We moved to Ubud on Monday to the Alaya Jembawan Hotel, close to the centre of town. Ubud is the ‘artistic heart’ in the centre of Bali, surrounded by lush green rice terraces and thick forests and deep gorges. So the view from our room has changed from sea to forest!

We have both been doing Yoga at 07h00 every morning, and had a meeting with the Ayurvedic Doctor to determine our doshas. Jocelyne is mainly Vata with a little Pitta, while I am mainly Pitta with a little Kapha. Together we make a good balance! We both chose an Abhyangam full body massage with 4 hands, which was amazing! To be recommended to everyone!
Yesterday we got up at 02:00 to climb Mount Batur to watch the sunrise! Our guide was Helen, a lovely tiny 18 year old girl who lead us up a 2 hour steep climb, over rough volcanic rock, to the summit:
We really enjoyed both the climb and the walk down, although it was tough it brought us close to nature with lovely surroundings.
Tomorrow we move to the the Hotel IBAH in Ubud, which looks very special, for 2 nights before heading to our a yoga retreat for our last week on this wonderful island of Bali.

It has been a busy 10 days but we are now relaxing in Ubud, so time to catch up with what has been happening!
We loved our stay in Seminyak at the Seminyak Beach Resort and Spa, which is a great hotel. Ideally located for direct access to the beach, on which you can walk 5 kilometres either way, watching surfers, joggers, dog walkers or just enjoying the ocean breakers. Seminyak is the up-market part of the South West Coast with great shopping and restaurants. Our favourite were Bambu and Sarong but lots of top quality restaurants to choose from.
We moved to the Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel last Thursday to meet up with 75 members of the IVCA who had come from around the world for our first rally in Asia. It was a bold move by our President Dirk van Luchem, but the enthusiastic Indonesians treated us to an amazing 4 days of celebration of the Bicycle!
At the opening Gala Dinner we were welcomed with a performance of the Ganesha dance:

The President of KOSTI, the Indonesian Cycle Club organising the event, was pleased to take delivery of my 1878 Bayliss Thomas Penny Farthing, and a small piece of ole English cycling history is now the prize piece in his collection of old bicycles:

We welcomed 10 KOSTI members who had cycled 1200 miles from Jakarta to celebrate the opening of the IVCA rally:

The next day we planned to participate in a 100km distance ride, but with temperatures of 32 degC and 90% humidity we decided on a more leasurely ride to plant mangroves to protect against future tsunamis. Meanwhile, there was a constant stream of cyclists arriving from all over Asia to take part in our Rally


Saturday was jumble sale and race day, and was greeted with a sunrise and view of Mount Agung, which thankfully was not threatening to erupt!

There was some competitive racing, especially the Penny Farthing races, with the reproduction Penny winners being Arie Liefhebber in the men’s and the young Kamila Fialova in the ladies:

I won the bronze medal in the original Penny Farthing race – the other riders had more modern originals with inventions like ball bearings!
The evening dinner was again a festival of music and dance, and attended by the Minister of Tourism and the Head of Police. There was a parade of National flags

and much dancing:

Sunday was the International Costume Parade, prefaced by music and dance entertainment, and over 8000 riders in some amazing National outfits!

And then there were the IVCA members:

We rode 20 kms through the centre of Denpasar without stopping, while the excellent team of 300+ police stopped the traffic at every junction to allow us to pass through!
At the IVCA AGM on Sunday afternoon, Dirk passed the Presidency to Brian Rosenberg from Denmark, and I was elected as Vice President! Much praise was given to the excellent organisation of the Rally in Bali to the Committee, and in particular to Fahmi Saimima who has been fantastic!

Our final day together was a visit to the Mason Elephant Park and the forest before a most special evening in Ubud where we were welcomed by the King of Ubud to have dinner at his Palace! What a treat for us all! He was a warm and interesting man, spoke 6 languages, was fascinated by our passion for cycling, and is now the owner of an Indonesian Penny Farthing!

It was a very special evening which brought our Rally to a close, with fond memories of all the special people we met over our 4 days together. Thanks to all involved in organising a great IVCA Rally in wonderful Bali!

Our last sunset before we move to Sanur for the International Veteran Cycle Association Rally at Sanur on the East Coast and 3 days of racing and demonstrating my original Penny Farthing. On Sunday we plan to set a new Guinness Book of Records with over 1000 vintage bicycles riding 20km through Denpasar in 32deg C!

