Taking the Olympus out of Olympos

So clearly there's been a lack of updates here and as it happens we're now in Turkey. The last four days have been spent at sea on a gulet cruise from Fethiye to Olympos and given that the boat hardly had electricity, wireless internet wasn't on the cards.

Ness' little camera has also spent some time with us in the sea and apparently when they say waterproof, Olympus didn't quite have the abuse we dished out in mind (although we never went deeper than the 3 metres and always washed it out with fresh water). So after two years of taking the little Olympus 720SW everywhere with us, it is now a just-out-of-warranty paperweight. Ahh well, such is the life of a traveller.

Accordingly we have reverted to some ancient technology known as film so photos on the internet are going to be few and far between. And the last time we downloaded the photos from the xD card was on some Greek island a few weeks ago.

But we do have the Macbook's webcam so here's us enjoying a local brew in Göreme - if you look hard in the background you can see one of the "fairy chimneys" this place is famous for.

What's in the bags?

So what exactly have we taken with us on our adventure across the Med? Let me start off by saying that nothing we're carrying is really specifically designed for cycle touring - most of it is just our normal camping/everyday gear that we've squeezed onto the back of a bike.

• Bikes: Revolution Courier Disc (We both had these as light and fast commuting bikes in London. They have 8 gears, but only 7 work)
• Workshop: Allen Keys, Adjustable spanner, chain breaker, chain lube, tyre patches, tyre levers
• Locks: 2 x Kryptonite Kryptolok Series 2 D-Locks with Kryptoflex cables
• Panniers: 4 x Generic waterproof panniers from Decathlon
• Tent: Salewa Sierra Leone Ultra
• Sleeping Bags: Sierra Designs Solar Flare (Ness) and Trade Wind (Matt)
• Sleeping Mats: Blue foam thingy (Ness) self-inflating from Decathlon (Matt)
• Towels: 2 x Mont travel towels
• Stove: MSR WhisperLite Internationale
• Pots: Snow Peak aluminium set (1.5 and 1.0L pots with lids) from Mont Bell Japan
• Drinking: 2 x 2L Water Bladders for the bikes plus 2 x 400Ml lexan bottles (including Aussie flag stubby-holders) for camp
• Lighting: Black Diamond (Ness) Petzl Tikka (Matt) plus 2 x Revolution Bike Headlights
• Laptop: Apple Macbook
• Laptop backup: Western Digital Passport 160GB
• GPS: Garmin eTrex Legend
• Camera: Olympus SW720 (shockproof and waterproof)
• Video: Oregon Scientific ATC2K helmet camera
• Rainwear: Gore-Tex XCR from Mont Bell Japan (Ness) and Drillium eVent from Rab (Matt)
• Cycling Footwear: Specialized shoes with SPD cleats (Ness) and Time cleats (Matt)
• Other Footwear: Asics Kayano and Keen Sandals (Ness) and Lizard Hydra Sandals (Matt)
• Medicinal: Pocket Pharmacy (thanks Mum!), soap, Betadine, deodorant, sunscreen, toothpaste, band-aids, lip gloss.
• Toys: Frisbee, Hacky, iPods, AM/FM/SW Radio, Books, Travel Scrabble, diary, waboba(ball)
• Misc: Kitchen Sink (really!), clothes line, rope, dry bags (1L, 3L & 15L), Battery Charger, AA & AAA NiMh batteries, universal travel adaptor with USB
• Clothes: Stinky lycra cycling gear, bikini (Ness), boardshorts (Matt) and not much else.

On the road again

After somehow making it 13km out of town with a wheel that moved 10cm from side to side, I then had to ride back in the following morning to try and purchase a new wheel for Ness.

First stop, the tourist office. Either EasyJet destroy a lot of bikes, or perhaps cycling is a popular pastime for visitors to Olbia but nevertheless the lady at the office had a complete list (there are two) of local bike shops at her fingertips. So after a brief discussion around the minor fact that New Zealand is not part of Australia and is actually it's own country I hunted down the shop Zema.

The bike mechanics at Zema didn't speak a word of english however after a short game of charades and 50 Euros later I did manage to walk away with a brand new wheel for Ness.



With two functioning bikes it was a reasonably short and blessedly uneventful meander up the coast to the port of Palau where the ocean was quite literally two metres from the tent door.

The journey begins...slightly more wobbly than expected

At the start of our cycling adventure both Matt and I were a little nervous, as we have not planned much further than thinking and convincing each other that it was a great idea. We felt a little comforted by the fact that through the windows of Gatwick terminal we saw our bikes being carefully loaded onto the plane, and we also watched from our seats as they were unpacked at Sardinia airport.

Unfortunatly for us, somewhere out of our watchful eye our prescious mode of transport received a battering. The "EasyWreck" airline we chose to fly with had mangled my front wheel. (If as a tourist you have felt everyone staring at you, then try walking through an airport with a broken bike). We thought that this should be easily fixed as the Italians like cycling...apparently they like God more. Well god bless them as they close every shop on a Sunday.



Matt's attempt to pick up a new wheel at a hypermarket failed, and he resorted to bashing it on the curb. He eventually fixed it to the point where it spun freely, yet very very wobbly. As a true gentleman ( or because he did not want to explain anything to my mother) he mounted the dodgy wheel on his bike and I got his good one.

Slowly and carefully we did make the 13km from the airport to the campsite, and eventually arrived about four hours later. As our thoughts had been so consumed with getting to our destination we had not realised that the closest food was in fact back in town. So Matt got back on his bike for another round trip, and picked up some well earned beers (which he truly deserved).

No really, this cycling trip was a great idea.