plan to go up to the Erherzhog Johann Hütte (3451) up on the Großglockner, Austria´s highest mountain was crazy - he assured us we would most certainly need an alpine guide...hmmmm.

Rocks!

We pedalled on up to Kaiser Franz Josepf, which is really just a few wee Alpine Hütte at the head of the road. In the mist the place was absolutly deserted and rather eerie, and we found a campspot above the road, which was to become known as ´the Rocks´. This was because we were amongst a grassy boulder field with a crumbly looking cliff above us which during the windy night in Emily´s mind became even steeper and crumblier! Chris spent some time repegging the tent during the night. So all in all not the best sleep.

The days mission was finally REST DAY! And the weather was crappy, so we decided to catch the bus down to Heiligenblut for a supermarket to restock for our planned tramping trip. We bought hundreds of Semmeln breadrolls and Apfelstrudel, then caught the bus 800 metres back up to Kaiser Franz Josepf, where it had started snowing! We biked around trying to find somewhere to stay, but most Hütte were shut because the summer season is over! Finally we found the warm friendly Glocknerhaus, and we stayed in the Lager, which is the bunk room on the top floor, and because of the heavy snow we opted not to cook outside but instead to have a yummy meal inside in the warmth....luxurious!

Brave Sheep!

The morning was sunny but still cold, and we spent several hours organising all our gear for our 4 day trip. It was a logistical mission fitting it all into our day packs, cos we had to take our tent as well snce not all the Hütte were still open. Finally we biked down to the dammed glacial lake and hid our bikes in some pine trees. Then it was a carefull ascent over a slippery snow covered grass pass. Just as I climbed the track up the last gully I heard a loud ´baaah´bhind me and was shocked to see a wee flock of sheep charging up behind me! I moved out the way and the lead sheep sniffed me, then trotted boldly off leading the rest of the flock along the narrow track with hijm round the corner to some grassy fields! Much different species from Kiwi sheep that´s for sure!

We continued along the hillside teeming with squeeking marmuts, but not a sole in sight! We reached the Salmhütte, dropped the packs and headed up valley to check out the gully we needed to climb to get to the Erherzog Johann Hütte. We thought this route seemed the only possibility because it involved no snow.

The gully looked very tricky until we discovered it had been roped. It was still a bit scary but we reached the ridge where we joined a more major route up to the alpine hut. On the way down Chris gave me some rope ´technique´lessons, and by the time we were wandering back down to the hut I felt alot more confident. We came across an old hut built into a cliffside, it was neat and tempting to stay there, but the valley felt like a freezer, so we retreated down to the warmth of the Salmhütte.

High Ropes

Emily heads up the rope ladders...

Followed by Chris!

In the morning it was a bit warmer and we followed our tracks back up the valley and up the ropes which seemed like fun now! On up the ridge there was some exhilarating climbing up ladders and ropes wih big drops, but it was all straightforward and we were buzzing when we reached the point where the glacial route intersected. Up till that point we had seen no one, and were somewhat dismayed to meet many guided parties chugging laboriously up the much easier glacial route and looking at us very suspisciously for our lack of gear and bycycle helmets!We noticed the lack of oxygen a bit, and arrived at the hut puffing more than normal.

The summit of the Großglockner was tantalizingly close - only 300m above the Hut! But sensibleness fortunatly prevailed, for the sumitt climb was up a steep snowy gully whcih would have been dodgy without an ice axe, but it was sooo tempting, specially with all the bungling amerian tourists going up and down with their guides. Instead we ate apfelstrudl at the hut, then hurried away from the alluring peak across the galcial route, which was by now completly tracked out and very safe to cross. We continued round another wee roped section to the Glorer Hütte.

The Hütte was full with a school group and a hippy crusading group. We cooked outside in the freezing cold, then retreated inside for two delcious ´Kaiserschmarrns´(a traditional Austrain dish made of kind of crumbled pancake with apple sauce). The people in the hut were amazed to meet kiwis tramping in Austria (?), and we had a really nice evening. We met a friendly Austrian fellow in the hut named Niko who planned to walk the same way as us the following day, so we agreed to walk together.

In the morning we headed up the Böses Weibl, (Niko translated: Mad Woman!!) (3119). On the summit you could see thousands of snowy peaks, it was beautifully clear and warm and we bathed in the sun on the summit munching on snacks and generally enjoying ourselves. Then we descended steeply down a snowy ridge and further down into the grassy slopes at which point Niko headed off down valley. We continued around past the closed ElderfeldHütte and past 2 alpine lakes, to a third where we found a campspot in the sun. We were still at about 2500m, so it was pretty chilly, but we had a wee feast and contemplated our fun trip.

In the morning we were woken by shepherds calling down all the sheep from up high (winter is coming!). We walked down into the lovely pine forest for breakfast, then it was 3 hours walk back to the bikes at the dammed lake. Many trees are going ominously red and yellow - which was beautiful but a tad concerning! Once the panniers were retrieved and lunch had been eaten we cruised down back through Heiligenblut to Winkerln. From there we climbed a small pass (Emily in the lead...and she could hear Chris puffing!! so she had to put in an extra strong push at the top, tehehe), and Niko came past honking in his car. He was glad to hear we had survived our chilly night at the lake. Then on down into Lienz.

Orienteering!

What? Orienteering? Somehow, and I don´t know how on earth he managed it, but the random wee campsite Chris picked up by a lake on a hill just up from Lienz turne out to be the site of the Austrian champs...and Chris really didn´t know it was on. In the morning, right beside our campspot, were erected many Silva tents, and people in brightly coloured O gear milling all around. So, of course, we went and found out if we could run. It turned out the actual champs was the previous day, but today was a teams event which Chris and I could compete in unofficially. So we set off and Chris got lots of the controls while I got some. It was cool terrain, open forest with heaps of big boulders, and was apparently a brand new map! Big Dolomity mountains towered in the background.

After the orienteering we swam in the lake, and decided to spend another night in the campground which was actually now closed for winter, but they were happy for us to stay another night so we had the place to ourselves. Today has been a day of shopping and interneting, preparing to finally enter the Dolomites and head out of Austria and into Italy...looking forward to our idealized picture of pizzas, warm beaches and ice creams...hmmm we shall see!

