Adventure Cycling Association annual photo contest

It is already a while ago that I heard of this photo contest. Not sure anymore how I got hold of this contest, probably via Twitter or Facebook, but decided that I wanted to participate.
The brief was to submit a maximum of five photos "highlighting the beauty, adventure, and inspiration of bicycle travel".
One of the photos was the photo that is depicted above, which made it as first photo in a blogpost by the Adventure Cycling Association.

Unfortunately I did not win this competition, though stoked to have made it as 'inspiration'.
Please check out the winners, these are spectacular photos...

Next big cycle tour: South America

Well, there I said it; my next big cycle tour will be in South America.
This plan has been playing around in my head for quite some time now.
It started while I was still cycling in New
Zealand, reaching the end of that big cycle tour.

Last year for my birthday I already put the Lonely Planet guides for
Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina on my wishlist; which I
subsequently also got from my parents ;-).

However, I haven't done much with these books so far, except flipping
through the pages. Though, today while watching the Going South
TV-series on Dutch TV, I made up my mind to go do a (short) cycling
trip this year, and plan for a big one in about two years. As a
response to putting that on twitter, I was asked the question of where
to? Well, that moment I decided to go to South America as my next big
tour!

Will this be on a recumbent bike, or a regular MTB-style touring bike?
I am not sure yet... What I do know is that I will love it to be back
on the bike again for a tour!

Will keep you updated as this plan comes into shape...

Memories of NZ - A photo slideshow

About two weeks ago I was asked by Blanche (@worldcyclevideo) if whether I also made videos after following her on Twitter. As my focus is on photography instead of cinematography, I could create a slideshow of my New Zealand travel photos.

So this weekend I committed myself to doing just that, using Apple's iMovie software.

Please enjoy!

Freedom of movement and dress

Just a story I do have to share with you guys..

This morning I was walking to downtown Deventer, and at a junction
near home I noticed a campervan. The lights were green, though the
campervan didn't move. The driver mentioned that it wouldn't start, bu
he could fix it. However, a push of all of us (I wasn't the first to
arrive at the van) helped to 'park' the van somewhere out of the way.
The driver thanked the three of us, and set about mending his
campervan. I just had to take a photo of that campervan... Couldn't
resist.

Moments later a policeman came up to me asking for my ID. A bit
shocked as I was I handed over my drivers license, and asked why. The
answer was that because I was wearing flipflops in this cold (about 7
deg. C) and the fact that I had made a photo of the campervan, they
(yeah, there were two) had noticed me.

I explained the story about helping the driver of the campervan and
that the photo was for personal use. Though still got weird comments,
like I was crazy to walk around of flipflops, from the other policeman
(who miraculously appeared). Apparently both had been sitting cosy
warm in a parked station wagon.

After having checked my ID all they said was: "Everything is OK, bye".

Please, let the police catch crooks, help at accidents, or at least do
something useful... but don't mind the people who are walking around
on flipflops and taking photographs!!!

(apologies for the ranting, just had get it off my chest)

Adventurous start of a new year

In 2010 the year started with preparations for a long cycling trip through New Zealand, so this year I wanted to do something again. Sometime in December I vented the idea that it would be cool to do a short trip just after Christmas, spending new year's eve somewhere else. My sister did dig this idea as well, so things were settled.

My idea was first to head out to the snow, though it would be hard to get there, and find a place to sleep. Therefore we headed out to Belgium, more particular the coastal area west of Antwerp. The idea was to watch the fireworks on the beach somewhere ... which worked out!

Coming from the northern part of the Netherlands it was about half a days drive to reach Bruges, where we soon found a hostel (after having walked to the city square and back again, tourist information was about 100m from where we parked). It was a bit shabby, though it was pretty cheap and that's good ... we then immersed ourselves again in the city flow of being a tourist and enjoying the numerous Christmas decorations. The evening ended in an Irish pub, placed in a cellar :-).


Decorated restaurants on Bruges' square

During breakfast the next day we learned from a few other guests that the pubs and all would be closed in the evening, and they were wondering what we would do. Never had it crossed our minds that the pubs would be closed, and we hadn't thought that far ahead ... we planned to head to Oostende.

This was only a short drive and soon saw a couple signs designating free parking and a bus taking you to the center of town. The parking area was found with ease, however we could not find a bus or signs telling us where the bus would be. After having walked about 5-10 minutes we found out that we were actually very near the center of Oostende, only on one of the walks back later that day we found the bus stop.

Having found the tourist information we booked into the youth hostel "De Ploate", where they still had some room for us. The guy behind the reception thought it was adventurous of us not having booked a room on new year's eve. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking though Oostende and having a cup of coffee somewhere.


Oostende pier

Later that evening we found out that the German guests of the hostel in Bruges had been right, almost everything was closed. Almost the only restaurant that was still open, and not fully booked, was the Pizza Hut. It was a bit strange though, having the idea that this was a fast food restaurant, we had to wait to be seated and were asked whether we had booked. Of course we hadn't booked a spot, this whole trip was based on the idea of roaming around without planning anything. Fortunately they still had a table left and the pizzas were soon gone.
Now what to do the rest of the evening? During our walk through town that afternoon we had discovered a cinema, and they were still open until half past ten. We chose "The tourist" as the last movie we would see in 2010, which was pretty good fun.

Not long after eleven we ventured out again, to the promenade near the casino to view the fireworks. This was pretty spectacular ... 


Fireworks at Oostende

... more photos of our trip can be found here.

Have a very happy new year, to pursue your goals with success and vigour!

Another year flew by

It is not uncommon to become a bit nostalgic when the year seems to come to an end, setting the door wide open for the next. Even so with me, some nostalgia has crept up on me.

There is no denying it, it has been quite a year (2010): spent two months cycling in New Zealand after finishing college in October of '09, given a couple presentations on my cycling trip over the summer, and moved out of the student flat on campus to my own apartment in Deventer. Although some moments were a bit hectic, and it wasn't easy to leave NZ after having cycled (almost) the whole country, I do look back on a successful year.

However, 2010 isn't quite gone yet, just enough time for a road trip of a couple days with my sister. Where this trip will take us? Wherever the roads take us!

One thing I hope for in 2011, that there will be quite some moments to spend with a few friends sitting around a campfire! Cheers!

Paddling the Dinkel with a few friends, a micro adventure

So after a week of being ill, a few friends had asked me if I wanted to join them for a half a day of paddling. I felt quite fine, so of course had to say yes :).
It was a wonderful half day spent on the Dinkel, a small river on the border area of the Netherlands and Germany. The river originates somewhere in Germany, and runs past Losser to the Lutterzand and even further. Unfortunately not all pieces can be paddled, mainly due to some legislation about protecting the environment (i.e. some birds, etc).

We paddled from Losser, the put in just outside the town on the road to Overdinkel, up until the Lutterzand, a large sandy area ;-). Please refer to the map at the end of this post on our route. Without doubt I took my small compact camera with me; just to try out again if I could film some of what is going on during such a lovely day of touring.

The result is the movie on YouTube that is at the top of this post. I plan to do a couple more of these micro adventures - if you can call them that, it is more fun and easy than an actual adventure - this and the upcoming years, they are very much fun. We have already some ideas of a next canoeing micro adventure, this one involving spending a night out in a bivvy bag :). Got some inspiration for these micro adventures from Alastair Humphreys, and just the love for being outdoors.

The route.