Scott and Becky go East

It’s been a mild winter in Ottawa this year. We barely have any snow on the ground, and yet the cross country ski conditions have been amazing.  I’ve been out skiing more this year than ever – and I’m skiing longer distances more comfortably than ever before.

Last Sunday was a huge accomplishment for me – I skate skied up to Pink Lake in Gatineau park, a 6 km trip one way with 100-meters elevation gain.

When I reached the top of the hill huffing and puffing, I was rewarded with an amazing view. This picture is my proof that I did it!

An hour on a small boat in not too calm seas brings us to the centuries old fishing villiage of Battle Harbour, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We walk around for hours not seeing another person, and it is difficult to imagine that this was once the unofficial capital of Labrador. Battle Harbour was an active fishing village from the 1770s until the east coast fisheries closed in 1992.

Getting to Battle Harbour requires a long ferry ride and several days riding on remote roads, so we feel like we are on the far edge of the earth.  Once we arrive, we feel cut off from the outside world, with no phones or Internet.  It almost feels like we have stepped back in time, since many of the buildings are restored to the way they would have been in the 1700s, 1800s, or 1900s.

We first heard about Battle Harbour from the friendly folks at the Labrador Visitor Centre in L’Anse-au-Claire. We were sold on a trip to Battle Harbour when they told us that unlike the rest of Labrador in July and August there are no vicious Labrador flies – a tiny black fly that takes a chunk out if you when it bites making it impossible to be outdoors without protection. After several days of riding in clouds of flies we were ready for a break!

Amenities at Battle Harbour range from the dorm style bunkhouse heated with a wood stove to cottages and homes.  Some buildings have electricity, but others are more historically accurate, with oil lamps and wood stoves, and all are furnished in the traditional Newfoundland and Labrador style.  You can self-cater or join the staff for wonderful home-cooked meals and post-dinner entertainment in the Dining Hall.  We took advantage of dinner and enjoyed roast turkey, mashed potatoes, peas, salad with partridgeberries and bakeapple cheesecake for dessert.  Partridgeberries and Bakeapple berries grow wild all over Newfoundland and Labrador, and are still a common component of the diet here.

The staff provide a history-filled tour of the town every day.  Our guide was Cyril, who grew up and lived in Battle Harbour for much of his life.  Hearing from him about the changes brought by joining Canada, by the Snowmobile, and the collapse of the Cod fishery was fascinating – huge changes in less than half a century.  We were fascinated by the huge salt-house, which stored 1.4 million pounds of salt for preservation.  For centuries, until the advent of freeze-drying, drying and salting fish was the main method of preservation.  We reflected often on just how lucky we are to have been born when and where we are.  We spent hours exploring the old buildings and hiking around the islands many trails.  We have included a few photos of some of the stark vistas of the surrounding landscape.

We were very happy to spend two nights at Battle Harbour, and could probably have spent longer soaking in the isolation there.

For more information, check out the Battle Harbour Website .

Location of Battle Harbour

Friedel and Andrew of  Travelling Two tagged us to share our 3 best travel secrets, as part of a Tripbase project to bring some great tips together from across the net.  The other two locations are coming soon…

We’ve always said, you can’t truly enjoy Ottawa in the winter if you don’t get outdoors. After skipping winter last year, we were happy to get back on our skis and check out the conditions in Gatineau park. So far, it hasn’t been a great year for snow, but the cross-country skiing has been pretty fabulous. A year of cycle touring has done wonders for our endurance too!

On weekends, we ski out to one of the many cabins for a nice dinner by the wood stove. Our favourite cabin looks out onto the Ottawa valley from above. Often we will sit at the window at night and trace out the river by following the winding darkness between the lights of the farmsteads.  The flickering orange light of the fire shines through the glass door of the wood stove, and we sit and watch the dancing shadows as we warm our toes and our dinner.

Skiing in the moonlit quiet is a magical experience, but daytime skiing is wonderful too – and it permits photographs.

Scott climbing a hill in Gatineau Park on a bright sunny day.

