Category: Rowing

Same adventure, new challenges

While writing this post, I got a double feeling about the past expedition. First of all I would like to thank Koen De Gezelle and Malcolm Cockburn for the great support for the start and continuation of this expedition. Without them I wouldn’t have been able to do this. The same goes for my sponsors, they give me such great support in many ways. Another major thank you goes to friends, family and my girlfriend who kept on helping out or just even anybody sending me a message for support in the difficult time of waiting for the boat. I’m happy to get this support and this really is a ‘human powered’ adventure, people from all around the world are helping and achieving this! Here is a short summary how those last 2 weeks of rowing were going.

After waiting a couple of days for the new moon, we departed from the vila alba resort to the most eastern point of north Bali. An easy day and we decided to stay there for 2 or 3 more days depending on the weather and then cross to Lombok. The harbour master gave us our blessings when we payed him a visit and showed him how well prepared we where with all safety equipment….

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The 30th of May we started to row in the morning around 9 am, we want to get our planning right with the tides so we should be halfway at slack tide. I was very excited about this crossing since I heard and read so many things about it, especially the strong currents and traffic concerned me. I was fully motivated to get a full day of rowing and suffering. Everything went really well and we were able to keep our course easily. We headed up north east to go southeast again to Gili Trawangan. After an hour or 2 one of the speedboat ferries came straight at us. I got a bit scared but they changed their course in the right moment. Those guys knew we where on the water that day so they actually paid us a visit to wave at us and continue. Luckily there wasn’t too much of traffic and we never had to wait for safe passage. The whole crossing went a lot smoother than expected but off course thats due to the right conditions and decision making. After rowing a bit more than 6 hours we reached Gili where we take a well deserved rest day.

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During this rest day we try to find out where we still would be able to get to. Our visas expire on the 15th and we need a safe place to store the boat for a couple of months. The further we get the more difficult it is to find that. We decide to still push on to Sumbawa, the next island after Lombok. I found a resort there that is willing to store the boat there. The next couple of days go with ups and downs, when there is no wind we do easily 45km, despite the high temperatures and the burning sun. But when there is wind it’s mainly a headwind, slowing us down. One day we had strong winds, rowed for 8hrs non stop and had a progress of about 30km. Good things are that we get to see so many amazing things on our way; crystal clear water with such a beautiful marine life like dolphins and such. It makes me think again we should put more effort to protect these beautiful environments.

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This almost 3 month expedition has learnt me a lot. First of al it showed me once more not to give up that easily. This whole Vayamundo 7 summits is one of the biggest human powered adventures ever. Nobody did this before so things don’t always go as planned, that is adventure. I’m happy I didn’t give up (I was really close) and actually still made this progress. This first rowing expedition gave me a good first experience for the further stages and planning accordingly. For now I’m happy being back in Belgium, back to my friends, family and girlfriend. It were mentally a hard couple of months and I need some break in that. But soon I’ll get back into preparing the next phase of this great adventure….

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June 14, 2017
Waiting, the reward

After getting the wrong info over and over again from the transportation company I almost went crazy in Indonesia. They gave me completely wrong information. At first, this made me decide for Koen (the boat constructor, C-row, www.c23.be) to come over by the following week, because the boat would have arrived by then for sure. Well, 3 weeks and many many frustrations later Koen left, without even seeing the boat.

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The plan was that we would be rowing together for 3 weeks, including a crossing of the Lombok strait. The Lombok strait is quite a dangerous crossing with strong currents and a lot of traffic. Both of us where looking forward to get this one together. We tried to make the best out of it, but it left both of us frustrated.

The 15th of May, Koen left and so did I. My visa was about to expire and I had to do a visa run, which was never in the original plan. And off course, exactly when I was in Kuala Lumpur the boat arrived at my friend’s (Cak Mancal) place in Surabaya. Luckily Cak was there to receive the boat and arrange transport by truck to the far east of Java, Banyuwangi. I’m very grateful to Cak Mancal and friends for all the effort they put into this.

