Anna & Dave at the 10,000km mark
Visit Anna & Dave at “permacyclists”. Follow @permacyclists.
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”We came around a bend in the thick of the forest and Dave saw ahead of him Anna stopped and mumbling something and pointing at the side of the road and there it was! A gorilla! One of the 300 or so left in wild! It was unbelievable.”
Church bells are ringing in Guadalajara, it must be 9:00…
Yup! : )
Thanks so much for letting me chat with you this evening.
Your about us page says that you two met in Mongolia. That “We were on the same plane from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar and we fell in love when, across ten rows of sleeping Mongolians, 35,000 feet above the Gobi desert, we made eye-contact and smiled.”
Who approached who and what did they say? : )
so, we made eye contact on the plane, and smiled at each other - I (Dave) smiled at Anna and she smiled back.
Then at baggage claim I was looking all around to find the cute blonde, and I didn’t see her. i saw her backpack go around the carousel and then disappear though, and then finally I spotted her in the corner, reading her Lonely Planet…
I went over and talked to her and asked her if she knew where she was going - I didn’t.
So I talked to her first, but what I later learned was that she was faking reading her LP so that I would talk to her.
Anna knew exactly where she was going and was just pretending to stall for time.
So I spoke first, but only thanks to her ruse…
lol! That is too cute.
Yeah, it’s a funny story, we forget it sometimes.
I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie “Before Sunrise”?
Nope! Should I netflix it?
It’s a couple who meet on a train and then spend the night in Vienna wandering the city talking. He is American (Ethan Hawke) and she is French and when we got back everyone made us see that movie.
it’s okay, nothing exceptional, but they are in Vienna, where we lived after we first met, so it’s a funny film for us to see. And it is eerily similar to our own story…
You spent 16 months cycling through twelve countries – How did cycling vs. driving a car or taking public transportation, change your overall travel experience?
Tremendously! There is nothing like cycling and we could go on for hours about what makes it so great. In general though, you are traveling on the same level as the local people - especially in Africa where few people can afford private cars.
And so people are much more open to you and approach you and since they generally think what you’re doing is totally crazy they’re curious and ask lots of questions.
And then also, when you’re cycling you’re limited to how far you can pedal in one day -100km maximum for us really - and so you stop where you need to stop, not where the guidebook says to stop.
As a result, you spend a lot of time in areas where tourists usually never go - and for good reason of course, there’s nothing “to see” there. But what you realize pretty quickly is that “nothing to see” doesn’t mean anything, there are people living there, it’s their whole universe, and most travelers miss it totally.
Anyway, if you haven’t cycled somewhere, you don’t know it really, that’s our feeling on travel!
Did you meet other cyclists?
We only met 5 other cyclists in our whole 16 months in Africa.
There are lots out there in other parts of the world, but Africa isn’t so popular in the cycling crowd.
But the ones we met were very hardcore - three of them had done over 100,000km, one of them had been living on his bike for 9 years at that point.
Oh my goodness..just finished an hour run and am feeling like a slacker…
An hour run is hard! Cycling is easy compared to running! And besides, no one starts out saying you will bike a billion kilometers.
Every day you just make it to the next village and soon you find it’s a bit easier, the hills aren’t so steep, and you roll along.
And then you realize you’ve had 6 hours of exercise, you’ve been outside all day, and that in the space of 24 hours you’ve had the best and worst moments of your life.
Must of been incredible.
it’s incredible, yeah, totally.
You must of worked up an appetite!
oh yes, we ate a TON!
Favorite meal you enjoyed?
In Mozambique, they make a stew of casava leaves, coconut milk, peanuts, and sometimes shrimp. and it’s served with “sima” which is a sort of hard maize meal cake (like a thick polenta), which is a staple all through eastern and southern africa.
Matapa it’s called! it’s delicious, best food we had the whole trip
A big part of what you two are doing while traveling is trying to understand issues facing the world right now and then trying to make a difference - - In your opinion, what is a big problem, that most people aren’t really aware of?
Hm, interesting question…
Anna thinks that most people don’t really appreciate the degree of the destruction of the environment. This is what struck us most in Africa, seeing that in the least developed continent, where you would think things would be relatively preserved, that still the forests were being cut down, the fields were becoming deserts. And then you realize, once you know what to look for - once you know what a healthy ecosystem is and what an unhealthy one is - you see it everywhere. The planet is sick, and most of us live lives that are so divorced from nature that we dont realize it. For us, this was the biggest revelation of our time in Africa. (Dave agrees - like a good husband).
