​

"Once a trip is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. We find that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us"

Rolf Potts

 

January 7th, the end of vacation, the first day of the first workweek of 2019. Get up, get dressed, get on the metro, get to the office, get back in the routine… but not for everyone! After months of planning we’ve hit the road! Full of excitement, anticipation and a little bit of, “Can you believe we’re leaving today??,” we mounted our bikes and road out the driveway; our journey to Indonesia has begun.

 

Leaving from home is funny because at first you don’t feel like you’ve left. You’re still riding along roads you’ve ridden before, stopping to take in views you’ve seen a hundred times, only now it’s the last time for a while. The soft pink of sunset on the Luberon is the same as ever, it’s us who have already changed.

 

The first evening we watched this sunset from the home of a welcoming horse trekker, Robi and his daughter Clara. Camping atop a knoll in the Var department the next night, it seemed home was following us in the smell of the Mistral wind which washed loudly over the treetops all night while we slept. This wind can be notoriously violent, but it seemed to be encouraging us as it pushed us faster along our route.

 

This morning we awoke to a cold planet – below zero degrees atop a wooded ridge, 40km from Toulon. Little did we know when picking the campsite that we were at the summit of our last climb. We whizzed through the forest the next morning with frozen extremities and arrived in Toulon before midday. Here we’ve found a pleasant lack of winter weather; the big sun over the harbor and bright azure sky make for the perfect stopover. We have a breathtaking view over a small marina and the Mediterranean from our friend Alex’s apartment and we’re taking the time to recuperate and search for a sailboat to our next destination – Corsica.