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Intro

Set on seeing a piece of the Americas while travelling mainly on my touring bike, I am interested in environmental issues & a vegan and it’s an important part of how I will travel. I hope to exchange with a lot of people and help with various projects.

I am nuts about rock-climbing too, and would love to connect with fellow climbers along my route.

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That's the "head" of a cherry-picker, an machine which is a bit like a mini-construction-crane-on-wheels. If you are wondering why the heck I am posting this, it's because they are useful to go get avocados, as it turns out they grow on trees who can easily reach 15meters high and spread in all directions possibles...! I am not posting much about my current day-to-day experiences at the moment as I am currently picking avocados for several weeks in south-east Queensland, but I'll try to update my blog a bit more in between fighting branches to get avos and doing some local bike rides + exploring at the weekends. #offthebikeforawhile #workholidayvisa #88days #avocados

Somewhat recently I have put some new posts on my blog. There are two posts about New Mexico. The first one is more about exploring the State and off the bike activities, the second about bikepacking and cycling all over the state while taking in some landmarks. It's definitely a facinating state to explore on a bike! I also put on a blog named "How not to do the Great Divide (MTB)". If you are headed that way around this summer or the next, or more generally if you are planning to cycletour in the West US it may contain some interesting insight and info, you might have guessed, about what time not to start and where...But there is still some good inspiration for cyclotouring in the West anyway ! ----------------------- ☔⚡🌈🌞🍂⛺🚲 ---------------------- #cyclotouring #travellingbybicycle #hownottodothegreatdivide #gdmbrpreparation #cyclotouringnewmexico #bikepackingnewmexico #rockclimbingnewmexico #earthships #enchantednewmexico #cyclingthewildwest #badcyclingweather

While waiting for things to fall into place in Bundy I've had a chance to check out the local "botanical gardens". For me it was more of a delight to see so many birds again ! Herons, the nicely colored Purple Swamphen (pic3), Ibis, and I even saw some turtles (pic5). I miss some of the wildlife I have seen in Childers: more diversity in butterflies, and cane toads (pic10) all around. Here they are an invasive species but fun to look at for Europeans. They stay immobile for hours until they spot an insect and like to make very weird noises. #birdgarden #Aussiebirds #Aussiewildlife #cutebirds #bundybotanicalgardens #birdwatching

In the past few weeks I have learnt the hard way that "No through road" signs in Australia means... no through road, even if Googlemaps or Maps.me says there is a way, and more importantly even for bicycles you are ready to push/drag for a short stretch. I suppose I have partially been misled with experiences in Europe and America where similar signs could be seen near potential bike paths or trailheads, or on roads which used to be flooded/damaged but are still doable on a strong touring bike. Amongst others events I have had a notable occurence following such a road to end up at a gravel turnaround point where all there was was fields in all directions and no more trace of a path or road. This second time, I was pretty sure of myself and more than willing to follow Maps.me as the alternative was a very busy highway. Ended on that flooded road ! A first glimpse at it I thought "Oh well, I've done river crossings in the Baja Divide, this seems shallow". I managed to stay dry while pushing the bike on a narrow bank of dirt on the side then approached the middle where I had to get some water on my shoes but it kept getting deeper and deeper. The muddy water at mid-calf height I realized it wasn't exactly going to get better, and willing to avoid a shit-fest with a loaded bike I turned back. The immediate side being basically a marsh, the only way accross might have been by making a good detour on the side in the forest hiking-a-bike through branches and trees. I decided that time I wasn't ready to be the local mosquitoes' dinner ! #cyclotouringaustralia #hikealoadedbike #bicyclerivercrossing

Never before Australia/Queensland had I encountered birds so well-trained to beg for food scraps. 🐦 ↔swipe to see a few videos and pics. Noisy miners (vid 2) are some of the cutiest and funniest looking birds if you haven't been to Australia (though they can get quite feisty). --- Almost any time I stopped for lunch in a small park or picnic area (you encounter them relatively often along the road in Australia, and they all have one picnic table covered which is great for cycle tourers when it rains) I got to meet some local feathered friends/gangsters. --- Magpies, butcherbirds (first vid, and pics3&5 if I don't make a mistake), noisy miners (vid2), mynahs, you name it, they'll come ! I even had a scrub turkey moving my helmet, that I had left on the floor for a sec, with one of her claws to look for anything interesting I might have left her. --- I try to resist feeding them as it's not necessarily the best thing to do with wild(-ish) birds but if I do give them a nibble I make sure it's as close as possible to their species usual diet. -- #Aussiebirds #funnybirds #noisyminer #butcherbird #cyclotouringOz

A variety of interesting landscapes, flora and roads along my route from Outer Brisbane to Bundaberg. -- While I was happy to see some beautiful landscapes and meet a lot of new wildlife (more on that later) at each stop, I must admit that this (relatively short) journey was a bit start-and-stop due to heavy rains sometimes for several days in a row, which meant in between good riding days I stayed in some places for a while. -- As well I was more than happy to arrive as a lot of back roads, especially in the last few days, were quite narrow with not much shoulder, so I was spending my time looking for incoming cars in my rear view mirror and sometimes jumped off the road. And in between beautiful vistas sometimes the road got quite boring with fields on end- but I have done that before. -- For now I'll be looking around for agricultural work as well as fixing a busted derailleur... #roadcyclingaustralia #cyclotouringaustralia #fruitpicking #workholidayvisa #lushaustralia #reststopsaustralia #widershoulderplease

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