I woke up this morning hungry. That’s a first for this trip with many more to come, I assume.
We ate bagels and eggs and coffee and yogurt and fruit. Then packed up and headed east.
Part of our day was spent on Route 20. Going up a climb, I was passed by a Sheriff. He slowed when he passed Richard and said something to him. Later Richard told me the police man commended us on our rear lights. I guess they really catch the eye of drivers. Good to know we’re visible.
By 11:45 a.m. it was 86 degrees. By the time we stopped for lunch at 1:45 p.m., it was 97. So hot. We got lunch at the Marblemount Diner. Grilled cheese, fries, fried mozzerella sticks, milkshakes. So good. I look forward to many more meals of that same menu.
We stopped for Gatorade before the climbing really began. The guy behind the counter asked where we were headed. Maine, we said. ‘Bout that time of year, he said.
Leaving the convenience store I felt heavy with liquid. Which was probably a good thing given the heat.
After two climbs and descents we stopped to camp at a National Park Service campground in the Northern Cascades National Park. My arms and legs were white with what looked like sunscreen but was actually salt.
We rinsed off in Diablo Lake right by our tentsite. Richard made us a fire to dry off. We ate snacks and went to bed at 8 p.m.Morning sky.A hot climb up into the mountains. Campsite gear explosion.
We slept in our new tent for the first time. It’s an ultralight tent, which means it’s light and has zero extra room inside. When we’re both sleeping, it’s fine. We just fit. But if we need to do anything else, like change clothes or sit up, it’s very tight.
Fortunately, we are going to be generally exhausted all summer so sleeping will likely be all we ask of the tent. But let’s see how it does after a ride in the rain when all our stuff is wet and we’re frustrated and cold and trying desperately to keep our sleeping bags dry while changing out of wet clothes.
The day was full sun again. I already have a bit of mild burn on my shoulder blades. I’ll have to work on reapplying sunscreen more often. But it’s nice weather to ride in, for sure.
We had to stop twice because my rear tire was leaking air. I patched a small hole, probably from a thorn, the first time, then just replaced the tube the second time when I couldn’t figure out where it was leaking air.
The roads were rolling hills all day. Fortunately, the route takes us mainly on lesser-traveled roads, but we had to spend a couple hours on Route 20 with fast-moving cars and a lot of noise. The road conditions have been fine, more or less. But it’s a beautiful place to ride.
Our bodies are slowly adjusting to the work. My body is already desperate for sleep. (I meant to write this entry last night but fell asleep before it was dark.) I have tan lines forming on my legs. I am hungry, but not desperately so yet.
We made it to the Burlington, WA area around 6:30. Because we were in the vincinity of a hotel where we could use points to stay, we opted for showers and sheets.
On the way, we happened upon a taco truck and are many many gorditas, flautas and mulitas.
The last we will see of the Pacific Ocean as we move east.Inflating my flat tire for the second time today.Crossing the Padillo Bay.Heading east toward Burlington, WA.
Does it count as a bike crash if you’re not on the bike and the bike is still in pieces in a box?
The day had barely begun. We were walking with our bike boxes from the car to the shuttle bus stop. I tripped over my shoes and landed on the bike box which landed on the food bag. The impact opened the bag of chips I had in the bag.
Given my obvious embarrassment and that I didn’t have much time to be embarrassed, I didn’t notice my injuries, though mild, for another hour or so. My right wrist swelled slightly and I’m hoping for a bruise to go with it. My right ankle got tweeted a bit, but that pain went away by the time we got off the plane in Seattle. Oh, well.
The important thing is we — and our bikes — made it to Seattle.
We spent an hour or so rebuilding them by baggage claim carosel number 4. The TSA had opened both boxes and checked through everything I had wrapped to keep them clean of bike grease. At least they put it all back in and closed the boxes well enough. (Doesn’t always happen, TSA.)
It was sunny and 75 degrees at 2:30 when we rolled out of Sea-Tac. We pedaled 14 miles to the ferry terminal and got there just in time for the 4:20 boat to Bremerton, WA on the Olympic Peninsula. At 5:30 p.m. we were headed north headed for however far we could get by dark.
