Want more adventure in your life? Hear real adventure travel stories and practical insights from people who explore the world in bold and meaningful ways by bike, on foot, and close to home.
Seek Travel Ride is an adventure travel podcast for anyone curious about travel and looking to bring more adventure into their everyday.
Host Bella Molloy chats with adventurers and everyday people about bicycle touring, cycle touring, bikepacking, long-distance cycling, and other human-powered adventures. You’ll also hear slow travel, cultural discovery and micro-adventure stories that show adventure can happen anywhere.
Expect travel stories, helpful advice and practical tips you can use to shape your own adventures, whether you’re dreaming of world travel, planning your first bike travel journey, or starting small with something close to home.
Remember it doesn't need to be epic to be an Adventure!
I am also sharing an update from the road by our intrepid adventurer Rebecca Gross. She and her partner Javi are currently taking their big bike adventure from Austria to the Pamirs. Every few weeks I will be sharing updates from Rebecca letting you know how the journey is going so far. THi sis her first update since leaving home. You can follow Rebecca on instagram - @rebecca_grband also her partner Javi via @hacker.bikepacker
Hello everyone, welcome to another midweek mini episode of Seek Travel Ride where I share what it was like for you, one of our listeners, during one day of your trip. This week I've actually got two stories to share. Well, it's a story and an update. The first is from an awesome adventurer, Terry Jockerst, an Aussie retiree who has decided that the best way to spend her retirement is by taking awesome bike adventures. Now I'm going to be sharing a day from Terry that will take us to Japan. And then later on in the show, I'm going to be sharing the first audio update from Rebecca Gross. Listeners of the show will know that we are tracking Rebecca's journey, a year-long journey to the Premier's. She and her partner Harvey left their home in Austria at the start of March, and she is kindly going to be sharing updates from the road. And I have received the first one which covers the first week or so of her trip, so listen out for that. Okay, without any further ado, let's listen to Terry Jockhurst sharing one day of her trip taking us to Japan.
SPEAKER_00
Hello Bella and listeners. My name's Terry and I'm a retired teacher from Australia. Since I retired some years ago, I've been doing the odd bike trip here and there. I love listening to your podcasts. It's absolutely inspirational hearing the stories of all those brave young cyclists as they challenge themselves in such tough environments. I'm too old to be tackling the Sahara Desert or some remote mountain range by myself, so I tend to stick to more populated routes. Last year I cycled with nine months in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. I say that I cycled, but in reality I spent more time off the bike exploring what these countries have to offer. I'd like to tell you about one day in my ride in Honshu, Japan. I had a fairly slow start in the morning because I knew that it was only going to be a short ride and probably not too steep. I planned to stay at a campground on the beach about 30 kilometres away. The campground was free and it was close to an onset, a hot spring, and I was looking forward to luxuriating in different hot pools at the end of another hot and sticky day. I just toodled along comfortably, navigating the many obstacles on the bike path. I went on the road when the paths were too ridiculous, pushed my bike up a few hills, cruised a tunnel or two, and was quite happy. I stopped often to take photos of the scenery and of the bike path obstacle course. I stopped at a cemetery, took more photos, and watched as an elderly couple tidied up a grave and laid incense before it. A few kilometres in I saw an interesting looking building, white with crisscross beams reminiscent of a European alpine house or a house on the prairie in the US. Coffee was written across the top of a billboard. I studied the Japanese writing underneath and worked out that it said America. Oh goody, I thought, I don't need a coffee, but a biscuit would be nice, and maybe I can have a chat in English with some of the people inside. I don't speak any Japanese and hadn't met any English speaking tourists in the previous few days, so I was ready to have a conversation with anyone about anything at all, as long as it was in English. Yes, we are open, was written on a sign at the door. It looked hopeful. I pushed the door open and entered. Oheo Gose Mas, a dozen elderly Japanese turned to me and greeted me with big smiles. I bowed slightly, smiled broadly, and returned with another Oheo Goseimas. The waitress showed me where to sit. The customers all resumed their chatter and I looked at my surroundings. An American flag lay under the clear plastic table covering, American posters on the walls, an American themed menu was propped up between the salt and the sugar jars, and Western pop music could just be heard over the quiet murmur of voices. The waitress wearing an American flag T shirt came to my table. I looked at the menu, it was all in Japanese. Do you have a menu in English? Yeah, followed by a stream of Japanese. Obviously not, and the waitress did not speak English either. Hmm. I looked blankly at the menu. The waitress pointed to a line. Breakfast setu, she said. What