OK, bis bald und tschüß!

And here (fingers crossed) is a video of us mountain biking over the pass! Let me know if it works or not...I think I´m getting a bit technologically advanced for my own good!

So the Cycling Saga Begins...

2007-09-13T02:37:00.000-07:00

We finally set off on our cycling journey after spending a great evening at Albert and Ingrid's place in Ingoldstadt, where we had bought paniers and carriers from Albert's shop and got some good tips about where we should go. It was pouring with rain and the forcast wasn't good for the rest of the week.

We managed to pick my bike up from the lady I bought it off on ebay and it looked ok, pretty old, but hardly used. We caught the train through to Hausham, which was the town South of Munich where Chris's bike was. We arrived in the pouring rain and headed off to the house navigating using our little google earth printed map. Using my somewhat limited german I managed to converse with the people selling the bike, and we finally had 2 bikes! Unfortunatly we had some serioous mechanical problems getting carriers and things on and spent most of the day huddling outside this funny little bike shop in the pouring rain and snow getting all our gear sorted. Eventually we did, and we biked into a wee foresty spot and camped in the bush (with some huge slugs!).

The next day it was pouring and very cold and we were really wishing we didn't send so much of our warm gear off to Scotland! We biked for a couple of hours, then warmed up in a cafe for about 4, then biked a bit more and camped beside a very beautiful lake in the mist. (more ginourmous slugs!)

Again we woke to rain and cold, and set off with the goal of making Fussen, the famous German town where the fairytail Neuschwannstein castle was built by King Ludwig. We spent some more time in a cafe eating hot chips trying to warm up, before we arrived in the town just on dark and camped hidden behind some trees in a paddock just below the castle.

The next day it wasn't pouring! So we cruised up to the castle and decided we should do a tour. So we took lots of photos and wandered around the spectacular grounds, then continued through to the next town and found a cool spot to camp beside the river...but it was still freezing. We had crossed the border into Austria.

And finally it stopped raining! We woke up and continued down river with the plan of climbing our first big pass today, 1900 metres. It was sunny and warm and we cruised happily down some wonderful cycle paths. We went through the town of Egg, and Chris had the ingenious idea of attching a bungy tow rope to my bike (see photo for demonstration) so that way I was pulled (and pedalled) to the top of our first pass called Steinjochen. The downhill was great and we continued through Imst, and camped in a spectacular valley up in a clearing that a friendly Austrian guy showed us.

The weather was steadily improving as we continued the next day up valley into Solden, then on up to Vent at 1900, a high mountain town where we found a really neat place to camp, but it was really cold, again. In the morning it was what Chris termed our 'rest day'...ha! It involved biking up to an Alpine hut at 2400 (me on the tow rope cos it was really steep!) then we climbed up to the Kreuz Spitze at nearly 3500 the biggest peak I've ever climbed! It was really cool, a really beautiful day and a fun walk. We sped back down the valley to Vent and our nice little camp spot. We ate pizza in town and then went to sleep after a wonderful rest day!!

In the morning the weather was a bit colder with fresh snow on all the surronding peaks, and it was spectacular as we headed down valley to Solden. Unfortunatly Chris's gear cable broke so he only had three gears! There were no bike shops at Solden, so we continued up and over a massive pass, 2500 called Timmelsjochstrasse. It was so freezing on top, and the downhill was unbelievably long through several large tunnels, and we crossed the border into Italy. We eventually found somewhere to camp on the grassy patch on top of one of the big tunnels!

It was lovely and sunny in the morning and we continued over the JoufenPass, a mere 2100 after the previous days effort. We sat on top of the pass in the sun and ordered two big cappuchinos, mmm. Then we enjoyed a warmer and wonderful gradiented downhill into a nice town called Stezing. Here we camped in a campground so we could have a hot shower and clean some of our very smelly gear. We also got Chris's bike fixed, and some new brake pads cos we have already worn ours out! So, that's where we are at now. Apologies for the hasty blog, the internet is very expensive here so I've written this as fast as I could! Hopefully when we get into a slightly bigger city I'll hav some time to email and blog a bit more at a slightly cheaper rate! Today we cross another pass back into Austria, and then I'm insisting on a real rest day!

München München München...

2007-09-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

So, we are still in Münich trying to buy some bicycles. Everyday we inch a minoscopi forwards with our organisation. It´s nice here, we´ve been staying in a hostel in town and spending the day roaming the bike shops, searching on ebay and reading the local ´buy sell´. Ed departed yesterday heading for Austria with a somewhat reduced backpack and a plan to tramp in the alps for about 5 days, before coming back here and joining Abbie who will have arrived from NZ. It was sad to see him go, he has been a great traveling companion over the last month!

We have bought several large maps, and spend the evenings pouring over them in the hostel's crowded kitchen. Making the logistics of our adventure even more complicated is the fact we also have to prepare to depart from (most likely Rome) to Malasia for Chris to race there in mid October. So we plan to deposit all but the bare necesseties of our gear here, and then we will end up in Malasia with practically nothing but some cycle paniers! This is going to be very interesting. So we somehow need to get some adventure race gear there for him from NZ as well as find doctors for Malaria tablets, book flights, sort out what is happening with Chris´s PHD.... for Emily and Chris whose organisation is renowned this is rather a challenge!

So the plan at the moment is to head down through a somewhat detouring route through the Austrian Alps, then into the Dolomites, all on mountain bikes so we can make some detours over some maybe not existant passes and get to some cool places. So, we are rearing to go, if only the bikes would hurry up!................. Oh, and I thought I´d better add that photo in of Chris looking speedy, thought it might make the cycle gods hurry up and produce us some bikes (hehehe).

(By the way, I´m pleased to see the answer "Yes, and Chris is a silly billy" is currently winning the poll!)

Goodbye Ed! (Photo: Ed barely escapes a brutal crushing from a vicious BMW after arrival in Munich).

PHOTOS!

2007-08-29T05:04:00.000-07:00

I have finally managed to download some photos for you. So here I will create a small album of photos from different parts of our trip in chronological order for you to see. How exciting!!

