Katrin Hollendung: Bike-packing adventurer

As I sit at my work desk forcing myself (at time unconvincingly) to focus on my bike PhD research, I feel Kissime (my bike packing bike) glaring at me through the walls.

The indignant heat of her inattention radiates out, burning my skin 12 feet away.

Okay, Okay!

On a longer break, I maneuver closer to her for reassurance and flick on YouTube.

Together we sit, hand in grip, enjoying the latest offering from Katrin Hollendung. We have an unspoken agreement to go on a similar epic adventure (just as soon as the PhD is accepted).

We watch on.

Katrin Hollendung: Bike-packing adventurer. icycles Create Change.com 20th May 2020. — Images from Katrin’s Instagram **account @draussendrang**

Katrin Hollendung is a German adventure bike-packer who started posting her international rides on YouTube only in the last 12 months.

Her page is my new favorite reprieve.

So what do I like about it? You mean aside from the fact that she travels to awesome locations, riding her bike for love, not ego and takes the time to enjoy the uniqueness of it all? ……Well, it’s not in English. She usually travels with one, select intrepid buddy. Oh, and she gets super, extra, EXTRA kudos points for having ridden the Cairngorms (Scotland), where I lived for 2 years.

In Katrin’s videos, there is a good mixture of riding ups and downs, local culture, odd encounters, breathtaking vistas, necessary language and personality readjustments and a bit of local history and storytelling mixed in with Katrin’s reflections of life, two wheels and the world at large.

I like that the videos are no super polished or over produced – they are personable, interesting, approachable and at times daggy….. you know….normal!

Her videos range from 15 mins to 37 mins and are purposefully narrated with English subtitles. Here are a few of her trips:

Katrin’s Instagram account @draussendrang is super inspiring too!

I appreciate not only the trip itself, but the amount of video editing and work Katrin puts into sharing her bike packing adventures.

As I look lovingly over at Kissime, (who, for now at least, is consoled), I relish Katrin’s adventurous spirit and patiently await the time when I’ll be out there exploring trails with Kissime and mate, just like Katrin.

Now the break is over, it is back to research!

15/05/202013/07/2020

Bike-Pack Rubbish Out! Epic US bike trip to pick up trash.

Bike-Pack Rubbish Out! Leave it Better: Epic US bike trip to pick up trash. Bicycles Create Change.com 15th May 2020.

2 Friends, 4,700 miles, 1 mission: Pick up trash!

On U.S. roads there are 6,000 pieces of litter per mile, on average.

Seth Orme and Abby Taylor set out on their bikes for an epic five-month, 4,700 mile trip across the US – during which they cleaned up 2,130 pounds of trash.

Their journey has been documented in the REI film Leave it Better.

(Below is the trailer. Link to the full 20-minute film for free at end of this post).

Background

One of the main seven tenets of Leave No Trace outdoor ethics is to leave it as you found it. Generally, this is a common-sense approach to preserve the natural or historical beauty of private or public land; it should look untouched when you leave it.

But why not leave it better? In 2015 Seth Orme started a project he calls, Packing It Out, a continuous mission to leave the places he and his companions visit not just as they found them, but better.

For the first-ever Packing It Out trip in 2015, Seth thru–hiked the Appalachian Trail (AT) alongside his friends Joe Dehnert and Paul Twedt. Over 2,200 miles, they packed out 1,100 pounds of trash that was found along the trail.

The following year, Seth and Paul continued the project by hiking a grand total of 2,650 miles from the border of Mexico to Canada along the Pacific Crest Trail. On this trip they cleaned up 720 pounds of trash en route.

This year, Seth traded his hiking boots for a bike and recruited his friend Abby Taylor. On April 26, 2017, Seth and Abby set out on a cross-country bike tour to pick up trash along the way.

Epic US bike trip to pick up trash.

Their route took them from Georgia to Washington State, including a circuit of stops at National Forests, scenic areas, campgrounds, etc., hosting trash cleanups and conservation-theme clinics as they rode.