is it? I asked. Melon, coffee, she replied. Okay, so I ordered a breakfast set. The breakfast set arrived on a tray, chunks of melon, banana and another unknown fruit, a hard boiled egg, a mountain of coleslaw, a smaller pile of potato salad, a well buttered slice of the thickest toast I've ever seen in my life, and a coffee in a rather delicate China cup. Oh my goodness, I hadn't planned to eat anything except maybe a biscuit. I scoffed the lot, and it was the best second breakfast that I've ever had, even if it was not quite how I imagine an American breakfast would be. While I was eating, someone realised that it was a fully loaded bicycle parked outside. Who could it possibly belong to? One brave gentleman talked to me, turned to me. Are you riding a bicycle? Hey, which means yes. Electricue? E no. My Japanese was boundless, as you can tell. Doku, which means where? I showed him the route on my phone. He turned and explained it all to the others. Amazingly, they let me eat in peace. No one asked me any questions or pestered me at all. The waitress brought me a cup of tea extra. I paid five hundred and fifty yen, about five dollars fifty in Australian dollars, and with a friendly arrigatozamas, the waitress pressed a frozen lemon drink in my hand. Everybody smiled, I say an air at them all, bowed and turned for the door. A clatter of chairs, the soft scuffing of feet, and the customers and waitress all followed me out to my bike. The men clustered around, pointing at the carbon belt, the lack of cogs, the thickness of the frame. One gentleman was astonished at the height of my seat. He minded that he would not be able to get up that high. The lady stood back and watched. I climbed aboard, waved, and set off. Bye bye, we called back and forth to each other as they waved me off with more friendly smiles. My visit was probably the high point of their day too. In hindsight, their lack of questions, lack of pestering was the ultimate politeness. If I had wandered around the cafe, taken the time to approach them, I'm sure we could have had a great time communicating via my translating app and smiling at each other. An opportunity missed, a lesson learnt for next time. By early afternoon I arrived at the beach at Furotu Sarkagan campground. Dark coloured pebbles crunched underfoot as I strolled along. There was a shelter well set up with tables, benches, a cooking area, and open showers. Two other tents were nearby. A fisherman came and tried his luck, but to no avail. He explained it was too windy for the fish. He would try later with a different rod. I set up my tent at the base of a huge concrete wall. It was a barrier designed to keep the village on the other side safe from massive tsunami waves. When night fell, I crawled into my tent, replayed my second breakfast in my head, and pondered the wisdom of camping on the wrong side of a tsunami barrier. Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed hearing about my one day cycling in Japan. Thanks. Bye.
SPEAKER_01
Thank you so much, Terry, for sharing your day there. I must say, first and foremost, I absolutely loved hearing an Australian accent. As an Aussie who's living overseas, it always fills me with joy when someone from Australia gets in touch and shares a story. It really just transports me all the way back. But also, I just love the way that you travel and I love the way that you have recounted the moments from this day. I've put myself in your shoes just imagining what it would be like if I was there in Japan, and then just the quirkiness of it all. Going in here for this American breakfast, but then it's such a Japanese experience. And then also what you commented there at the end. It was the ultimate showing of being polite to you in a Japanese culture by sort of letting you be, not disturbing you during your meal, but also realizing it would have been such an enriching experience to be able to have had some longer conversations with those people. You learn about them and they learn about you and your journey a bit more deeply as well. From what I've gathered from other listeners, that is probably one of the best things that they talk about during their adventures, and it's definitely something that you would definitely agree with. And listeners, I am super excited to share that I have since caught up with Terry, and I will be sharing a full feature-length episode on her and her many adventures. Japan is just one short little excerpt of the trips that she has travelled. And if you want to get a preview of it, I have shared a link to some books that Terry has actually written. I've read her recent one, Biking to Busan, and it covers her journey through Taiwan, Japan, and also South Korea. So check it out there, and I've also added links to Terry's social accounts in the show notes too. Thank you for sharing, Terry. Okay now, listeners, it is time for an update from our awesome intrepid adventurer Rebecca Gross. As I mentioned, she and her partner Harvey are currently on an adventure which has only really just begun, leaving from their home in Austria, destination, the Pamir Mountains, and beyond. So let's listen to what it was like for Rebecca during those first few moments of the trip, what it's been like through the week, and also reflecting back in her experience. This audio has been shared in two parts by Rebecca, and it's been interesting just even in that time, just how her perceptions and feelings have also changed. Let's listen to what Rebecca has to say.
