Oh yes, I've eaten boiled potatoes, but thank goodness I've never experienced the hell of eating nothing else with them. I often joke about how boiled potatoes are the blandest food on earth, yet they seem to be my wife's favorite food. She doesn't even put salt and pepper on them. It's craziness!
I've only toured snippets of your country, but I'd sure like to see more of Canada.
I don't really fear venomous serpents and unpasteurized milk as much as I fear bugs. Australia doesn't have any bugs does it? LOL
Greg we have a few bugs but nowadays it’s mandatory for them to wear masks; so as soon as you can, head on over the Pacific to do a snakes and lizards tour.
Hi Karen
Like you, I think, I taught at a post-secondary, in my case, the British Columbia Institute of Technology. There was not an option to take vacation during term, so I was limited to July and August. My husband also got a lot of vacation time but he couldn't actually take much of it during the summer. I retired as soon as I turned 60 in order to tour outside the summer months. I managed one trip and then Covid stopped everything.
About the European style of camping: when I first camped in France in 1992, it was just pay your money and put your tent somewhere in that field. The sanitary block always had showers and flush toilets and some campgrounds even had restaurants!
Fast-forward to our next trip to Europe, to Germany in 2015. The campgrounds looked like trailer parks, with all the negative connotations to a Canadian. We carried our camping gear for 3 weeks and used it exactly once--in a put-your-tent-in-that-field sort of place. We decided that the next time we toured in Germany, we'd leave the camping gear at home.
I've subsequently camped in France and Spain and, most of the time, was assigned an "emplacement" or specific site. Some sites were equipped with what I now know are "mobile homes" that campers can rent, rather than bringing their own. Up close, they don't really look like trailer parks.
But the campgrounds in Europe have many benefits over camping in, say, a British Columbia provincial park campground: you get to set up your tent on actual grass! there are always showers! you pay less than that group of 6 in an RV! nobody is operating a generator! sometimes there's a restaurant and/or a swimming pool and/or fresh baked goods in the morning! sometimes they are even close to a town with services! So, for cycle touring, I definitely prefer camping Euro-style.
I have met several veteran world travelers who refuse to travel to the United States because they are afraid of getting shot and/or afraid of going bankrupt if they get sick.
Overall, I think it's nearly impossible to be a bicycle traveler if you are consumed by fear. Bicycle travelers tend to be cautious, but not fearful.
You're right, Wayne. I also remember a forum on our former cycle touring site in which a number of people were afraid of coming over to the U.S. because they feared the drinking water was unsafe. I guess they thought the whole country was like Flint, MI.
There are a few things I fear, such as mosquitoes in Africa and touring in Afghanistan. Mosquitoes are creepy and Afghanistan is deadly. I'm not consumed by the fear. It's just that I'd rather get eaten by a Montana mountain lion than die the slow death of dengue fever, and I'd rather take my chances with a brutal sheriff in Arizona than the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Define bugs.
Australia has mosquitos, sand flies,march flies (all which bite) and ordinary flies, sometimes in vast numbers.
Apart from that it is a great place to ride.
Mike
Wayne
Travel insurance is suposed to cover medical costs but I have noticed that as I get older the premiums get a lot more expensive.
Mike
“I started thinking my question was kind of meaningless.”
Gregory to the contrary, I think your question is a great question because it prompts thinking about why cycle tour? What are the real motivations and needs of the cycle tourer?
For example if one’s motivations are good roads, tasty, affordable food, decent budget accommodation, abundant, accessible drinking water, minimal extreme weather and easy access to bike repairers and bike parts then Australia probably won’t be on the list but France and Thailand would be.
But if the rider has a desire for open-ended adventure, no fear of close encounters with venomous serpents, an appreciation of unbridled freedom, a hankering for fermented mares’ milk and seeing wild camels, then treadling through Central Asia or across Australia should be on the To Do List.
If I was forced to choose my two favourite cycle touring countries (other than my own) they’d be Turkey and France. They are very different cultures but they share a few outstanding offerings for cycle tourers such as wonderful rural cuisines, welcoming people, diversity, geographic beauty, safety and affordability.
And if I had to choose just one more continent to cycle tour before I hang up my wheels, it’d be North America.
2 years ago