The environmental destruction we saw there is present everywhere, in every continent, we just need to learn how to see it. Traveling through the southern US you see kudzu growing everywhere, and there is a massive drought now in texas, and the list goes on and on. It’s not just Africa, it’s everywhere…
What’s a phrase that you learnt in Africa and used quite a bit?
There are a few phrases we picked up that we still use actually. One is Mzungu, which is a Kiswahili word to refer to foreigners and white people in general. You hear this constantly in the parts of Africa where we were. “Mzungu how are you!” is like the national anthem in some countries. We got used to it though, and now we say Mzungu all the time, which is nice since most other people don’t understand it.
The other phrase is “pole pole” which is also Kiswahili and which means “slowly slowly.” It’s something people will say whenever you need to be careful, or just to say there is no need to rush. Pole pole is for us such the African approach to life - work hard, take things seriously, but no need to rush, things will happen as they happen, when they happen. A great mantra for travelers!
How is traveling as a couple different than traveling by yourself?
We have both traveled independently, in fact we were traveling alone when we met. Since then though, it’s been mostly traveling together. I think we couldn’t say one is always better than the other, but they work for different phases of life. When we were younger and wanted to go out and see the world and sort of “find ourselves” I think traveling alone made more sense, it’s more intense and pushes you in a more personal way. Now though that we’re older and our interests are more in understanding the political / environmental situations of the countries we’re visiting (and especially now that we’re meeting and filming environmental organizations on our way down to Rio), it’s much easier to be in a couple. It gives you someone to talk to about what you’re seeing, a sounding board for ideas and the like. It also makes traveling for long periods easier in general - we’re each other’s family, so we’re always home when we’re together, so it’s not so bad to be on the road for 16 months, or now 20 months. It’s like that song: “Home is wherever I’m with you…”
What is one travel memory from your time in Africa, that’s particularly special to you?
A memory that is particularly special to us… There are so many! Every day, especially when you’re cycling, is so intense that there are moments of bliss and moments of horror sandwiched together.
There are many people who offered us hospitality and kindness along the way out of nothing but the warmth of their hearts, and we remember each of them with such fondness and gratitude. I suppose though that if there was a sort of “epic” moment that we will never forget, it was in Uganda, biking on the worst road ever through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. This is where Uganda’s gorillas are, and tourists come and pay about $1,000 all together to see them, which is way beyond the kind of budget we have. We thought we would take the public road across the park just to see the tropical forest though, which is spectacular. Everyone we met assured us that we wouldn’t see the gorillas of course, they are so few, and they would be on the other side of the mountains at this time of year, and on and on. Some people who lived there had only seen them once in their lives, so we assumed we wouldn’t and just went to bike through the park. But the roads are atrocious and the local people, who know that tourists spend more money than they will see in their lives just to spend 45 minutes with a gorilla, were not very welcoming, chasing us and grabbing at our bags and demanding money. It was the hardest cycling of the trip, though the forest was so beautiful that the moments we were thick in it we forgot all the difficulties. It was raining too of course, it always is at such moments.
Anyway, on the second day, we came around a bend in the thick of the forest and Dave saw ahead of him Anna stopped and mumbling something and pointing at the side of the road and there it was! A gorilla! One of the 300 or so left in wild! It was unbelievable.
We parked our bikes farther on and watched from a distance and took some photos. There was one by the road, and then another up in the hillside above us, and another we could hear downhill a ways. They were all grunting to each other and eating leaves. It was amazing, and we were alone there with them until the park rangers came and shooed us on - Mzungu can’t see gorillas without paying $1,000 it turns out.
We didn’t mind though, it was such an incredible experience.
Dave & Anna at the southernmost point of Africa
Isle of Skye, Scotland
Read Shannon’s blog “A Little Adrift”. Follow @ShannonRTW on twitter.
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“But I had only two months left on my lease and I thought to myself “is this TRULY where I want to be. Not just for another year on the lease, but in my life, am I doing something I love passionately enough to stay.” And the answer was no”
Hi Shannon! Thank you for letting me chat with you about your travels today. : )
You’re most welcome! Looking forward to it :)
Reading over your blog, one of the posts that really jumped out at me was the post where you talk about why you started traveling when you were 24 in May of 2008 - can you tell me a bit about that moment?
