Tag Archives: homesick

Day 21 – what‘ up, beaches?

Time to leave. Even though this place invites a much slower pace, as do some of our fellow travellers. This is just what we do. Besides, to get around we pretty much need to break camp – and once we do so, we feel we might as well be moving on. Coming back to the same places, no matter how nice they are, often feels like treading water.

So we pack, slowly – say our goodbyes and are off again. Distances are still minute – thus we took the scenic route via smaller winding mountain roads. Near Monchique, we saw widespread tracks marked by the aftermath of the regular wildfires that hit this region, to the frustrations of the locals. Tragic it is, but as in Australia, I must say that a post-fire cork oak growth looks pretty spectacular. Especially one year after, the contrast between the charcoal black tree trunks and the fresh green leaves and grass is a striking sight.

Not much in the mood for lingering, we decided to move on to our first destination. Today was set aside for beaches. Several of them, actually. The first one, Praia Dona Ana, was in a bit of a doubtful area to begin with. Nearby Lagos is a fully “developed” tourist destination, still mildly less dreadful than most of the Costa del Sol. The beach was pretty much in line with that. Dramatic sandstone formations all around, sure. But we have seen this before. Even with relatively few “rotisserie chickens” as we call the usual beach goers, there was this lingering air of high season over crowdedness. Our travel elitism did not help either – we have seen probably 100 beaches by now. Some of them so near perfect that it is hard to compete.

We let Number 3 enjoy the sand for a while – took a couple of photos and decide to try our luck elsewhere. The little one found quite the liking to smooth sand and seashells. He was definitively more apprehensive when it came to the sudden cold rush of a wave flowing past his calves.

Next stop would be the fort of Sagres. It’s situated on a sandstone spit where generations of sailors said farewell to the homeland one last time before journeying across the Atlantic. Given our continued bad luck with Lonely Planet food recommendations (permanently closed, once again), we chose the cliff as our lunch spot. A pretty great one in my mind, but even 10 meters from the drop and with Number 3 properly secured on my lap, Nina could never quite relax to take in the scene fully.

We even enjoyed the change in weather, reminding us a lot of New Zealand and the many changes throughout the day back home in Wellington. We like the sun, but often times a lot for the shade that comes with it. Beaches and cliffs in direct midday sun can be surprisingly unwelcoming to pasty white central Europeans.

The final stop for the day was the highlight as well, for sure. The rougher Atlantic west coast makes for more dramatic scenes and also keeps the touristy types to an acceptable level. Instead, we moved into dude (as in Surfer Dudes) country. Much more overlap, I would say. The very first stop at Praia Da Bordeira landed us at the unofficial camp spot of the beach. It seems most of them have one of these around here. This time of year, they are almost exclusively the domain of surfers and more rugged parental leave families (with some overlap of the two groups). We are still happy with our set up, but places like these bring out the longing for a self-contained vehicle. Then again, they would also not have been any good on the bike, so where is the loss?

We wandered around a bit from here first and found that we were still far in the dunes, at the river meandering its way to the ocean. Great place for Number 3, since there are no waves here – so he got a lot braver with the water here, and his diaper paid the price 😉

We hopped in the car one more time to go on a little further to a set of viewpoints on the cliff and the actual beach access. The views were beautiful, and even the sun showed her face a couple of times cheekily through the clouds. We could have lingered a bit longer, but it was time to find a camp and cook dinner.

With no great options around (confirmed by the lot of Elternzeit families we met) we chose close and cheap. The camp was actually pretty cool. A grove of Eucalyptus big enough for 120 lots with only maybe 20 stays at the moment. Plenty of safe space for Number 3 to roam around while I took exceptionally long to prepare spaghetti al arrabiata for us.

As I wandered around a bit after the little one was brought to bed, I stumbled into the camp of some known faces: Johannes, Maike and their two kids made it here as well – having secured a quiet corner far off from a lot of hassle to stay a bit and explore from here. They send me off with a tip to check out the local beach, which was not on our radar yet. We took note and will probably give it a try tomorrow.

