I can’t answer all the comments, some technical problems, except the one from Loic which came through amazingly … mystery ? I arrived tonight in Riobamba 200km South of Quito already. I am in a good shape and climbed 2 mountains in a row, yesterday and today, of 3600 meters high “tranquillos when it’s duros”. It must be the right recipe. I don’t feel the lack of oxygen and the temperature is nice at this altitude, slightly cold. Today 2 amazing volcanoes on the road: le Tungurahua high of 5800 meters which split big clouds of ashes (incredible!) and the Chimborazo which is not “on” and represent the highest point in Equateur: 6300 meters.

 

 

We just arrived in Sydney with the train on Thursday night, coming from Melbourne . We had to dismantle the bicycles to put them in standard box for plane and we?ve had to fix them up again on our arrival as it was the only way to transport them. Magic has been all freshen up in Melbourne : new transmission (27 speed now!).

Yesterday we?ve spent a lot of time in the city to buy our plane tickets: Monique goes back to Brest on Tuesday via and I go to Bogotá on Thursday via Buenos Aires . Then, visit of the Opera which has a shell shape and visit of the Botanic Garden, then sunset from the panoramic tower, like real turists !! Sydney is really a beautiful city of 4 million people with a big harbor on the Pacific Ocean and a lot of Chinese.

We?ve slept at Sophie and Waynes, a really nice French-Australian couple with relationship with St Pabu (Thanks to Claude Joseph who told us about them). It is really difficult to go through the city with a bicycle. This morning, I?ve been touched by a car (surely a Chinese said Waynes , with their almond-shaped eyes, they can?t see on the sides !). This afternoon, we went into a tunnel by mistake, 5 km without any borders ?. 15 terrible minutes to experience, afraid of being hit by a car, a tow truck came to rescue us ?you?re luck to be alive? the driver told us.

In the train, I had time to prepare my trip for South America .

-         3^rd of July: departure from Bogotá ( Columbia ) 27 600 km,

-         25^th of July: Quito (Equator) 28900 km,

-         21^st of September: La Paz () 32500 km,

-         1^st of November: Santiago () 35100 km,

-         21^st of November: Buenos Aires () 36 500 km,

-         31^st of December: Rio des Janeiro () 39000 km.

The very high mountain waits for me on this itinerary, the bicycle is ready, let?s hope that the I will be as ready ? A height of 3600 meters just after Bogotá for a start.

Cheers.

I had to be silent for a long time because of the old PCs and poor baudrates in the coffenets (sometimes more than 10minutes to get the site...). 2 days ago, I made a huge mistake - I erased all my photographs on my memory stick in my camera. I took 1500 photos since the beginning  and the site ones are only 10% of them. I hope to find again some as I let them in the PCs of friends all over my trip.  

I arrived in Islamabad in the night with 11200kms on my meter. A military car let me 20kms before the town after having boarded me in a "not very safe for travellers" small town 30kms before. I am starting knowing the soldiers and policemen very well. There is always a friendly invitation to drink tea and even sometimes to rest in the garrison.

3 days ago, I left Balochistan to enter the rich Punjab province, by crossing the beautiful Indus  river. What a pleasure it was to sit in the grass and see people harvesting peanuts in the fields... A lot of  dromedaries ( I lookde properly Livio, they actually have only one bump!) pull a harrow in the fields or a small cart on the roads. They are so funny! They seems not to know where they have to go and say :"Excuse me, Mr, Which way is the right one?". They walk very slowly but as they have very big legs, they are quite fast. They are very silent with there big "slipper" feet.  

I would have to wait one week for my visa for India...I am putted up by the Bacholles, Bernard is the  local DCN representative. They have a beautiful house and a PC with internet.

Bye