Touring Summary.

Since we met in 2015, we spoke about our dreams and we both wanted to tour the world on bikes.   We seriously started planning our world trip in 2018, 2 years before we planned our retirement.  In 2 years we researched in great detail many blogs of how cyclists were world touring.  This included what bikes, equipment, clothing etc. they were using and recommending.   Also with Peter’s background in long distance hiking and cycling and Prue’s past experience in touring in Australia, we both had a good knowledge, of what we needed which provided us with a good base to work on.

For this dream to happen, we worked hard and reorganised our financial situation to enable us to have an income while travelling.

2020:   We planned our world tour to cycle around the Pacific Rim in the first 12 months.  We wanted to follow, well at least most of the time,  ‘the Sun’ to avoid Winner.

Our destinations in 2020 were:-

February:  Taiwan (Lap around the Island), March: South Korea, April/May/June: Japan, July:  Alaska,   August: Canada, Sept/Oct/Nov:  West Coast USA, December:  New Zealand North Island

However, COVID snuck-up on us when we were in Taiwan in March 2020.  Our Prime Minister asked all Australian residents overseas to return to Australia as soon as possible, as the countries’ borders were closing.

Under duress, we had to abandon our dream and return home to Australia.

August 2022. 

After 2 and a half years, Prue and Peter were back on their bikes heading for Vancouver.   We arrived in Vancouver in August to restart our adventures.   We cycled down the west coast of the USA exploring the fabulous country and following the sun all the way to San Diego.  We had a couple of weeks spare so we cycled to Joshua Tree National Park/Palm Springs before flying out of San Diego to Auckland, New Zealand.

December 2022

Arrived in Auckland and cycled from Bay of Islands to Wellington.  We only had time to cycle the North Island using the “Tour Aotearoa Official Guide” for our basic route.
During this trip we had 3 cyclones which caused us a lot of grief.  We end up catching a bus for 200 kilometres, hence we arrived in Wellington earlier than planned, therefore with the extra days, which allowed us to cycle a loop on the top end of the South Island.  As well as 3 cyclones, we had 2 earthquakes, so we were pleased to leave New Zealand and return home to Australia.

February 2023

We returned to Australia for a month to visit family and friends and plan our next year.   We made some lighting modifications and serviced the bikes and off loaded some equipment / clothing to lighten our load….. ( not enough!)

April 2023

After one month in Australia, we flew to Japan, where we cycled from Fukuoka, Kyushu Island to Sapporo, Hokkaido Island over 90 days.  (South to North).   We experienced wetter weather than anticipated and also another minor earthquake or two!

July 2023

We flew to the United Kingdom and completed cycling around England, Wales, Southern Ireland, England and Scotland.

September 2023

We crossed the English Channel to France to cycle from Dunkirk to Gibraltar via Spain down the Mediterranean Coast.

December 2023

We crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from Tarifa, Spain to Tangier, Morocco, then travelled by train to Marrakech, for a 2-month break off the bikes, exploring with lots of rest and recreation.

February 2024

Finally, after approximately 15,000 kilometres of cycling, we will be returning home to Australia early February.