  • blackend trees green again
  • Blue George playing ralley car again
  • everything is green and flowering
  • a beach
  • a bit sheltered, but this is the Atlantic. He was having none of it
  • sand, much better
  • Sandstone in the foreground, city in the back
  • ‘edgy’ lunch spot …
  • … I am a dad now, dad jokes are ok!
  • minimum allowed distance from the edge
  • Two cars far away from home
  • “oh, this water is fun now?”
  • “Up!” “you can walk” “Up!”
  • Look, there are sticks here, too!
  • there is a lot less slack in the new pair of these pants …
  • what a place to camp!
  • nose into the wind
  • wwwrooosh!
  • prime seats
  • something is off with these new dry pants …
  • whole beach with the river in the back
  • the dudes
  • properly teaching wreckless behaviour

Day 309 – The Day of the Food Hipsters

The camp ground was lovely. The weather was lovely. And Flo had been pointed towards a job that he just needed to apply for. So we quickly decided to stay put another day so Flo could put his application together. Which in turn meant, I’ll have the whole day to myself…with my book. 🙂

Hipster food shot

Hipster food shot

After the food disasters yesterday, we carefully made sure to have appropriate food hipster food today. At 2pm, slightly late for lunch, we went into a vegetarian café close to the camp ground. It was brand new, in fact yesterday they had still painted some of the outdoor furniture, but it looked cosy and just like our thing. Which it was. 🙂 I had the bread platter while Flo took the falafel plate and we shared equally. It was fantastic food. It made us wonder a little bit on how much amazing food we were missing out because we cook ourselves when we camp.

Going back, more laying in the sun followed for me. In the evening, when Flo had finished his documents, we went out for a real dinner. The Lonely Planet recommends Saraphane which is the Turkish word for “wine house”. This seemed like the right place to celebrate that Flo started

Frist wine since Sohar - offically since Kuala Lumpur

Frist wine since Sohar – offically since Kuala Lumpur

on the application process already. Again, it was amazing. The super friendly cook took me into the kitchen because the menu didn’t feature a vegetarian main and gave me option what she could make for me. She spoke more German than English so with a mix of languages I ordered a cold yoghurt soup as a starter which is refreshing and a great summer dish and got a custom-made pasta plate as a main. The pasta is home-made, too, and with cheese, walnuts and rocket…it was delicious.

But the main attraction is definitely the wine menu. Choosing chicken as a main which will go with red wine, Flo was superbly advised while picking the wine to go with it. A local Turkish red wine. Can’t get much better. It reminded us of so many evenings in Wellington but also in Frankfurt when you have good food and are able to share with friends. Slightly home-sick, we contacted at least one of the ones we thought of.

To round things off, we went for coffee and tea afterwards. Also, superbly done and yummy. Paying, we realized that those drinks were not on the bill and when I asked about it the lovely lady said it was on the house. Happy, we walked back to our tent.

 

Day 304 – Blingdenstone

So we did get to see a balloon even if it was not in the air

So we did get to see a balloon even if it was not in the air

Alright, enough about hanging out, it was time to get back on our feet for a bit. Not enough mind you to get up at 6 am to watch the balloons go up over the valley, but enough to set out on a day trip after a good breakfast.

We decided on one of the five underground cities of the area in D@#T. It was a short ride of about 35 km away and we were there by 11 am. The entrance fee was on the hefty side, at least for our tiny remaining budget, with $25 for the two of us. The general consensus is that these underground cities were used by the christian inhabitants of the land to evade several waves of invaders and/ or ethnic cleansing from about 800 AD into the 13th century.

This is the official way...try not to get claustrophobic

This is the official way…try not to get claustrophobic

Going down past several warning sings was an eerie experience. The access tunnels were all extremely narrow and low. The one to the deepest accessible point was probably 50 m long with three separate massive round stone doors that could be used to seal the inhabitants in. The guides had to shout up the corridor when they were leading a group through, since it would have been way to confined for two groups to pass. It was an impressive experience, but we were definitively happy to see the light of day again.

It took us a bit of a longer way back to explore some of the back roads. We had a brief look at an old monastery built into the cliff-side before moving on to find a spot to have our lunch. The perfect spot appeared not soon after in form of a picnic area at a reservoir lake about 20 km from Göreme.

We popped back to the campground for a second to pick up the map of the area and hit the road one more time. We just had enough energy left to have a proper look at one of the valleys that make Cappadocia so famous. This particular one is interchangeably called fairy chimneys or love valley, for obvious reasons.

A whole fairy army must live here ...

A whole fairy army must live here …

There was even enough time left that afternoon to finish up with a bunch of chores. All in all, it feels like we have rested enough to tackle the last stretch of our journey. The closer we get to Istanbul, the harder it becomes for us to motivate ourselves to still “do it”. I must be honest, right now, a lot of the times I would rater spend an afternoon with my favorite video game or have a BBQ with friends than to get on the bike to see another ruin, beach or city. We are going through the motions, waiting on inspiration as we go … but home continues to creep up on us.

Day 206 – Into city life?

Looking out

Looking out

After two quiet days, we said good-bye to the mountains for now. The next stretch of road will bring us back to the Mekong river and into the Laotian capital, Vientiane. We had heard from other travelers that Vientiane is a rather sleepy little town instead of a pulsating metropolis but the Lonely Planet pimped it for its food so spending a day in a sleepy city was a risk we were prepared to take.

