pedal promise

Hello we are Matt and Jasi. We are cycling from Jasi's hometown in Switzerland to Matt's hometown in Australia. Currently in Nepal.

Croatia

Looking Back on 8 Months of Bike Touring

bike tourWe have been on the road for eight months now. We started our trip on the 9th of July at the house of Jasis parents in Wattenwil, Switzerland with the aim to reach Matts parents house in Cobden, Australia by bicycle. The distance we estimated to cycle was around 25,000km and we thought it will take us 18 months (50km per day). We set ourselves a budget of 50 US$ per day per person, we knew that it would probably be too much, but we wanted to be prepared for any case.

So far:

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  • 8 months of cycling
  • 7,700 km
  • 13 countries
  • 10,000 US$ for the both of us
To go:
  • 10 months of cycling
  • 10,000 km (We now think we will cover less than 25’000km in total and enjoy more time off the bikes in places we really love. There is no need to rush.)
  • 10 countries

Things we have learnt on the road

Self-belief

Time and time again, we find ourselves in small ‘oh-shit’-situations. Time and time again, we find a way through these moments. We

have developed a real belief between us, and in these moments, we really work together. We now talk back through these moments as some of our most loved memories of the trip and make a point to ourselves very often that we must enjoy ‘oh-shit’-moments more and more.

No matter how long, steep or difficult it seems, you can do it. Step by step, pedal stroke after pedal stroke. Cycling from Switzerland to Australia sounded impossible before we started. Whenever I told someone about our plans I placed a “maybe” and a “we will just see how far we get” into the story. I knew that people would laugh about our plans because they did not really seem realistic.
The way to Australia does still seem long to us, but so does the way from Switzerland to India and we did that, right? Km for km, day for day and then, all of a sudden you get there.
This makes us think that in general in our lives, we were too scared of big projects. I wanted to study photography when I graduated high school, but I was too scared that I wouldn’t be talented enough and would never be able to make money of it. Now I think I would have succeeded if I really wanted.

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Patience

Staying patient is perhaps the most important skill to hold tight when meeting people on the road. You may have just been stopped by the 10th person that day requesting a selfie, or you might find yourself being taught by a hotel manager how to correctly ride your own bike, but the moment you lose your patience is the moment you stop making friends and stop receiving help from others. The selfie could be shown to all his family and friends with a big smile and the hotel manager might just be an Olympic cyclist, you never know. That moment of patience has helped us so many times and has also shown us how lonely the road is when you lose patience.

Don’t believe everything you read

Yet again Iran, has been one of the richest learning experiences on this trip. Entering Iran, we felt nervous and to be honest a little scared. Our newspapers had only ever portrayed Iran as a dangerous and troubled country. After leaving Iran, we were so thankful and our whole world perspective altered from the kindness of these people. The presence of media in so many forms through our daily lives built the fear we once had for the people of Iran. Know the source of what you read or hear and never be afraid to question it!

My god, the possibilities

Before we decided to bicycle tour around the world, I had only once  heard about bicycle touring, and when I did hear it, I thought it was crazy. 8 months later, the idea of getting on my bike tomorrow and cycling 60-70 km through the chaos of India dealing with language barriers and chasing monkeys almost seems normal. All of us forget too quickly the brave steps we once took to get where we are. I hope that when we finish this journey, that we remind ourselves of the accomplishment and be brave enough to go try, see, do whatever we dream.

Trust

Have trust in people. Whenever we had a problem on this trip, someone came around the next corner and helped us. At times, the help we received further complicated the situation but most importantly, we were no longer alone. Together with complete strangers we found average solutions building extraordinary memories and friendships. We have built up a strong trust now, that whatever happens, we will find a way through.

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But never trust locals with distances

This was a hard one to learn for me, being Swiss it is in my nature to be very exact and correct about numbers. On this trip, it has never happened, that we asked a local how far it was to the next town and they gave us an accurate answer. Whenever someone says 5km, we now know that it could be anything between 10-50km. Still nice to know we were heading in the right direction.

