The Isar, 295 km long, flows through Munich.
I spent a lot of time last summer cycling this river.
One highlight is surfing a standing wave (a stationary hydraulic jump).
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
That’s in the English Garden (Englischer Garten), one of the world’s largest urban public parks.
On sunny days, it’s packed with tens of thousands.
I’m planning on cycling Iceland late summer 2024.
This would be the ultimate … — … AND I won’t be doing anything this challenging. 😀
Riders Chris Burkard, Eric Batty, Emily Batty, and Adam Morka.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
In 2024 — I have to call myself an experienced Bikepacker.
Any trip where you carry enough gear to allow sleeping overnight … somewhere. Even a motel.
A multi-day cycling trip.
For me it was a natural extension of hiking. Fun, enjoyable, exercise outdoors.
Low cost.
I enjoy tenting. So that’s a bonus for me.
Joe Cruz posted a terrific History of Bikepacking article.
People have been cycling overnight trips since the invention of the bicycle.
It’s astonishing to me how little bicycle technology has evolved.
Here’s Frank Lenz, who famously went missing during his circumnavigation of the globe, which he started in 1892.
Any bicycle carrying enough gear to allow you to sleep overnight … somewhere. Even a motel.
There’s a continuum between those who carry panniers. And those who use smaller bike bags.
Those who are trying to make more miles. On rougher trails. Possibly carrying their bike, … I call bikepackers.
I use panniers and call what I do bike touring. I might add a trailer, one day. … Perhaps an electric motor. 😀
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
related – WHY Bikepacking ?? … 🚲
For me bikepacking was a logical extension of hiking.
A Christmas present to myself 2023.
Here’s my 1st video using mostly Ace Pro footage.
Videotaping animals and birds is particularly challenging when using cameras without much optical zoom.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I’d long planned to replace both my old GoPro and my Sony ZV1 camera with one action camera — and finally made the leap when the Insta360 Ace Pro was released December 2023.
My minimum gear for shooting video has never been lighter nor more compact.
I can use the Ace Pro with all my GoPro attachments.
Action cameras are even more durable than phones.
Of the dozens of cool features available with the Ace Pro, I’ll actually be using very few for my hiking videos.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
90% of the time I will be shooting:
I like HDR (high dynamic range) and shoot the same on my iPhone. Over-saturated video looks good to me on YouTube. Especially if watching on a phone.
4K 30fps is the most I can shoot in HDR on the Ace Pro. (Better would be 60fps in HDR. That would be my #1 request for future upgrade.)
I export at 1080p 30fps so can crop / zoom down without losing resolution.
Shooting in this setting I can quickly zoom 50% and yet still end up with 4K video whenever I want by double tapping the screen. How does 4K zoom to 4K? … Some sort of digital trickery in camera they call clarity zoom.
Their 8K is 4K with 4 small pixels replacing each normal 4K pixel. So far I haven’t been much impressed with 8K for video.
Ultrawide gives the widest possible perspective for outdoor scenery. I’ll use that mode when shooting BIG outdoor vistas.
Most of the time, I’ll use Dewarp (minimal distortion) as it most closely matches a normal camera with almost no curvature to the image.
I’ll be using the Apple Watch app quite a bit. It’s simple. Quick. And intuitive.
I might never use the phone app which is complicated. And really not needed for someone who plans to edit video later on laptop.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Initially, I thought I’d shoot photos on iPhone 13. Video on the Ace Pro.
Comparing different photos on the Ace Pro v iPhone 13, so far I’m MUCH preferring iPhone. Seems Apple does a much better job with photos.
On the other hand, it’s bloody convenient to take a photo simultaneously while videotaping with the new camera. A great feature of the Ace Pro.
AND I’m thinking it will be more convenient to take selfie photos and video with the Ace Pro on the tripod using Voice Command.
Voice Command on iPhone seems to screw up a lot for me. I probably won’t use it.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Voice Command on the Ace Pro works most of the time, even in noisy environments.
This camera has Gesture Control — but it works inconsistently, as it does on every other product I’ve tried with that feature.
The AcePro has no GPS. With iPhone photos and video, I sometimes look up the metadata to see exactly where and when I took the picture — very useful.
It’s possible to use the phone app — or even the watch app — to get the metadata, but that’s too much hassle for me.
The biggest problem now, however, is lack of much zoom on any of my cameras. I’d love to have something with 10x optical, as well.