This photo is of John, Arnica and Emily at the beach in Wellington on our second to last day in NZ, in particularly windy conditions!!!

ROMANIA

This idyllic spot was the first refuge we arrived at in Romania, Cabana Voina at the start of the Fagaras mountains

I know Neroli will appreciate this shot...

The next image is Ed and I walking along in the hot sun on Day 1 of our tramp through the Fagaras mountains.

I reach the friendly signpost on Day 2

We reached a beautiful camp spot beside a tarn after the first days walk, and pitched the two purple tents.

On Day 2 it was another hot sunny day. Here Ed and I are standing on yet another of the multiple summits we climbed each day.

Another great big ridge traverse

The first Cabana we reached after three days of walking and we were very hungry. This is the Cabana with the lady who served us an omelette through a tine hole in the wall! Ed pats the donkey

Another tarn we passed at lunch time, Ed and me again. Chris took lots of the photos... he was always in front so he had time!

The big Cabanas on Day 4. A great sight for hungry stomachs!

A big ridge traverse on Day 4. We are heading towards the wee blue lake you can see. The mountain on the right is Niagere, the 2nd highest mountain in Romania we would climb the next day. On this ridge, just before the lake on the right, is where we were camped when the massive thunderstorm struck during the night, yikes!

And here comes the storm up the valley!!

Chris does a self portrait by our campsite before nightfall. Perhaps he knew something?

And here we are on Day 5 climbing up the Dracula's Chimney on Naigere. There was alot of mist... it was very atmospheric!

The fantastic shelter we found at the end of a very long Day 5. It was pouring with rain, but we were warm, dry, and safe from bears in this rooftop.

THE TRANSYLVANIAN OPEN

Here is me, being rather silly, there is a small gummy bear attacking me on this orienteering control, it is yellow. You may or may not be able to see it. I was a bit worried about bears, so....

Chris, after becoming the first ever kiwi winner of the Transylvanian Open in Cluj!

KIEV

WOW! Another photo of me looking mighty speedy during the sprint event at the WOC Tour sprint event, after which we bathed in the fountains.

Emily in the bustling metro station

Chris in the very modern independance square in central Kiev

The beautiful St Sophia monastry

Chris, all concentration right befoe the start of the sprint final.....

So that´s all for now. Hope you enjoyed the photos, feel free to answer my very informative poll on the top left of this page, Tschüss!

WOC 2007

2007-08-28T02:32:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sure you've all been waiting with baited breath for my next entry! It was a bit harder to get some good interneting time in Kiev than I anticipated - often due to the fact that after the main event had been run for the day we then had to wait around several hours before running our 'WOC Tour' events, so some of the days were pretty long.

We spent a few more days in our nice wee apartment in Kiev just before the world champs started. The weather was rediculously hot, it was about 35 during the day, and went down to a mellow 30 degrees at night - which was a bad sign for the orienteering!

We had an interesting night out before the world champs began, we headed out for dinner with Iryna (our Ukrainian 'guide'). When we were in the central square there was a large peel of thunder, and then it bucketed down. Thousands of people ran for the metro, including us, and we were packed on like sardines. We headed a couple of stops along, then got off and out of the metro into the streets which had turned to small rivers by now. Chris and I managed to lose the others in the chaos, and as we didn't know which restaurant we were going to this was a small problem!

By now we were completly soaked, and it was only thanks to my beady eyes that I noticed Rob Jessop's head in the window of a large barge moored beside the river in a Chinese restaurant. Once inside we had a very interesting meal...we ordered a 'banquet' which consisted of vast quantities of prawn crackers and not much else. Dave Melrose decided it was worthwhile to buy some very expensive and delicious red wine, so before long the whole thing seemed highly amusing. We didn't finish our meal till 12.30, and we never really got much to eat, despite the fact the meal was very expensive! Lucky for us Dave generously shouted the meal, so the whole thing seemed rather amusing.

The next day we got on the metro with all our gear and crossed the river to 'Hotel Tourist' where we were staying throughout WOC. For a 3 star hotel it was quite a let down, but that seems a bit typical of Ukraine really, where tourism as we know it is only just beginning to be important or occur. Our room was on the 17th floor and terribly hot. We went out to dinner at another buffet style restaurant that there seemed to be lots of, but the food was pretty average.

The first event was the sprint qualification in Golosivoo park. We meet a South African girl called Jenny who was also competing in the WOC Tour events, and she spent most of the week with us, her sense of humour and open personality seemed to fit in well with the kiwi crowd. Chris had a great run in the sprint and qualified pretty well, Ross snuck in also, but Tania was really unlucky to miss out because of a 1.5 minute mistake.

Nearby our hotel was a fancy mall called 'Komod' which with its nice airconditioning and food court upstars proved our friend. We had pizza for dinner and prepared for the first day of the WOC Tour (a long distance) and the long qualification the next day.

It was interesting for us 'WOC Tour' competitors (by now a good wee crowd of Andrew Jonstone who was photographing for the kiwi team, John Marshall form NZ on an orienteering holiday, Ed, myself and Jenny our adopted friend) to reach most of the events - the organised buses were sometimes good and sometimes non-existant, and public transport worked but was always an adventure.

Chris ran well in the long qualification, but sprained his ankle moderatly badly, so we were a bit worried it might not last the distance. He jumped on the bus and headed home to find some ice while we headed out on our long. The terrain was hilly, with pine forests and some clear patches of terrain too, but we were running in about 36 degree heat so it was hard work!

Day 3 of WOC was the middle qualification, and Chris didn't have a good run. The terrain was very green, lots of nettles and hard to see anything. Both Chris and Rob missed out, while Ross and Tania both had really good runs and qualified well. I had a terrible run in the WOC tour and managed in my state of heat exhaustion to completly miss a control without even realizing, so I was a bit annoyed. We got the bus back to the hotel all feeling a bit hot and grumpy.

Day 4 a rest day and the 'Opening Ceremony'. Chris was to be the flag bearer, so on another (by now normal sweltering day) we headed to the large arch in the nice botanic gardens for thel cermony. There were some good Ukrainian folkdancers wearing those big baggy pants and doing the splits. Chris recieved a loaf of bread (mmm).

After the ceremony we ate in a different part of town before jumping on the metro back to the hotel.

