Handful Of Throttle: 2012

Saturday, 8 December 2012

Back in Australia

By Mark

After leaving Denmark we stopped over in Bangkok for a few days just to break the flight home. We soon realised after all the time we had spent here previously we did not need to come back here again for some time.

We arrived in Sydney and over the next two weeks we travelled up the east coast through to Brisbane visiting all my family. It was good to see everyone and not just be stuck in the one place, sorry mum, Gloucester bores me after being there a few days! After Brisbane we had just one more flight, and that was to Darwin.

We arrived at midnight and our new flatmate which we had yet to meet picked us up from the airport to drive us home. Home, not a word we had thought we would be using so soon after being on the road for close to twenty months. Well we must say one thing: our 'home' is a good one for now and a lovely sanctuary with beautiful lush gardens and a pool to keep us cool. The humidity here at the moment is pretty nasty and I am hanging out for the wet season to come into full force. We were lucky enough to have a bit of rain when we first arrived but it has since become less and less. Bring on the kick arse storms that I know Darwin is good for!

So we have both had to get back into normality and join the throngs making their way to work each day to pay the bills, mortgages and everything else that drives a consumer driven life style. For us though we are still living life on the road so to speak. We watch our money all the time and have a goal in mind: To get back on the road! We have both been back at work now for about four weeks and are on track with our savings thankfully. I have been given the chance to take on a new role which will see me fly in and fly out to work on a two week on, one week off basis. Here I am hoping to put even more savings away so our next installment of our trip will be longer than the first and if we are lucky we can also come home with a few dollars in our pockets.

Bronte, Sydney

Having Dinner with my Dad and Dale

Not a bad view from their apartment

Barrington River, my local swimming hole as a child

Sanne taking a cool dip

Uncle swampy at his best

My beautiful niece, Lucia

Taking a break from our stroll on the beach with my sister Gayle and her man Nick

My nephew Felix likes sand boarding at the beach

By the looks of things so does Lucia!

Sunday, 28 October 2012

Denmark

By Sanne

It was finally time to turn our heads north and return to my homeland: Denmark. I knew we were getting close from the increasing rain.
From the border I took the lead after declaring that I would get us there "no problems". Five minutes later we found ourselves riding around truck yards in an industrial area. We had come halfway around the world only to find ourselves lost in fricking Padborg! Anyway, we did manage to find our way out and followed the scenic route on quieter roads to my hometown of Haderslev. On the way I did something really silly which almost resulted in me coming off the bike. I applied the back breaks on top of a strip of white line that because of the rain was as slippery as ice. Instantly my rear tire skidded and my bike was all over the place. Luckily I managed to get it under control but it was probably the most out of control I have ever felt on the bike.

It was great seeing family and friends again and that's what we spent the whole time there doing. It ad been way too long since I had been back and for the first time I got to see my two little nieces Mia and Lea which was just wonderful. Unfortunately the weather was miserable the whole time we were there and it rained every single day so that kind of meant that we were a bit housebound.

The last month or so in Europe we had been pondering something... because we had travelled so slow we had arrived in Denmark a good few months later than we had initially planned. This meant that our original plan of shipping to Canada wasn't going to work. It was simply too late in the season and to make it to Alaska would be impossible as it would be winter when we got there. Our other option then was to ship to Argentina and do the Americas South to North as opposed to North to South. This would mean having to put the bikes on a ship for a one month journey across the Atlantic. This option was actually the go-ahead for a while and Mark then wanted to also go on the ship as a paying passenger. He initially looked into see if he could work on the ship however due to insurance and liability crap they don't allow this anymore. For the bikes it would cost 350 euros each which was pretty cheap but for Mark to go on it would cost 2,050 euros! Fair enough, this did include all your meals for an entire month but I would still have to pay for my flight to meet him in Argentina as there was no way in hell I was going to be stuck on a boat for a month!
In the end we decided it would be too costly and we couldn't be sure to hit Alaska in the right season this way either. Although we probably did have enough money to finish the trip we would have been absolutely broke by the time we got to Alaska and would have been forced to find work in the US or Canada and we didn't know how that would work.

In the end we made the tough decision to take a break in our trip and return to Australia to work. We had already been offered our old jobs back in Darwin where we worked for 6 weeks in the beginning of the trip.
We left our bikes in the basement of my parents home in Denmark, said our farewells and jumped on the plane to Oz! It wasn't an easy decision but the right one we believe. The money we will earn in Australia should hopefully be enough to see us through the rest of our trip. We plan on returning to Denmark in mid-2013. From here Handful of Throttle will continue with full power! This doesn't mean our blog will be on hold completely. We will keep on blogging about life back in Oz - although this inevitably won't be as exciting as riding through Balochistan we will try to keep you folks updated about life back in the grind...

One thing's for sure - we miss our bikes already.

We have arrived in the cold north!

With my very lovely and super sweet nieces - Mia and Lea

Lea being seduced by the ever-so alluring world of Barbie

Mark and Mia

So that's what we covered in 20 months

Our babies settling in for a long winter of hibernation

At the beach!

Me and my friend Louise (she gave birth

to a healthy baby boy two days after we left for Oz)

Louise and Amaya considering a life on the road

There are some deers there somewhere...

A short break in between the never ending rain - sigh!

In the backyard of my parents' place - strangely the sun was making an appearance!

See you Denmark next year - please make the weather better this time!

Friday, 12 October 2012

Berlin

By Mark

After leaving Prague we headed for Berlin where we were off to visit our good friend Frank. We were both quite excited to visit him, and were missing running into him on the road. We were also interested in visiting the city after a strange meeting from two American girls that we had met in Prague. After talking with the girls they had told us about their visit to Berlin and the differences between the east and the west. The had told us not to bother with the east and not to worry as they were sure our friend would live in the west so we would be ok. One of them even went on to tell us it took her two days to recover after her visit here. Well, I know they were from LA but come on, what planet really are they from! Oh that's right the centre of the universe if I remember hearing correctly...It just so happened that our friend lives on the east side and I would have to say that he lives in a really cool place, even with my dislike of big cities I could have easily have spent more time here, with plenty of cool bars and places to eat.

With plenty of history to the city we first took to it by foot to see why this place is meant to be like the slums, well we looked high and low and didn't find this hell on earth. We did come across part of the old wall with some great artwork painted on it. Where there is no wall there are now bricks laid into the ground where the wall once stood as a reminder to all.

We spent the following day out on the water on a small BBQ pontoon boat to celebrate Frank's birthday. It was cold and wet and were happy for the roll down curtain sides and of course the blankets. Feeling a bit under the weather I didn't drink and spent the day feeling pretty ordinary and dog tired after a late night and very little sleep. I did try to get a bit of shut eye but Stef felt that I should be socialising and proceeded to blow the emergency horn in my ear. Well, he should have never tried having a nap later in the afternoon and I soon got my revenge with the same wake up method. We then almost had a real problem on our hands when we went to pull up by the edge of the river for a quick toilet break in the bushes, we didn't make it and found ourselves stuck on the muddy bottom and going nowhere! Sanne managed to find some oars hidden away up the back and with some rocking and some muscle power we just manged to dislodge the boat and we headed for home.

We spent about four days in Berlin and had a great time with Frank and his friends and of course Stef who had come across from Hamburg. Luckily for us the weather held out for us one more time when we headed for Hamburg and to stay with Stef one last time before crossing to Denmark and finally making it to Sanne's family in Haderslev.

Part of the wall