Meet Ron and Petra – long distance bicycle travellers
Ron and Petra are PedalPower Touring, avid cycle tourers originally from the US and Germany.
Together, they’ve visited over 40 countries, seeking an experience off the beaten path.
I’m super happy to be sharing the first woowoo interview, and so excited that they were happy to answer some of my questions.
We had a chat about what makes them woowoo, about bike touring, and their current challenge: cycling from Alaska to Argentina.
I’m adding links to their youtube, Instagram, and website right here at the top – because you absolutely have to check them out and follow their amazing journey.
So, Ron, Petra, kicking off with the big question:
What makes you woowoo?
When referring to cycle touring, we guess it’s the unknowing of what the day on the bike will bring... What interesting encounters will we experience and how it will affect our adventure.
We both love talking about cycling and cycle touring, so we do get pretty excited about that.
And those moments when you’ve had a very long day in the saddle and then there comes that friendly “you can do it”, “honk honk”, or the thumbs up. It truly lifts your spirits!
We also truly enjoy those unscripted and unexpected personal encounters with others during the day. You’ll almost likely never see these in our videos, because they are unscripted and personal. We’ll talk about it after though.
And what’s the thing that gets you up and going in the morning?
Coffee. Strong coffee!
The excitement of seeing new places and things. Sometimes it’s the fear of being detected at the wild camp spot that gets us going early too!
Tell us about your current adventure, cycling from Alaska to Argentina, wow! When did it start? And how long will you go for? Do you have any stats to share so far?
We landed in Deadhorse, Alaska, and began cycling south on the 25th of June 2021.
We’ve planned and budgeted for 2 years, so we’ll see how far we make it in that time.
Currently, we are about 4700 miles (7560km) into this tour, and we have no idea how many hours that is equal to, but it’s a lot.
Our longest day would have been in Alaska, when we cycled over Atigun Pass. We ended up cycling to about 03:00am before stopping, mostly due to mechanical reasons and the horrible mud.
Check it out in episode 4 of their cycle touring Argentina to Alaska series.
That sounds like a very long day!
What are your favourite parts of the tour lifestyle?
There are many favourite parts. Meeting new people, seeing amazing places, experiencing different cultures… and of course, all the great tasting food.
We would say though, the truly most inspirational moments, and the ones that really stick with you are those encounters when a total stranger gives you a lending hand, or what we like to say: “the kindness of strangers!”. It really renews your faith in humanity.
Also the best part of bicycle touring is that we don’t just go from one touristy place to another, but that we see and experience life in all the little villages, see different landscapes, and meet many people in between.
Since we are very open and vulnerable on our bikes, people seem to find it much easier to approach us. We love all the support, friendly “hellos”, smiles, and waves we receive while cycling through the countryside.
And what about the hardest parts?
One difficult part of the journey is that sometimes there are long stretches where there is not much to look at. Or there might be difficult terrain, or bad weather, but we know we have to make it to the next town to get supplies or water.
That’s when we just try to grind through it to make it to the nice places again.
Fortunately, those moments don’t last too long.
So you’re documenting moments of your tour on Instagram and Youtube (again, go and check it out).
We really love the photos and videos, what equipment do you use on tour? And how long have you been making videos?
Thank you for the compliment!
For video on this tour we are using a GoPro 8 and GoPro 5, along with a DJI Mini drone. We also just started using our phones for quick little clips and it seems to be working out nicely too.
For still images, we use a Canon 5D Mark IV, 24-70mm lens, and a 70-200mm lens, and our phones for quick snaps.
Ron started making images as a teenager with an old Polaroid and Kodak 110. Then he got his first ‘real’ camera in 1986, a Minolta 7000i, and still has it today.
He also learned how to develop and print his images at the photo lab on post while in the US Army stationed in Illesheim, Germany.
Videos that you see on our YouTube channel are something fairly new, but we do have stacks of Sony 8 tapes going back many years.
Petra also started out with an old Polaroid, but over the past few years she has taken a great interest in photography and has a lot of input and creativity with our current videos.
How can we, and the readers support you during your tours?
The best way to support us is by watching and sharing our videos. And being inspired to live your life to the max.
There is nothing special about us, so if we can do it, so can almost anyone else. You just need to set your mind to it, and don’t lose sight of your goal.
It took us more than 3 years to reach our first goal and set out on our first world tour (2013-2015). And then another 6 years for this adventure.
If videos are not your thing, we also have a blog that contains many of our previous travels as well as some from this current adventure.
Well, we think you are pretty special!
Who inspired your woowoo? Who made you want to start?
There are so many people out there sharing their stories, and we do gain inspiration from them. However, back in 2010, we met David van Aller on a bus on our way to visit Auschwitz in Poland. We overheard him talking about his sabbatical to a couple of other folks on the bus.
Long story short, Ron already had this grand idea of bike touring around Europe for 6 to 12 months, but Petra was not convinced we could do it. We do not come from money, and the common belief is that you have to have lots of money to just quit your job and travel for a year or more.
We started chatting with David about his travels, and met with him later that evening over beer and food and talked more, but we really didn’t get into details (financial details).
Lucky for us though, we met up with David again in Budapest and we hung out for 3 days. It was then that David gave us all his details and the cost of his trip. How he saved, what his daily budget was etc…
That was it, Petra was convinced we could do it too and once we returned home from that short 3 week bike tour through the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and into Budapest, our lives started down a different path.
And here we are again in 2022 on another world tour.
By the way, we met David 9 months into his planned one year bikepacking around the world adventure, and he ended up travelling for over 6 years before returning home to the US and living a ‘normal’ life again.
Wow, so one bikepacker adventurer helps kickstart the journey for another. We’d love to have a chat with David and learn more about his adventure!
So you still have a fair way to go on your current tour, but do you already have something in mind for what’s coming up next? Is there a bucket list woowoo?
Correct, we do have a long way to go!
However, cycling the Dempster Highway, and down the Great Divide is something on the wishlist, and so is Africa.
We can’t wait to follow along on those adventures too. Thank you so much Ron, and Petra, keep riding, keep sharing, and keep on doing what makes you woowoo!
Follow pptouring on Instagram. Watch their videos on YouTube. Check out their website.
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