Day 5 was the middle final (a rest day for Chris, whose ankle needed it!) and they had a good arena set up with a bridge that the competitors ran over and a spectator control. The commentator (a Swedish guy) was really good, so that made the events more entertaining. We cheered the kiwis on, but Ross was a bit disapointed with his run, and Tanya wasn't particularly happy with hers either.

We headed out for our runs later, and with my concerted effort to not make mistakes I actually had a good run in the difficult terrain and managed to come 16 out of 37 elite girls so I was pleased (0: This place had no easy public transport, and they stuffed up the buses, so we didn't get back until about 9 oclock for a late dinner.

The next day was the long final, and it was about 38 degrees, which was sad for Chris who was going to have to run 18km! The event was in an historic park with all these windmills and old fashioned cottages so that was cool. We watched Chris run through the spectator control, and cheered him on through the finish. He had struggled in the heat, and made not quite such a good route choice so he was a wee bit disapointed, but we thought he did pretty well considering the conditions, and he ran for 2 hours, so I hate to think how long that course would take us mortals!

That night was the banquet which proved a very interesting affair. We were all bused there, and lots of the teams were very dressed up. Once we got there they informed us that there actually were not enough seats for everyone! We crowded around a table in the middle of the room next to the Australians, but with no air conditioning it was like a sauna and everyone was dripping! Chris proudly showed us his drenched shirt. All the food contained meat, and it all looked pretty dodgy having sat out for some time, so no-one ate much and most people left early which was a bit sad. There was a good band and some entertaining dancing going on, but we retreated early too seeing as Chris had the relay to run in two days time.

On Friday it was a rest day for the world champs, but a sprint event in Golosivo park again for us WOC Tourites. Chris came along to spectate, but in typical Chris fashion got excited and ended up running the sprint too. I messed up and lost about 5 minites (and got chased by another pesky dog, grrr) but consoled myself I would have done quite well if it hadn't been for those minor hiccups. Ed zipped around well too, and afterwards we all got into the fountain! That was great, we were in a park and it was national independance day in Kiev so there was a big concert going on. There were people sitting all round the fountain watching the concert and eating free icecreams and some kids in the fountain, but Ed, Chris and I outlasted them all lying in there! Eventually we dragged ourselves out and metroed home, after a much more relaxing day.

In the evening we went to Independance Square for a concert followed by some fireworks and a huge crowd. It was like a massive version of Classical Sparks in Christchurch, but the crowds seemed very orderly and it was a nice evening. The large thermometer attached to the top of one of the highrises read 31 degrees!

Saturday was the relay event, at the park with the windmills again. We had no girls team, so it was the mens relay we were excited about. Ross had a good run on the first leg, Rob was out for a bit longer on the second, then Chris had a good third leg, but said he made heaps of mistakes. The best bit however was his sprint finish, which got the comentator excited, and kept us highly entertained. As he punched the last control he pulled the silliest face, then took off like a rocket down the finish shoot, catching everyone's attention, even though the winners were long since in!

We had to wait till 5 oclock for our WOC Tour runs, so it was actually getting a bit dark in the forest by the end! It was a long distance event again. I had a good start and got the first 6 controls really well, but then I took a bad route choice and ended up bashing up a hill into a paddock full of headhigh stinging nettles. In the paddock was a Ukrainian lady who started shouting at me to get out of her paddock, so I bashed down the hill wildly into a marsh were it was getting deeper and deeper and smelled of poo! Not liking this at all I scrambled back up into the nettle paddock, where the Ukraiinian lady started shouting at me again! I tried to get out of the paddock, but the nettles were too thick and I really did feel like Peter Rabbit! Eventually the lady actually took pity on me, and allowed me to pass through the way I had been trying to go all akong, out to the road, across a bridge very fast because I could hear dogs, and finally on to my next control. Phew! But I was abit traumatised, and my next 20 controls were not done so well, so I finished tired, stung, covered in mud, but happy it was over!

Once we got back to the hotel we collapsed into bed, and I had my usual 2 cold showers before bed, then one when I woke up stinking hot at about 3am every night, then another one in the morning. Chris had a similar routine.

The final day of WOC was the sprint event in the Botanic Gardens. It was thankfully a little cooler, and I got some photos of Chris on the start shoot before he took off. He had a pretty good run, but would have done even better had he not made a 30 second mistake on the second to last control..poos. It's so easy to make a tiny mistake in the sprint and it's all over. But he was happy to have finished.

We spent the afternoon with Iryna, who took us to the flower show, the World War 2 memorial with lots of tanks, planes and bombs, yikes! Then we went through the 'Caves Monastry' with lots of coffins!

That night Johan, a Danish media person had organised a party. We got tickets, and everyone got to go on a boat for 1.5 hours to an island up river where they had a disco. It was heaps of fun, and we were enjoying the dancing on the island. Unfortunatly for us it was spoiled a bit because someone (presumably someone local) found our pack and stole my nice new cell phone )0:, our hotel keys and my nice top, so we had to get a bus back to the hotel asap. Chris went to the police with Iryna and wasn't back till 5am. The hotel keys thankfully turned up (they were in someone elses bag which had also had things stolen from it) but not my cell phone or top.

The next day we packed up from the hotel and left on a bit of a sour note because we had to pay extra mony for some towels we supposedly lost, but we never actually had any to begin with, which made us pretty annoyed. We cuaght a bus out to the airport and hung around for a few hours before the flight to Münich. I also stupidly left the nice swiss army knife we bought in Kiev in my pack, so we lost that too! All and all I feel I've lost a fair bit of stuff in the last few days.

Nevermind, on the 2 hour flight we got some yummy pasta, and on arriving in Münich we successfully caught a train, got a nice hostel to stay in and ate dinner in a really nice restaurant with the yummiest food and lots of women serving wearing traditional clothing and holding big jugs of beer. We were very appreciative of the nice food, in Ukraine it seemed pretty hard to get anything very nice or wholesome for dinner, and I think we will appreciate the next we while of wealthy westerness, even if isn't as much of an adventure (-:

WOC 2007 so far...

