profdlp
Adventurer
That's what I mean. That wouldn't pay rent for two years in a lot of places. :Wow1:
[YEAR 7!] Quit our jobs, sold our home, gone riding...
- Thread starter lightcycle
- Start date
That's what I mean. That wouldn't pay rent for two years in a lot of places. :Wow1:
lightcycle
Nomad
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/192.html
It was a very relaxing time in La Cadière-d'Azur. We went out for walks in the pretty countryside (when it wasn't raining), Trevor and Neda took turns making dinner each night, and over wine our talk would turn to all the places we'd "maybe" point our front wheels towards. Trevor travels much like we do: no schedule, no plan. A few months ago he guessed he'd be in Asia by now, just like we thought we'd be in Argentina right now... but things happen, stuff changes and you just end up going with the flow.
I sometimes get the sense that people think we're being evasive when we're non-committal about our plans for the future. "What do you mean you don't know where you're going? How can you not know?!" Here in this tiny town that nobody's ever heard of, in the middle of the French Riviera, it was refreshing to drink, eat and just chat about the future using nothing but shrugs, "maybes" and "perhaps".
Some travelers find comfort in schedule, but for us, the freedom to float and wander is a dreamy intoxication.
Bags all packed, ready to hit the road again
Bye Trevor! Thanks for putting us up, and for taking this pic!
We took advantage of the clearing weather to bid adieu (or however the French do it here) to Trevor. We're pretty confident that we'll run into each other again.
Calanques are steeped-wall inlets typically found in the Mediterranean
The best examples of calanques are the Massif des Calanques just south-east of Marseille. Since the weather was so nice, we took the twisty coastal road back west with zeal, parked the bikes and hiked for 45 minutes to peer over the cliff tops of the Calanque Sugiton into the Balearic Sea.
Strong winds whip through our wind-proof gear and threatens to blow us over the edge!
We spent quite a bit of time marveling at the beauty of the jagged coastline
This range of calanques runs about 20kms along the coast, and sometimes extends to about 4kms inland
It's a very popular area for hikers - we passed by so many on our hike to the coast. We felt very out-of-place with our motorcycle gear on while people power-walked passed us clad in spandex and carrying those funny hi-tech hiking poles. There are many well-marked trails so it's hard to get lost. We remarked to each other how unlike these trails were compared to the very primitive ones in Central and South America.
The only thing that could have made these easier to follow would be little blinky coloured lights on either side of the path and an information booth every 100m...
It was a very relaxing time in La Cadière-d'Azur. We went out for walks in the pretty countryside (when it wasn't raining), Trevor and Neda took turns making dinner each night, and over wine our talk would turn to all the places we'd "maybe" point our front wheels towards. Trevor travels much like we do: no schedule, no plan. A few months ago he guessed he'd be in Asia by now, just like we thought we'd be in Argentina right now... but things happen, stuff changes and you just end up going with the flow.
I sometimes get the sense that people think we're being evasive when we're non-committal about our plans for the future. "What do you mean you don't know where you're going? How can you not know?!" Here in this tiny town that nobody's ever heard of, in the middle of the French Riviera, it was refreshing to drink, eat and just chat about the future using nothing but shrugs, "maybes" and "perhaps".
Some travelers find comfort in schedule, but for us, the freedom to float and wander is a dreamy intoxication.
Bags all packed, ready to hit the road again
Bye Trevor! Thanks for putting us up, and for taking this pic!
We took advantage of the clearing weather to bid adieu (or however the French do it here) to Trevor. We're pretty confident that we'll run into each other again.
Calanques are steeped-wall inlets typically found in the Mediterranean
The best examples of calanques are the Massif des Calanques just south-east of Marseille. Since the weather was so nice, we took the twisty coastal road back west with zeal, parked the bikes and hiked for 45 minutes to peer over the cliff tops of the Calanque Sugiton into the Balearic Sea.
Strong winds whip through our wind-proof gear and threatens to blow us over the edge!
We spent quite a bit of time marveling at the beauty of the jagged coastline
This range of calanques runs about 20kms along the coast, and sometimes extends to about 4kms inland
It's a very popular area for hikers - we passed by so many on our hike to the coast. We felt very out-of-place with our motorcycle gear on while people power-walked passed us clad in spandex and carrying those funny hi-tech hiking poles. There are many well-marked trails so it's hard to get lost. We remarked to each other how unlike these trails were compared to the very primitive ones in Central and South America.
The only thing that could have made these easier to follow would be little blinky coloured lights on either side of the path and an information booth every 100m...
lightcycle
Nomad
Simply stunning!
