Why do we bike? Why all roads should have a 1m+ shoulder?

(Hi. I am JL Meseguer, a.k.a. Josele. We could not find a way to have the two of us adding new posts to the blog, so from time to time I'll add a post using JL's ID). I usually talk/write too much, but please bear with me just a moment, and hopefully I'll be able to explain in only a few paragraphs the meaning of this post's title.

Today we arrived in Queenstown for our second stage of the journey. As we had a bit more than half a day, we decided to do some wine tasting in the Gibbston valley. Sadly for us, all wine tours were closed and taking a taxi would be too expensive and/or contrary to the kind of trip we wanted to experience. Fortunately for us, we were supposed to pick up the bikes today... as you see, we had all "perfectly" planned since April   :))    and the guy at the bike shop told us there was a really nice winery where we could have a wine tasting and dine at Lake Hastings, only ~20km from Queenstown... So we decided to try the bikes and visit the winery, which proved to be a perfect choice.

If you have only 1 minute time, please read the following paragraph, as it is the only really important thing I want to say in my post:
Most people will ask themselves: why do we bike? (philosophical rambling here, but probably the only remotely worthwile readable part of my post) If for nothing else, I will be eternally grateful to The Netherlands for giving me the chance to discover the immense satisfaction of biking through the landscape... pedal stroke after pedal stroke, meter after meter, tree after tree, slope after slope, pool after pool, village after village, mountain after mountain... the whole beauty of this amazing world develops in front of your eyes at slow motion, at a relaxed pace, giving you the time and state of mind to savour it fully, to suck its marrow and become a part of it, a part of the world, connected to it all through your sweat and determination... between you and all these wonders there's only the air you breath and the energy of your last meal being spent with every heartbeat and every foot push... neither windshield, nor engine vibration, nor hurry, nor emotional detachment diverts you from this feeling of absolute connection with the landscape you bike through and with the world you live in.

There is no photo I could show you that would do justice to this feeling... The colours are brighter, the air fresher, the sky bluer, and the mind clearer whenever you let yourself onto the bike seat and hit the road... I guess it must be the same feeling those cowboys/cowgirls had when riding their horses onto the sunset, surrounded by the wilderness and intimately connected to their surroundings but, as I am a poor horseman (and I have tried horse riding several times believe me) I can only guess...

So, if you are lucky enough to live in a bike friendly country such as The Netherlands, Denmark or Germany, grab the bike and pander yourself with a long trip through their well maintained bike pathways... If you live in a less friendly bike country, don't despair and try your bike at any scenic road with a 1m+ shoulder. 1m+ shoulders work wonders and make the roads very safe for cyclists... Try it out, close your eyes (well, not too much, remember you are moving at ~17km/h), and savour the experience, you won't regret it.


The end of the story is that, after 1,5 hours biking and with a bit of effort, we arrived at the winery 5 minutes before they closed the tasting (again, as "perfectly" planned since April 2010): we had a wine tasting, then the "Trust your Cook" menu with the wine arrangement. JL Blasco will better able than me to describe the wines... I just can say that the winery was enjoying a sunbath between the beautiful Lake Hayes and a golden mountain sprinkled with grapevine freckles, and that, as we crossed its gate to bike back to Queenstown, our bellies full of juicy food, she wished us a good trip and lazily rolled 90 degrees to better tan its back.




PS: we met a cool Spanish guy from Barcelona in the Te Anau-Queenstown bus (well, he is probably the nth powered to the nth interesting person with a supermegacool journey that we meet in this trip). We'll go now to drink a couple beers with him in a bar, then go to bed early, as tomorrow will be a long adventuresome day... but more about that tomorrow...

PSS: we finally found a good Internet connection, so tomorrow I'll try to find some time to upload some of the photos I have taken with my Canon; please stay tuned... and thanks for reading all the above: if you reached this far without falling sleep, you are my hero... :))