2007-08-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to post heaps right now because its late! But I thought I'd just do a quick post to let you know that so far Chris has managed to qualify for both the sprint and the long distance! He has been running really well, along with the other kiwis (Ross qualified for the sprint yesterday, and Tanya qualified really well for the long today).

Here's a link to the results so far and here is a photo of Chris running the classic qualification today.

Ed and I did our first day of the WOC Tour today and had fun, we have found a group of kiwis and a South African girl who are all doing the WOC Tour so we have our own little competition going.

Chris sprained his ankle today, so we are not sure how he will go in the middle tommorrow, but fingers crossed. Ed and I are also running tommorrow, we also have a middle distance, and then a rest day on Tuesday when I hope to get more update with my blogging including some pictures and the news of how Chris is going. So stay tuned!!

Kiev and the "Ukranian Cup"

2007-08-14T03:09:00.000-07:00

Kiev is cool! We woke up in Tania, Ross, and Clem's apartment in the morning after our mission across the border from Romania to Day 1 of the "Ukranian Cup" (which was the long distance event grrr). To get there we headed down the steps right outside the apartment, then we bought a month long unlimited metro pass for 25 "Grovies" which is about $5! Then we swiped through the gates and headed down the most ginourmous escalatour I have ever seen!

It speed down and down and you couldn't even see the bottom. It was crammed with people, and Tania commented that this wasn't even rush hour. 4 million people live in Kiev, and it is a very busy city. The metro train hurtled into the station and we packed onto it like sardines, and a second later it zoomed away, and we all clung on to each other to stay upright. After stop 6 we joined the rush off the train, out of the metro and onto an even more crowded bus. The 30 min ride cost 25 cents NZ, and we only got off in the right place because we spotted people milling around in O suits outside, so we made a wild guess this was the right spot.

At the start our start times were posted. Chris, Ed and I were all feeling pretty tired from our travels still, and consequently the running seemed like hard work. Half way through the race a huge thunderstorm struck, and my map got thoroughly soaked so I couldn't read it. At exactly that moment a Ukranian girl ran past, and I asked if I could just follow her. She smiled, said "no english" and we were off. The best thing was, whenever we had a route choice she would get me to look at her map and say which way I thought we should go! Luckily most of the time I seemed to make a good decision, and it wasn't long before I reached the end of my course, even though I didn't have a map. Tania also gave me a hand as she came running past. So I was pretty chuffed to still have finished.

Ed and Chris both had less eventfull runs, but agreed they were feeling pretty knackered. It was then back on the bus and metro for a shower at the apartment. We went out for dinner at a buffet place, which we all decided was kind of 'safe' because you could see what you were getting, and could kind of work out what it was - although Chris and Rob's supposed 'steak' was actually liver, yuck ! Rob, Ed, Chris and I then walked to our apartment which is about 10 minutes from the others, and is right opposite a great supermarket with heaps of delicious cheese, juice, breads etc...what more could we want.

Day 2 of the 'Ukranian Cup' was the middle distance event. It was a stinking hot day, at least 30 degrees. We meet the others down in the metro, and once again it was a metro followed by a short bus ride to the event. Today we met Iryna, a Ukranian woman who now lives in NZ, but has come back to Ukraine to help out the New Zealand team - very handy. She knows all about the terrain, have been the National orienteering coach here some years ago.

The terrain for the middle was much nicer, there was less stinging nettle and balckberry than the day before, but unfortunatly I was so tired I just wandered round slowly. That was a shame, because my time wasn't actually that bad, I beat several people, so if I'd actually tried....? Chris had an ok run, he was about 5th, which I think is pretty good, but he reckoned he was also still very tired and not feeling so good. Ed had a really good run, except his 50 minute mistake on one control! Once he gets those big mistakes sorted he will be flying round (-: We cruised home and tried a different buffet restaurant for dinner.

Day 3 was the sprint event, which I always dread a wee bit, cause people can see you! The event was in a city park a bus ride away from our apartment. We got all our gears on and warmed up, and I had another chat with my new Ukranian friend - the girl Maryna I followed round on day 1 when my map fell apart. She got her team mates you spoke better English to translate for us.

The park was very steep, lots of steps and banks everywhere, and Chris had the first start. He charged off up a hill to begin with. I started after Ed, and managed to run pretty well round my course, only making a couple of mistakes and out sprinting a girl at the end. I was about 6 places below last..wow! Ed also did well, he was mid field in his 21 A grade, so we were both chuffed and had enjoyed it. Chris did a pretty speedy time,but was a couple of minutes down on the winners, so we decided he definatly wasn't quite his usual speedy self.

We arrived back at the apartment at about midday, so we had time for some sight seeing before a group dinner at the others apartment. Rob, Ed, Chris and I wandered through the many big squares looking at statues, fountains, and the amazingly beautiful women who live here! So many of them have the most amazing outfits and look like super models -Ed and Chris agreed the 'scenery' was very good.

We visited 'St Sophia's' cathedral built in the 11 century, and saw the sarcofagas of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, evoking some conversation about 'The Mummy' movie (-: The churches had gold plated tops and look quite Arabic. We walked back past the supermarket and to the others apartment for a big feed of 'Spag Bol' prepared by Tania, which was most delicious.

We cruised back to our apartment nicely contented and ready for some more relaxing days of ahead of us.

The next day Rob and Chris went for a run around another park map in the morning while Ed and I went in search of some internet. We wandered through some of the shops and admired some of the fanciest shoes I have ever seen. The amount of 'mafia' like sparkling black Mercedes, Audis, Jeeps and Porshes is amazing - and you have to wonder where all the affluence is coming from. I managed to buy some long soccer socks to protect my legs from all the horrible nettles in one of the many underground malls, so when we headed out for some training in the forest in the afternoon I was well prepared.

There are lots of stray dogs in the forests here too - particularly because there are lots of residential areas nearby. Ed and I ran around together in the forest for our 'training' - neither of us were feeling particularly motivated, and the highlight was finding several smll wild raspberries which were sooo delicious in amongst all the nettles and stingers we had to battle through. There were also heaps of vicious mosquitos biting us. I stuck a little raspberry in my pocket for Chris to try. Ed and I proceeded to get a bit lost, then more lost still, and eventually we were bashing our way through the forest just rying to get back to the finish, let alone doing any 'training'.

