Our Cycle Ride Along the River Rhine

Summer 2016

 

Photography and our Blog

Our equipment list was:

1x laptop computer with a portable external hard-drive (HDD) to back-up all the photographs that were on the storage cards used in the cameras. I also had a card reader for transferring (backing-up) the files from the storage cards onto the external HDD. I powered the laptop from the mains connections available at the various places where we stayed. If there was no mains power, I wasn't able to use it. I never deleted any files from the storage cards until we got home and made sure they were all copied onto at least 2x external HDDs and stored online as well. I tried to calculate how many photographs I was likely to take and bought enough cards to hold everything - plus a large 'extra' capacity. I never ran out of storage. If I had filled all my storage cards, I'd have copied one card (at a time, as needed) onto both the external HDD as well as onto the HDD in the laptop – and uploaded them onto a storage facility online. I'd have then deleted the files on the storage card and re-used it in the camera to store more photographs.

Between us we had 2x DSLR cameras with lots of storage cards for each. Each camera used a different storage card. Mine used CF cards and JP's used SD cards. The GoPro used micro-SD cards.
My camera was a heavy full-frame pro-model with a pro-level very wide angle zoom lens.
JP had a much lighter APS-C model DSLR with a normal zoom lens plus a medium telephoto zoom lens which also fitted my camera, albeit I only used it twice.
Each of us carried spare batteries and mains powered battery chargers – charged wherever we stayed that had a mains power source.
JP also carried a GoPro camera. The battery on this lasted a long time. I don't recall having spares for this – I really don't remember what we did – if anything. It was a last-minute addition to the kit but I would certainly take one on another trip in future with spare batteries and a battery charger. In fact, I've since bought a more up-to-date model and have loads of spare batteries for it – and charger.

I also took with me a BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Video Camera with the Panasonic Lumix 7 mm to 14 mm lens. This didn't get a lot of use so I wouldn't take it again for a variety of reasons.

We carried our photographic equipment in our handlebar bags on the bicycles. The laptop computer went in one of my pannier bags, well wrapped in clothing. I'm still using it today – writing this with it!

 

Just in case you're wondering.

Most of the time spent putting our blog together has nothing to do with writing it. The vast majority of the time is spent in dealing with the photographs. I will explain:

All the photographs I take are stored on the CF card in the camera as Canon RAW files (CR2). This maximises the amount of detail available in the image. However, you wouldn't find them very attractive to view. As CR2 is a proprietary format that could become outdated, I also need the photographs in a format less likely to be outdated in the future.

I copy all the files on the CF card onto an external hard drive. I then convert the CR2 files into Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) format, so now I have two types of RAW file available to work on - or just to store.

I then process each photograph I've taken (using the CR2 files as a basis). Here I can set parameters such as white balance, colour stauration, vibrance - and many others. I only do a quick edit for the blog as I don't have time for anything else.

I then convert all the processed photographs into TIFF format and also into a reduced size JPG format (for the blog).

Panoramic scenes are also worked on and these take a long time to stitch together.

I then have to upload the selected photographs to the blog page on which I'm working and sometimes the internet connection is very slow and it takes forever to get them on line.

Processing hundreds of photographs does take some time. I usually have very limited computer / internet time to get the blog on line, hence the delay in getting the blog on line. Indeed, many place we stay at don't have an internet connection at all.

Sometimes, I'm just too tired to do anything!

 
 

Friday, 5 August 2016

Things we have learned - so far

Things we have learned so far:

1 – The WORST aspect of this trip is being under so much time pressure. I'm very much aware that I need to get JP back for the start of his new school year. Being non-cyclists, we are struggling to ride a decent distance each day. Our bicycles are very uncomfortable (2 pairs of underpants help!).

This means that sightseeing is almost non-existent and rest days are also minimal. It would be so good to be able to have a few days at each camp, instead of pitching our camp in the evening and striking it again in the morning. By the time I've loaded our bicycles I feel as though I've done half a day's work and that's before we start riding. I'm seriously considering doing more sightseeing and fewer miles and then catching a train or bus to the Hook of Holland near the end of the trip. However, we'll have to see.

During my years in the Philippines (before I met Grace) I rode a bicycle on two short tours that each lasted about two weeks. I wasn't under any time pressure and rode short distances on many days. I sometimes stayed in one place for a few days and thoroughly enjoyed my tours. This River Rhine trip is much more stressful as we have such a long distance to ride and only 5 weeks to get through it.

2 – The BEST aspect of this trip is spending so much time with JP. This is a great adventure for us both and one to make the most of in so many ways. I'm sure he will remember this adventure for the rest of his days and I want him to really enjoy it and have a lot of happy memories about being with his dad. He constantly talks about Annelise – almost as though she's with us (maybe she is in spirit). I miss her terribly too and we have told many fellow travellers about her.