Right now we’re camped under some towering pines listening to the strong Pacific wind blow through them. We have another 50+ miles to the official start of our ride, but we’ll get there tomorrow sometime.
We have a fine –if warm — weather forecast, so I’ll take it. Almost ready to leave Sea-Tac Airport.Mt. Rainier to the south as we leave Seattle for Bremerton.
Our bikes are in pieces and folded into boxes. We’ve picked out our favorite padded shorts. We have a 20-ounce bottle of butt cream. I think we’re ready!
Tomorrow, Richard and I fly to Seattle to start our cross-country bike ride.
Once again, our generous parents have made room in their homes for our stuff, and we’ve widdled down our possessions to only that which we’ll need for the next two months.
My gear list for the bike tour looks something like this:
One tent — Big Agnes Flycreek Platinum Ultralight 2 person; 1 lb. 9 oz.
One sleeping bag — ZPacks 20-degree; 1 lb.
One sleeping pad — Thermorest NeoAir XLite, women’s regular
Two pairs of bike shorts
One sleeveless bike jersey
One pair leg covers
One pair wind pants
Three pair wool socks
Adventure Cycling Northern Tier map set
Limar helmet
Specialized gloves
Moxie shrug
Nashbar waterproof rear panniers
There’s more but my head is tired so I’m having trouble remembering. If you have any specific gear questions, send me a message and I will do my best to answer them.
Our bikes packed in boxes ready to be checked on our flight to Seattle.
Another blurry, overnight flight brought us to Munich. This time we upped our standards and got a BMW. You know, when in Rome…
It was a nice drive south to the Principality of Liechtenstein. We went for a walk up to the castle (Schloss Vaduz) where the royal family still lives above the town of Vaduz. Then we had a delicious meal at the Residence Hotel. The garlic soup was amazing.
Given that we passed individual homes with vineyards in their backyards, we had to try some wine. I ordered a glass of something white (Richard was driving) and it was great.
From Vaduz, we drove to Zurich. It was busy but not overwhelmingly so. Because it was a warm, spring Saturday, the river was lined with people picnicking, walking and enjoying the evening. Once checked into our hotel, we walked down to the Zurichsee Lake and watched the swans.
The next morning, our friend Dan flew in and we went on another tour of the city, this time while jogging.
After breakfast, we drove up into the mountains to Davos. We rented cross country skis and I got out of breath. After living at sea level at McMurdo, I was slow moving in the mountains.
Dinner was cheese. Just cheese. We went to a fondu restaurant and ate cheese. It was awesome.
The next day, we rented downhill skis and explored the world-famous Swiss Alps. The morning was chilly and icy. But by midday, my quads were burning in the mashed potato snow. It took a lot of work to turn in longer-than-I-was-used-to skis in the heavy wet snow.
I headed down first and took a nap in the sun-warmed car. From there we drove to Italy for dinner. Pizza!
And then on to Innsbrook for bed.
I’m not kidding when I said this was a whirlwind tour. We were interested in getting the slightest taste of absolutely everything.
We walked around Innsbrook in the morning, then drove back up to Munich.
Another afternoon jog took us to giant clocks and river surfers. Dinner was beer.
In the morning, we all packed for the long plane ride back to the U.S. and regular life.
Bye world! See you again soon!
The view from the car driving from Munich to Liechtenstein.
Zurichsee, the lake at my new favorite city.
Richard cross country skiing in Davos.
Skiing above Davos.
Dan and Richard inspect the cog rail train in Innsbrook.
As we were making our way out of Thailand, Richard granted me a huge favor. I had been sick all day with food poisoning. My vomiting was winding down and I was exhausted. What I really needed was a good-night’s sleep rather than an 8-hour plane ride. So Richard upgraded us to first class on Bangkok Air. We got seats that reclined the WHOLE WAY.
So while Richard indulged in the fancy food and drinks, I got to sleep. It was great.
