Project VELAIA

When do you start?

There are two starting dates. First, I’ll start in Germany at the Special Bikes Show 2007 in Germersheim April 28 + 29. This will mark my kilometer -700 or so. Then I’ll cycle to Paris where I will have my official start of my Paris to Peking trip right under the Eifel tower at 10 May. I’ve chosen this date because it’s in the middle of the dates of the other starters of the great Beijing to Paris 2007 Carfree rallye and because this seemed to give me enough time for both preparation and maybe even reaching Chine before winter.

How did you get involved with Beijing to Paris?

By pure fate! I happend to donate a one year subscription of the Carbusters Magazine to my sister when she got 18 and by that the drivers license. I thought that was a good compensation for her not to get too much into the motorists way of thinking and to open up far better alternatives for her. As we come from an car manufacturing area it’s normal for parents to pay the drivers license to their kids when they get 18 and many even bind their children to their first car by giving it to them to top it all of.

Are you riding solo?

I hope not! There’s one other rider doing the tour in the same direction but starting from Istanbul, as he cycled the Paris-Istanbul trip last year. He wants to start in Istanbul May 15th or so. We wanted to cycle together but don’t know whether the large time lag can be compensated some way.

Besides that I’m alway happy to cycle with others and with locals. So if you want to cycle with me (and are quite fit) or want me to participate in a local race or cycling tour/event that can in some way be combined with my tour, please please get in contact! I want to get to know (cycling) culture and that is cyclists and locals from all around the world!

How long do you plan to take for the whole trip?

I am planning with 100km / day and therefore about 220 days, so about 7 to 8 months. If I get problems with the weather (winter in Himalaya) or with bureaucracy it could take somewhat longer and I would even consider a more southern or northern route.

What do you want to do after the tour?

I’ve thought about continuing with physics at the university even though I’m tending to change to a more environmental study. It would also be great to get involved in environmental or bicycle activism through the tour and continue therewith after the tour. I’m also planing to learn at least French but maybe also some other languages. And of course I will continue touring (hiking, cycling, whatever!) around the planet as long as I can afford – I don’t want to work too much – Henry David Thoreau worked only for 60 days a year in 1850 – so why sould I work more with a tremendously increased productivity and therewith even destroy our beautiful planet further?

How do you finance the tour?

I primarily try to live with less. That is 5-10€ per day in Europe and in developed countries for food, internet, insurance, repair parts and 3-7€ per day in Asia for the same + visa. Many relatives and friends have offered me their help and I will use it if I need to – thanks! Especially my father, mother and sister support me. Thank you very much!

What about the toilets since Turkey?

No big deal!

When have you decided to continue?

The idea of continuing was already in my head before I actually started – it’s just the perfect time to do that kind of adventure, very likely a ‘once in my life’ chance. And during the tour it got more and more likely that I want to see more of this beautiful planet, this jewel that has been given to us.

Why have you changed to mountainbike?

First: I regret that I have changed! I will change back again. And here the reasons why I have changed:

• the publicity and curiosity of people since Central Asia and all through till Beijing was so big I often felt uncomfortable and annoyed alone on the recumbent – they were touching sensitive parts of the electronics, jumping on the bike while I was away … it was easier when I cycled with someone else
• the StreetMachine GT I had was too heavy – an estimated 20kg is not what an ultralight cyclist traveling at an average of over 100km/day even in bad terrain wants to invest too big proportions of his energy in to get it over steep and high mountains
• city cycling was not as much fun with the recumbent as with a normal bike – but only because of too many cars in the city! So it’s more like a problem with modern cities and the traffic planing in the same ones
• while riding you can’t “stand” like on the normal bike, e.g. when cycling uphill – just a bit less agility
• I planed to go more off-road, leave the main roads and start cycling trails – therefore a mountain bike with 26″ wheels

How many kilometers do you average per day?

That’s in fact a very frequent question. I used to average almost exactly 110km per day of riding with my recumbent, including the long and hard ride through Tibet. But on the new bike I take things a bit more relaxed and average maybe 50 to 70km per day of riding. Contributing to this recent laziness increase is also the new tent I got since New Zealand and the more exhausting position on the upright bicycle.

Do you use a wide angle lens or a wide angle converter lens?

I’m using a 18-200mm lens from Sigma and am so far really happy with it. It’s a really nice lens for traveling as you get a big range including wide angle. I got the tip from a book called “Digital Photography Vol. 2″ by Scott Kelby.