Here's a short video of us riding the coastal roads past the Massif des Calanques
Approaching Marseille once again
The weather was still on our side, so we stayed off the Autoroute and headed inland. Neda heard that there was an amphitheatre in nearby Arles, so she wanted to check it out (which means, she wanted to see if it was better-looking than her hometown amphitheatre in Pula). We couldn't find affordable accommodations in Arles, so we're staying in Nimes which is only 30 kms away.
We seemed to have picked up another rider somewhere in Nimes. We're a motorcycle gang now!
I may have overstated my French-language skills in the last blog entry. Everywhere I go, my attempts at Le Français is met with blank, uncomprehending stares. I repeat my words often, and slowly the people I'm talking to piece together what I am trying to say. Then they repeat what I just said. Word for word. Didn't I just say the EXACTLY SAME THING?!? Is it my terrible imitation of a Quebecois accent or something?
Very disheartening...
Laundry day in Nimes?
Since we were here in Nimes we spent the day checking out the town. We found out that there are many examples of Roman architecture right inside the city. And they aren't ruins! They are in remarkably good shape!
Hanging out at the Maison Carrée. It's the most well-preserved Roman temple found anywhere
French Bullfighter?
The non-gluten, non-dairy diet continues. Red wine is allowed!
lightcycle
Nomad
The city is so empty at night. This isn't Italy anymore, people don't sleep during the day here.
Dammit! My camera was just a couple of milliseconds too slow for a great shot!
The Nimes Arena
It turns out Nimes also has a Roman Amphitheatre, we just happened to stumble upon it while walking around. We did a circle around the structure and then Neda peered inside it. She sniffed and proclaimed: "Yep. Ours is better."
I agreed instantly without any hesitation at all, whatsoever...
It is done up nicely with lights that change every few seconds though... oops, did I say that out loud?
Gothic Cathedral Saint-Baudile
Maison Carrée lit up at night
It's been over a week on the non-gluten, non-dairy diet and Neda is still experiencing GI issues. We were seriously thinking about going to a doctor to get it professionally diagnosed.
I normally don't get up before Neda does, but one morning, I happened to catch her at breakfast. She was spreading a thick layer of Nutella over a slice of toast.
"Um, Neda... Nutella has dairy in it."
"So what? I've been eating this my entire life!"
"Well, maybe you should stop eating Nutella for a little while, just so we can tell if that's actually causing the problem or not."
"Well, maybe you should shut your dirty piehole!!!!" (except she didn't say it as nicely as that)
At this point, she was fiercely protecting her jar of Nutella, much like a mother bear would protect her cubs. I sensed I was in imminent danger, so I dropped the issue and backed away slowly.
A couple of days later, I found a half-full jar of Nutella in the trash can. Neda's GI problems had completely disappeared overnight, replaced with a palpable sadness that hung in the air.
This is one "I Told Ya So" that I'm not going to say out loud. Because it would be met with... well, death.
In Hollywood circles, this happy couple was known simply as "NedTella".
This is my heartfelt tribute to a long-term love affair that still ended much too soon...
lakebowron
New member
Carcassonne
Gene, Neda,
Consider visiting the city of Carcassonne with its "Cité de Carcassonne", a medieval fortress. A great place to see, especially this time of the year, without hordes of tourists flooding it.
Gene, Neda,
Consider visiting the city of Carcassonne with its "Cité de Carcassonne", a medieval fortress. A great place to see, especially this time of the year, without hordes of tourists flooding it.
I don't have specific numbers, but definitely less than the guy who just bought a new BMW 328i...
As far as planning/budgeting, we did it the old fashion way: always spent less than we earned, then before the trip, we sold everything we owned: home, cars, bikes, sporting equipment, etc.
Here's an excerpt from one of our earlier blog entries (http://ridedot.com/euro/081807.html):
That was written on August 17th, 2007. So we've been planning this trip for quite some time...
fair enough. for budgeting, i mean more "we have x to spend in y town/country/continent etc"
As far as lodging, you seem to be staying with people frequently? That's always the biggest cost to control on a trip....how do you arrange lodging?
Keep up the great ride!!!!
lightcycle
Nomad
Thank KiwiKurt!
Very early on in our trip, we tried to come up with some kind of daily budget or guideline, but quickly realized that this wasn't realistic for how we travel.
The main issue was that the gas allowance was too variable. Depending on what we wanted to see and how far we wanted to ride in a day, it could mean one fill-up every couple of days, or three fill-ups in a single day. So if we covered a lot of ground that day, did it mean we had to starve ourselves or not pay admission to see a site or museum until tomorrow or the day after?