3 – We really are on budget bicycles and this is the same for all our equipment. If this was going to be a serious pastime for years in the future I'd buy us much better bicycles and carry better equipment on it. The panniers we use are not great and our loads are piled high on the back carrier. I may buy some front panniers when we get to Germany as the cost of EVERYTHING in Switzerland is really high. A good SatNav would also be a very useful addition. We don't even have maps!

4 – Don't go to Switzerland unless you're a millionaire! Now the Swiss Franc is at about 1.25 to £1 instead of 3+ to £1, it is horrifically expensive. It may be one of the best, most civilised countries in the world, but the cost of living, compared to the UK, makes it suitable for millionaires only.

5 – Have a support vehicle. Unless you've got an infinite time to complete your tour, having a support vehicle will make life so much easier. The time pressure would not be a problem, neither would we have to carry such heavy loads. It would be really useful to be able to use the support vehicle to go sightseeing too.

6 – Don't cycle with your mouth open unless you enjoy eating flies.

 

 

Monday, 29 August 2016

A Few Conclusions

We failed to ride the full length of the River Rhine. We ran out of time. I guess we rode about half the distance - roughly 650 to 700 km. Whilst that was a disappointment for me, the main objective of spending five weeks having an adventure with JP has been achieved.

We have to get back to the UK as JP starts High School later this week so he has to be prepared and rested in readiness.

We've had many difficulties to overcome during our ride but it's been a very good learning experience for JP. I guess he'll be the only one in the school who can say he's been on a 5 week bicycle ride with his dad - and ridden through 6 countries on his bicycle.

Thankfully, my own health issues haven't caused me any problems. A lot of what these trips are all about is how strong / tough you are mentally rather than physically. At my age you have to do these things whilst you still can but it takes a lot of effort to commit to doing so, as well as actually doing it. It's when the talking stops that the adventure starts! It's easy to say how nice it would be to do something, but much less easy to do it. Actually buying the 'plane ticket to Zurich was a big thing for me because that committed me to making this adventure work. I had to make it work and and I did so, but it required a considerable effort to do so.

That said, as soon as I relaxed at the end of the trip something hit me like a runaway train. I suddenly felt really exhausted and it has taken me a couple of weeks to recover.

Five weeks living on what you can carry on a bicycle is not easy - especially when you have a young lad to care for and keep safe.

We stayed in a variety of accommodation:

Camp sites
Camping wild
Camping in someone's garden
Two hotels
Sleep-in-Straw on a farm
Two youth hostels

We had to deal with JP's health when he was sick (whilst we were in our little tent). We had to find places to stay every night - only the first night was pre-booked. There were times when there was a long distance between campsites - as well as having to find the campsite once we got to the area.

We had to deal with some difficult navigation at times.

We had to deal with having a bicycle stolen.

We had to deal with riding very heavily laden bicycles - especially hard for JP.

We had to deal with punctures and other bicycle repairs that were needed.

We had to deal with a lack of clean clothes for much of the time - hardly any washing facilities during the trip. We often wore the same clothes for several days.

We had to deal with very high temperatures and sunburn as well as cold weather - one extreme to another on a daily basis.

We had to deal with finding water in quite remote areas (or going without water) as we could only carry fairly small quantities on our bicycles - dehydration was a problem at times.

We had to deal with loading our bicycles on to a variety of trains - as well as getting our bicycles to the right place at the right time at various railway stations.

We had to deal with people who couldn't speak English. JP is now quite keen to learn other languages so that he can communicate better.

One factor we hadn't considered when we set out on this trip was that it is almost impossible to combine sightseeing with bicycle touring. Now this may seem very strange as sightseeing is surely the main objective of bicycle touring. Let me explain:

Along this cycle path there are many wonderful places to explore. Castles, palaces, cathedrals, gardens and a whole lot more. Sadly, because of the high levels of crime, exploring these places is now almost impossible when you have your bicycle with you. Touring bicycles, by their very nature, are designed to carry all your camping gear and other belongings. Even though you may lock your bicycle, you can't lock all the stuff you have piled on your bicycle rack(s) and in your panniers. Of course, some of your most valuable possessions can be taken with you when you remove your handlebar bag and carry it with you. However, what about all your camping equipment and clothes? I also carried on my bicycle rack a full size laptop computer, an external HDD and numerous other electrical bits and pieces. You might say I shouldn't have carried all that stuff, but without it this blog wouldn't have been written until well after the event – if at all!

The only alternative is to leave your stuff safe somewhere whilst you are exploring - and this isn't always possible, let alone practicable. Having a support vehicle would have been an ideal solution (and yes, I do know that vehicles get broken into from time to time but the risk is fairly low compared to leaving your things on a bicycle rack in the open).

JP learned that we had to be very self-reliant as there was no one in support whom we could call upon when things got tough.

That's what these trips are all about. What an experience for JP. Something he will remember for the rest of his life. I'm sure he will have learned a great deal from this adventure.


JP has done well. It's been a big adventure for him as well as me.