Highlights

  • Picnic invites from Iranian families.
  • Downhills! If you are having a shit day, catch a bus with your bike to the top of a hill, enjoy!
  • Wild camping on a quiet lake in the Georgian mountains.
  • Friends visiting us in Bulgaria and India. That was awesome guys!
  • Riding around Dubai downtown in a convertible.
  • Pomegranate feasts in Iran.
  • Arriving on the Black Sea after riding through Europe for three months.
  • Swimming in the holy Ganges in India.
  • Italy’s food and ice-creams.
  • Taking the headscarf off after riding through Iran for two months.
  • Ferry crossing over the black sea.
  • Everyday freedom.
  • Holi color festival in India.
  • Getting to know hospitality on a whole other level than we could have ever imagined.

Difficulties

  • Going to bed without a shower when we wild camp.
  • Sometimes we can’t find any hotel when it gets dark and we must keep going until we find one.
  • The hassle of organizing things when traveling (like post office closed, no police office to extend visa, booking flights over weak wifi).
  • Constantly having to say goodbye to all the lovely people we meet.
  • Missing home, our families and friends.
  • Physical challenge on the hills and the long unspectacular stretches that we sometimes had to cover.

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Journey’s Impact on our relationship

Before this trip, we had a long-distance relationship. One of the reasons we wanted to go on this bike journey was, that we can live together, even if it is only in a tent.
When we started, we were excited to finally be together without having to say goodbye after a week or two. Our expectations were high as we have been dreaming about our bicycle trip for over one year before departure. Against our expectations, we had a bit of a tough time in the first four weeks. We were constantly stressed with camping, getting enough kms done for the day, writing good blog posts, looking adventurous on social media and processing all these new things we saw, felt and learnt.
And then, in our fifth week on the bikes in Croatia, we suddenly clicked. We learnt how to work as a team. Matt learnt how to deal with hangry Jasi and Jasi learnt to deal with waiting for Matt to get ready in the mornings. Everything got smooth from then on and we only had very few and little arguments ever since.
We went through the best days and the worst days on the road together. We have cried of happiness and cried of frustration together and it all got us closer together and made our relationship stronger.

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Future plans

Our time in India will soon come to an end. We will cross over to Nepal in about a week. In Nepal we are going to meet up with friends for trekking in the Himalayas. I can’t even start to tell you how excited we are. Best friends, trekking, beers, delicious food and adventure, bring it on!
The only problem we have in Nepal is, that we can’t leave the country over land borders once we’ve entered. We can’t enter India again because we wouldn’t get another eVisa and we can’t enter China as it is impossible to get a Chinese visa for bike tourers at the moment. These are the only two countries that border Nepal, so we have to take a flight out of Nepal. We decided to fly from Kathmandu, Nepal to Mandalay, Myanmar and continue our cycle tour there.
From Myanmar we plan to cycle a big loop through Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia before we enter Thailand. Once in Thailand we will cycle southwards. In Malaysia we plan to meet up with friends again to spend one week on an island somewhere in turquoise waters.
From Malaysia, our bike tour will continue to Singapore and then via ferry to Bali. Bali will mark the end of our time in Asia. From there we will take a (hopefully cheap) flight to Broome or Perth on Australia’s West Coast. We both can’t imagine how excited we will be when our plane finally lands in Australia. We will then cycle down the West Coast and maybe take a train through the desert stretch between Perth and Adelaide as it will be summer in Australia and bloody hot.
We hope to arrive at Matts parent’s house in Cobden, Victoria just before Christmas 2018.