Since early September (and Northern Ontario), I’ve been having flashbacks of our trip. My brain gives me full colour pictures of places we have been and the associated emotions I was feeling while at that place – usually places where we did not take pictures. It can take me weeks and several conversations with Scott to figure out exactly where the memory comes from. These aren’t reminiscences, as it isn’t a conscious act, rather it is an unconscious activity of my brain. Once I figure out the where of the place and fully remember it, my brain moves on with a new flashback. In some ways, it is a gift my brain is giving me.

My latest flashback is of a hot place. We ride over a bridge into a town, passing some kind of museum (or world heritage site). We choose not to stop and visit since we feel pressure to ride before it gets too hot.  The museum or site is somehow related to death or war, which adds to my lack of desire to see it.  Scott comments that he feels some obligation towards visiting, but we press on anyway. It is late morning and we pass a market that has been set up in a parking lot. We pull over and park against the steps of a corner store at the back of the market. I’m hot so my priority is to find myself a cold drink. Ice is hard to find – this tells me we were relatively new to the country and had not yet figured out how to safely buy ice. I buy a Coke in a glass bottle – another sign: glass bottles mean we must have been in Thailand, and a coke means I couldn’t identify a sports drink in the cooler. It tastes awful (as Coke always does to me), but the coolness is refreshing. We walk through the market and buy some fruit and vegetables – garlic, onions, oranges. We may purchase something else, but I don’t remember it. My flashbacks are clearly not 100% total recall.

I asked Scott about this one, and he has no recollection of it. I’ve search through all our pictures and journal entries of Thailand and Malaysia and I still have no clue where or when this flashback took place.  I think I may be stuck with it for a while!

One of our favourite Syrian snacks is Fuul – a broad bean stew drizzled with lemon juice, olive oil, and tahini. We often found it at small stalls in the souk (market). Each stall serves it in a slightly different manner.

Our local Lebonese halal grocery store has some nice big (about 1 inch long and 1/2 inch wide) fava beans. With some experimentation and Web research, I’ve manage to reproduce something similar to one of our favourite types of fuul. I tested it out on Scott’s extended family this weekend, and it met rave reviews.

I hope you enjoy it too!

Ingredients

• Large fava beans (one can or about 2 cups dried) *
• 4 tbsp olive oil (separated)
• 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 tomato chopped
• salt
• sprinkle of cumin powder
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 2 tbsp of tahini (sesame paste)**

* If you cannot find fava beans, you can substitute white kidney beans or another large bean. It won’t taste the same, but it will still be good

Directions

1. If using dried fava beans, soak them overnight with 1/2 tsp on baking soda. Cook until tender – this is best done with a pressure cooker, as boiling tends to make them mushy.
2. Peel the brown shell off the fava beans. This is required for both canned and dried beans.
3. Heat the fava beans. I use the microwave, but you could also bring them to a quick boil.
4. Sprinkle salt over the fava beans. This is necessary when using dried beans. Canned beans are sometimes salted.
5. In a deep frying pan, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil.
6. Fry the garlic for 30 seconds.
7. Add the fava beans and stir – fry for 1 minute.
8. Add the onions and stir – fry for 1 minute (you don’t want to cook the onions too much, they should be crunchy).
9. Remove from heat and add the tomatoes – stir.
10. Divide into serving bowls (makes 3-4 servings).
11. Sprinkle with cumin.
12. Sprinkle with lemon juice.
13. Sprinkle with the remaining olive oil.
14. Drizzle with tahini.**

** Optional.  If you can find it, Lebanese tahini (which is a thick liquid rather than a paste) tastes better than Greek tahini.

We will be hosting a slide show and discussion session about our journey through Turkey, Syria, and Jordan last holiday season – highlights include Bayram (Eid Al-Adha) with friends in Turkey, Capadoccia Turkey, Christmas in Aleppo Syria, Petra in Jordan, the Dead Sea, and Palmyra in Syria.

When: Sunday, 13 December 2009 at 12:30 pm
Where: NOW Room, First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, 30 Cleary Ave, Ottawa Ontario

Everyone welcome.

If you want to learn a little more about Unitarian Universalism or the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, feel free to join us at our Sunday morning worship service, which starts at 10:30 am every Sunday.

