Any misconceptions we had that we were in any way intrepid in our choices of mode of transport or destinations have been obliterated during this tour. Bosnia, Morocco, Montenegro a mountain bike trail in Norway. Kid's stuff.
Recently we spent a day hanging out with a guy who rode right around the world, including crossing the Gobi desert in China and Kazakhstan. We also hung out with Ausilia, who competes annually in a dogsled race across Alaska, which takes a month. But she does it on a bicycle. Last year she had to push it for 400 kilometres. We've met cycletourists with their children, one of whom was carrying 60 kilograms worth of baby and gear. We have met two cyclists with blow up rafts so that they could put their bikes in the raft, and float downstream. We heard of an Aussie, cycletouring through hilly scotland on a fully loaded fixie (campsite owner 'He had legs like tree trunks'). We've even heard of guys going through jungle in South America for several hundred kilometres, through areas with no roads!
But, 'dogs!' we thought. Although there is evidence of people touring with their pooches on the interweb, we thought that may be a way of scraping into the 'slightly intrepid' category. Until today. 'Mattie! Look left!' yelled Kate. And there was a man cycletouring with three dogs. Goddamnit. To beat him, we're going to need a kennel licence.
So, it appears that to win this game, we are either going to have to combine everything (three children, four dogs, race across Alaska, with a raft) or become the first cycletourists to complete a lap of the moon.
