Temperatures up to a crazy 23°C this afternoon, thanks to strong southwesterly winds 💨
A 90km ride, inland to Maassluis via Delft & back through the dunes from the Hook of Holland ⛴️
In the middle, along the Nieuwe Waterweg opposite Europoort, where Heerema’s huge Sleipnir semi-submersible vehicle was in dock: twin cranes, each capable of lifting 10,000 tonnes 😬✌️
Clearing skies, sunshine, & lots of wind for this evening’s 42km ride around the Vlietland 🌞💨
In parallel with all the narcissi, hyacinths, & tulips flowering in the bulb fields further north, the verges here are now ablaze with the yellow of rapeseed (Brassica napum) 🌼
FWIW, the unfortunate name derives from the Latin word “rapum” for turnip, part of the same family as mustard, cabbage, & Brussels sprouts 🤷♂️
The small island of Kish (91.5km2) was quickly traveled around by car. In one of the typical Iranian picnic huts right on the seaside, we took a late lunch break. Behnam made fries and Marc cooked lentils with babaganoush. We already know, the Iranians always eat the national bread 'lavash' with everything. And of course, we are always offered the bread over and over again. But since we are gluten intolerant, we have to constantly decline. It is really difficult to make it clear that we will not try a single bite of the bread...
Just before sunset, suddenly a lot of people appeared. Everyone was taking selfies, photographing their posing partners and tried to capture the perfect shot while the sun sank into the sea. It was truly a beautiful sight and Marc and I were fascinated by the spectacle. As soon as the sun was gone, all the crowd had disappeared as well. Only us and our Iranian friends remained, drinking tea, chatting, often with the help of the translator, and went to sleep a little earlier than the night before, in Bandar Charak. #cycling#bikepacking#biketouring#biketravel#travelbybike#bikelife#cyclinglife#adventure#traveling#nature#sunset#photography#photo#capturethemoment#focus#photographylover#behindthelens
From Bandare Laft we took the ferry to Iran mainland. Our plan was to pedale along the coast northwards, to stay a bit longer in the warmth. The weatherforcast for the inland regions (Shiraz, Yazd etc. ) is still a bit chilly, espeacially at night...
A somewhat unusually brisk easterly wind today, a good time to revisit one of my classic routes out to Boskoop through the Bentwoud & back past the Rietveldse windmill 💨
A 62km ride of two halves – slow going out, whizzier back 🤷♂️
I stopped to visit with my brother at the volunteer fire station today and discovered they have bike rack with tools (including an actual JIS #2 screwdriver!) available all year long.
May we proudly introduce:
Pauline and Madmax ❤️🚲🚲❤️
Wow, look at these beautiful bikes! 🥰Even though the bike assembling is now almost 2 years ago, we are still so in love with them, like we had finished them 2 days ago 😍
Let's highlight some special gear and parts:
First, our frames were built by mawis-bikes in Germany - like you already know from the previous post!👍
Second, we went with a 1x11 drivetrain from Garbaruk, and we are really impressed with the quality 👌 To keep our smartphones charged while riding, we chose the 'Son' dynamo hub and 'Sinewave Cycles' charger. Very stable an reliable 💪 And to give a bit of comfort to our buts we selected the 'Infinity Seat' saddles 🫶
Let's look back 🔭
Some weeks and months before we sat off on this journey - this new stage of our lives - we had a lot of preparation to do.
Besides selling and giving away all our belongings, we built our own bikes 🚲🚲 Special thanks to Mathias - mavis-bikes - for the beautiful frames 🫶
Marc welded in our one-room flat gorgeous racks and bottlecages. Fiona prototyped and sewed bags, sleeping bag inlays, buffs, and other useful stuff...
Ordered two new cycling helmets, one for road (Giant Rev Comp MIPS) and one for #MTB (Specialized Tactic 4). Got a really good deal on the latter, too 🤩