The Very Beginning

It has begun! The journey has finally started, and it feels so surreal. On an early Sunday morning, July 7th 9.00 to be exact, the moment was there.

The first week of July we got a little used to what it feels like to be homeless. We had to leave our house on the first of July, but my wonderful mom and sister were so sweet to take us in. We wanted to wait for two babies, one of Rubens sister and one of his brother. Just days before we were heading off we visited both newborns. So lovely to see these beautiful new bundles of joy. It’s a little sad to know that this would only be a single visit, we might not see them for years. But we were ready to go. And that brings us to that Sunday morning.

A few odd tears were brought to our eyes when we said goodbye to my family, luckily a complete mental breakdown wasn’t forthcoming. It’s crazy to start a journey from your own place as we are so used to flying to our destination and instantly being there. We’ll definitely ease in to this one. Though it feels more like a little ride around the park. It isn’t.

Our first destination was our friend’s parent’s house, about 800 kilometer down south. Driving fast to devour a large number of kilometers appeared to be not the best idea. Both of our bikes are all-road: lovely to find some nice dirt ways through the forest and have some stretches of asphalt, but not particularly build to run full speed on a highway. Certainly not with all our gear packed to the back. So we took it slow. The first day brought us through the Netherlands and Belgium into the north of France. We passed a forest where we found a lovely field with those typical round bales of hay. Perfect for our first night in the wild. Another day with 400 slow kilometers brought us to Imke and her parents. We were welcomed with so much love that we decided to stay a little longer than planned. It was a bliss to spend time with the family. Imke’s parents are absolute motor fanatics and love to travel. So great to hear about their adventures and to learn from their years of experience.

Yet good times come and go, and unfortunately this journey will also be full of saying goodbyes to wonderful people. We head off, 300 kilometers further south. Learning from our own little bits of experience we decided to avoid highways and drove through perfectly winding roads in the gorgeous landscape of southern France. We found our way to a special place, to where my single and most beloved horsepower lives. We would stay at Sibel and Michiel’s kind of castle for two weeks. Time to help them out with all the never-ending projects in and around the house, time to settle into the idea of not being home anymore. Find a way to detach yet still have the comfort of a roof and a bed and at the same time connect on so many other levels, and, of course to spend some time on my horse’s back. We also found out that this was a perfect place to get used to the heat (40 degrees, my god this is hot! How will we survive everything more south, are we sure we’re not riding north?).

And here we are, at the very beginning of the real adventure. Tomorrow we will leave this lovely little comfort zone behind. The world is at our feet and it’s time to spread our wings. To conquer the world on our two little monsters. However scary this will be. Some things are too big to imagine. A journey like this is one of them. Yet in a few days we will discover a little more how big it will actually be.