Yes I am, cycling to Cape Town

[bert sitters]

Hi Mr Peacock,

Tot ziens en vooral veel plezier onderweg. Is zal jouw reis zeker volgen.

Groetjes,

Bert

[johntelleman]

Ha die Lars,

Ben benieuwd naar je eerste echte mailtje!
Goede reis en veel plezier gewenst.

John.

[Nanette]

Lieve grote broer,

Nogmaals heel veel plezier en leuke avonturen gewenst!! Ik verheug me op je reisverhalen (en met mij vele anderen)

En je weet... iedereen die je lief is reist met je mee!

XXXX

[VoorheenRJ]

Veel plezier Lars!

[Wit]

En vandaag vertrekt ie!!!!
Goede reis Lars !

[lars de wit]

Hello,

First border is taken, one of the easiest this trip.
No customs, no passports to be checked or bags I have to open...

The first night I spend in Holland, near Standaardbuiten
First plan was to camp in the wild, but when I got to the bush where I planned to camp the road was leading to a farm.
So I turned my bike and drove on, saw a house with a big garden, knocked on the door and said : Hello, I am Lars and I am cycling to Cape Town. I cannot do that in one day so I was wondering, may I please pitch my tent in your garden ?
The woman laughed, looked at me and said ' look, I do not live here. The owner will be back in an hour. But you can try it across the street.
The people who live there also hosted Eddy Zoey, from the dutch television program : how hospitable is ...... ( in this case Standaardbuiten ) so I think you are welcome there '
And I was, after telling the same joke about cycling to Cape Town but not in one day

Earlier that day I asked several times : hello sir, is this the road to Cape Town ? After Dordrecht turn right and then all the way south, right ?
I love the look on their faces

I had a good night, camping at a lovely river called de Mark.

Now I am camping in my sister's garden and after 265 km having a resting day.
Next one will be in Troyes, France

Greetings Lars

Ps in that television program the camera crew knock on somebody's door and ask if they can spend the night at their house or ask a meal.
Most time the only thing I need is a couple of square meters ground, to pich my tent

[frank bueters]

Hey Lars,
Wat een monstertocht!
Veel gezondhed en geluk onderweg.
Frank

[CyclingDutchgirl]

Ha Lars!
Als het nog steeds Dirk is die de camping in Troyes runt, doe hem de hartelijke groeten en een knuffel van mij!
Stond daar een tijdje met m'n fiets in 2003. (leuk hondje ook)
Veel plezier!!!

[Wit]

Kom je nog door Sidi Ifni?
En ga je dan een biertje drinken bij de bar aan het strand?
Doe dan de groeten aan Abdoelah en Ibrahim van Douwe en mij.
En zeg maar dat we waarschijnlijk weer langskomen.

[maaike pfann]

Wow Lars, dat klinkt als een leuk reisje, ik verheug me nu al op 11 maanden meegenieten van jouw verhalen en avonturen in onvervalst rotterdamse-haven-engels!
Liefs, Maaike.

[lars de wit]

Bonjour !

So, only 19331 km to go
I am now in Troyes, very nice city. Old wooden houses, really nice !

Since I left home I am kissing the pedals.
Don't know what that means ?
It means I am only touching them, very light, without force.
Reason is that 1 week and a half before I left I had a sore left knee, so I cycled very slowly, like 16 km an hour.
And when I felt something I stopped, or used only my right leg. But then my right knee started to feel ... So I stopped again and took a pause.
All these things helped because now it is almost back to normal.

When I left my sister in Belgium she told me what their kids used to say to ' greet ' somebody;
They said ' boshoer ' ( forest hooker in stead of bonjour. Maybe a little like bozzoer ...
You need some practise but that isn't to hard here in France
Fun, especially that time in the forest when I greeted two lady's ...

Northern France is pretty nice and all the famous winyards around Epernay nice to see.
One night I camped in between the grapes of a famous one, Bollinger.
That morning I didn't pee to close to the grapes, wouldn't want to influence the taste of what maybe is your next bottle of champagne, would I ?

Salut !

[Shane]

Ha die Lars,

Leuk verhaal,

Enjoy kissing your pedals with the forest hookers!!!

[mario]

Hoop dat alles goed blijf gaan met je knie.

Hou ons op de hoogte.

mario

[nicolasfirst]

Lars, prachtig verhaal weer. Ik zal bij de volgende fles Bollinger wel twee keer nadenken voordat ik daar uit drink;-)

Nico

[lars de wit]

Bonjour !