SPEAKER_02
Hello from Bosnia, from Mostar. It is already day 10, and we actually have another day off, which definitely wasn't planned, but the weather forces us to stay calm and to stay inside since it is raining like waterfalls outside, and the streets turned already into rivers. But I would say we are very lucky to have made it to Mostar, which is a beautiful city, and so it's just another relaxing day. But I have to say, this day is so different than the first week we had. So we couldn't have asked for a better start. Croatia treated us very well, treated us with beautiful landscapes and perfect weather. I have to admit, I was still very scared to the moment where we left. It was very emotional to close the door and leave everything behind. But as soon as we set off, it definitely felt easier. Probably also because we needed to catch four trains to Trieste. And I think everybody knows how stressful train rides with bikes are. And then you can imagine that it's even stressful with all the bags, and it definitely wasn't easy. The whole day needed a lot of attention, and this was definitely a distraction from all the emotions. But then the first paddle day was just awesome, and I really was in the moment. Actually the first week was definitely tougher than I thought, or probably than I wanted it to be. It was way steeper than expected. We had much more climbs to do and they were very tough. We were cycling along the coastline over some islands in Croatia, but the coastline is definitely not flat at all. So we had days where we thought we will have to climb about 200 meters of altitude, but at the end of the day we already had 700, so this was very tough, and actually I struggled with muscle soreness from day one, and now it is day 10 and I'm still struggling with it. But I'm telling myself that this was just the first week and it will get better. But this is probably something I didn't expect. I didn't think it would be such a hard week, the first one, and I hope the next weeks are definitely easier. There are also some other perceptions which didn't quite meet reality, I would say. I probably always have been a bit naive to think that wild camping would be easy and relaxing, but I have to admit it's not very relaxing at all. I didn't realize how much time it takes to find a good camp spot to set up camp to cook and then the next day to pack up everything and then the whole day we are just cycling, taking breaks, cycling again, and then looking for a camp spot again. And in between there is actually no time for anything else. I didn't have time to even listen to podcasts, to read. I still think my ebook is probably not necessary. I also thought when we set up camp, I would have some time to do some exercise, stretch a bit, but there is definitely no time for that. Also, I hope this gets better when the sun is setting later, so there would be some more hours of daylight, and I hope this makes the camp life a bit easier and relaxing. I also always thought I'm very aware of my needs for having a lot of breaks and the need to eat a lot to keep up with my energy level. But somehow I'm very, very bad in admitting or communicating my needs, and this makes the days sometimes very hard. After lunch break, I'm actually always very low in energy, and the second half of the day is very tough, and I know I need to have breaks and I know I need to eat a lot, but since Javi is the opposite of me and doesn't need any breaks, it is very hard to admit when I need a break, and also very hard to realize when is the moment to have another break. I am way more struggling with keeping up my energy than I thought. Also, it is very hard to eat enough. I'm not a big fan of just eating chocolate and sugar just to have some energy. I would always love to have some healthier snacks, but it's also hard to get all the calories in with just a banana. I don't know, probably there are some women out there who have the ultimate life hack to keep up with all the energy I need, and I really would be happy if some woman can give me a tip how to keep up my energy levels. But I also want to point out some positive reality. I am very surprised by my positive mindset. There are some harsh moments and very tough moments and moments which annoy me, like getting up a hill, it's the sun is burning, it's very hot, and I still can't do it anymore, I can't feel my legs. And these are the moments I get really annoyed. But normally it would annoy me for hours. But in this journey, I can be very much in the moment. So I'm struggling with getting up a hill, and as soon as I reach the hill and the bad moment is over, I can be in the present and I immediately forget how bad it was, and I'm positive again. And I'm very surprised by this, and I'm very, very happy to have a positive mindset. And what we also already already managed is to get out of the time zone. We have no idea what day it is, sometimes we have no idea about time, and this gives us such a big feeling of freedom already. But what's still not really in my head is that this is what we will do for a year. But the other day, Harvey and I were sitting at a beautiful camp spot in a very quiet bay all by ourselves, and that's when it really hit me that Harvey will be the only person I see for a year, like the only family or close person. But it felt very weird, but definitely not in a negative way. It just made the whole adventure a bit more real, that everything is happening right now. And well, let's see when the whole realization really hits me. So, all in all, it was a perfect first week. We had beautiful landscapes, beautiful weather, and we are keeping up with our plan very, very well. And let's see what the next week will bring. Hello from Albania. I still have to learn how you say