Since I export at 30fps, in my normal shooting mode I won’t be able to slow down video. In reality, I don’t use much slow mo anyway, so it probably won’t be a problem. BUT I’ll need to remember to switch to slow motion if I ever want some of those captures.
Still experimenting …
English actress Emilia Fox is Signora Volpe. 😀 Sylvia Fox in this excellent TV show.
Well, the first 2 episodes are great. I could have lived without episode 3.
Disillusioned with her work at MI6, spy Sylvia Fox travels to Italy for the wedding of her niece.
Although her relationship with her sister, Isabel, is troubled, Sylvia is welcomed warmly by her family.
But when the groom goes missing, leaving a dead woman behind, Sylvia feels compelled to investigate. The trail leads her from an empty pizza box and stolen children’s book to a deadly showdown.
The badass decides to move to Italy at the end of the first episode.
It’s Italy. Beautiful.
There’s romance. Charming.
An English language TV show set in Italy well done, with many Italian actors and Italian dialogue.
They did not make the same mistakes as Murder in Provence. 😀
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
This is my 2nd experiment in video editing using software called Audio Sound Design to add sound effects.
I MIGHT have overdone it. 😀
The software has 70,000+ royalty free sounds, loops and music cues. But for me it’s overkill. Too complicated. A bit buggy.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Since Covid, I’ve spent far more time in Parksville than in Calgary.
It’s terrific for year round beach walks, cycling, hiking, and running.
On a Globe and Mail survey of places to live in Canada, Parksville was 32nd “most livable” out of 438.
Factors: economy, housing, demographics, health care, safety, education, community, amenities, transportation and climate.
My parents, brother Rob and his wife live here. It’s a small retirement town.
The numbers aren’t quite right, but this real estate guy generally gives a good overview of town.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
My latest experiment in video editing is software called Audio Sound Design.
I’m learning about these sound effects:
Not inexpensive, but I did get 50% off a perpetual license during Black Friday.
In the 1990s I edited video — and feared all audio. It was easy to screw up.
By 2022 I was enjoying the audio editing as much as video. Putting visuals to an interesting song is fun.
I was finding it a pain to find and add sound effects.
Audio Design Desk comes with 70,000+ royalty free sounds, loops and music cues.
Adding them to your video is a breeze with this software.
The advanced features are futuristic. I’ll go slow experimenting with those.
Here’s my first TEST. I edited stock video from Indonesia.
Music and sound effects were added using Audio Sound Design software.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
September, 2023.
Click PLAY or watch a 1-minute highlights video on YouTube.
I started in Passau, Germany, cycling to Ulm. About 238-miles (383km) over 5 days.
It follows the rail corridor of the Danube Valley Railway for long stretches. And alongside the river for even more.
To get to the Danube at Passau, I cycled from Salzburg mostly along the Austria / German border. Much along the Inn river, which had recently flooded. Some of the bike paths were still closed. Many more were MUDDY.
About 130km over a day and a half.
Beautiful scenery. In many ways, I liked it better than the Danube as the Inn river is less developed. And you are closer to the water more often.
I arrived Passau very tired —a long day in the saddle. Had to push my bike up this hill to get to the Youth Hostel.
Yeesh. Toughest part of the day.
The official German Youth Hostel is part of one of largest castle complexes in Europe.
After wild camping the first night on the bike, I ended up staying either at youth hostels like this one. Old. Huge. Retro. Something out of the 1960s.
OR …
… simply stopping at one of the small, crowded campgrounds. There’s always space for one more tent. 😀 Cost is less than $15 / night at most.
This one associated with the local canoe club was my favourite.
Though I did do quite a bit of sightseeing along the way, here I’ll present just a sampling of the highlights.
In my own brain 😀 it all merges into one long week of castles, churches, and pretty German architecture.
After a long, hot day into Ulm, Germany, I suffered leg cramps during the night. Decided to quit the Danube for 2023.
Friends in Munich are storing my bike and cycling gear.
As a minimalist, it’s nice to go back to travel with only carry-on luggage. 😀
I might go the other direction towards Budapest next time. OR — more likely — cycle the Rhine north.
Passau to Vienna and Vienna to Budapest are 2 of the most popular sections on Europe’s most popular long distance cycling path ➙ EuroVelo 6 (EV6), named the “Rivers Route“.
Part of the EV6 is the Danube Cycleway (de:Donauradweg) from Donaueschingen to Passau in Germany, through Austria to Vienna, and continues on to Bratislava in Slovakia, to Novi Sad and Belgrade in Serbia, before continuing on towards the Danube Delta.
Rick McCharles 