Look Who We Met

I could not believe our luck when @‌leaveit2cleave were in Sydney exactly when we were. We’d been planning a meeting for months.

The four of us got talking pre-pandemic when we were both our cycle touring. Leigh and Peter had left their Aussie home, rented it out and took to the road. They’d made it all the way to Croatia/Italy as the pandemic was kicking off and we were over in Vietnam.

We watched each others journeys on Instagram and shared the same sadness when everything came to an abrupt ending.

When we got back on the road we agreed to make a meeting happen. In Perth, I was confident we’d have time to get north of Sydney to meet them in their own town.

Unbeknown to me, that was ridiculously ambitious. 😁

We barely scraped it to Sydney so when I found out they were in the city I was over the moon.

Peter and Leigh took us our for dinner, we went to a Turkish restaurant which was perfect for us as we love Turkish cuisine.

Leigh and Peter bought their friend Jill who was from Ireland. She had dined at the restaurant before and got us all fed with a Turkish buffet. It was a fantastic night that we ended with delicious ice cream from a small shop that had the best affogato!

Stew and I met with them the day we did all our toursity stuff. Because we left in the day, when it was really hot, we didn’t take jackets 🤦🏻‍♀️ a dumb move, especially from two cycle tourists who were hugging water bottles and sleeping in down jackets every night…

Luckily, Peter was carrying many layers and gave me and Stew a jacket each. 😁😁

It’s always a pleasure to meet the people we connect with on Instagram. Social media has got its flaws but I must say, it’s really enhanced this trip. I know I don’t make as much time for it now, but I really feel like we’ve connected with the most wonderful people ♥

Between the first trip and this one, I had forgotten what a great place social media can be.