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The 17th of May I arrived in Bali again, where Malcolm Cockburn was waiting for me. He’s an Australian veteran who’s up for adventure. At the age of 54 he is really fit, he even swam the English channel last year. This fits in the values of the Vayamundo 7 summits, where one of them is active ageing. We want to motivate people of all ages to get into more activity, Mal is a perfect example for that! We decided a while ago that he would join me further up during my crossing. Because of all delays, we now met in Bali and took a car to Banyuwangi from there the next day. The boat finally arrived by truck at the resort and I was extremely happy of course. I thought I would never see that boat again.

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Another value of these Vayamundo 7 summits is environmental sustainability. Koen constructed the boat in a way to have an as low as possible impact on the environment, without compromise in strength and safety. He did a great job using Jute (a strong fibre from a plant) and recycled plastic bottles as the main component of the boat. At the same time I feel very sorry for Koen, who had put such effort into constructing the boat and had taken the time off of work to row together. That same day we attached the sponsor stickers and got everything sorted out to leave the next day. The boat got baptised the “Shangri-la”, this to show my full support for the INGO Shangrilahome. I keep on raising funds and awareness for street children in Nepal and hope you will visit their website (www.shangrilahome.org) and help this beautiful project. This is actually the 3rd value of this project: international solidarity, not only the home but different projects will be featured during this vayamundo 7 summits!

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Full of energy we start rowing the 19th of May. The first part is quite tricky, we need to row a couple of km’s up the Bali Strait. A narrow channel with high (counter)currents. We still need to adapt to the rowing but after a couple of hours we made our way up and across the strait. At certain times the current was really strong where we barely had some progress against it.

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The next days are nice rowing along the north coast of Bali. The biggest challenge here is the heat and is starts to exhaust us. There is no shadow on the water and we try to hydrate as much as possible. One time my tracker gives a temperature alert which is set at 50°C! We decide to take it slowly with an average of 30km a day, which is more then enough in this climate. We should’ve been rowing here during the rainy season, with currents and winds pushing us forward….

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Well now it is what it is and I’ve decided to just see how far we go. This is adventure and I don’t always know what will happen. I just know that my visa here will expire again the 15th of June and it doesn’t make sense to keep on rowing here in July or August. I’ve got time so the plan is to get as far as possible without risking too much. Go back to Belgium, work, see my family, friends and girlfriend, starting to miss them a lot too. Then come back when the season is in our favour again….

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May 25, 2017
The waiting continues

After spending time and arranging things in Bali, it was time for me to go back to Surabaya where the boat will arrive. A 16 hour bus trip at night with almost no sleep, I’m really amazed how locals use this kind of transportation and sleep.

For me this past couple of weeks were mentally extremely hard. Every day here I got bad news, personal issues and the waiting for something without information isn’t easy. I tried to get more and more info about the arrival of the boat, with changing results. Always getting new hope to have it torn down by the next email or phone call. I had a hard time being alone and waiting, waiting and waiting. Trying to find new possibilities or ways to get to my goal, without result. I got trapped here in this situation, there was nowhere to go because the boat could be arriving any time. Just waiting, until last week I got the news that the boat arrived the 15th of April at the port. The customs would take 5-7 working days and then it would be here. So I left to Surabaya by bus immediately and called Koen (the boat constructor who would join rowing for 3 weeks) to come over by then. While writing this, the process is delayed because someone in the process didn’t send the right documents in time. But at least I can say that I can’t blame myself, I’m doing everything I can to get this sorted out, too bad this is not only in my hands. The company arranging things never had a decent communication, despite their experience shipping to Indonesia… (sorry, I’m still quite frustrated while writing this).

I’m very thankful to my Indonesian friends here, especially Peter James and Cak Mancal who hosted me here in Indonesia during this stressful time. Both of them took very good care of me and tried to find solutions. Despite my big frustrations, those people gave me mental and logistical support to make my life here a bit easier. My girlfriend as well helped me out in so many ways just to keep me going. Feeling isolated and stuck in a situation is hard, especially when there is nothing you can really do. Now I’m again waiting for the boat. But now it will be together with Koen and we will reschedule our plans.

