Post – Fresh Air Pink Cheeks

Hey guys and thank you for letting me quiz you for half an hour! Let’s get cracking. What have the last year and a half since you’ve been travelling looked like for you two?

Ashley: A lot of dreaming of where we’re going to sleep at night. A lot of discovery and trying to find a rhythm when you never know what the rhythm is going to be. Also a lot of fun and learning.

Just to round up, you guys have been on an epic cycle and horse trek for the past 15 months. Where all have you been? What’s the trip involved?

Quentin: We started in France and wanted to go to Indonesia. We started in January 2019 and because it was winter we decided not to take the route through northern Italy but instead the road along the Mediterranean sea: Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. We got lucky because we only had 2 days of rain in 3 months! We took boats to the islands and then cycled across them. Then in April last year we arrived in Albania and started our trek by horseback for two months. At the end of the summer took a little break to go back home to France for some weddings and from there we went through the Balkans: Greece, Turkey and we started going up top Georgia, Azerbaijan, across the Caspian Sea and we joined central Asia and the Silk Road.

A: Our trip was based around wanting to do horse back riding and using our bikes to get to places where we want to ride. The first horse trek in Albania was our training trek: there weren’t any borders to cross and we had food and water every day. This was in preparation for a second trek across central Asia this summer that has been put on hold since extended border closing since the COVID-19 outbreak.

Ashley and Quentin’s route. Image: Enselle.voyage

That’s some pretty impressive stuff guys. Were you always this outdoorsy? Or what brought you to this level?

Q: I’ve travelled a lot in South and North America and Asia. But it was mostly backpacking travelling. So I never did a long trek either hiking or biking. That part was definitely new for me.

“People are good everywhere. That’s my takeaway.” - Ashley

A: I loved being outdoors before and am more of a “weekend warrior” apart from this trip. Before we did this I went on a 10-day bike trip and we did two weekends of bike trips together. I think I camped 10 times, so really little! What I’d say to somebody who is wanting to do something long like what we’ve been doing: the trick is you just do it. It seems impossible in the beginning but once you start doing it it breaks down into steps, days and hours, like anything. It’s very doable.

I love it! Did you have a turning point when things started to feel serious for you guys? Maybe an inspiration or purchase?

Q: I started to read a lot of books 2 or 3 years before travelling myself about travelling by bike, boat, running, hiking… I actually have a huge list of them I’ll send you. So it became a dream for me do to this kind of trip.

A: Then we started calling people. That’s when it switched.

Q: Yeah. I had a friend from high school who travelled from France to Asia so I called her up and she explained everything to me.

A: I think our colleagues knew before we did that we were really going to do this. We worked in an office together - that’s how we met - and our desks became cluttered with all of these books about adventure travel, which probably tipped them off.

Q: We also started to follow people biking on Instagram, there’s a big community online. You follow those people who are cycling every day, and you see that it’s doable.

Quentin ready to hit the road for rather a long time.

A: Slowly our vacations also became developing this type of trip. For example on one holiday we spent a week learning how to sail. So the shift felt really gradual. Then finally our company closed down and we’d been saving for a year and dreaming of this trip, had already bought our bikes… and everything sort of fell into place. We spent another 2 months ordering all our gear and getting ready, and then we set off!

Q: All in all it took about 6-8 months to plan the whole trip. But if you’re following someone else’s plan and use their packing lists or “cheat sheets” it can be much faster. We invited a friend to join us for our trip and within a month he’d quit his job and was cycling through central Asia with us!

Wow that is quicker than I thought! So now that you’re living this dream, what do you enjoy most about your outdoor lifestyle?

Q: Doing sport every day is amazing. You start to see your body changing and understand your body and rhythm. We also change every day and discover new places, regions, landscapes. Being in nature every day in the mountains is just incredible. Another thing that’s amazing is that before starting the trip I imagined everything would be hard, like cycling and camping in winter. But in the end you find out it’s very easy. Even cycling at -10 degrees was very simple. You’re cycling so your body is warm, and it’s not hard if you have good gear.

A: This is going to sound cheesy, but I love the 30 minutes before the sun comes up and the birds sing. That and watching the seasons changing.

“In the end you find out it’s very easy.” - Quentin

That does sound pretty dreamy. How would you say you’ve changed as people since your trip?

A: It’s really enforced the idea for me that no matter what happens in the day, the day is going to end. You’re going to sleep somewhere that night, you’re going to find something to eat and the next day is a new start. So just enjoy the moment.

Q: It helps you to relax in any kind of situation. In the beginning you’re not relaxed for everything: finding a camp, cycling, talking to people. And at the end you start to find there’s a big change in that.

Do you have any tips for people looking to spend more time outdoors?

A: Yeah - just go outside. (Lol)

Q: Don’t find excuses about the weather, the cold, the rain. Just pick a day and go.

A: Absolutely. We’ve talked about the importance of good gear, but a lot of people use that as an excuse not to go. And I just want to say: on the days that we were cycling at -10 on icy roads like idiots we didn’t even have snow tyres. So this goes to show - you can actually do a lot of stuff with entry level gear. You don’t need a €700 tent to go camping. If you are in a situation where you DO need a €700 tent you’re someone who already does a ton of outdoor stuff. You can absolutely go out for a weekend with a Decathlon tent

I totally agree. I always say you can buy gear really slowly and one piece at a time to really feel a difference.

Q: That’s what we did for the last two years. We bought new stuff every two months because we didn’t have the budget in the beginning.

A: Like this summer we didn’t have nice sandals for example. So we bought some as our one investment that month. So yes you can totally do it little by little.

Amazing! Do you have any other tips for us fellow outdoor lovers?

A: I’d also say you really don’t have to go to the end of the world, you can go anywhere to have an adventure.

Q: Yes, even next to your place. You can hike 10km, camp and come back, and that’s already great. You don’t need to go to Asia. In Europe there are a lot of beautiful places you can easily reach by train for a weekend.

Yes, and still have a really valid experience. I think sometimes it feels like we need a crazy Alpine backdrop for our Instagram posts to make us feel like we’re having “an outdoorsy moment”, but you can really just do it in the woods outside your home.

A: I’d even say sometimes the woods outside your home are even better. Last summer we spent a few days in Mont Blanc and the valley is so developed that you have to hike for two hours to get away from the highway noise. There are plenty of places - and outside is outside.

YES!

Q: One of my biggest surprises during the trip was the generosity of the people. We met very very nice people, and 98% of people are lovely.

A: It sounds like there were 2 people he didn’t like!

Q: Haha, I mean, in every country people were just very nice. Even if in one country they say people of the neighbouring country aren’t nice, it always turns out they are.

A: People are good everywhere. That’s my takeaway.

What a note to end on! Thanks so much guys.

You can find out more about Ashley and Quentin’s trips and see their amazing pictures on Enselle Voyage or follow them on Instagram. If you want to read more about how they packed up their jobs to become full time adventurers, check out this awesome article Ashley wrote. Thank you for reading!