The Update #56 – One Year Travelversary

No, it is not a mistake it is real! A year on the road! We almost forgot during that day and to be honest, we were both a little cranky that day. Or well, we both didn’t feel like doing anything and were very tired. We wanted to do something because the weather was beautiful, Jap had even dipped in the river with glacier water the day before because it was so hot, but we didn’t know what we wanted to do. So we decided to get in the car and drive to Canyon Creek to go hiking. Once there, we stood in front of the sign, saw the distances of the trails and their steepness, plus a warning sign that a cougar had been spotted in the area a few days earlier, and turned around. We drove back 40 minutes and promised ourselves to go back one more time, but then with the mountain bikes. Hahaha so strange, in the Netherlands you wouldn’t drive for 40 minutes to go for a walk somewhere and now we drove 40 minutes for nothing. We are already getting used to these great distances here. But on the way back we realized that we have been traveling for 1 year that day and that immediately made us a bit happier and we felt that we had to celebrate. So we decided to have a delicious Indian meal.

Perhaps why we also felt a bit worn out was because we simply hadn’t done many fun things the rest of the week and mainly “worked” long days. And the working days had also been a bit boring, or well, more boring than other days. We especially cleaned up a lot in the garden, repainted the outdoor table, chopped wood, and stacked large stones. The highlight of the work was definitely the chickens! Did we mention before that we love the chickens? We have now built an electric fence outside their normal coop so that the chickens have more freedom of movement. It is great to see them scratching around and digging holes for their sand bath. Jap also makes a big sport of luring the chickens inside, he wants to train them so that as soon as they see him in the evening they go inside easily. Haha, it’s a hilarious sight to see him walking with all those chickens on his heels, and as many people have reminded him: he has never had so many ladies after him.

But after our dinner at the Indian restaurant, we decided to do it differently. Working more days but shorter days so that we are ready early every day and have time every day to do something fun if we want. And we immediately got excited about it. The next day we continued with an adventure on the side by side. We drove into all 3 valleys one more time to see how far the snow had melted. And we got a lot further. Where a week earlier we could drive about 1 kilometer from the main road, now we were at least 4-8 kilometers. So that’s a good sign!

At the weekend we also made another attempt to discover Canyon Creek and this time we took the mountain bikes with us. But pff it was hard, cycling is not the same as mountain biking and mountain biking in the Netherlands is not the same as mountain biking in real mountains. Especially in the first part, it was steeply uphill and we had to walk more than we could cycle and it took forever before we got our breath again. But once at the top, it became a bit flatter and it went up and down a bit more gradually. And that was a good thing because otherwise we would have died and the cougars and bears could have caught us that way. Especially I have a lot of trouble with that… The feeling that (especially) the bears can attack you everywhere, that a pair of eyes is not enough for me, and that I would rather have 12 more. The feeling that you can always be stalked from behind and something is constantly chasing you. Sounds stupid right? It is and I have trouble putting that feeling aside and it gets in the way of enjoying myself. And even though I know that worrying about it or being extra scared doesn’t help me at all, it just gets in the way and so it would be better just not to do it, but that is easier said than done. One of the biggest things for me is admitting that I’m scared because I think it’s very negative for me to be scared for the reasons above, it doesn’t help me. Being careful is enough but being scared to the extent that I am scared is a problem, so stop it. So here I am again, just like a few months ago, admitting to everyone, including myself, that I’m scared. It must be getting better from now on, right?

But enough about that, we were mountain biking. We first cycled along Sander Lake and then a long way through the forest and suddenly there was the Canyon. There was a very large and beautiful valley below us and the sun shone beautifully so we sat under the tree for a long time and enjoyed the view. Afterwhich we rolled downhill again to the car and that was a relief. Going down is so much easier than going up!

Until the next.

Lots of love,

Jap and Lon

Spendings of the Week

Budget per day €54 and per week €378 and per month €1700

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