The 15th of May he will set out to Belgium again and a couple of days later Malcolm, an Australian veteran, will join me to continue rowing. There is a small chance we will make Papua this time. Regarding the seasons and the big crossings to make we’ll probably make it till Pulau Alor or Pulau Wetar. From there I’ll have to go back to Belgium and return here after a couple of months when the sea is calmer in this area. But first things first and I really have to see this one in small steps at a time. I hope to bring you the good news next week and we could start to row the 7th of May….

April 29, 2017
The waiting begins

After leaving the resort where the boat was supposed to arrive the 7th of April I cycled towards Bali to drop off my bike. In a meanwhile the boat arrived in Surabaya and is now waiting to be cleared by customs and delivered to the resort. From there I’m trying to arrange transport to the most eastern part of Java, the city Banyuwangi. By doing this I’m saving again 400km of rowing, instead of just waiting in the resort for the boat. This all seems very nice, waiting in a resort in Indonesia, but the timing and seasons don’t allow me to just wait and do nothing here.

Despite that I try to enjoy my time here off course. And how else would I enjoy it than cycling? I decided to make a detour by bike to go and climb Mt Bromo. This is an active volcano at 2329m above sea level. Not very high, but to come from sea level with your 80kg bicycle on the ridiculous steep roads they make here is quite a challenge. The last day I just needed to cover 16km, a light ride some would think. Well I covered 1285 altitude meters, with this bike I was able to get an average of 4km/h…

The effort was clearly worth it when arriving at the crater. I got rewarded with a very impressive view and experience of this beautiful volcano. The next day I take a day off cycling but hike op to watch the crater from close by. The force that you feel there is really impressive.

After this restday I wake up at night to hike up to another viewpoint to see the sunrise to cycle down afterwards. The view is once more fantastic and after this it’s an easy 50km ride down, what a great descend! There the cycling continues and after a couple of days I’m in Bali. From here I’m leaving my bicycle to send it back to Belgium with a friend. I started to realise that this is my last bicycle ride in Indonesia and actually on this bike. Everything is falling apart (my derailleur broke, my rim is breaking, brakes don’t function,…) but I really loved cycling with it. It is some kind of emotional goodbye, it served me well and we went through a lot of things, cycled so many place.

I’m being hosted here by Peter-James, a great guy who’s helping cyclists having a good stay in Bali. He grew up as a street kid after losing his patents at a young age, very strong and brave guy. He has a great webshop selling glasses and jewelery from recycled products and 10 percent of the sales go to PJ foundation for street children. Please check his website www.pj-collections.com .

I feel my body is very tired (I covered 1300km in about 10 days) so I could use some rest and good food here before I start on the next stretch of this human powered adventure.

April 17, 2017
The journey continues

Now being in Tanjung I have time to look back at my first week in Indonesia. After a 3 month preparation which consisted of rowing, working and preparing I set off to Jakarta once more where my bike was waiting for me. Saying goodbye is never easy, especially if you don’t know how long you exactly will be gone. It all depends on the timing of when the boat arrives (the logistics and customs are turning this one into a real hassle). I just heard as well that the containership with the boat is already on a delay for at least a week.

When arriving in Jakarta I got hosted by Jos and his family which gave me a pleasant stay and good food to start this new adventure in great shape! This gave me the opportunity to clean my bike and get ready. A couple of days later I start my cycling journey to the east of Java!

Cycling the busy streets of Jakarta which isn’t very pleasant. It doesn’t happen a lot that I get caught in traffic jams with my bicycle. Combine this with a hot sun in 32°C temperatures and you’re in for one hell of a ride/wait. That first day I was barely able to do 110km in total.

It is really crowded here with crazy traffic and pollution, but luckily no traffic jams anymore. The Indonesians are really friendly and helpful people. When I broke my chain, immediately people come to me, telling me where I can go for help. They’re very surprised when I start to take out my own equipment and they help to fix my chain. While cycling, once in a while someone offers me drinks or to come to their house for lunch and everywhere people shout at me “mister, mister, selfie please?”.

