A family of four is doing what most of us can only dream of as they take their young family on the road, calling the world their home and carrying everything they own on their backs, or their bikes in this case.
Peter Van Glabeek and his partner Petra Stranger, as well as their two young children Ben (5) and Esme (3) have been traversing the globe in an adventure that many would find daunting, but the two of them insist that this way of life allows them a freedom that can only be found on the open road.
The two were members of the same cycling club when they first met. Peter is a scientist, and Petra an artist by trade. She is also documenting their life in a blog at TheCyclingFamily.com.
The family of four is being hosted by the Gouwenberg family at their dairy farm in Agassiz in an international program called Warm Showers that offers long distance cyclists, as the name implies, warm showers and hospitality as they journey across country.
Peter is from Holland, and Petra is Austrian, and though they remain registered in Austria, the couple are currently living without a residence, storing the most valuable of their possessions at their families’ homes, after downsizing the rest of their belongings.
Hailing from the Netherlands, Peter mentions that cycling is a way of life, in his home country.
“I cycled to school from the age of six, which is quite a distance, and then in university I started road racing on a road bike, and that’s where I met Petra and we were members of the same student cycling club,” said Peter. “It was only later that I discovered cycle touring, where you’re carrying all your luggage, and that’s something totally different.”
Between the two of them they have close to three decades of cycle touring experience, so it wasn’t a massive leap to venture into what some might call “extreme cycling.”
The couple has been together for eight years, and both did solo trips before discovering each other, building a family and realizing their dream to cycle across the globe together.
The only time the pair have taken a break was when Petra was pregnant with Ben and Esme.
“We don’t have a house, or a job, we have some boxes in our parents’ basement with mostly things that our parents wanted to keep,” said Petra. “There’s no stress and it’s the perfect time with the kids being the age that they are.”
The decision to embark on their journey was something that was already decided years ago with Peter committed to the lifestyle, according to Petra, and when the pair met, it was something that Petra had always wanted to do.
“We never really owned anything, we never owned a house, or cars but it was still a big decision to leave,” said Peter, of choosing an alternate lifestyle.
After a minor setback when Peter suffered a back injury, the couple flew to Cancun Mexico in December of 2016 and from there made a few stops in places like Belize and Guatemala before flying to Vancouver, where they started the Canadian stretch of their tour.
The couple gets by on donations and Petra submits her photographs to an agency once a month which go for $50 a piece. They have also been giving lectures at various stops and people will donate at the talks. Meals and sometimes rations are planned meticulously and the family can get by on a very limited budget.
“We usually plan around the weather, so we are here in the summer because with the kids you need a good climate,” said Petra. “If there’s a little bit rain that’s okay, but if it becomes more days of rain and snow then it becomes difficult. We cycled with Ben when he was two years old in Turkey in November, and it was just too cold, he was sitting in his bike trailer for four days with his gloves and he couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t even play outside.”
Petra, acknowledges that it’s important for the children to be outside and in nature, citing, the wilderness as one of the greatest classrooms in the world.
“It’s important that they do things with water, sand, or climb trees, throw rocks and build things, so we have to stay with good weather,” she said.
As for the children they enjoy the freedom the lifestyle has to offer, especially Ben, who told The Observer in Dutch that he enjoys daydreaming on the road.
