As we rapidly approach the start of a new year many, if not most, of us begin or continue planning our bicycle travels for the next 12 months. Steve and I are heading to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico in 3 days in an effort to get away from the cold gray rainy West Coast of Canada. After our return in mid February gardening, and daily bicycle rides as soon as the weather cooperates, will be our go to activities until mid to late August when we will return to Europe to complete last year's aborted journey from Germany to Spain  (and back again).  Come December 2026 we hope to once again head south to the Yucatan, with perhaps a little side trip to go birding in Costa Rica, until we come home for the summer.  So that's us. What are your cycling plans, hopes, or dreams?   

My wish, hope and dream is to complete the final, and most difficult, cycle-tour of the series of Canberra (Australia’s national capital) to state capitals rides I’ve been doing (one at a time) over the past 12 years. 

The one remaining challenge is Canberra to Darwin. I doubt I’ll be able to do it this year, but let’s see.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone here on CycleBlaze.

Graham, that ride will be a serious undertaking. Will you go through the Red Centre, or western QLD?  The "cold season" is the time to do it, for sure.  Look forward to your journal, and safe journey!  We see the reports on both the floods and bushfires - apocalyptic stuff.  

Here, we're having an Olde-Tyme Winter -- just had about 30 cms of snow yesterday & last night, and early-morning temps were around -21, with a windchill of -31. But, as the euphemism goes, "At least it's a dry cold."  For the time being, anyway -- in the past couple of weeks, we've had wild swings of temps, from -25 to +10 within a few days 🙁 

And, Steve and Dodie, on your question about this year's plans/possibilities: 'Midst this winter, I've made a virtue out of necessity, and did the yearend service on our bikes in the warmth of my basement workshop.  Will set up my city/errands bike on the trainer for remaining 6-8 weeks of winter, along with some skating and -who knows? - maybe even some x-country skiing if the weather gods co-operate.

For the cycling season (usually April to mid-November), I have to be cautious in planning: both Marcia and I will enter our 80th year in 2026, she in April, I in July.  She doesn't do cycle-touring, so I'm anticipating shorter trips in eastern Ontario and western Qué.  Happily, we're spoiled for choice -- we have many provincial and national parks within a day's ride.  And, Brazilian/Canadian friends are keen to try cycle-touring.  When they emigrated to Canada in 2008, I introduced them to canoeing on the lakes and rivers of our extended neighbourhood.  They had never done anything remotely like it, and both they and (now) their teenaged kids are dead keen on paddling. (A few years ago, when my family prevailed on me to give up solo paddling in the bush, I gave them my canoe, with the proviso that I could join them on occasion. They gladly obliged, so I kept my paddles.)

And, my friend Emanuel began cycle-touring this past August.  We began with a short (165 kms) overnight to a nearby provincial park, west along the Ontario side of the Ottawa River, returning eastwards the next day on the Québec side.  Manu was delighted, and is eager to do more this summer.  And, his daughter Catarina (now 15) is keen to join in.  She competes in short-track speed-skating at the provincial level in Qué, and rides in the Gatineau Hills are part of her training regime, so she'll be waaay faster than either her dad or me.  But we'll do a 2- or 3-day trip to introduce her to another side of Life on Two Wheels.  Then, a friend from Vancouver will be visiting his daughter and son-in-law who have just returned to Ottawa from UK, and he and I will do some riding in the neighbourhood.  He was born & grew up just NW of Montréal, and in 2024 we did a splendid week-plus in western Qué and eastern Ont.  (Report is on the Thorn website -- I haven't yet transferred it to Cycleblaze. Here's the link, if you're interested: https://thorncyclesforum.co.uk...  )

So - lots of variety within easy reach!

John your ride plans sound varied, interesting and achievable without an excess of discomfort.
If I do take on the Canberra to Darwin ride, I’ll aim to also make it reasonably low risk by following the western NSW/Qld route my good friend Ian Wallis (Thorn Nomad rider) did a few years ago on his way to Singapore. 

Ian is a force of nature, so I won’t be cycling as fast as him. I’m glad I convinced him to join CycleBlaze. His journal “Unfinished Business” is one of the most popular journals.

 https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/australasia2023/day-1-may-day-canberra-to-yass/

And yes our always extreme weather continues to surprise with ever more extreme records being broken. Floods, fires and storms seem to occurring more frequently with greater intensity and less predictability. Proceeding, but with caution, is my general rule for cycle touring nowadays.

Thanks, Graham.  Yes, the NSW/QLD route looked to be the better option -- you could always take the 'Ghan homeward. 😉 

And, on your guidelines for touring: "Floods, fires and storms seem to occurring more frequently with greater intensity and less predictability. Proceeding, but with caution, is my general rule for cycle touring nowadays."

So wise.  "Press on regardless" seems to belong to a simpler time...

All I want for New Year's is my two new knees, as the old song goes if I remember correctly.  There's no way that we can form any real plans with so much uncertainty - how will rehab go from the first surgery, and how long will it take until I'm mobile enough that it makes sense for us to leave the region?  How long after the first surgery will the second one be scheduled?  And how unbearable will the political situation at home become?  All we can do in this foggy arena is speculate and daydream.

Which isn't to say speculation and daydreaming isn't occurring, and an array of possibilities isn't being sketched out on the drawing board.  If I exposed any of them now though I'd be subjected to worse than the usual flurry of RockyDarts®️, so we'll just have to wait.  Maybe around April it will be time to talk?