Pumping oil straight out of the ground in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska - at $6.00/gallon!
Also, if we came under budget one day, did that give us permission to splurge the rest of our per diem on luxuries? If we went over-budget the next few days, we could never claw back that day we spent our surplus.
So our approach was to try to spend the minimal amount possible every day while still being able to enjoy traveling. This meant quickly figuring out the difference between luxury and necessity, in order to sustain full-time nomadism without going insane from deprivation or not participating in the cultures and places we were visiting.
It was only after leaving a country or region that we could tally up and calculate our expenditures in hindsight. So if you're interested in how much traveling through certain places cost at our pace, our interests and our level of comfort and security, here's a very rough estimate (off the top of my head):
Canada: $50/day per person
Arctic Canada/Northern Alaska: $80/day per person
Continental US: $40/day per person
Mexico: $30/day per person
Guatemala: $20/day per person
El Salvador: $15/day per person
Nicaragua/Costa Rica/Panama: $25/day per person
Cuba: $15/day per person
South America: $30/day per person
These are just daily travel and living costs. It doesn't include one-time border fees, insurance, bike maintenance/repairs, ferries, language classes, etc. Our costs will probably be much cheaper than a solo traveler because we share camp/hostel fees as well as groceries, but more expensive than a couple doing the trip two-up on one bike or on smaller-displacement motorcycles.
One side-effect of keeping such a publicly accessible blog is that we receive a lot of correspondence, as well as many offers of accommodations and home-cooked meals. Honestly, I'm blown away by how many keep up with us and how generous people are out there! When I don't post anything for a while, there's usually a lot of concerned e-mails wanting to know that we're ok, which is very touching!
That family that invited us to stay with them in Costa Rica!
If I were more diligent about keeping the blog up-to-date we'd probably be hopping from one person's house to another! Since a lot of people e-mail us only after I update the blog, which is about a month or two behind, we've long since departed the area by then and are unable to take them up on their offer.
The people that we are able to stay with are very familiar with the way we travel and thankfully accommodate our loose schedule. So typically we'll give them a window of time of when we think we'll arrive and we gradually update them as we get closer.
When we found out we had to relocate to Europe, I was really afraid of what that would mean to our budget, but so far we've been lucky that we could live in Neda's mom's apartment for 2 1/2 months in Croatia, and we were able to stay with family in Italy for a couple of weeks.
Also, we've met so many fellow European travelers while we were riding through the Americas and they've all invited us over to stay with them while we trek around here. It seems we're not going to want for accommodations while we're on this continent.
And the price of gas is tumbling every single day! Being in Europe right now is working out quite well for us!
Very early on in our trip, we tried to come up with some kind of daily budget or guideline, but quickly realized that this wasn't realistic for how we travel.
The main issue was that the gas allowance was too variable. Depending on what we wanted to see and how far we wanted to ride in a day, it could mean one fill-up every couple of days, or three fill-ups in a single day. So if we covered a lot of ground that day, did it mean we had to starve ourselves or not pay admission to see a site or museum until tomorrow or the day after?
Pumping oil straight out of the ground in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska - at $6.00/gallon!
Also, if we came under budget one day, did that give us permission to splurge the rest of our per diem on luxuries? If we went over-budget the next few days, we could never claw back that day we spent our surplus.
So our approach was to try to spend the minimal amount possible every day while still being able to enjoy traveling. This meant quickly figuring out the difference between luxury and necessity, in order to sustain full-time nomadism without going insane from deprivation or not participating in the cultures and places we were visiting.
It was only after leaving a country or region that we could tally up and calculate our expenditures in hindsight. So if you're interested in how much traveling through certain places cost at our pace, our interests and our level of comfort and security, here's a very rough estimate (off the top of my head):
Canada: $50/day per person
Arctic Canada/Northern Alaska: $80/day per person
Continental US: $40/day per person
Mexico: $30/day per person
Guatemala: $20/day per person
El Salvador: $15/day per person
Nicaragua/Costa Rica/Panama: $25/day per person
Cuba: $15/day per person
South America: $30/day per person
These are just daily travel and living costs. It doesn't include one-time border fees, insurance, bike maintenance/repairs, ferries, language classes, etc. Our costs will probably be much cheaper than a solo traveler because we share camp/hostel fees as well as groceries, but more expensive than a couple doing the trip two-up on one bike or on smaller-displacement motorcycles.
