Patagonia NZ

“Ben’s bike setup is fairly unusual – it's much longer than your average medium-sized car. He has a trailer attached to his bike carrying our two surfboards, wetsuits, and some other gear – including a big medical kit. Then on the bike there’s a few panniers and a saddle bag. Ben’s bike is what you call a ‘fat bike’, owing to its super fat tyres that make him look like he’s riding a motorbike.”

Ben: “The trailer itself is 10 kgs. The surfboards – the same ones we've carried on our travels to date – they're 10 kgs too. Then the wetsuits and everything. It all adds up to about 60 kgs. Laura has about 45 kgs – sometimes more if we are carrying extra food supplies. We've got spare tyres hanging here and there, spare tubes, a big bag of spare parts and tools. We anticipated having a few issues and have been able to address them, mostly.”

Laura: “Our tent is secured to the front fork of my bike, along with sleeping bags, camera gear and a laptop in other bags. I have two back panniers. One has clothes and toiletries. We call the other one ‘the kitchen’ – it's full of food supplies, spices, our cooking gear, plates and cutlery.”

Ben: “We eat like kings and queens. Laura makes proper meals every night after solid days on the saddle. We use the surfboards on the trailer as our table.

“We’re each carrying two T-shirts, shorts, a long sleeve top, a pair of pants and that's about it. One down jacket each. We don't have that much to wear. Because of the rain, I ride in my boardies and thongs all day, every day. No bike shorts. We’re constantly fine tuning, finding efficiencies.”

Laura: “We’re crossing all types of terrain and putting the bikes and trailer to the test. It's been a real mixture of road, cycling paths, off-road, and single track. We've ridden through mud, water, and long stretches of sand.”

Ben: “A day or two out from the Atlantic coast – we were aiming for Biscarrosse – and the weather forecast was as bad as it gets, so we decided to get a move on before it really went to shit.”

Laura: "The alarm went off at 4am. We were staying in a bit of neglected campground that was home to a few locals. We had our head torches on packing everything down, probably waking up all the other people that had stumbled home from the local bar at 2am.”

Ben: “Our road to the coast was just one straight line for 70 kms, across a vast area of exposed land. We set off and ended up riding into a big electrical storm. We rode the first three hours in the dark, the sky alight with constant lightning. There was no need for our head torch; it was so bright. It wasn’t a smart decision, but we were keen to get to the coast and needed to find accommodation before the sky opened up. Our attempt was in vain as it was still dark when the rain began and unleashed more than 50mm in that one morning.

“Then we got lost. We ended up on some really muddy tracks through the forest and had to push our bikes for quite some time. Eventually we got to our accommodation, warmed up with a hot shower and dried out our gear. We woke up to a calm sunny morning and made our way to the coast, however we got the biggest shock on our arrival. All of our peaceful ways of being, stopped right there.”

Laura: “While riding inland, we could camp anywhere in quiet nooks amongst the countryside. We could wash and dry off in the nude if we wanted – we felt free and at peace. But arriving in the coastal region of Les Landes, we discovered why it was so quiet inland… it felt like all of France was holidaying in Biscarrosse. It was crazy.”

Ben: “The first thing we came across was a campground that accommodated four and a half thousand people at its peak. People were saying it was really quiet for this time of the season, but to us, it looked like Rainbow Serpent festival. Every single tent was touching the next one. That was the start of the realisation that we were in Europe. Just in France alone, there's over 68 million people and at this time of year, the whole of Europe is on the coast. From then on, we had to adjust our expectations and navigate the crowds along with the usual things such as surf and weather forecast. It added a whole new parameter. But we worked it out, we actually had some good surfs.”

Laura: “Travelling by bike you see everything up close and personal. All your senses are on high alert. We feel very close to nature, but we also feel close to the impacts that humans have on the planet. We’re constantly navigating funny thoughts of loving life but being a little bit disappointed in humanity. It’s like when you enter a national park and you find rubbish left by the people who have been there. It's a fantastic adventure and we love every bit of it, but we don't love everything we see.

“In some places, we had people waving and calling out to us in really encouraging ways. On one occasion we were climbing up a steep pass when a group of people in beautiful vintage cars drove past, their heads out the windows cheering and shouting, ‘Allez, allez, allez!’ I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes because of the good feelings, but in other places along the coast people weren't as friendly; maybe because they were tired of seeing so many tourists. It’s understandable.”

Ben: “No one really likes to see their backyard changing when it was once a pristine and quiet place and now it's full of developments. We read a very interesting article about the purpose of travel – how people travel to places to be changed, but it often ends up being the places that actually change as a result.”

Laura: “Travelling with the surfboards on the trailer has been a wonderful talking point. People are so intrigued and it often sparks great conversations with locals, enabling us to learn more about them and vice versa.

“We’ve had some very memorable days – we’ll ride for a couple of hours and pull up to a surf break to discover that it’s working. We take turns to mind the bikes, so one of us will get changed, go out for a surf, whilst the other one will watch and chill. Then we switch out and then ride to our destination in the evening. It doesn’t happen every day or even every week, but when it does, it's magical.”

Ben: “We often ride between 50 to 100 kms a day. It's not that much compared to some other bike travellers, but it adds up when we are carrying our loads and don’t stop for a week or so. The surf conditions have been pretty average for us so far, but we don't mind. It’s all in the adventure. We don't need perfect four-to-six-foot, wide-open barrels. For that to actually happen, we need the stars to align. Oftentimes, we miss the surf when it is at its best – we are either packing or setting up camp, travelling at the slow speed of 10 to 20 kms per hour which takes up a good six to eight hours in a day, or sometimes too far away from a surf break. All of this, plus the tides, the winds, the rain, and finding a spot to sleep means that it's not always that easy to find perfect waves.”

Laura: “But that's also why it’s so memorable when everything aligns. When it does happen, it's exceptional. We’ve formed a whole new relationship with time and distance.”