Health Tips

Avignon, France

I spent the morning dawdling about checking my arrangements for the next week or so.  This followed a Fabulous breakfast.  A fresh fruit salad, croissant, strawberry preserves, jamon, scrambled eggs, cheese, fresh squeezed orange juice, and coffee.  that will keep me pedaling for awhile!  After breakfast, I extended my reservation for a night, and booked three more nights at th send of Kirsten’s stay with me.  Avignon has plenty to keep us occupied, and if I get fed like this in the morning, it pretty much has to be a good day.  Michaela says since I am staying more than 3 nights, I also qualify for a Provençal supper.  She belongs to an amateur chef society.  Maybe this can be our anniversary dinner! When I finally got going, I headed through town to find a couple of squares Michaela had recommended.  When I finally got on the road and picked up speed, I noticed the wind in my hair…which means I had forgotten my helmet.  I was going to just keep going, but realized I had also forgotten my gloves.  While I have never hit my head falling off a bike, I have messed my hands up pretty good, and had gloves  save them on other occasions.  So I went back and got my missing bits, then headed out all over again.  I found the back road to Isle sur la Sorgues, and then to Fontaine de Vaucluse.  I was having fun flying along the road out of town, when it occurred to me that this was too easy.  Either I had discovered that obscene quantities of goat cheese doubled your red blood cell count, or… I was wind assisted, which, of course, means I will not find it as effortless on the way back…. I stopped for lunch, pain aux figues et chèvre, by the church in Vellaurges.  A small ‘village circulade’.  After the breakfast I had, I really did not need much for lunch.  From there, I meandered down country lanes to Isle-lsur-laSorgue.  This is a touristy town, but it manages to be fairly charming anyway.  I strolled along the canals and river banks, admiring the cafes, but decided not to stop at one.  Instead, I headed for Fontaine, the source of the Sourges, which pops out of the limestone hillside as a proper river.  C’est une belles endroit.  While i eas pedalling around town, i saw a sign for a hostel, and tried to find it.  Many of the hostels in the FUAJ do not seem to be part of the international association.   Something to remember if i ever do this again.  I ended up climbing up the hills from whence the river springs.  I never found the hostel, but I found a family harvesting cherries and selling them by the side of the road.  I took their picture, but decided against trying to carry a punnet of Cherries in my handlebar bag.  That could get messy!  So I coasted back into town.  I strolled about taking pictures, ignored the siren call of the cafe, then headed back out on the road.   On the way out of town, I finally found the voie velo de Vaucluse.  It is not quite as impressive as I had anticipated.  The bits I rode on were just bike lanes marked on a road.  It was an old highway which had been superseded, so it was wide, but not heavily used.  The grassy verge is slowly eating away at the bike lane.   There was a bit of fighting the wind on the way back to town, but it was not too bad.  I was still having fun.   I have decided I love traffic circles on a bike.  Everyone else has to slow down, but on a bike you speed up. The centrifugal force adds to your speed, and you can fly around the circle, canted at an angle close to impossible.  After one traffic circle like this, which I went around twice, just because I could, I headed up into Saint Saturnin les Avignon.  I knew it was going to be up, because it had been down in the morning!  There were a couple of cars following me out of the traffic circle, but I was going faster than them, so i was in the centre of the lane.  Starting up the hill I just leaned into it.  If you can keep the revs up, you can hold the speed, so that’s what I did.  It was about a km or so into the centre of town, and I held speed.  It is exhilarating!  The cars held back, because I was going too fast to pass…uphill!  After that, I had to stop for a beer.  They had “les cigales” on tap, so I had that.  Not bad.  A bit like “grasshopper”. I took my time.  Next was the 15km into town, and I wanted to avoid traffic.  An older gentleman who had been sitting next to me asked where I was from and where I was going.  We chatted for a couple of minutes.  He complemented my French, which always makes me happy. Heading off, I started on the same route I had taken in the morning, but found a smaller road out of the next town.  It was not marked, but it looked good, and I asked a guy standing by the road if it would take me to Avignon.  He told me to prendre la gauche a centre Ville, et tourner a droit a l’ancien route a Avignon.   I thought I was doing OK, but the road looked really local.  There were speed bumps and barriers half-way across on alternating sides.  I stopped and asked  a couple sitting in their front yard, and they said this was the way.  It turned into a marked cycle route through a bit of an industrial area, which brought me right to the old city… with no traffic!  I turned in, and took the first left to follow the wall.  It was a rough cobbled street, lined with trees.  The street was separated from the houses on one aide by a narrow canal, which had several large water wheels turning in it.   The cogs were still mounted in the wall next to the wheels, but the wheels were not attached, so are now just decorative.  There was a bar a vin, with an ‘artistic’ looking crowd out front, seated at tables or on the walls of the canal and the bridge across it.  I felt like I had to stop.   I went in and asked for a rose, and they had options; what fun! I sat on the bridge rail (stone and two feet wide) and read the sign on the gate.  The bar was across the canal from an opera and ballet theatre.  I chatted briefly with a guy who pulled in on a bike just as old as mine, with gears mounted on the frame, and the same brake type as mine.  It has been a looong time since I saw brakes like that on another bike.  While he and his partner had a glass of wine, their two kids played hopscotch on the bridge.  I love that the kids come to the bar.  I think it keeps them more like a village meeting place rather than a drinking establishment.

from: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/donaldc/1/1337383013/tpod.html

Ilha Grande, Brazil

Our streak of good weather come to an end once we got to Ilha Grande, every day was rainy and overcast. Ilha Grande is an island just off the coast not too far from Rio and the only cars on the island belonged to the emergency services. The first day the weather wasn’t too bad so a small group of us treaked off in search of the waterfall that was close to town. We first got lost then had to turn back to find it and once we found it we weren’t sure because in place of the waterfall was a tiny stream. After having as much fun as you can at a pond we legged it home for some buffet dinner.

The second day the weather got a little worse but our group set off in search of the bigger waterfall 2hrs away. We persisted through the rain and a pretty strenuous hike but we got there. But after Iguacu this water fall was not impressive at all. Still worth the walk seeming as all we have been doing lately was eating too much meat. Also for future reference garlic prawns over here is not like the garlic prawns mum cooks, Sarah and I found out the hard way it’s just whole unpeeled prawns cooked then fried in a little garlic and oil. Not cool.

On our last day there was the option to hike to a beach a few coves around from town. It was rainy and 6 km away so Sarah chose to stay warm dry and in the hotel room while I legged it out to the track. The hike was pretty *************g the way we stopped at a heap beaches and played some trivia.

There are only five countries in the world that when you spell their names in capitals have no closed letters such as P R A O B and so on. What are the five?

This kept us amused and our minds off the rain. We got to Lopez Mendez beach and it become obvious why it was worth the hike. The beach was beautiful and the waves were massive. We all went for a swim and then come back to find there were heaps of monkeys just in the trees on the beach front. It was awesome! There were heaps and I know it is bad but we fed them. Not our fault the guy that rents out surfboards started it and gave us the biscuits. Luckily our tour guide booked us a boat trip home so we didn’t have to do the hike again. Nice work Craig. That night we had a big BBQ and a few drinks.

from: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jordan_sarah/1/1336835735/tpod.html