Home for Christmas

The decision to close out an open-ended trip is tough. Over the course of a couple of days at the beginning of December, Adam and I went back and forth, alternately convincing ourselves to continue on to Morocco and to make for Canada. Ultimately, once we’d made the decision to head home and booked our passage, bringing a few conspirators in on the plan, we were at peace. It was the right decision.

[What?! Leave all this? Adam basking in a sunny olive grove, southern Spain.]

We’d been chasing warmth for four months and although the daytime temperatures were lovely in southern Spain, the overnight temperatures away from a thin band along the coast were quite cool. We knew that camping wasn’t going to get any more comfortable. Financial factors, of course, figured in the decision. But most persuasive for me was the day of riding we’d just completed through some of the most beautiful, and gnarly, terrain. I just couldn’t manage the tough off-road conditions on the KTM 690. Falling off (really more like tipping over) is always a frustrating experience but righting the bike with all of its luggage every ten feet is also exhausting. And that day, I’d met my match. The track was just too hard but we’d come too many kilometres up difficult pitches to turn around, so we persevered and with Adam riding both bikes through the last stretch, we made it back to asphalt.

[Taking a break to admire the view in between righting the bike again, and again.]

So next time? Because there will definitely be a next time…

i. Aim for the weather sweet spot. The reasons are many as to why we began our European adventure in the middle of August, but that put us on the cusp of autumn that simply deepened and grew chillier as we travelled. Winter in the northern hemisphere is long and we blithely assumed we could outwit it. Not so much.

ii. Ride a different bike. The KTM 690 is a great all-round bike. It has good power, is nimble and is reasonably light. It keeps up on the highway though it is jittery, especially at higher speeds. It can tackle asphalt, gravel and clay, especially with the right tires although if these are too biased for off-road or on, handling is noticeably impacted. But there are compromises. The bike isn’t built for all-day highway riding, there just isn’t enough wind protection. And it’s too heavy to pick up out of the dirt all day long. So for the next off-road tour it will be a lighter bike and I will pack less. There, it’s down in black and white: I will pack less! I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to match Adam’s minimalism but this first trip has made clear what items in my panniers were superfluous to requirements.

iii. Pack a down sleeping bag. Being too hot is easy. Being too cold is misery.

And that’s all, really. This world is a beautiful one and we were terribly fortunate to be able to see so many of its facets. The next trip might be shorter but we will be so lucky if it matches this one for magnificent vistas.

[Zafarraya, Spain]

As for getting home, well, we chased across Spain from south to north in two and a half days of cold and misty highway driving. Then we caught a twenty-four hour ferry out of Santander, across the Bay of Biscay to Portsmouth, England. (Without pharmaceutical assistance, Adam managed to sleep for fifteen of those rolling and heaving hours. I got a lot of reading done.) We spent a few nights with my Forrest cousins, the co-conspirators in this plan, before dropping our bikes at Heathrow freight and catching a flight out of Gatwick. Hughanna and Man-Yee met us in Toronto, and kept us and fed us until Adam and I could get ourselves a new-to-us car and drive onward to Ottawa. So here we are with Mum and Dad. Our evasive e-mails and a tangled web of omissions kept suspicion at bay so that when we appeared at their doorstep, the surprise was complete. In a few days we’ll travel home to northern Ontario to spend New Year’s Christmas with Adam’s family.

So for now, until our next adventure, Happy Christmas!

[A Dutch ornament on the family Christmas tree.]