Cycling out of Troyes was a piece of cake; there is this 42 km long cycle path along a canal, so flat, no cars and ... finally the wind in the back ( wich will be that way the next days as well

No mans land ...
France is great, when you cycle the smallest roads you do not see a car for hours, really !
I mean, there are like some 50 or 75 million people in france, I do not know exactly but a lot.
And I do not know where they are ...
When I cycle through villages the streets are deserted, like world war 3 just finished and I am the only one left ... I even saw more cars passing by on Stuart Highway in Australia !
But it's good to cycle, perfect !
Exept when you are in need of water, like the other day ...
It was a very hot one and I really needed water and there was this house, door open so I thought somebody was at home, right ?
Not ...
I rang the bell three times, shouted but no answer.
Or somebody sleeps a real deep siesta or there is nobody !
But I needed water so I looked around; nothing in the shed ...
I looked inside another open door en this was a little kitchen with .... water !
So I just stepped inside and helped myself

This was just before St Flour, where I am now.
According to people I asked there was a Camping Minicipal near cities centre so I road the long hill up which was not easy, the second day doing almost 120 km and many, many uphill in around 25 degrees celcius, cycling for over 7 1/2 hour where 6 is preferred ....
Asking in the city one old man showed me the road, only 300 meters more to go, pfff, jippie !!!
But ....
Camping was closed ....
So I could cycle back, first downhill and then uphill but I was so tired ....
I checked the water, nothing.
So I went to nearby garage, filled up my water botgtles, went back to the closed campsite, sneaked in and had a wonderfull ( quiet ) evening.

Next morning I went back to the other campsite, 5 km back.
I did my laundry and had a nice, deserved day off and I thought, maybe this is a good idea for next day's off. Normally I visit the campsite the evening before and so pay 2 night's. Now I only pay 1 !!! It's also a perfect idea when I want a ( for me expensive ) hostel in a city; not arriving late in the evening but the morning after and so only pay 1 night !!!
So, this closed campsite, which was unexpected, tunerd out to be a great discovery !

Isn't that how some big scientists or just people came up with some great new ideas and discored new things ???
Okay, maybe my ' discovery ' isn't that big

Salut !

[eric190173]

Leuk stukje, Bon voyage!

Oja, in Frankrijk en Spanje geen water? Check de begraafplaats, vaak is daar een kraantje om de plantjes water te geven....

[Abacus]

Oja, in Frankrijk en Spanje geen water? Check de begraafplaats, vaak is daar een kraantje om de plantjes water te geven....

Ha, ik ben dus niet de enige die dat ontdekt heeft. Ben er op een bloedhete zondag zelfs een keer voor over het hek geklommen in een vrijwel 'uitgestorven' dorpje.

[Shane]

Oja, in Frankrijk en Spanje geen water? Check de begraafplaats, vaak is daar een kraantje om de plantjes water te geven....

Ik vind het een goede tip, op zicht logische maar je maar op komen. Bedankt!

[scheeltje]

Ook kerken zonder begraafplaats of het dorpsplein hadden soms waterpompen. In eerste instantie waren wij er niet zeker van of dit drinkwater was, totdat we Fransen zelf water zagen pakken en het opdrinken.

[lars de wit]

Bonjour !

In St Flour, where I was 5 day's ago, I met two dutch cyclists. They were cycling for 12 day's in France and we had a nice conversation. I told them about my plans and supposed route to Cape Town and told that maybe I ' do ' Namibia as well. ( instead of D R Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa ) They were silent for a couple of seconds and then one of them said : ' Yeah, well maybe we do Germany as well ' which was quite hilarious and we had a great laugh

Cycling the next day to the south I had one of many happy day's; the sun was shining, tail winds and beautifull small roads with almost no traffic.
I am sleeping in forests and on farmers land, sometimes with great vieuws or next to a stream.

I am now in Foix, on a campsite and met a italian cyclist, James.
Typical italian name the fellow has, doesn't he ?
He is on a two years trip around the world, his destination is Melbourne.
Right now he is traveling without a stove and therefore he eats only cold spaghetti and drinks cold coffee ... So this morning I brought him a cup of hot and strong coffee and some scramled eggs as well
And now I am typing on his mini computer, a Toshiba NB305 which works really well, have to buy me one some day as well.

As you notice, I've got not much to say except : the Pyrenees are in vieuw, in two days I will cycle into Spain, start my mails with Hola ! and I am looking forward to it !

Salut !