Since we have been home, we are often asked the same questions over and over; however, every now and then someone comes up with a unique question that challenges us to reflect upon our journey in a different way. If you read this, please do not ask us what our favourite place is!

Question: “What is your favourite place?”

To chose from all the countries we visited, the countries we liked the most were Turkey and Thailand. Turkey was culturally rich and the people were wonderfully friendly. Thailand was also culturally rich and it was an easy place to be a traveller, making it an easy place to be when your are travel-fatigued.

Our favourite cities (not for biking) were Damascus and Rome, although we also felt that we could easily spend 2-3 weeks in Istanbul without seeing all there is to see there. Damascus is such an old city that it still feels like you are stepping back into history when you walk the streets. The Syrian people are friendly and if they see you with a camera will often pose and ask you to take a picture. Rome is a place that Becky feared because she had heard a lot of bad things about gypsies and getting robbed. We never felt unsafe wondering the streets of Rome at all hours of the day and night. There are so many neat fountains and churches, you could spend weeks there and not see the same church or same two ceiling frescoes.

Question: “Did you ever get sick?”

Yes, we each had various bouts of stomach sickness throughout the trip. This is expected when you are eating strange food all the time. We received some advice and antibiotics from our travel doctor at home before we left, that got us through most of our stomach woes.

Becky did get rather sick in Syria and Jordan. All the coal used in households for heating and cooking in Turkey and Syria caused her asthma to act up. She ended up with bronchitus in Syria and a lung infection in Jordan. In our experience, Syria has much superior health care to Jordan. In either case, if you are sick in either country and need to see a doctor, go visit a Christian or Islamic hospital – do not visit the state miliary hospital and avoid Egyptian doctors!

Question: “Now that you are back, what will you miss most about being on the road?”

This question was asked when we first arrived home, and we couldn’t answer it. Now that we have been back for a month, we have a better sense of what we are missing.

Becky is missing living outdoors. There is something about breathing fresh air all the time. It is much more difficult to wake up in the morning indoors. It makes her want to crawl back into bed. Becky remembers having a hard time sleeping in Turkey unless the windows were open. Our hosts thought we were odd to open the windows when the weather was cold, but Becky was so accustomed to the fresh air that she couldn’t sleep without the fresh breeze. Some nights, she finds she has the same problem at home.

Scott is missing the time spent contemplating on the bikes. We spent endless hours riding and there was never any pressure to contemplate any specific thing other than perhap where we were going to sleep that night or where we were going to get our next meal.

Question: “Have you gotten back on the bikes, or are you totally sick of them?”

We do not yet have a car, so often the bikes provided us with the most effecient means of transportation. That being said, winter seems to be approaching us earilier this year than in years past. We hope to have a car before snow on the ground makes cycling unsafe.

Unfortunately, we have not found the time and necessary weather such that we can enjoy a long ride on our recumbents; although Becky has been out to a meeting in Kanata (about 36 km round trip), and we have done a few rides downtown and back (about 60 km).

Question: “How far do you travel in a day?”

This changed throughout the different legs of our trip. When we look back at our distances for the beginning of the trip, we can’t believe how short our days were!

• Going around Lake Ontario average 76 km / ride day (16 ride days).
• Eastern Canada average 68.6 km / ride day (45 ride days).
• Europe and Middle East average 50 km / ride day (19 ride days).
• Southeast Asia average 64 km / ride day (46 ride days).
• Western Canada average 92.9 km / ride day (70 ride days).

Question: “What was the furthest you rode in a day?”

Our longest day by distance was 152 km from Prince Rupert to Terrace in British Columbia. Our longest day for riding time was 8 hours: the day we rode into Stonecliffe Ontario in the Ottawa Valley.

We rode over 100 km on 37 days (195 ride days total); the majority of which were ridden in Western Canada.