Finally we found our way out, and all the others were back and waiting to go. I took my O pants off to find my leg had gone bright red! Everyone thought I had been bitten by something horrible, it was only a few moments later I realised it was my wee present for Chris - the raspberry - and there wasn't much left of it. Opps (-:

By the time we bused home from the training it was 8 oclock, and there was only time to pop to the supermarket and cook up some leftovers from the night before and it was bed time.

This morning Ed and our found an internet cafe to do some skyping while Rob and Chris went to another map for some training. Some more sightseeing is on the cards for this afternoon, so it should be a nice relaxing few days before the world champs start this Saturday (-:

Oh, and by the way, there is an article about Chris on Sportzub if you want to have a read.

Journey Across the Border

2007-08-13T02:47:00.000-07:00

At 1.30am we boarded the train in Cluj destined for Sucaeva, a town in Romania near the Ukrainian border. The aim was to reach Kiev by August 10 for the first day of the Ukrainian Cup orienteering event, which gave us one full day plus two nights for traveling. But it ended up being quite the adventure to get there...

The train we boarded was pretty old and smelly, and absolutly crowded. It was the type of train you can imagine being used in the second world war for more sinister things. There was no space at all in the carrage we boarded, and we were going to be on board the train for 8 hours, so we found another carrage that was really quiet, we got a whole compartment to ourselves, and the seats folded out into beds, great! but a bit strange no one else was sitting in there.

At about 2.30 the gaurds checked our tickets and told us we had to move, we only had second class tickets and this section was first class, which explained everything. After some confusion (the guard did not speak english) we finally managed to slip him some money and he allowed us to stay, phew! We pulled into what we presumed was Sucaeva at 9.30 am, and had to run round checking we were in the right place before the train disapeared. Luckily it was, and we went to the ticket office to buy another set of tickets to get us through to Kiev.

However, the ticket lady informed us that this was not possible, international train tickets must be bought 24 hours in advance, which would mean we would arrive one day late in Kiev and miss the first and maybe second day of the event. What then followed was a series of coincidental events aided by several very helpful Romanians. The ticket lady suggested the bus, and then actually walked us down the block to a minibus station and bought us tickets and put us on a minibus to the main bus station in Sucaeva where we ought to be able to buy bus tickets to Kiev.

The minibus was hugely crowded and it was very hot. When we got to the bus station it turned out no big buses went to Kiev at all! But a taxi driver told us we could get a taxi to the border (only 30km away), then a minibus to Chinook (which was somewhere in Ukraine we surmised) then a bus to Kiev...sounded good?We wandered around, and eventually found a taxi driver who said he would take us to the border.

We had driven along for about 20 minutes on the highway when he suddenly pulled over alongside a big van. "You get in here and they will take you to the border, they have kids, they are good" said the taxi driver...hmmm. Anyway, we were loaded in amongst the grandma and the kids, and off we headed again towards the border. Suddenly we dived off the main highway and headed along some dirt roads to a house. At the house the van was loaded with vast quantities of sacks of stuff. By now we were all feeling a bit concerned that we were about to be invloved in some illegal smuggling of something accross the border, or who knows what? We questioned the family (who spoke no english) and ascertained it was wool (we hoped!).

Eventually we arrived at the border to a massive car queue, and many intimidating guards. After about 2 hours we were inspected, our passports intensly examined, then stamped through, phew! And the family did some intense haggling with the guard about the goods, and then we were over the border!

We hooned along a big highway, then off down some more dirt roads to another house where we delivered all the mysterious goods. This time Ed and Chris lended a hand, much to the Romanian's delight. The family all piled back in and we drove through to Chinook. In Chinook we would not have got far at all if it wasn't for our new Romanian family friends. They took us to the bus station, bought tickets and literally put us on another completly overcrowded bus which hopefully went to Kiev!

It was extremly hot, and the ten hour bus trip was pretty full on. Luckily after about 4 hours of stifling heat there was a big thunder storm and it poured with rain and cooled down a bit. We stopped every 2 hours for a very brisk ten minutes, and it was a challenge to jump off the bus, locate the horrible smelly squat toilets, pee, pay money to grumpy lady and get back on the bus before it took off again.

Finally we got to Kiev at 11.30 at night, and spent half an hour haggling with taxi drivers, till we got one to call Iryna (the New Zealand Orienteering Ukranian contact) on his cell phone, and she gave him directions to our accomodation.

When we arrived on the street outside where we were supposedly staying the taxi driver called her again, and after 5 minutes tentativly waiting to see if we really had actually finally made it to Kiev, Ross appeared wearing a top with a big silver fern on it and bare feet, grinning at us, and we were pretty relieved!

We walked upstairs to the apartment while he explained that "this place is a mansion, man!" We slept very well that night, and in the morning it was up and off to the first day of the Ukraine Cup.

Transylvanian Open in Cluj

2007-08-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Cluj was much bigger than Sibiu, and in place of bussling squares it had horribly busy roads and smelly pavements. We trudged through the town after our all day train trip, and eventually located a little hostel which was very nice but was full for the night, grrr. The lady said they had 13 reservations which would probably not be filled, but we must wait till midnight if we wanted the beds...so that is what we did. After wandering round and finding some dinner it was soon 11pm, so it was not so bad.

In the morning we located a market and bought some supplies, before heading to the orienteering registration then on up to 'Camping Faget' where we planned to stay during the orienteering. The organisers sorted us a ride for the next day to the event, so all was good.

August 6: We were picked up from the campground at 12 and taken to the start of event 1, a middle distance event. I was still worried about bears...but none of the many Romanian orienteers aged from about 4 to 70 seemed at all concerned so I soon stopped worrying. Ed, Chris and I all had starts at about the same time, and for me after several whopping 30 minute mistakes I was feeling pretty annoyed walking through the forest, and I was going slowly when I heard a growl! So I ran much faster!! (I don't think it was anything, other than deer, the odd fox and dogs I don't think much actually lives near Cluj, but it certainly made me run, and made Ed and Chris laugh afterwards (0:)

As I neared the finish I bumped into Ed (surprise!) and we zoomed into the finish together with Chris who was hiding out by a control with the camera. Chris won! So he was the proud winner of the Floresti Trophy!! Back at the campground we drank some Romanian beer (which is very cheap) and Ed and I resolved not to make any 30 minute mistakes tommorrow.