How do you do panorama photos…do use a special software….?

I have a software for Windows called Autopano PRO which automates a lot of processes in stitching a panorama image. I bet you can find a listing of the features online.

Additionally I had been using another free (of price) software called autostitch that also does a pretty good job.

These days I’m using a dirt slow iBook 600MHz with 640 MB of RAM and the stitching software that came with my Canon Digital Rebel XSi camera – the results are not what I’m hoping for and it takes ages to stitch a panorama – a really hard job! That’s probably why I”m not putting a lot of panos online any more, a fast notebook with decent processor would help a lot.

I’ve also read that the professional Adobe Photoshop software stitches panoramas but I’d call it an overkill to buy such a big and mighty software just for stitching panos.

And what camera are u using currently….?

Since San Diego I’ve been using a Canon Digital Rebel XSi. It’s a wonderful camera and allows me to set the theories and the knowledge about digital photography that I acquired through a lot of reading and testing as well as tips from other photographers I’ve met on my tour into practice.

My old 12x optical zoom Sony DSC-H5 is also a great camera but definitely came to its limits. My father is shooting with it these days (since South America).

The lens is the Sigma 18-200 mm with OS (image stabilization) for Canon EOS cameras.

Additionally I’m currently using a circular polarizer filter, a remote control, a pretty cheap travel tripod – that’s about it.

We got up at 9 am in the morning and took a metro to the UNESCO headquarters, Harrison and me. He got my stuff from his office and then he guided me through the arts exhibition on the ground floor of the headquarters. There we happened to meet Koïchiro Matsuura, the Japanese Director general of the UNESCO when he was passing.

 We also visited the Japanese garden and the huge conference room. After this I left Harrison and the UNESCO – thank you so much for that great experience. I hope we’ll meet again somewhere and sometime!

I went back to the cafe where I had free internet and energy and checked for CouchSurfers in Orleans, my next destination. One of them, Luis, replied immediately and so I had a place to stay in Orleans even though I hadn’t left Paris. The distance was about 123km, so I had to leave quite fast. On the way out of this huge city I bought some stuff I needed (food, tripple power plug).

After many kilometers on a N road my navigation software sent me to a small land road that was beautiful to cycle. I’ve had headwinds the fifth day in a row and at 7pm it also started to rain. But I’ve had a goal: Reach Orleans as soon as possible and so I had an 17 to 18km/h average even though there were really strong headwinds.

When I arrived in Orleans the batteries of my PDA were empty and I was still 8km away from my CouchSurfing host. This was not the luckiest moment of my journey but when I called Luis he told  me the way and even picked me up on the street next to the Loire river – thanks!

“Rain rain come again”. Actually I didn’t see much of the high Pyrenee mountains because there were clouds everywhere and it was only in the late afternoon that the blue sky could be seen.

 

I left Michael and his children quite late at 10am or so and cycled the same way back that I took the evening before to come to Lagos.

Together with two boys I played a short table tennis match and found them a way to get to the real tennis field

The landscape in this area is really beautiful – the same intense green as in the Ardennes but with a even lower population density. The big disadvantage if you’re travelling with luggage are the many hills with about 100m hight difference in the average! It’s not one big mountain – that’d be OK. But these many small climbs start to confuse you, especially because they can get as steep as 14% and more!

 

In the evening I found a cool spot to sleep in: a town hall that was in a renovation process right now. There I had everything: a save place that I could even lock, electrical energy and water! But it also took me about half an hour of searching to find it

 

After a beautiful night with a  stunning view on Rome I left the hills of Tusculum and went inwards Italy into the direction  of  Brindisi.

 

On the SS6 street there was rush hour – fortunately in the opposite direction.I have  noticed a  phenomenon  that   started just south of Rome: Drivers honking before they overtake you. I interpret this as a warning not  only for me but also for the drivers going into the opposite direction.Then in the morning I was lucky to fiind a store for mobiles where they had a PDA and a PC to install my Bluetooth Smart Keyboard software on and after this  transfer  it per SD card to my PDA.The weather was quite hot and foggy so that cycling was quite difficult and I couldn’t see too much of the wonderful mountain panorama you normally have in this area – sounds quite familiar (remember my report of the Pyrenees?).

In the afternoon it  started to rain again and  I  was lucky to find a fuel station with electrical energy and water. While I was eating my 1kg melon the clouds ate the mountains. I’ve then been washing and drying some of my clothes  during the last two hours – last time they got washed in a not natural way  was in Orleans

 

It’s 10pm now and I’ve found a villa which is being built. A great panorama view!

