Ann, Sjeng and Oscar's Story

Hi, Sjeng, Oscar and I live in Nelson, BC in a small, (well insulated) house. Sjeng is originally from Holland, I’m from Vancouver and when we met each other over there, bicycling was a big part of our lives. While Canada is quite a bit more vertically challenging, we still spend some of our best times sitting on a bicycle. Oscar is now 17 years old, and we’ve been dragging him along with us for years. This past January we spent a month biking in Cuba. Three years ago, we biked in Thailand for two months. We’ve also ridden the Galloping Goose out of Victoria (very nice), plus lots of local rides and many awesome trips in Holland. I am attracted to this trip cause it’s something we’ve wanted to do for a while, but never seem to get it together by ourselves. It would also be great to meet like-minded people that we would otherwise be unlikely to meet. We like camping, biking, and eating, so this trip felt like a good match.

As far as global warming, we try to live a smaller footprint by doing the following.

• We’ve planted lots of trees in our lot and grow some of our own food.
• We run a High Efficiency washing machine and hang our clothes to dry.
• We live in a small community, so drive very few commuter kms. to work, school or shop.
• We buy local and organic as much as possible.
• We live in a small, very well insulated house with double glaze windows.
• We burn a renewable heat source in the winter (wood from fallen trees).
• We compost and recycle like crazy.
• We buy second hand goods and clothes.
• We don’t (or at least very rarely) use any chemical cleaners.
• We always (well, almost always) reuse shopping bags or baskets.
• We don’t flush every time.
• We use rechargeable batteries.
• We use an electric bike as a second vehicle.

I look forward to meeting everyone. See you soon, Ann