We arrived in South Africa midday, rented a car and headed east:
While South Africa is a very diverse country in landscapes and people, we decided to focus our time on just one strip of land in the north east corner: Kruger National Park.
This well-run, organized park is nearly 350 kilometers long and 60 kilometers wide along the Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Because the accommodations and activities in Kruger see very popular, we booked everything online before we came.
We rented a car at the Johannesburg Airport and drove about 2.5 hours east to spend one night at the Acra Retreat in Waterton-Boval. We were in the Rhino Room and had a lovely dinner, night’s rest and breakfast with Holger and Norma, the proprietors. I especially enjoyed meeting Susie, their Rhodesian Ridgeback. She loved us for our breakfast food and we loved her for her patience while we indulged petting her.
After a slow morning at Acra, we loaded up and drove to Kruger, entering through the Crocodile Bridge entrance. We checked in for the tent site we pre-booked and for our three game drives.
We looked around the gated camping area, set up our tent and had just enough time to eat a snack before our sunset game drive.
Part of a group of about 15, we were all loaded into an open jeep with a canvas top. It had rained recently (during a season of severe, and unusual, drought, which meant the animals were up and moving around rather than hunkered down.
We got to see giraffe, elephant, cape buffalo, impala (by the hundreds) and many other mammals. Richard and I also kept track of the birds we saw in the spirit of our mothers, who both love birds.
Richard at the Acra Retreat.Our tent at Crocodile Bridge Camp.Sunset in Kruger National Park.
Right after the sunset game drive, we went out on a night game drive. The group was smaller and we saw fewer animals, but it was still interesting. I enjoyed seeing the Giant African Snail. We got to feed one later in the week (which in hindsight may have been a bad idea — oops).
We first saw these snails in Hawaii, where they are invasive and have out-eaten all the beautiful, native snails.
We slept in camp with vervet monkeys and bush babies hopping around us.
The next morning we got up super early for the sunrise drive where we got to have the guide all to ourselves and got to see a pack of these:
Spotted Hyena
They were out hunting, our guide said. I love hyenas. We saw spotted hyenas, which are a matriarchal pack mammal that hunt as well as scavenge. The females are larger than males and are dominant over them. They have amazing endurance and can run at modest speeds for hours, but can also run up to 60 kph for a few kilometers when chasing prey. Also, they are extremely intelligent as compared to other hyenas. Studies have shown a convergent evolution between spotted hyenas and primates, so they have a large frontal cortex, can communicate with members of their packs, are good at avoiding traps and cooperating.
After the last game drive, we drove north, stopping for awesome animal sightings.
We got to the Swatara Camp in time to join our group for the Sweni Trails trip. National park visitors are not allowed to get out of their cars and just walk around. The risk of running into dangerous wildlife is too high. So, in order to experience the park from the ground, Richard and I signed up for a series of walks with armed guards.
They drove us out to a remote camp, where we were fed and slept behind a fence (to keep us in, not keep the animals out, we were told).
Richard and our group as we walk around Kruger National Park.My bed in our two-bed A-frame cabin at our fenced-in camp at Sweni.
Each day, we went on two walks and got to see hippos, many birds, hyena puppies (!), a rock python and more hippos.
I would highly recommend the Sweni Trails or other walking tour of Kruger if you ever get the chance.
A vervet monkey print on the windshield of our car.
We landed in Bangkok in the early morning and were immediately confused as to how we should get to our connecting flight to Krabi. There were multiple immigration ports and we had to choose the right one or end up on the wrong end of the airport.
After some exasperation and trying to ask airport employees who couldn’t read the Japanese on our tickets (sorry about that), we found the right immigration line and ended up in the correct terminal for our flight.
After waiting a few hours for the flight and the 90-minute flight itself, we landed in Krabi, already sweating. It was 85 percent humidity and nearly 100-degree heat.
Since our bags were checked from Japan, they did not come out with the other luggage from the flight and somehow ended up at the international terminal. Once laden, we got a taxi to the Krabi pier and then a long-tail boat to Railay. The boat was loud as they just strap old car engines to a long metal pole with a propellor on the end to move the boat.
