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our other adventures
Our upcoming trek around New Zealand marks our third expedition. Almost every day of the past two years
of our life is documented and online for all to see. We don't bother writing home anymore to tell them how were doing; our
parents just look at the website.
bikeabout.beimers.com
April 2002 - Present
With about as much forethought as, "Hey Kev, wanna ride a bike around Australia?", we decided to ride a bike around Australia.
Not really a bike, but a trike. Not really a trike either, but two trikes hitched together into a... quike? Call it what
you want, but it's got five wheels.
We received our fair share of taunts and warnings; obviously there are enough people out there who think Australia is big
enough to do in a car, let alone a bike, er, quike. We thought otherwise.
Keep in mind that before this, the two of us had maybe no more than a couple of hundred pedal-miles under our feet, and most
of that came from riding our bikes to school. Could a couple of flabby internet professionals push themselves and 300kg worth
of food, water, supplies, spare tires, and technical equipment around 15,000km worth of continent? Not only that, but the
driest and least populated continent this side of Antarctica?
The answer so far seems to be "yes." We say "so far" because we're still at it.
So far we've encountered 8000km of stark desert, enjoyed a Christmas of 45C heat, been chased by one cyclone and at least
two tropical storms, climbed over the Great Dividing Range, and back, and encountered the worst imaginable predators Australia
has to offer: backpackers. Our hottest day was 52C (126F). Our coldest night was -5C (23F). The most water we've ever had to carry at
one time was 60L (16gal), and the longest we've gone without a shower was 17 days (17 days). And all of it is recorded in
excruciating detail on our website.
The Australian Expedition was our first chance to really see what we could accomplish on an expedition with proper planning.
After securing equipment sponsorship from Penninger Recumbents, Colibri Sports and Tony Chachere's Cajun
Spice, we set off from Nambour, Queensland with several goals: increase our website audience, visit schools around the
country, and gain media attention through local papers and our own writing. We're happy to say that we've exceeded our own
high expectations with each of these goals.
We're currently in the final months of completing our expedition around Australia. We've just reached Melbourne, with
13,000 kilometres under our belt and only another 3,000 to go. Cycling around Australia is difficult - in fact, it's the
most difficult thing either of us has ever done - but it's made for a great armchair adventure for the tens of thousands of
people that are now following us.
visit the australian expedition
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This is where is all began. Fed up with corporate America, we said goodbye to our stable jobs in Manhattan to pursue
adventure on the open road. For the next 200 days, it was just the two of us, our trusty yet rusty jeep, Mel, and an idea
for a website.
Our goal: to visit the lower 48 states of America and document whatever happened to us each day (and occassionally,
stuff that didn't).
When we began the American trip, we thought the website would be a good way for us to keep in touch with family and friends
while we travelled. Never ones for doing something small when you can do it so much bigger with twice the work, the site
quickly turned into an extremely ambitious project to produce full content and a photo essay on America each day. It
taught us discipline, let us hone our writing skills and we learned that it wasn't just our family who wanted to follow
us along.
By the end of the adventure, we had 6,000 people following us online. They were with us when we hunted for UFOs in
Roswell, when we saw Tom Jones Live in Las Vegas, when we attempted to catch a stone crab with barbeque tongs,
and when we got onto the set of The Price Is Right in Hollywood.
A new career in adventuring had begun. There was no turning back once we'd had a taste of freedom.
We've recently noticed that the fun doesn't end when we leave a country. Our adventures in America are still gaining
popularity online, and we receive emails daily from readers who are still enjoying the site.
visit the american expedition
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