One side-effect of keeping such a publicly accessible blog is that we receive a lot of correspondence, as well as many offers of accommodations and home-cooked meals. Honestly, I'm blown away by how many keep up with us and how generous people are out there! When I don't post anything for a while, there's usually a lot of concerned e-mails wanting to know that we're ok, which is very touching!
That family that invited us to stay with them in Costa Rica!
If I were more diligent about keeping the blog up-to-date we'd probably be hopping from one person's house to another!
Since a lot of people e-mail us only after I update the blog, which is about a month or two behind, we've long since departed the area by then and are unable to take them up on their offer.The people that we are able to stay with are very familiar with the way we travel and thankfully accommodate our loose schedule. So typically we'll give them a window of time of when we think we'll arrive and we gradually update them as we get closer.
When we found out we had to relocate to Europe, I was really afraid of what that would mean to our budget, but so far we've been lucky that we could live in Neda's mom's apartment for 2 1/2 months in Croatia, and we were able to stay with family in Italy for a couple of weeks.
Also, we've met so many fellow European travelers while we were riding through the Americas and they've all invited us over to stay with them while we trek around here. It seems we're not going to want for accommodations while we're on this continent.
And the price of gas is tumbling every single day! Being in Europe right now is working out quite well for us!
Thanks for the country price breakdown Gene. I've seen the $50/day price for Canada somewhere else on here. Could you briefly explain the additional $30/day as you head Arctic? More liquor, more clothes? Oh, and if you come back to New Zealand plenty of room to stay here!
LilPoppa
Adventurer
Food is way more expensive up there. I've seen photos of beef roasts going for over $200 in Nunuvit. It's a result of the remoteness of communities up there, and logistcs of transporting goods.
lightcycle
Nomad
Thanks for the invite, Billhilly!
I had to snicker at the clothes comment. Other than replacing equipment that's worn out, we haven't really bought any new clothes in nearly three years!
We were lining up in a convenience store in some small town in the Yukon picking up some supplies and I remarked to Neda that the prices were so expensive for everything. The guy behind us overheard me and interjected, "Yep, there's a saying we have here in the north: 'Less for more!'"
He laughed loudly. Then we laughed too. But inside, none of us were really laughing...
As LilPoppa explained, the vastness and remoteness of the Arctic makes transportation and availability of goods very expensive. Gas is almost twice as expensive as the rest of Canada. In Deadhorse, we were floored at the price of gas! There were billions of barrels of crude oil underneath our feet, but because the refineries were at the other end of the Alaska Pipeline, we paid almost $6/gallon to fill up our bikes!
Atigun Pass, Dalton Highway, north of the Arctic Circle
Deadhorse is not a tourist destination. Oil companies pay dearly to house their workers in the most harshest and extreme conditions. We paid $100/night *PER PERSON* to stay in one of the basic dormitories to rest before turning back south again.
Our costs also increased because of the distances we had to cover in the north. There are stretches of similar scenery and scant towns and cities to stop at in Arctic Canada and the Northern Alaska, which meant that we had to put in several 800-1000 kms days in the saddle. When we tour around and south of the 49th Parallel, we'd maybe fill up once a day or less if we stop to take in the sights. However, I remember a three-fill-up day when we were racing through Northern BC!
When we left our friend's apartment in Vancouver, I eyeballed the map and told them we'd be back in three weeks. We didn't actually return until over 6 weeks later. We had totally underestimated how far the Arctic Ocean was and how long it would to take to ride there!
Last edited:
Thanks LilPoppa/Gene. That clears it up. I have grand schemes schemed for 2016 and need to start the planning/saving now. Plan well, then go with the flow....something like that. Trolling Kijiji looking for the right vehicle. $800 Ford Focus?? Sitting here at 41 degrees South, it's reasonably easy to say Inuvik/ Prudhoe Bay'. The actual doing is a whole nuther subject! Oh, what month was it in the photo crossing the Atigun Pass?
lightcycle
Nomad
I think it was end of August/beginning of September. On the way up, everyone was warning us it was getting too late in the season to go... LOL!
In our experience we've found that the natural enemy of any plan is its execution.
profdlp
Adventurer
...In our experience we've found that the natural enemy of any plan is its execution.
Old saying at West Point: "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy".
Hey, you plan, then you do. It's working out well for you guys thus far! :victory:
Longtrailahead
New member
Absolutely wonderful stuff here, bravo Neda & Gene on your travels and experiences had thus far. I'm sitting here in Eastern Pennsylvania, enjoying breakfast & coffee this morning while reading along with your adventures. Safe travels and continue living life to its fullest!