Just a quick update since leaving Paris. We’ve been doing our best to do as many kms per day because we’re really wanting to get to the beaches on the south coast as it is starting to heat up. We’re doing anywhere between 50-70kms per day, depending on how we are feeling. One day we did something like 85kms which was a really big day for us. I can’t wait for us to hit 100km in one day.

We encountered our first bike problem of the trip. Two spokes on my back wheel had snapped which caused my wheel to warp. Broken spokes tend to happen while cycle touring but we didn’t think it would happen to our bikes, considering they cost us an arm and leg. The main cause of the spokes snapping was too much weight! Of course it happened in whoop whoop (middle of nowhere). The nearest bike shop was 43kms away! The bike was still ridable but had a major wobble. We had no choice but to make our way there. It took us a while but we finally got there and it got fixed! Although, not even 20kms later another spoke snapped! Fortunately, there was a bike mechanic along the canal who fixed it for me. I’m probably going to upgrade to a wheel with more spokes so it can handle the weight. For the meantime I’ve shifted the heavier panniers to the front wheel and swapped the rack pack for the tent on Ebs bike.

We are enjoying being back on the road. It’s funny because when we arrive to a campsite we hate cycling so much as we are exhausted, but in the morning when we hop back on the bike it’s the best feeling! We plan on arriving in Lyon in two days to meet up with a friend that we met on the tea farm in Nepal which will be cool!

-Kel