Sure! I was living in Los Angeles at the time, and I had been there for nearly two years.
But I had only two months left on my lease and I thought to myself “is this TRULY where I want to be. Not just for another year on the lease, but in my life, am I doing something I love passionately enough to stay.”
And the answer was no - although I loved acting, I had always wanted to travel, I was miserable living with all of the traffic in LA.
I was in some debt from the expenses living in the city, and I already had an internet based job so I made a VERY snap decision after reading the Lost Girls blog to buy a one-way ticket and leave.
I bought the ticket the same week I had my breakdown/revelation.
What did your friends and family think?
My best friend out in LA egged me on, and then hugged me when I *freaked out* 20 minutes later that I had actually bought a one-way ticket!
My dad has always been very supportive, and although he had his reservations about my safety, and that sort of thing, he was on board the whole way.
I joke that he’s been my personal assistant as well, I am very fortunate that I am allowed to stay at home between travels, he collects my mail, and handles things when I do something stupid like lose my US debit card : )
lol - I’m sure the post ticket purchase freak out is very common. : )
Oh yes, I think especially if you do it spontaneously like that. A bit terrifying! I still had a whole apartment in LA, no plan, and hadn’t told a soul besides my friend about the plan when I booked it!
Very cool - your dad sounds really awesome.
He is wonderful. : )
Thinking back to the person you were in 2008 and who you are today, how has traveling changed you?
I have more time to listen to people. On the road I’ve learned everyone has a story, it’s unique to them, they have hardships, love, and losses. And that’s easy to say and easy to dismiss, but really think about that, and when I lived it on the road, meeting other people, it took me further out of my own bubble of self-obsession (which I think we all possess to an extent).
I was very busy with *my* career in LA, now even though I’m further away, in some ways I’m more connected with the people back home because I listen to them more.
Couple that with a LOT more patience and a complete belief in my ability to survive on my own wits, which I know because it’s been tested, and I am stronger and more confident now.
What advice would you give to folks who feel the same way as you did in 2008, who are saying “this is not my life”?
If you truly want change, you can live life however you choose. A hiker on the Appalachian trail is quoted as having said something along the lines of “All you need to know is it can be done.” He said this in reference to how he travels with nearly nothing, but it goes wider than that. I can’t tell you HOW to do it, but it can be done, I did, others have found a way to travel, or change their life in some meaningful way, and knowing it can be done is the battle. The fun part is figuring out how it’s going to work best for you!
Which place in the world could you see yourself living in for awhile?
Thailand. I was just living there this spring and I hope to head back there in the fall. Also, foreigners are allowed to buy land in Guatemala, and I’ve always thought that would be an amazingly lovely place to have a getaway house at some point!
Thailand comes up often as a place many travers would love to live. Why do you think that is?
The quality of life! You can live very well for a small sum of money, and yet you don’t have to trade any of the Western conveniences you enjoy. Thailand has US speed internet in many places, grocery stores, and a is *relatively* stable politically, so it’s a good bet. A lot of expats are my age, but also retirees head there too.
I did a Thailand Cost of Living breakdown that went viral a few months ago because people were amazed by the value and the lifestyle you can live there.
I’ve heard that folks in Thailand are incredibly welcoming and friendly.
Thailand bills itself as the “Land of a Thousand Smiles” and it really is true.
Favorite meal while traveling?
Favorite meals get a hat tip to India. I loved nearly every single meal I ate all seven weeks in the country. It was like an orgy of delicious foodiness and I salivate at the thought.
What kind of ingredients were in a typical meal you enjoyed in India?
curries with paneer are a win every time. I’m a sucker for palak paneer, which is finely ground spinach with paneer chunks served with deliciously warm garlic nann to scoop the goopy dish into your mouth.
Oh wow… : )
So tasty!
Sounds like it!
For my last question today…if you could tell the whole world one thing, what would you say?
Do what that you love, the thing that makes you smile to consider, your heart beat a little fast to think about. Do that and be happy.
It sounds like you’ve done exactly that. : )
Thank you so much for your time this morning!
Thank you too! Good luck with this new site, :) If there is ever anything I can do to help as well, let me know.
Connemara, Ireland.