I wrote this a month ago today, with plans to publish it in a day or two, but then life intervened. Our church has a yearly “Holly and Lace Bazaar” where we sell used goods to raise money, and it is a huge production. Over 350 volunteers, thousands of visitors, and a Facilities Coordinator who has just discovered a serious heart problem. “Who can we ask to fill in? Scott just got back from a trip and hasn’t started working yet…” So I’ve spent the past month on a very steep learning curve, figuring out all the logistics and requirements around set-up and tear-down and balancing the often-conflicting needs of the various organizers. A great exercise in project management, but not how I was planning to spend my time. The bazaar was yesterday, and most of the tear-down is now finished, so it’s time to get back to what I started…

——

It is very strange to be back in Ottawa, both familiar and very different. From what I’ve heard from others, this is to be expected – whenever one spends time in another environment, coming back to the familiar may not seem that familiar after all.

My biggest stressor so far has been all the stuff we have. After living on a bicycle with only what we could carry, a full house of accumulated stuff seems excessive, but I struggle to get rid of any of it. The big things that are solely my responsibility are the contents of my office (lots of papers, computers and electronic equipment) and the workshop (lots of tools; from a table saw and floor-standing drill press down to many clamps and screwdrivers). Before we left, Becky did a lot of work to de-clutter her personal stuff, both clothing and office, and has done well weeding out the kitchen since our return. I have not done so well.

Our sporting equipment is another big chunk that needs weeding through. Between equipment for sports we rarely play (e.g. hockey equipment) and multiple versions of the same piece of equipment, that’s another big chunk of space and stuff. I’ve been reading Zen Habits and Unclutterer as inspiration for simplifying my life, but have not yet reached any epiphanies.

One thing which did stick with me was the idea of clutter as procrastination. Any time I put down something not in its correct place, I’m procrastinating dealing with it correctly, and it becomes clutter, which results in later stress and effort. As I sit in my office and look around, I can see piles of stuff like that. This sort of procrastination-induced clutter is really a tax on my future self, since the piles cause me stress, and they will need to be dealt with again.

{insert brief pause while I quickly move stuff out of my direct line of sight, either into an inbox for later processing, or away if it is an easy and obvious thing to do}

…Ahhh… If not perfect, at least the clutter on my desk now has a proper home.

As I go through this exercise of de-cluttering and organizing, I need to remind myself why I’m doing it. As we travelled, I realized that I was not content with my former life in high-tech and telecommunications. It was interesting work, and often technically challenging, but it never fed my need to make a difference in the world. Helping big companies solve technical problems, and allowing the people of the world to be more connected (if only in a small way) is a good thing, but I look at the inequities of the world, and humankind’s focus on the near term and immediate self-gratification, and think that there must be some more meaningful contribution I can make.

I started to think about this as we were riding, but found that the day-to-day effort of riding, finding food, and finding shelter in strange places (and foreign languages) prevented much deep reflection. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs at work!

I also need to bounce ideas off of people in order to refine them, and didn’t want to inflict all of that on Becky. I thought that the simplicity of life on the ships might help, but there we were recovering (and getting caught up on photos or blog posts) or getting ready for the next phase. As well, there was always something new and shiny to look at on the ship, whether up on the bridge, in the engine room, or walking around the deck.

Now that I’m back in Ottawa, I’ve decided not to look for work, and instead focus on this search for a different path. Even without looking for work, I find the activities of daily living taking over, and it’s easy to lose sight of my goals.

Speaking of goals, that’s another thing I’m struggling with. I’ve never been successful at elucidating my goals. When I was asked for 5 and 10-year goals back in high school, I had no good answers, and I have nothing better to offer now. I have always let the river of life push me where it will, and taken the easy (or at obvious) path. Now I’m twenty years past high-school, and looking to change that, but have 20+ years of inertia helping to keep me in my current life.

As I’m de-cluttering my computers and electronic stuff, I find the detritus of various other attempts to organize my life and direct my energy, whether it’s various attempts at GTD, different tools for information capture (each with a bit of information captured from a short period, until I stopped using the tool) or lists of books, websites and blog posts about organization and self improvement. If I can locate the data, it might be interesting to look at how long each tool lasted, and the periodicity. I suspect that each tool was used in a focused way for no more than a month, and I changed tools or approaches every 6-8 months. It’s too easy for me to get caught up in the “productivity porn” of a new system, a new device, or what have you, rather than actually figuring out what I want to do and accomplishing it.

What am I going to do do differently this time?