For 5 months, their goal was to explore the country, meet people, spread the word on ‘Packing It Out,’ and continue their message of environmental stewardship.

At each destination, whether alone or with a group, Orme and Taylor cleaned up trash, totaling more than 2,100 pounds over the course of the trip.

What a fantastic trip and a timely challenge to all riders (and people).

I know I have been stopping more often to pick up rubbish on my bike rides. I hope people, both ON and OFF continue picking rubbish and progressing conversations about sustainability, plastic pollution and conversation.

Happy clean bike rides all!

Images, video and content sourced from Wild Confluence YouTube and an article by Logan Watts for Bike Packing.com

09/05/202016/07/2020

Health Hack 2020 announced

Health Hack is an annual Brisbane-based hackathon that solves problems for medical research and healthcare professionals with technology and design.

Regular readers of this blog know that last year I submitted a problem (Problem Owner) called Bio Map for Heath Hack 2019 – and we had a blast!

Health Hack 2020 has been released and here are the details so far. Expect a few more posts about Heath Hack as we get closer to kick-off.

And yes, that is me on the YouTube promo video cover shot below. And yes, I am wearing a ‘WOW – women on wheels’ T-shirt – spreading the biking love!

HealthHack is a product-building event.

Teams work on problems that have been submitted by Problem Owners – typically medical
researchers, medical organisations, hospitals or government— but they could come from anyone who has a health-related problem they want to solve.

Find more at the HealthHack website.

Everything made at HealthHack is open source and made available for anyone else to use. You can find every project from every HealthHack at our GitHub.

Normally the event is run in person but due to COVID-19 it is running entirely remote this year. The exact plans for this year will be confirmed, but here are the basic so far:

Run out of (sponsor) IBM’s Cloudtheater virtual event space
Run across two weekends (but not during the week in between)
Organisers will still be assisting problem owners and teams to form so there’s no need to have formed a team prior to HealthHack
Same basic format as previous HealthHacks will be kept, but there will be tweaks to allow for the changed circumstances
Organisers will still be available to help teams work together just like every other HealthHack to date

Now more than ever it’s important to support the work of healthcare professionals both in front line services and in medical research and the event is committed to supporting problem owners and hackers solve important problems.

Health Hack 2020 schedule (so far)

July 24th, Friday

5:30pm Registration &Network
6:00pm Problem Owner Pitch Presentations
7:00pm Networking and Team Formation
8:00pm to 9:00pm Hacking

July 25th, Saturday

8:00am to 9:00pm Hackathon (check-ins, fun & games TBA)

July 26th, Sunday

8:00am to 9:00pm Hackathon (check-ins, fun & games TBA)

August 1st, Saturday

8:00am to 9:00pm Hackathon (check ins, fun & games TBA)

August 2nd, Sunday

8:00am to 2:00pm Hackathon (check-ins, fun & games TBA)
2:00pm Hack ends. Prepare for final presentations
4:00pm Final Presentations & Judging
6:00pm to 9:00pm Networking
9:00pm Venue Closes

Health Hack 2020 announced. Bicycles Create Change.com 9th May 2020.

Images, video and content courtesy of Health Hack 2020

04/05/202013/11/2020

Worlding: Research Da(y)ze

People keep asking how my PhD is going. It’s a legitimate and infuriating inquiry. How to explain the research da(y)ze? Here’s one in 100 words.

It was never going to be easy: this spinning hyper-real simulacra imaginarium. Breathe in. Passionate tears during compost therapy. Breathe out. A research assistant job comes through. Vegetarian dumplings. Whispers of theoretical (in)security. Omissions, occlusions, occasions. Frangipani’s first buds. A maelstrom of attunement as I grip my red pen. Personifying landscapes, fast-forwarding childhoods, (re)working images, terraforming heartbreaks. Screaming all the while. Riding wild horses. An unoriginal miscellany. Embolden by Kathleen Stewart and my broadcasting sister’s birthday, I take solace in Manu’s grey bicycle T-shirt. Cheers all round. When all else fails, winter dog walks and melted cheese toasties.