August 7: We got a ride to the event with some grumpy Norwegians. Today was the long distance world ranking event, and we were all a bit nervous. The terrain would be similar to yesterday, forested, spur gully, good compas bearings which I hate! So once again I bungled the first control and wasted 30 mins, but after that I took things more slowly and got round in 2 hours. Chris was 3 minutes down from the winner in third place and had some blisters too, so that was a bit sad. Ed was still out after 3 hours, and unfortunalty had the controls collected in on him, so all in all not such a good day, but we went back to the campground and cooked up a feast, so we were still enjoying ourselves.

Our friendly Romanian orienteering camp neighbour got us to try some real 'hungarian goulash' he had just cooked up, which was actually quite good!

August 8: Today a different friendly Romanian camped beside us took us to the event. It was exciting for Chris today because he had the chance to make up his lost 1.5 miutes on the Norwegian over the 3 days. (Having won the first day over the Norwegian by 1.5, then the Norwegian beat him by 3 on Day 2). He had to start 1.5 minutes back(their time difference), and whoever crossed the finish line first would win the overall Transylvanian open. Ed and I were just hoping to be back before the prizegiving seeing as we both had to start 1 hour after the leaders.

I had a much better run wearing my orienteering shoes, no 30 minute mistakes, and the terrain had more features - little gullies and streams - and I got over worrying about bears (0: Ed also got round a bit better, and when we got back we were excited to find out that Chris had managed to chase the Norwegian down and outsprint him at the finish, woohoo!

They had a little prizegiving, and the three of us enjoyed ourselves drinking the rediculous 'fizzy water' they give you at the end of the event. Chris won a pack and a tee shirt and then we got a lift back to the campsite again for a good shower.

We caught a taxi to the centre of Cluj and soon we will catch the 'sleeping train' which departs at 1.30am to Sucaeva on our way to Kiev. In Sucaeva we catch another train which runs all the next night into Kiev, so goodbye Romania!!

But right now we are off for some Chinese for dinner, yum (-:

Sunny Sibiu

2007-08-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Once we wandered down into Turnu Rosu at the end of our tramp (1 August) we waved goodbye to the straggly friendly little dog which followed us all the way from the top of the mountain into the town and pulled out of the station heading for Sibiu.

We couldn't have asked for a better place to blob after our strenuous tramp. The town is the 2007 'Cultural Capital of Europe' and it was buzzing with music, people, shows and delicious food. It's an old town with lots of big squares and cathedrals, and we soon navigated our way around all the best bakeries, pizzerias and ice creameries. We stayed in the 'Alt stadt' hostel which is right on one of the main squares, so for 3 days we didn't really venture much further than the city centre.

We had interesting times at one restaurant with our lack of Romanian. The first time we went there we ended up with five large cups of coffee laid in front of us when we had tried only to order three, and then on a second visit Chris wanted to order the strudel, but this did not seem to be possible. Eventually he went inside and pointed into the cabinet at the strudel and the waiter came and dumped the largest piece of strudel imaginable on his plate...which had us all in stitches, the waiter included.

So after three enjoyable days we packed up our bags and jumped on the train for Cluj which took a full day to reach because we were travelling this time on a 'slow train' which meant we spent 4 hours waiting at a station in between trains, but we entertained ourselves photgraphing the odd horse and cart as it trotted past and the authentic 'haystacks' which sit in every paddock.

Romania and the Fagaras Mountain Mission!

2007-08-02T06:21:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Bucharest to a sweltering 36 degrees!! It was horribly hot, and until this point there has been no chance to sit down and add anything to our blog, hence my slackness... At this stage I also have to apologise, there will be no photos for this post, even thought we saw many cool things because I am in a little internet cafe in Sibiu which does not appear to have the technology for me to put any on here...maybe at a later stage I will add some.

So after finding a little hostel in Bucharest for the night we managed to catch a train to Campalung where we planned to start our tramp across the Transylvanian mountains, otherwise known as the Fagaras mountiains. Bucharest was just a nasty, hot, busy city, I am not very keen on such cities..it had many similarities to Rio de Janiero. So it was a relief to get out, and after zipping around a strange little supermarket in Cimpalung for a bit of food we managed to score a ride up to Cabana Voina, the start of our tramp. (Cabana's are like French chalets, instead of a tramping hut imagine a mountain hotel).

We soon realised after arriving at the pretty Cabana Voina which was nestled amongst the pine trees that the amount of food we had for at least 6 days tramping was minimal, but luckily we also knew we would come across other Cabanas which sold food high in the mountains on about our third day...so we would have to rely on that.

Day 1: In the morning we headed up through the pines with very heavy packs in beautiful fine weather keeping a wee eye out for bears (there are apparently 5000 bears in Romania!!). We climbed 1500 meters into grassy alpine meadows, and soon encountered the first flock of sheep and shepherds with very ferocious dogs. Our guidebook recommended carrying sticks to fend off the dogs, they are so agressive to fend of attacks from bears and wolves!! Yikes!!

We climbed and climbed and climbed till we reached our first summit, and looked out into the very distant haze to see an extremly distant peak which Chris kindly pointed out to a tired Emily and Ed would be something we would climb in a few days time. We dropped down to a beautiful wee apline spring and set up camp.

Day 2: The weather continued to be clear and sunny, and we slogged up the next few hills in the heat because we were now way above the bush line. Chris got attacked by a very angry group of sherpherd dogs when he got ahead of us, and his 'beating' stick came in handy again. So when he came back down to find us and lead us back up through the dogs they seemed somewhat more subdued, phew.

By late afternoon we all ran out of water, so by the time we finally reached a little lake to camp by we were all very thirsty, and Ed was pretty dehydrated and not feeling so good. But after lots to drink and some dinner we were all feeling better.

Day 3: We all woke up feeling sunburnt, and our sunscreen supplies were also running very low, so ironically we were kind of hoping for bad weather. We set off up another big climb, then descent, then climb, and encountered a lot more people tramping today than previously. We were more on one of the popular parts of the mountains and we were entertained by the long trails of Romanian trampers who seemed to crawl up some of the hills.

