From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

Travelling on a bike means living simply.  And the little things that you might consider insignificant become important and can change the tone of the day:

1 –Homemade Jam

Since we left Vancouver travelling on Route 1, there have been huge bushes of ripe blackberries beside the road, and they have been calling out to us. A couple of weeks ago we finally gave in and we made several batches of jam. We taught Ben and Nathan our recipe, and we all picked the blackberries together one night, with only our bike lamps for light. We also make apple sauce, thanks to the apple tree we discovered at one of our camping sites.

2- Celebratory cakes

One night, with the raccoons prowling around our campsite, we assumed that Ben and Nathan had gone off to make sure their food was secure. Imagine our surprise when they came back to the table with a wonderful surprise: two cakes with candles! We took a closer look at these “cakes,” each made up of three chocolate chip cookies, and noticed that each had a significant number on them: 5,000 and 71.4. Our friends wanted to help us celebrate our journey so far – 5,000 km travelled since Anchorage and a new speed record (set by Sara!) 71.4 km/h.

3 – Coincidences

While Sebastien was off in the grocery store getting the supplies for that night’s dinner, Sara was outside watching the bikes. A man and an older woman came up to her. The man asked her all the standard questions, the questions that we answer at least ten times every day: where are you from? Where are you going? How long will it take you? How far is it? How much weight are you carrying on the bikes? Where do you sleep at night? Etc. At the end of the interrogation – in which microfinance did not come up once – Sara gave him the internet address of their site. The man asked what she meant by the terms “planete,” “durable,” and “solidaire”. And when Sara explained about the microfinance project, the man stopped short: he knew all about microfinance and in fact his wife worked in the field as a consultant! So now we have an invitation to spend some time with Zeus and Kelly talking about microfinance when we get down around San Francisco.

4 – The Golden Gate Bridge

We came into in San Francisco on the American own version of the Royal Mile: the famous Golden Gate Bridge. We were able to bike across it in a bike lane. The bridge is often shrouded in fog, but we were just lucky enough to cross it under brilliant sunshine. We had a beautiful view of the city!

5 – The reunion

We’re now staying with Jack, a cyclo-tourist that we met in the Yukon. He was travelling in the direction of Prudhoe Bay (in the very North of Alaska). And he lives in El Cerrito, in San Francisco Bay.

Sara & Sébastien