• simplify my life by not taking on too many projects immediately (whether that be looking for a job, volunteering, or starting new hobbies)
• journal daily, and aim to publish something at least once a week on some aspect of my quest
• acknowledge that I do have things I want to do differently in my life, and challenge myself to actually figure out what those are
• focus on my physical health, with daily exercise and an effort to become strong, flexible and healthy
• make music (and improve my musical skills) a priority, to help develop balance in my mental development

What do I want to do that I am not yet doing?

• be ruthless in weeding through the “stuff” of my life, and willing to let some of it go
• work on my mental fitness through hard focus training, mindfulness, and meditation
• figure out a way I can actually decide what I want to do (or what the world is calling me to do) so I can find goals which resonate with me

I’m looking at this time as a time of seeking, a time of training, and a time to look at the overall balance of my self. I’m seeking what the world is calling me to do, and training both body and mind. My body to be strong and healthy, and my mind and will to be focused and dedicated. This feels pretentious as I write it, but it also feels true.

I’m sure there are resources to help with all of this, and as I find them I plan to document how useful they are to me.

One of the toughest gear challenges we made at the beginning of this trip was finding the best panniers for us. Panniers are an intensely personal choice, and the subject of much debate on touring forums. The usual tradeoffs are multiple pockets vs. waterproof fabric, weight vs. durability, and ease and solidity of attachment.

We began our shakedown cruise with four different types of pannier, of which only one stayed with us until the end of our journey. In addition to panniers, we each strapped a dry bag between the panniers on our bottom rack, another dry bag between our rear panniers on the back rack, and a waterproof duffel (rack-pack) across the back rack.

For our shakedown cruise we had:

• Ortlieb Bike Packer Plus (40 L)  (Scott’s rear panniers)
• Arkel RT-40 recumbent touring under seat panniers (40 L) (Scott’s front panniers)
• Vaude World Tramp II Plus rear panniers (44 L ) (Becky’s rear pannier)
• Ortlieb front roller plus under seat panniers (25 L) (Becky’s front pannier)

After our shakedown cruise, we made some adjustments. We replaced Becky’s Vaude panniers with Orlieb Bike Packer Plus panniers. We also replaced Becky’s front panniers with Ortlieb Sport Packer Plus panniers. We also purchase two Ortlieb medium sized rack packs. When we finished touring in Eastern Canada, Scott replaced the Arkel RT-40s with Ortlieb Sport Packer Plus panniers.

Arkel RT-40

The Arkel RT-40 have lots of pockets and lots of space, but suffer from two key flaws. They are not waterproof, and they do not have a rigid bottom. Without the rigid bottom, they hang too low, leaving only a few inches of clearance. We tried adding a strap around them, which helps a little, but they still scrape the ground/curbs on occassion.  The waterproof rain covers were an inconvenience, needing to be put on when the rain starts, but taken off in order to access the pockets.

The folks at Arkel are planning a redesign of these panniers, to include a rigid bottom. They offered to retrofit our existing panniers, but we decided our preference was for waterproof fabric rather than pockets.

Vaude World Tramp II

Note: Vaude does not appear to makes this pannier any longer. It has been replaced with Aqua Back Plus.

These come with a roll top rather than drawstrings and a lid. Roll tops are submersable, where the lid tops aren’t. Both are waterproof, even in torrential downpours. Personally, Becky dislikes the roll tops, as she finds them a pain to close properly, and inevitably overfills her bags. Given that submersability wasn’t a requirement for us, this became one strike against the Vaude’s. In addition, Becky found the outter pouch on these panners to be useless, as you could not place anything in them if the pannier was full. Also, the cover left a gap, such that the pouch fills with water when it rains.

Ortlieb Bike Packer Plus

Note: Ortlieb has changed the pouch design. It is no longer a mesh outer pouch.

We love these as back panniers. They stand up well when it rains excessively. The outer pouches are small, so they can only be used for small things like tools or snacks. Becky added external rear pouches to her Bike Packer Plus panniers giving her more outer pouch access. The only issue with the outter pouches is that they are black and often directly in the sun, causing skin creams and chocolate to melt!