hello. It's the first hours we are here. Right now I'm sitting on the couch and eating the second bar of chocolate already. I'm so hungry. Anyway, what I wanted to say. Now thinking of how I have been the first week, probably I sounded a bit too negative because now I'm feeling so different. When we entered Montenegro, something inside me changed. It's so weird. I don't know how to explain that. Because it was the worst day we had so far with the weather. It was this huge storm. We had two days of bad experiences with getting accommodation. We were just like on the bottom of this adventure. But somehow we made it to Montenegro, although it was super stormy, and we got hosted by two bikepackers from Colombia. Anyway, somehow this missing part we found in Montenegro was talking to people. In Croatia and in Bosnia, this was completely missing. We talked to nobody, and nobody talked to us. And in Montenegro, we talked to strangers, and they are already fans of us. Some were following us through two different countries, and now they were searching for us because they wanted to talk to us. And it's so weird. People here are more than friendly, they are so welcoming, and oh, it's it just fulfills my heart so much and gives me so much energy. And also the landscape. I saw mountains, like beautiful high mountains. Oh, I just somehow forgot how I love being in the mountains. Yeah. Um a small update from Albania. Like Montenegro is super small. We crossed it in three days, but it was two short days, and today was a long day. And we are already in Albania. Yeah, I wanted to send you a photo because on the way there were signs of camping Australia. It was some campground, and the sign was there like 10 times, and it was downhill. And with every time I passed the sign, I was like, okay, at the next sign I have to stop and make a photo for you. But then I was already down there and I missed the last sign. But it was downhill, it's so hard to stop when you go down. Oh yeah, anyway. Tomorrow we will have a day off and we'll not stop eating. I think the laundry is done, and we are not stinking anymore. That's the reality of bikepacking. So, yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_01
Thank you so much, Rebecca, for sharing your updates there. Oh wow, I am putting myself in your shoes so much and just thinking about what it would have been like to set off to close the front door for the first day and then. Also, the stress of all those trains to catch on your first day. I definitely understand the added stress that putting a bike on a train can bring to a trip, but also sometimes it's part of the journey and I guess it's just maybe the adventures we don't necessarily want to have that we need to negotiate. I really loved how you've been able to also reflect on just how you're finding a new rhythm, how you're finding a new mood with this version of bike travel as well. Noticing different things and how you're changing along the way. The notion that wild camping isn't the easiest thing to be doing, the idea that it takes extra time to, you know, gather all your things in the morning and get going again. Oh gosh, I can totally relate to that. But also just how you've changed in that week, in realizing that what has energized you during the trip now, as you've made your way, are those interactions with strangers and with people and with connections. And I think it's definitely a theme that I have picked up on. And it's similar to what Terry was sharing earlier in the episode with her interactions in Japan and how much more enriching it would have been had those interactions delved a bit deeper. And it sounds like you and Harvey have now found that missing connection and it's been enriching for both of you as well. And I just also say, eat all the food, be super proud of getting up all the climbs. I very much understand what it's like when you've mentally prepared for a day to only have 200 meters of elevation gain and all of a sudden it's over 700 meters and beyond. But be proud of yourself and enjoy those mountainous vistas and landscapes as you make your way across Europe. And listeners, of course, I will continue to share Rebecca's updates with you all in these midweek mini episodes so we can see how she goes along with this first big adventure as well. Now, listeners, we have come to the part of the show which I absolutely love, and that is where I get to give you, my super fans, a massive shout out for being awesome legends and buying me some coffees. This week I'd like to shout out Felix Bed. Felix, you didn't leave me a message, but you did buy me coffees, and I am very appreciative of that. So a big thank you, and I'm really glad to have your support for the show. I'd also like to shout out Mark Hodgson. Mark says, Hey, just found the podcast. It's so great to hear from others. I bike packed in 2023 all across New Zealand, around Tasmania, and up the east coast of Australia. With a good few detours, more big trips are planned. Oh Mark, what awesome adventures you would have had and uh obviously scheming to have as well. You've had some dreamy landscapes there. New Zealand and Tassie, absolutely mega, and the east coast of Australia is filled with just so many endless beautiful beaches as well. Keep me posted on where your next bike travels take you, and again, thank you so much for supporting me on the show. Now, listeners, if you would like to do just as Mark and Felix have done, you can also buy me a coffee. You can head to buymeacoffee.com forward slash seek travel ride, buy me some virtual brews, but more importantly, let me know what is it that you love about the podcast and where are you planning to take your next bike adventure? And until the next episode, I'm Bella Malloy. Thanks for listening.