I enjoyed a 5km ride around Seminyak in Bali and made a few people smile!

So we had a great flight with Garuda Air from London Heathrow to Jakarta and then Denpasar in Bali. The 14 hour flight was made comfortable with a bed to aid sleep and after a short stop over and another hour and a half we touched down here in Bali.
Our hotel in Seminyak is amazing! We treated ourselves to a beach front villa overlooking the Indian Ocean and a long sandy beach for as far as you can see. It is a surfers 🏄‍♂️ paradise with large rolling waves carrying the skilled surfers back towards the beach from 06:00am, as the waves are best at low tide. Every 7th wave is bigger and the 49th usually worth waiting for.

On Thursday I went back to the airport with a van driver to collect my big Penny Farthing wheel, which had to come here as cargo as it was too big for ‘sports equipment’. What I expected to be a simple process turned into a nightmare, with customs suggesting it could take 7 days to get release papers for temporary importation. Finally, with proof of passport, boarding pass, and customs documentation it was agreed and we left the airport after 5 hours! My van driver Ngurah was so patient and we communicated with Google Translate.
So with all bike parts here, today I put them together with the help of the Seminyak Beach Resort staff, and rode around the Hotel gardens, much to the amusement of guests and staff.

While Jocelyne does yoga at 7:30am I spend an hour in the gym on the exercise bike to get strong for next week and the International Veteran Cycle Association Rally at the Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur. So looking forward to meeting all of the Bali bike fanatics and the organising team from KOSTI.
Tally HO!

So looking forward to escaping this awful British weather tomorrow aboard an Air Garuda flight to Bali! The catalyst for the trip is to attend the International Veteran Cycle Association (IVCA) Rally being held for the first time in Asia, and hosted by the KOSTI cycle club in Bali. I decided it would be entertaining to take my Penny Farthing to ride there, before I realised the complications of flying with a BIG bike! The wheel flew out on Saturday as ‘cargo’ and the frame and small wheel are packed in a box suitable to go in the hold as ‘sports equipment’. Hopefully the big wheel has a safe trip and is there for me when I arrive on Wednesday. Looking forward to 34 deg C!

Firstly the thoughts of us all are with the friends and family of all those who have suffered from the indiscriminate terrorist attack in Manchester.

What a fantastic feeling to arrive in Karlsruhe last night to an enthusiastic welcome from a large crowd of supporters! Our last day was 50 kms including the 500m crossing of the Rhine into Germany, and that was quite enough!

We succeeded in riding 230 kms from Nancy to Karlsruhe in 5 days as a mark of respect to Baron Karl von Drais, who invented the Draisine in 1817, which was the first man propelled riding machine. The Velocipede followed in the early 1860s, then the Penny Farthing, before the cog and chain enabled the safety bike closer to the ground and the tricycles in the 1880s. From these Karl Benz evolved the first motorcar in 1886 and the age of modern transport was born.

‘Chapeau’ to Karl Drais!

So today has been another fabulous day as we have left the canal towpaths behind and arrived on the banks of the Rhine, with clear skies and no headwinds! And we have set another record on our 200 year old riding machines:

Just a catch up on pics from yesterday:

And our leader, who risks numerous law suits for damage to the Crown Jewels, who took a fall while riding through a ford and needed to receive medical attention from Sabrina

We have 50kms ahead of us tomorrow and plan to arrive at the Castle of Karlsruhe at 18:00 and hope to see you there!

En marche!

WOW! These machines, invented in 1817, are amazing! They could catch on as the latest method of transport with no pedals, chains, gears or brakes to go wrong, just an uncomfortable saddle to adapt to! Today we rode 54 kms in 5hrs 12 mins so an average of 10.3kmph! Just one technical when Bruno’s rear forks worked loose but Alain managed to fix it with his drill and a few screws.

A magnificent route along both old and working canals with plenty of locks which were mostly in our favour. Great weather, good company, excellent support from our team of followers and a warm welcome at the finish from the Mayor and community of Waltenhein sur Zorn.

I have some good pics and video but the wifi is so slow in our hotel that I haven’t been able to upload them – so hopefully I can add them tomorrow.

So we are well over halfway to Karlsruhe now, and tomorrow’s 46 kms should be achievable. There is an air of confidence amongst the runners despite our increasingly delicate undercarriage!

We are a little frustrated that M Macron has stolen the name of our Draisine club –

En Marche!