Ortlieb Front Roller Plus

These are OK panniers for running around town, but we found them too small for our purposes. The Orlieb Sport Packer has the same ground clearance, but sits about 2 inches taller. Between the two panniers, you get 5 L more space with the Sport Packer.

Ortlieb Sport Packer Plus

With the extra space over the Front Roller panniers, these won out for our preferred front pannier (in our case they are under-seat panniers). The outer pouch is small, so we find it only useful for carrying one or two granola bars, which Scott can reach while riding (Becky’s arms are not long enough).

Ortlieb Rack Pack

We each have a medium sized rack pack. We find them very handy as overnight bags when travelling on trains and ferries. They are very water proof and have more room than we need. We also use them for overflow food storage. Because they have a roll-top enclosure, they provide us with scent proof food storage.

Ortlieb accessories

We purchased a set of attachable pouches for Becky’s rear panniers. These work rather well for us, and we recommend them for anyone looking for a little more space – just don’t put chocolate bars in them on hot sunny days!

We purchased the security kit for the Ortlieb Plus series panniers but never got around to installing it. Instead, we use a carabener on the handle and clipped to the rack. The carabiner is easy for us to clip on and remove but it prevents anyone from simply grabbing and running with our panniers. It is also handy when hanging and carrying panniers.

We purchased the backpack attachment for the Orlieb Plus panniers. We used it a couple of times but found that it made an awful backpack and was bulky to carry. On our next trip, we will bring decent day/overnight pack instead.

We purchased the Plus series for the security system and the backpack attachment, both of which we did not like. The material on the plus is lighter and durable enough for us, but the regular material might have been a better choice. We do not recommend spending the extra on the Plus series unless weight is of primary concern.

Recommendations

If we were to start over and buy bags again, we would use the following panniers and bags.

Scott’s bike:

• Ortlieb Bike Packer or Ortlieb Bike Packer Plus (Rear Pannier)
• Ortlieb Sport Packer or Ortieb Sport Packer Plus (Front Pannier)
• Tent 12L drybag (between rear panniers)
• Ortlieb Medium Rack Pack (ontop of rear panniers)
• Tool pouch 5L drybag (between front racks)

Becky’s bike:

• Ortlieb Bike Packer or Ortlieb Bike Packer Plus (Rear Pannier)
• Ortlieb Sport Packer or Ortieb Sport Packer Plus (Front Pannier)
• Tent 10L drybag (between rear pannier)
• Good collapsable day-backpack

Note: We purchased our Ortlieb panniers from Wayne at the Touring Store. He provided us with great service and had the best prices we could find in North America.

Every journey needs a statical summary to help form a conclusion. Below are some fun statistics from our trip.

Between June 2, 2008 and September 16, 2009 we:

• Visited 12 countries (including Canada) and travelled a total of 72,607 kilometers
• Rode our bikes 15,310 kilometers
• Crossed three oceans on container ships (Altantic, Indian, and Pacific)
• Had two flat tires (one on the truck we hitchhiked in and one on Becky’s bike)
• Hitchhiked with our bikes five times, but only twice with complete strangers using our thumbs (to Mary’s Bay and Cartwright)
• Took 12 trains in 4 countries (USA, Italy, Thailand, and China)
• Took 21 buses in 7 countries (Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Thailand, China, South Korea)
• Took 0 airplane flights!
• Took 23 boats and ferries (not including the container ships)
• Took 1 cooking class (Chiang Mai, Thailand)
• Camped 84 nights
• Accepted four invites to stay with random people we met along the way (Deadman’s Cove NL, St. John’s NL, Kerrobert SK, and Rainy Lake ON)
• Spent 10 nights sleeping on ferries and one night sleeping in a ferry terminal
• Spent 4 nights sleeping on trains
• Spent 4 nights sleeping on buses
• Spent 35 nights visiting Warmshowers hosts in 5 countries
• Spent 13 nights visiting Couchsurfing hosts in 4 countries
• Spent 2 nights visiting a  Servas host
• Spent 77 nights visiting family, friends, and friends of friends
• Spent 177 nights in B&Bs, hotels, and hostels
• Wrote 335 blog posts
• Took well over 15,000 pictures and kept 13,482 of them (so far – we’re still weeding)