Things we plan to do differently in our real life after the trip

Adventure is everywhere

We found little adventures in every country that we have traveled. So we assume, there has to be little adventures waiting for us in Switzerland and Australia too. By adventure we mean little spontaneous things that make us fall out of our comfort zone and daily routine. Here the things we plan to do more often:

  • Help, like really help a tourist or someone in need, we already owe so many people!
  • Explore our own cities sights and events. Be a tourist in our own town.
  • Ride our bikes or walk when needed, the world has too much traffic.
  • Quality not quantity. Buy quality sustainable goods, the world has too much trash on it.
  • Recycle and recycle again, be the change, others (like the whole country of India) will follow eventually.
  • Reduce our meat intake. We have been vegetarians for two months in India as we were too afraid to get sick from the meat and we haven’t missed meat once!
  • Step out of social comfort zones, start a conversation with that guy you see on the bus every morning.
  • Leaving time free for doing absolutely nothing, relax the mind.
  • Brain train, keep learning and trying new things.
georgia
Enjoy normal stuff more

On this trip we realized, how valuable dinner nights with our families, drinks out with our friends, good coffees in the morning and clean bed sheets are. We hope we will remember how much we missed these things on the trip and value them more for the rest of our lives.

Follow our aims in life

The one thing we really learnt from all the travelers and locals we met, is: If you want something in life, you have to pursue it. Almost everything is possible once you made the decision and start working towards it. Most people have around 80 years on this earth, right? You can decide what you want to do with these 80 years. Of course, there are boundaries, but we have realized how extremely fortunate we are, that we have been born in Australia and Switzerland. We are well educated and can be pretty confident, that no matter what decisions we make in our lives, we will most likely not end up homeless or starve to death. So, let’s be thankful for all the opportunities we have by just our nationality and bloody take them. After this trip we both want to be brave and start directing our working careers to where we want to take them.

What will happen after the trip?

Will we continue cycling in South America? Will we stay in Australia and search for work? Will we go back to Switzerland? Or maybe move to Dubai for a year? For now, we don’t really know yet.

Talk to you soon
Matt and Jasi

bike touring

Video snippet compilation from Croatia to the Black Sea

Our adventure continues from the Croatian coast to the Black Sea. A flicker of clips detailing the road from Croatia through Serbia, Romania and ending at the Black Sea in Bulgaria.

From the crystal clear waters of Croatia, along the mighty Danube, past hundreds of friendly faces and over rolling hills of corn. Finishing finally aboard the giant cargo ship that will take across the Black Sea to Georgia.

The views, landscapes and sights from the road are often breathtaking, but with these films I try and capture the little bits in-between all this. The smiles, a meal cooked from the bounty of the days riding, just the simple things of travelling by bike.

The soundtrack “Alive” by Tess Creasy is an inspirational song for all to take a step to adventure or travel, to live a great life. I first heard this track live at Tess’s album release party 1 month before the start of our adventure. I knew instantly it was a perfect track to capture this journey and the emotions of what I hoped this trip would stir, the feeling of being alive. To feel every sense and be fascinated at every turn in the road, to experience struggle and elation, absorbing it all in the moment. Check out Tess Creasy on Youtube for her full Album “Alive”.

Contrasts in Croatia

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To say goodbye to Italy, we ate Pizza, had a Cappuccino and a Gelato each for dessert. Our route then led us along the Slovenian cost into Croatia. At the first Croatian campsite we were surprised with the price. We expected Croatia to be much cheaper than Switzerland and Italy, but we were wrong. The shower of that campsite was lighted by lamps that changed colour whilst one takes a shower. It was by far the fanciest campsite we stayed at and that has its price. Now, after seeing some of the inland of Croatia, we are astonished by the contrasts this country showed us. The beating heart of Croatia’s culture has become much more prominent as we ventured inland. We both agreed that the moment we left the turquoise waters and fancy campsites and headed inland, we were truly exploring.

Originally we wanted to ride down the Croatian coast to Bosnia and Herzegovina and on to Montenegro. It is one of Europe’s more stunning coastlines. The water is crystal clear and changes it’s colour slowly from turquoise to deep blue. After riding along the gorgeous coast for a few days we both changed our minds. We changed our minds due to three main reasons: Hills, stupid ferries and traffic. In the next three paragraphs I will try to explain these three reasons.