From our lovely guest house in Ban Khoun Kham, it was 270km to go till Vientiane. We had the whole day to cover this stretch so there was no need to rush which made for a relaxed ride. Right in the beginning, we turned a corner to stumble across an amazing view: Mountains behind mountains behind mountains. So we took some time to take it in, enjoy it and take pictures. 🙂

We stopped once at a river for a shade and water break and then again when we tried to sort out lunch. Near one village, a row of food stalls lined the street all selling what looked like cooked corn and rice packed in banana leaves. Unsure whether it was just normal rice or sweet sticky rice (a local dessert), we stopped to find out and buy some. However, I utterly failed in communicating with the local lady despite me using the picture-dictionary. She didn’t confirm when I pointed on the picture of rice but seemed very fascinated by the depictions of cake. Unsure what to do, I called over Flo and in the end, we ended up buying a whole “line” of “rice” parcels instead of four. Somehow, these didn’t look as if you just cut one of the end; they came in a neat bundle of maybe 20. The whole affair cost us $3 so even if we’d end up with a whole lot of plain rice, not a lot was lost. Instead, the lovely lady handed us two of the white roots that you see everywhere for free.

Happy, we rode on until we found a nice resting spot to see and taste what we got. The white root is surprisingly yummy, tasting like turnip cabbage while having the texture of an apple. The rice in banana leaves turned out to be…something else. Flo opened one of them and we were astonished at the amount of leaves used; the content was rather tiny given the size of the packets. After smelling what it might be (smelled fishy), Flo tried it and confirmed that it was some kind of fish sausage made out of raw fish. Yuck. Not lunch at all.

Not wanting to waste it all by simply throwing it away, Flo went to four locals relaxing in the shade and offered it to them. First, they thought he asked for food but when they understood that we were giving food away, one of the ladies especially, was immensely happy. While we put our gear back on, she started handing out the parcels and cut the second white root for the children. A much better solution. 🙂

Still hunting for lunch, we stopped at a baguette vendor where Flo got the usual grub of pate and salad on bread. I was not quite so lucky and also out of energy to try so I had plain baguettes for once. Unfortunately, I had run out of Nutella, otherwise this would have been amazing lunch. 😉

Parking Rocinante in the hallway for the night

Parking Rocinante in the hallway for the night

The afternoon was used for the last 100km. Somehow, while riding smoothly, I got homesick. So we had another break to talk a bit before we finally hit Vientiane. The traffic increased but only to town level. Only about three streets seem to make up the town center which are filled with hostels, cafes and tourists. Not having a plan other than getting to Vientiane, we stopped at a busy street corner, figuring out which hostel still had rooms available and ended up in the least busy of the streets in a small-ish guest house. Prices are back up to $20 a night for a bare room with a bed but at least, we should be able to sleep here considering the noise is less bad than one street over.

Tired, we only got back out for dinner at an Indian place with okay food but delicious naan bread. It finally satisfied my craving for a decent Chai tea as well.

Day 105 – From rain forest back into savannah

Nice view for breakfast

Nice view for breakfast

Tete batu was even cool in the morning. But we decided to just see one waterfall before heading off to Kuta. Maybe we could have a beach day after all.

Driving up the rather washed-out road, we stopped at the house of a local with whom we had spoken yesterday. He pointed us in the right direction for the Air Terjun and we walked the last 200m there by ourselves. The place was way smaller than the waterfalls we had seen so far but it was still a lovely little place. One of the small falls produced a rainbow where the water hit the rocks and the locals had made a dam by the two biggest falls to retain the water. The thus created pool was deep enough to wash in.

All handcrafted organic rice here ...

All handcrafted organic rice here …

Coming back up we asked for a short guided tour and were taken through the village and along the rice fields for a good while. The sun was burning down again…I was really wishing for a pocket waterfall by this time so I could refresh myself whenever I wanted…

The tour ended with a walk through the aptly-named “monkey forest” where we saw many black and grey monkeys, some of them even carrying babies. Pictures are not nearly as impressive as we still don’t own a tele.

After this, we just packed the bike with the luggage we had left at our guest house (and realizing it was on the “monkey forest street”) and left the lovely town of Tete batu, full of nice people and great roadside “nanas” (pineapple).

As soon as we came further south, the landscape returned to the very dry savannah we have seen for so long now. I simply found it too hot to ride which made me grumpy which lead to a misunderstanding with Flo. We discussed things over food which helped and continued to Kuta, one of the beach towns in south Lombok. Unfortunately, neither Flo nor I took a particular liking to the town so instead of relaxing, I got properly homesick. I haven’t been homesick in a while and I guess exhaustion also played its part.

To compensate, we (against better judgement) tried pizza again for dinner and were only mildly disappointed with the average one we got.