A return trip to the village
For as long as I can remember, I have been mentally calculating my bike distances in multiples of 6 km. The distance to get to the village.
And not just when it's more difficult, like when crossing deserts or climbing mountain passes. This distance is just naturally nested in my thinking.
Indeed, during all my youth, the family home was 6 km from the village of L'Orignal.
The sweet plan
The scheming brothers: a clown and an insurance salesman.
Being four and a half years older than my brother Sacha, I had parental permission at the time to cycle to school before him. And at the respective ages of 5 and 9, we had already developed a Machiavellian plan.
We had agreed that since my brother was being driven to school by my father, he would be able to bring me my backpack every day. In return, I would be able to pedal faster, so I would have time to stop at the convenience store to buy some jujubes for both of us before he arrives. The exchange worthy of the television series Narcos would be in the St-Jean-Baptiste schoolyard. My backpack for a surprise bag of candy.
When I think about it today, where our plan stopped being ingenious was that we had to ask our parents for money for a "secret reason" ... and that I did not hide my bags of jujubes when Sacha and my father were arriving.
Still, it was my first contact with the famous 6 km distance.
The other distances
The brothers Jonathan and Sacha today.
At 8-9 years old, when you can't wait to eat candy, 6 km can be a long time. This is how the distances of half village, 3 km, and 6th village, 1 km, appeared. All these points being represented by marker houses on the path.
As my brother and I got older we started pedaling longer distances.
The famous 30km loop - a boulder ride in the countryside - followed Cassburn, Ritchance and Blue Corner roads before returning home. I must have done it 200 times.
The 60 km long loop, which we could do with our father for fun on weekends, follows the same path as the first but lengthens to Hawkesbury and the village of Alfred.
Today
Jonathan and Sacha by bike in Bulgaria, last June.
All this to say that since the start of this trip around the world, I have not calculated in thousands of kilometers, it would be endless !, but rather with my childhood distances. If I give myself a daily goal of 60 km, I can tell myself that it is no worse than the big loop. And if the next water point is 12 km away, it's just like going to the village and coming back. Easy, easy!
A few months ago, my brother Sacha joined me to cycle alongside me in Bulgaria and to Istanbul in Turkey. Without even having talked about it once in our lifetime, I then realized that we calculated internally in the same way, when I said to him:
- We're almost in Istanbul, Bro. Only 12 km.
- Yeah ! Just a round trip to the village!
Like brother, like brother must believe. With that, I'm gonna go buy some jujubes.