The coastline of Croatia is very hilly. There are no big mountains like in the alps that you can conquer and then roll down with a sweet feeling of victory. On Croatia’s coastline you have more of an up-and-down-and-up-and-down-situation. With all the luggage we carry on our bikes we love flatness. We do not really notice the weight anymore when it is flat but on the hills we feel every single gram. Whenever we are riding up a hill we are talking about all the unimportant things we plan to send home. If Croatia’s post offices were situated at the beginning of steep climbs I am sure we would have sent home a package. Whenever we see a post office in a flat town the things we wanted to send home seem too valuable for the trip and we ride on.

The second reason we wanted to leave the coast is: There are big passenger ferries to the stunning and more flat islands of Croatia but most of them do not transport bicycles. In Pula we waited for a ferry for two days only to find out in the morning of the departure that they don’t allow bikes on board of the big ships. It did not say anything about this policy on their website. Matt was so annoyed with the ferries that we spent two hours in the sailing ship harbour of Pula trying to get on a private boat. It almost worked out to my surprise! Matt is a great travel partner, he is never too shy to ask for help or to start a chat with some locals. In the end the private sailing boats that agreed to give us a lift were all too small to fit two bikes, all our luggage and two more passengers. So we had to ride back hilly 65km in the heat to another port that lets bikes onto the ships.

The third reason why we left the seaside is: There is only one main road along the Croatian coast. As it is the only connection from the north to the south, there is a lot of traffic and little space for bike paths. Cars ride fast and do not leave a big gap in between their side mirrors and our two little bikes. We had to be very concentrated when we were riding (so basically the whole day) which can be tiring.

Out of these three reasons we headed to central Croatia and it turned out it was a great decision! Soon after we left the seaside the landscape became flat as a pancake. Also traffic slowed down and there were obviously no more ferries to annoy us. The further inland we went the less touristy it got. Buildings changed from shiny hotels to old brick stone houses with small gardens. People are sitting in front their houses watching us rolling by, nodding, waving or giving us a friendly “Dobar dan” (good day). The last week we spent riding through farmer villages. Time seems to have stopped fifty years ago in some places. We were snacking on a bench in one of these old villages as Matt said to me: “Look around. If there were no cars you would never guess that we are in the year 2017 here.” True.

As we ventured east we were amazed at how obvious the signs of war were. We passed countless houses riddled with bullet holes and bombed churches. As we rode past an interesting monument in the outskirts of Jasenovac, we guessed from afar what the significance of such a structure could be. It wasn’t until we later googled the town did we discover that the monument was a memorial for the victims of the Jasenovac concentration camp during world war two. The finding of this, naturally sat quite heavy with us. Jasenovac camp was labelled the “Auschwitz of the Balkans” and the conditions and atrocities committed here have been described as some of the worst of all camps during world war two. It is difficult to comprehend the changes since then, given that we are freely exploring these lands and meeting the Croatian people that have endured so much.

To pass such poignant historical landmarks completely oblivious to the cause, makes us feel very naive, however we will continue to be curious and learn. The day to day nature of bike touring doesn’t allow us to research all of the towns we pass through beforehand, but that is what keeps travelling so interesting and magical, isn’t it? There are times we stumble upon beautiful old towns in full celebration and other times war memorials and ruined houses line the streets. We are now, and are growing more appreciative of our freedom we have to travel.

wild camping

We enjoy travelling by bike a lot. If we were backpacking we would have probably taken a bus to Croatia’s main attractions on the coast and visited the gorgeous national parks. That would have been an awesome holiday but we love that we were able to explore these more hidden places of Croatia by bike. No bus or travel guide book would take you through those little villages and towns. Our failure at the coast line’s hills brought us here and we are glad it did.

Since we left my hometown in Switzerland almost one month has passed. To me that last month feels so much longer than a month at work does. There are countless impressions of this journey in my head already. It is now that we start to realise that this trip will be our life for the next few months. To say that we are happy about it is an understatement. Soon we will enter Bosnia and Herzegovina and then Serbia. We’ll keep you posted on our adventures.

Talk to you soon
Matt and Jasi