By mid afternoon we ascended 'Moldova' which is the highest peak in Romania at 2544. It was quite steep on either side and we zoomed down the other side off the summit when we heard the first peel of thunder. However, even when we were miles down and walking along the ridgeline in the rain we could still see little figures wandering around on it's summit seemingly unconcerned!!

We descended down to a lake and Cabana Paragu where we were able to buy soup and biscuits though a little hole in the wall at the Cabana (very strange)- but it was so good to get food seeing as all we had had to eat that day was some lollies (-: The lake was not to cold, so the 3 of us went for a quick plunge before dinner and by bed time we all were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.

Day 4: In the night the wind had picked up and it was still very blustery in the morning. We started the day with an ommelette from the Cabana, and then headed up another climb (this was turning into a bit of a routine by now!) Ed was suffering a bit, so Chris adopted the approach of carrying his monstrous pack to the top of the climb, then running back down and carrying up Ed's pack, in the meantime I slogged up somewhere in between them. But by employing this method we travelled pretty quickly, and after about 4 hours we descended to the Lake Balea where the main road crosses the Fagaras range.

There were two humungous Cabana's on the lakeshore, and we had lunch at one before discovering some stalls by the road where we bought more supplies: 1 block Smelly smoked cheese which tasted more like ham, 1 jar honey, 1 large loaf stale bread, some more chocolates and lollies, 5 peaches. Maybe not the most delicious food in the world, but we were pretty excited about it nonetheless.

A few more stiff climbs and we teettered around a narrow ridge in the ever stronger winds to Lake Cultun. A beautiful alpine lake, but like many of the places we had so far discovered it was littered with horrible rubbish. So we pitched our tents a bit higher on the ridge away from the rubbish and noisy Romanians, and as we cooked up yet another dinner of rice and tuna the mist crept in.....

Day 5:

At about 3am it started raining very hard, and the first wave of thunder and lightening came roaring through. It was the loudest thunder I have ever heard, and for 3 hours the three of us did not get much sleep!! It was pretty scary, but finally it subsided and we emerged from our tents unscathed to find it drizzly and grey. We were planning on climbing over the summit of Nigouri and around a steep ridge to Lake Avrig, and from what we could see yesterday this was a very steep route and apparently involved using some fixed chains and ladders.

Of course, even though the weather was bad, Chris was super excited to take the harder route, Ed and I a little apprehensive but persuadable, so as everyone else headed down we headed up toward the Strunga Drucului (Dracula's Chimney). Very appealing!! We hauled our way up the chimney, grateful for the fixed chains on the steep slippery rock and onto as misty summit. We were pleased to be on top, but as we descended we encountered another party who warned us of the difficulty of the next section...but it was a bit late now!!

Sure enough, the ridge steeped, and we had to climb over and around some very steep ground. Luckily, Chris the pack lugger would climb or descend the tricky section with each of our packs before helping us over it. He ended up climbing some bits 4 or 5 times!! And slowly but surely we made our way along the ridge to safer ground. Eventually we reached a sign pointing back the way we had come which said: Route Forbidden in Bad Weather, opps! We kept walking through the cold rain and wind to the lake Avrig. I was pretty tired there, but the others were keen to continue so we kept going. The rain continued and it was getting dark when we decided to drop down through a creepy section of forest to a refuge, which is a small unmanned hut.

The refuge was very old and falling down, and there was a group of people tenting nearby, but we climbed up into an upatairs bit which was open sided except for its solid roof. It was very dry, and you could look out into the trees and the mist. There were strong smelling pine branches on the floor, and it was an excellent find for 9 oclock at night in the pouring rain.

We dined happily on our final meal of rice and tuna.

Day 6: It was still very misty and cold in the morning, but we felt we had to finish the Fagaras ridge no matter what, so we slogged back up the hill and along the tussocky ridgeline in the mist. We encountered several groups of people who had been camped out on the ridge for days waiting for the weather to clear, and we had to answer lots of questions about moutain bears and track times... we felt quite knowledgeable about the Fagaras mountains by now!

We continued down back into some dark erie mountian birch forest and to a little town called Turnu Rosi where there appeared to be a train line. It was a very poor little town with horse and carts, and some friendly local kids who were extremly excited by Ed's digital camera.

We caught the last train out that day and sat on the comfortable seats making them wet all the way to Sibiu. We were looking forward to a good feed and a shower after a pretty cool tramp.

A few weeks to go...

2007-06-30T01:52:00.000-07:00

Well, the first post and we are still in Christchurch. We are leaving on early Sunday morning July 22 2007, which is about three weeks away. Quite exciting! I have one more week at work, Chris has one more week when he is supposed to be doing useful stuff skiving off playing Catching Features etc. etc. then we will be busy busy busy getting packed.

THE PLAN:

We are going to spend two days in Wellington with Chris's brother John, then we are flying to Auckland on the 24 July, were we hope to rendevous with Edwardo (flatmate) who is driving to Rotorua to drop his stuff at his parents.

From there we fly through LA to Munich, then to Bucharest in Romania. We will catch a train from there into the 'Fagaras' Mountains!!! Otherwise known as the Transylvanian Alps. We plan to tramp for 4 - 5 days over the mountains to the other side, then catch a train to a town called Cluj.

The Transylvanian Open (orienteering) runs from the 6th to the 8th of July, and we will have to be vigilant watching out for Vampires, Bears, Werewolves.....and of course Dracula!

Then we will hopefully get a train out to the border and on into Ukraine heading for Kiev. It takes about 25 hours to get there apparently, so big train ride. Then we meet up with the other kiwis, and undertake a mammoth month of orienteering (for me anyway, I don't think Chris could ever do too much orienteering). So for Chris of course it is the world champs he is gearing up towards....but more importantly is the Ed and Emily Challenge, with begins on August 18 and takes place over five days while WOC is on (the Ed and Emily Challange is otherwise known as the WOC Tour or spectator event).

After all that's over we are all flying to Munich, Edwardo departs on his own adventure, and Chris and I get some bikes and see what happens!