The Routes of Earth

Sorry for the lack of updates. It's been purely a case of enjoying this this beautiful country so much. 

We're currently in the south of France in a town called Agen, staying with Marion, a friend I met in Vietnam as we were trapped in a hostel in Hoi An due to basically, a monsoon.

Life has become a lot more comfortable, weather-wise. No more wearing all our clothes as soon as we wake up or get on the bike, and no more worrying about having to dry out all our gear. I think on our last day in England it was 11c, and over the past few days it's reached 36c. That's quite a big increase and we've really felt it.

We've slowly made our way south, doing about 100 miles a day when on the bikes and getting into the rhythm of travelling with each other. It's going smoothly so far.

We stayed with our first host, Kevin, in Poitiers a few days ago. By then we had spent a full 7 days on the bike and we needed a rest day or two. Quite a lot of drinking and not enough sleep ensued, and making friends and enjoying a town to its full potential was definitely had.

We're staying in Agen until Tuesday, our two-week anniversary since we left home, and by then we would have covered our 1000 mile mark. From there we will ride to Italy and then into Slovenia. We're both really looking forward to reaching Eastern Europe.

Here is a gallery with some of the best photo's taken over the last week or so in France.

Our camp in a little by-road in between two fields. I don't really need to be reminded, but it's to great to realise that you can camp basically anywhere when on the road.

Petrol stove cooking. We seem to be getting accustomed to making one and a half hour meals on the little thing.

Leffe ritual 9%. Leffe is one of my favourite beers in the UK. 9% though...

Could you make a better parody of France? A baguette machine that saved us on a Sunday which was literally a day of rest in that part of France. The bread came out warm!

Fields of gange. Fields and fields of gange. Cannabis is actually bad though, apart from making bags and trousers out of, and maybe a bit more things.

Thank you stove for demanding such a thorough clean right before dinner after a long day. Thankfully we had a nice fire pit already made...

This was a beach we randomly discovered on the Loire River. It's actually one of the nicest places that I've wild camped, ever.

Nothing beats an open-fire-cooked dinner besides a body of cloud filled water.

I love my little kettle like a true Englishman.

It truly was an idyllic place to sleep, but 04:00 am saw me crouched by the river in my pants with a stick trying to hunt the frogs that were arguing with each other all night. The frogs won.

Our host, Kevin's place after the bar, talking and jamming until 05:00 am.

"It was the 8% beer... the 8% beer..." Joe - 04:58 am.

Eating ice creams on a roof top with Anna.

35c river swimming.

The true overlanding spirit of travel kicked off today. We were waiting for Marion to come back from Barcelona whilst we unceremoniously drank red wine on her doorstep when a man walked past us, saw our bikes, talked for a few minutes and then offered to buy us a drink in a bar down the road. We pushed our bikes there and drank Leffe and talked until the sun went down. Overloaded 125's draw nice attention.I think this is going to be just a taste of the months to come.