It is truly amazing how open, generous and helpful the people are here. On the other hand smelling and tasting the burnt gasoline in the streets while cycling isn’t my favourite thing to do. Another thing that bothers me is that almost every day I arrive at a guest house or hotel, someone asks me if I ‘want a girl’. I find this very sad and disturbing that men try to get money from a girls’ body and sadly it happens all around the world… But still so many good and beautiful things are in this world as well, so don’t let it stop you from exploring, just be responsible (especially to the men who read this in this situation).

I see a lot of garbage everywhere, actually all around the world where people live. Here now the past couple of days I saw a lot of it on the beaches and sea. I really hope we get more aware about such growing problem. It’s not just here, before I left Ghent we had fairly good weather with people gathering at a river and by the end of the evening a lot of garbage was left behind.

Here I’m writing this blog at the location where the rowboat would arrive today. But today I got the news that it is one week in delay. Thats another part about this adventure, the logistics are a complete hassle. If someone knows a good transportation company that could suit for the next episodes of this project, please let me know. Just waiting here is not an option so I’m trying to have the boat sent to a more eastern point of Java where I can start as well. Then I won’t loose too many days just sitting around and waiting. I will cycle my bike all the way to Bali and leave it in a guest house for a while and pick it up returning to bring it to Belgium.

April 7, 2017
New adventure, same goals, new look

A lot has been going on since my return from Indonesia. It’s been a pleasure being back in Belgium seeing back my loved ones. There has been so much preparation going on for the next episode of this human powered adventure. The rowboat is finished, tested and shipped by now and should be arriving the 7th of April in Surabaya (Indonesia, Java). The 27th of March I’m flying to Jakarta where my bike is waiting for me to continue a 750km cycling trip to Surabaya. There I’ll be waiting my boat to arrive and start rowing to Papua. An estimated 2500 km rowing trip following the Indonesian archipelago from Bali to Lombok, the Flores Islands and on to some bigger stretches of open sea into Papua. This is all very new to me, but luckily Koen De Gezelle (the boat constructor) will assist me for 3 weeks to give me the needed experience I need on the further stage of this journey. From there I’m on my own for a couple of weeks to have another companion help me cross the bigger section by the end of the rowing trip into Papua.

The support for this project from all sides is getting bigger and I’m happy to announce my ambassadorship for Vayamundo. They are providing a good platform for my expeditions and help me achieve my mission. By having the same values we strive to invest more on international solidarity, Active ageing, Ecology, tourism for all and multiculturalism. I keep on giving full support to the INGO shangrilahome which gives opportunities in life for street children in Nepal. Therefore the name of the boat will be baptised the “Shangri-La”. This is a Utopian place described in the book ‘Lost Horizon’ from James Hilton, we’re trying to provide such place to the children in Nepal and the rest of the world. Besides that I want to create more awareness on some other problems I will meet along this trip and all continents and oceans. This creates an extra value to this project and is not all about adventure, it is about connecting people, their worlds and our environment.

Our partnership with Secutec is continued for this year as well and I’m very proud to be part of their team. This is a fast growing company delivering data security for companies, which is a becoming a much bigger concern nowadays. Without their support I wouldn’t be able to fulfil my goal and I’m honoured to partner up with their strong team. Secutec is an IT security company and founded by Geert Baudewijns in September 2005 to meet the market’s needs for security solutions. The idea was to establish a strong link between vendors & distributors on the one hand, and professional clients on the other. The objective was to provide businesses with integrated security solutions for a fast, efficient, secure and enjoyable IT experience. Security is a very important aspect during my expeditions and the same counts for IT security solutions. Therefore this partnership focusses on security with the tagline your security above everything!

Another major partner in the team is Whaleboat. Owner Koen De Gezelle constructed the boat I’ll be rowing with to Papua. A great machine that will give me the necessary safety and speed to clear this expedition. A beautiful boat already winning many prizes and I’m sure many more to come, I can’t wait to get rowing!

This website is completely renewed that is the result of the collaboration with my partners. This all to make it easier to follow my progress and adventures while I’m away. I hope you enjoy the new interface and please let me know if there are any issues regarding the website.

March 16, 2017