 

When I am thinking about the last two days I see this long way to Erzurum in front of me. The scenery is still a beautiful green valley with high mountains to the left and right but it is a bit more crowded ’cause it seems to be the main connection in the north to IRAN and the east of

 

There are many fruit sellers next to the street and you can get really tasty and cheap energy there. I spent one night in a little fruit seller chimney where there was a bank I could sleep on.

I have been informed by a fruit seller that he has hosted a cyclist from Allemanya called Christopher just a day before – but the communication was a bit hard so it could have been a week, month, year or even a lifetime before But alone the possibility to cycle with another German or English speaking cyclist for a few kilometers motivated me quite a bit so I made some more kilometers the second day.On the same day I have been stopped by the police (POLIS) twice – not for passport checking but for checking, tea and photos – they are a lot more polite here than in the western part as it seems to me. At the second check point (a police station) I even got some minutes internet access and some peaches.

 

In a restaurant next to the street I had a quite cheap vegetarian meal of Pide with the usual Turkish salad (gurks, tomatoes and normal green salad) and took the chance of remembering that the brakes had made some strange sounds to change the Magura brake pads the first time after over 7000km – only the ones of the front disc brake because I am using it in 97% of the cases I have to break. So I have to say again that I am really happy about the equipment and bike!

The place for the night is booked next to the river under a beautiful clear sky with uncountable stars and the sound of the fast flowing river in the background completing the atmosphere and reminding me to the cycling trip in Norway in 2005 (only difference being that it would have been still light in the north).290km with 2500 hight meters in 2 days (average of 18,4km/h)

Due to too many delicious fruits, the extreme heat with often over 40°C in the noon and early afternoon and due to distances over 100km I got really bad stomach aches the following three days. I tried to get them away with fasting and eating only very soft meals but in the evening they most often came back even harder.

But despite these problems cycling through the brown and dry Iranian landscape – for me it often seemed quite desert like – was a real pleasure. The roads here follow vallies as far as they can and don`t take unnecessary hills like many roads you will find in Turkey.

In the evenings I found places next to the street because I wanted to get to bed quite fast and not have hours-lasting conversations that would make getting up early in the next morning quite difficult
In Tabriz I visited the monumental grave of a famous Iranian poet and author and went to the tourist office where I met Nasser Khan, a “Bunter Hund” speaking eight languages and taking care for all tourists coming along the way. He manages a really interesting guestbook and a book exchange where I left 2 books and got 2 other books in exchange. He will even exchange $ and € to the actual exchange rate without provision! (picture follows)
I had found a host, Saber, in Tehran to host me during the time I have to wait for the Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan visa in Tehran and told him I would arrive in Tehran on Monday, leaving the bike somewhere on the way to pick it up after the applications and ride into Tehran. But I was very very weak due to the stomach problems with food processing (got no energy from it) and decided therefore to take a bus into Tehran together with my bike – the Iranian visa lasts only 30 days and I don`t want to risk anything.

So I got 3 tickets for the bus, 2 for me and one for the bike, so that I had enough room to sleep during the bus transfer – and it was really cheap: about 8€ for 3 tickets bringing me the about 450km to Tehran that were still left.
On the bus I meta really helpful student of agriculture who helped me to contact Saber by phone and so I was picked up at 3am from the western bus terminal in Tehran.
On Monday I immediately went to the Turkmenistan embassy – but it had moved. I found the new location quite quickly and after that I met Narges, a girlfriend of Saber, and we went into the city center to apply for a Uzbekistan visa at a travel agency (200$), get a book about China and also a map. Narges then left me for her English classes (she is an English teacher) and I went into the street where the outdoor shops are located to get a small and lightweight 1kg biwak tent for the more harsh climates in front of me. By the way: (for travelers coming my way): The new Turkmenistan embassy is located near the Azerbaijan embassy:
Str. Farmanyeh Vatanpour Str. Barati 5
Tehran
Tel. 021-222 06 306
The next day was spent researching the internet for visa information, contacting friends and relatives in Germany and doing many smaller jobs. In the evening I met Saber and some of his beautiful girlfriends at a nice rocky valley at the foots of the 3000-4000 meter mountains in the north of Tehran. We had dinner and some interesting conversations together but unfortunately they had to work the next day and therefore had to leave quite early.