By midday, we were in Railay and checked into our hotel. After basking in the air conditioner and enjoying the Internet for a bit, we headed out to explore. We soon found a rock climbing outfit that agreed to rent us gear. We found the Rock and geared up, climbing until sunset.
Our time in Thailand was spent climbing from sunrise to mid morning, then hiking, swimming or reading all afternoon and climbing again around 5 p.m. to sunset.
We found great food a place called Mom’s Kitchen and got food poisoning at the Diamond Cave Resort restaurant.
Railay definitely looks like another world with rock pillars covered in green trees and vines towering over beaches. But the most interesting part of Railay was the caves. The rocks have huge, winding holes carved out by the ocean. One large cave took us a few tries to find our way through and then ended with a 30-meter rappel to the ground.
Landing at Railay East pier.Sunset climbing at the One, Two, Three wall.The view of Railay East (right) and West (left) from the view point above the One,Two, Three wall.Richard’s feet as he takes a photo of the work done by crabs. They dig up balls of sand and push them out in a neat, orderly semi-circleMe asking Richard if he will please, just let me put one more shell in his pocket to carry back?
We’re back at the airport after five days in Japan. On our whirlwind world tour that’s two countries down and six-plus to go.
We arrived at the Tokyo Haneda airport at 5 a.m. Tuesday morning. We took the monorail into Tokyo and spent the day walking around the Tokyo Station/Imperial Palace/Tokyo Harbor area. It was windy and chilly but the sun was out all day. We visited the Tokyo Station Gallery and the Kite Museum. The Imperial Palace Gardens had apple trees blooming. Lunch came in the form of Ramen from a restaurant under a bridge.
That night we took the bullet train as far north as it currently goes and then switched to a slow train to get to Sapporo on Hokkaido. From there it was a bus to Niseko and our hotel.
We checked in, rented our ski gear and hit the slopes. The next three days were spent sliding through powder and exploring all the not-on-the-map runs we could find on Mt. Niseko-Annupuri.
Sometimes the weather was cloudy and windy. Sometimes it was a blizzard. Sometimes we were in fog so thick we could only ski from one orange boundary pole to the next. And on the last morning, it was blue skies.
At the hotel we filled up on free breakfast and soaked in the 42-degree C onsen pools. We slept 10 hours a night and skied seven hours a day. The ski valet guys recognized us without looking at our tag numbers.
It was an awesome trip and now I am completely spoiled on powder. I’m not sure if I will be able to remember how to ski the ice snow in New England.
Blue skies on our last morning ski.
Sunrise view of Mt. Yotei from our hotel room window. Richard behind me on the one-person lift to the tippity top of Mt. Niseko-Annupuri. Richard somewhere in the way down the mountain. Richard considering just what kind of fish product he was buying at the open market in Tokyo.
This is our last day in New Zealand. We’ve driven around for a week to the mountains, farmland and ocean.
Richard running in the mountains north of Queenstown. Richard found a ram skull and replaced his own head. Richard runs to the ocean. This is Sandfly Beach on the east coast of the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin.
Also, we paraglided!
Strapped into my harness. Richard and his paraglide pilot coming in for a landing.
It was fun to pretend I was a hawk riding the thermals. But I did get nauseated when he started us on the 360-spins. JP, my pilot, let me fly it while he took pictures.
Now, we’re back in Christchurch and prepping for our world tour.
That means laundry, inoculations, and reorganization. Also, lots of walking around Christchurch. It’s a very cool city that is full of green space and public art.
This is a viewing platform for a Christchurch chirch that was severely damaged in the 2011 earthquake. Someone decided to decorate it with vining plants.
Right after we landed in New Zealand from Antarctica Richard started showing symptoms of a upper respiratory virus. He sneezed and blew his nose through that for the week. This morning, I woke up with the same symptoms. Yay! Bring on the 24 hours of travel it will take to get to Japan. Oh, well. For now I will be binge drinking tea and pretending I feel fine.
