LANDSLIDE in the Alps! Cycling to Australia E3

Episode 3 of the SOLCYCLE, Cycling from Leicester, UK to Brisbane, Australia.

Music: “Rain” – Prod. by Gabs

Follow me for photos and updates! @natgeobleo [Ben Leo Hollis]

mudslides oh my god look at this you join us for the first steps of my journey cycling from england to australia with my friend seth coming with me to tackle our first month cycling to venice as we hop off the ferry my bike solange this means first crossing the windy plains of northern france and belgium and then the complete cyclist noobs we are tackling the alps it was time to get continental [Music] me [Music] and we are about 30 meters from the start of our day after camping and claude has now got to function as well so we continued along the baking hot plains of northern france and then after a fair few days of wild camping decided to have a look at a website a friend had told us about was connected with a community of other people who travelled by and as luck would have it a couple called mello and clem invited us around to stay for the night [Music] i’m just honestly amazed with the kindness with strangers they’ve just opened up they’ve cooked us dinner letting us stay upstairs [Music] [Music] so we left the next morning with a smile on our face they even left us their keys to lock up while they went to work but on we went to the city of leo signing some autographs along the way [Music] then it was on to country number three belgium this proper riding it is a thunderstorm and it is completely flooded everywhere and luckily i have the proper man’s footwear of sandals but don’t worry because i have the power the waterproof german power of oddly abs who make my tanya so my stuff will be kept dry but i won’t be getting this out again [Music] it’s raining a whole lot so that i’ve decided in a belgium club [Music] so in belgium once again the kindness of strangers warmed our hearts as we headed south into the forested ardennes region staying with some family friends before heading on to the cute little country of luxembourg so alongside german french and english almost 80 percent of the population also speaks luxembourgish which has a lot of similarities with german and sounds like this thing advantage and it is so as you might expect from the country with the second highest gdp per capita in the world it’s a beautiful little place with a peaceful park inside the valley in the center of its capital luxembourg city but we carried on nonetheless into france’s alsace lorraine region camping staying with pierre another warm showers host and headed for strasbourg on the france german border it was ascension day in strasbourg and since i’ve been keeping to my seven pound a day budget so easily i decided to join in the festivities and try the local speciality tart flambe in the riverside restaurant [Music] over the border in germany’s black forest we camp by a lake and i opened my a-level results and went for a celebratory swim everyone was super nice to us in germany in our english stereotype that germans are a colder less friendly people was quickly smashed with an old lady even chucking her two ice creams as he went for a paddle near her house and showing us a photo of her cycle touring with her husband hey ah dankeshen dankessen everyone in germany does bike touring healthy design [Music] we camped in a vineyard and headed with a ton of other german cyclists and the cycle paths around the beautiful lake constance before crossing first into austria and then liechtenstein micro state number two and country number seven as we nervously got ourselves ready for the stormy owl this puts luxembourg city to shame it is by far smaller population of only 5 000 people that’s smaller than ansty the village where i went to school and it’s a capital city amazing so liechtenstein surprisingly although it’s sandwiched between austria and switzerland has actually been flat to get here because it’s in a valley in between the alps but the flatness goes no further [Music] it’s the morning and that means we survived last night it’s a little bit of a scary one because you see these mountains you couldn’t see them because of the grey clouds impenetrable the lightning was so bright you could see it in your tent and just lit up the whole thing a little bit scary but it was all right i played my off career can’t be scared of heights here oh my goodness look down there just look and i’ve cycled from sea level at dunkirk all day oh from this point on the only way was up and since sabbat decided to take a bus over the last bit of the alps to spend more time in italy it left me to finish the last bit of the mountain range solo in dramatic fashion mudslides oh my god look at this jesus christ oh my days hey i may as well push or nothing there’s another mud slide here one on a bridge i have to cross i’m gonna go for it but it’s very ferocious if you can see the river i just crossed seconds ago is now flooded the mud is spilling over the bridge it’s now hurling logs okay i think the flood’s gonna be heading my way i made it over that 15 seconds ago i could not pass that now on a bike so i’ve survived so far and i’ve just come to this little town in the alps pretty cold and these kind people have not only spoken to me and warmed my heart people [Music] surprisingly despite cycling up for days and days the main steep part of the descent only took a single afternoon bringing me down into italy’s sub to roll region where they mainly speak a high german dialect rather than italian i don’t think there could be a much more fitting place for mine and seb’s adventures to come to an end than italy which is just incredibly beautiful and everything from its mountains and food to its architecture and we rolled into venice for a week of rest feeling like champions and finally all the way from dover i’ve cycled psycho to the sea and what a feeling [Music] wow quite a long way since my last swim in the sea in dover a thousand miles [Music] and it feels good one month down but australia was still a long way away and the ball comes away see you next time see video for the next episode of the soul cycle [Music] you’re a failure i’m having cereal for dinner tonight