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!

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