Project VELAIA

I have a Hilleberg Nallo 2 GT tent for two years now. I’ve used it on several occasions, the first time on my Norway trip. It’s perfect for bigger tours because you can get your bike and enough equipment in the apsis. I’ve also taken it on a hiking trip together with my mother and our dog. The dog fit in the apsis perfectly and was well protected against rain.

Further in warm climates I use a good down sleeping bag which I use together with a small and lightweight Thermarest sleeping pad. I’ve used a Ortlieb sleeping pad on a longer trip but it was way to heavy but really puncture-proof, even with 4 people sitting on the pad at the same time. For the sleeping bag I got an inlet and a biwak which can close completely (good for mosquito protection) and you can still breath!

The Nallo 2 GT would have been a total overkill for the way through Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia and therefore I left it at home – I will probably use it in colder and more wet parts of my tour as far as these are predictable. Instead I got a 1kg, one person biwy tent that provides good mosquito and insect protection but is not good for extended showers. It is furthermore extremely small so I can`t sit inside which is a major drawback as you can’t do much more than sleeping in it – I am thinking about getting a better one person tent in about the same weight class but where I feel more comfortable and am better protected from cold and rainy nights.

Update (New Zealand, from posting):

Wow, what a stroke of luck: I was browsing through some outdoor shops in the Christchurch city center and stumbled upon a 25% off offer for Exped tents. Exped is a Swiss tent maker and I’ve stayed with Marc in one for a few nights in Tibet.

With the Exped Vela 1 Extreme 1person tent with a lot of space for the time in NZ I hope I won’t get wet too often during the night and will be more relaxed to bring you the best photos and stories.

Daniel on HighWay 50, USA, by Randy Jorgen, Moab, UT

This is the website and travelogue of The Project VELAIA. 23 year old thinker, velosopher, environmentalist, photographer and outdoor adventurer Daniel N. Lang has decided to go around the world by recumbent and upright bicycle after finishing an epic journey of more than 17.000km from Paris to Beijing as a rider of the Beijing to Paris 2007 Carfree Rallye, following coastlines for hundreds of kilometers, crossing deserts during mid summer in the Middle East, Central Asia and China and climbing some of the highest passes of the world under extreme conditions in the starting Tibetan winter.Check the summary of the journey through Europe and Asia to see what happened so far.

You can follow Daniel on his tour and stay updated on the latest adventures on the travelogue and receive latest updates per e-mail (right sidebar). Every posting includes a selection of pictures and some include small video clips. For all the pictures check out the flickr-account and go to YouTube for the clips.

Additional to the latest travelogue entries you can get general information about the tour on this website – just browse around a bit. You will find subpages in the “Page Menu” on the right side of the page – more information to the category you´re browsing at the moment can be found there!

Walking the recumbent bike in Tibet

To stay in touch with friends and to make the journey more interesting for readers links to the homepage of other travelers met on the way will be provided in the sidebar.

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.

I had a nice stay in Melbourne with Michael and Ann who live in a cozy old house in Moorabin suburb. Michael is the Moulton importer in Australia and together with Ann he lives a bicycle life. Ann just retired (very early), sold her house and now they are thinking about doing a big big tour, so we had a lot to talk about!

Now you might ask: What the hell is a Moulton? It is a foldable touring kind of bicycle which many use for touring or everyday life. It gets produced in England and there are many enthusiasts using it everywhere around the world.

The Moulton comes with full suspension (front and back) and in different configurations (some optimized for touring, other for the city and for speed). If you are further interested, just visit this link (for example). I already had a chance to test one in Toowomba where I stayed for 3 days more than a month ago.

Together with the two Moulton riders we went for a ride to the beach, to a bicycle cafe and on  the way home had some chips. In the evening I got delicious falaffels with salad, very tasty and spicy! The next day I went out with Michael to the Schwalbe tires importer of Australia who just happens to be based a few km away. There Michael got a stack of 15 tires for his Moultons and I was lucky and Guy gave me two Marathon XR for free (as I get sponsored by Schwalbe) so I won`t have to worry about flat or blown up tires any more! Thanks to Schwalbe and Guy!

Additionally I got long Merino wool underwear for the colder Australian Alps lying ahead.

When we put on the new tires in the evening two opossums were just walking a few meters away over a wooden fence from one tree to another, in the middle of the city!

Thank you Ann and Michael for these nice days!

The weather is wet and rainy outside. I am sitting in the warm, cozy house and plan the next 2.5 months in New Zealand. I will stay for 1.5 months on the South Island, first going south, then coming up to the center again and finishing to the north.

Later on I’m setting over to Wellington on the North Island and cycle the remaining 1 month over there to finish around 14th of May in Auckland to catch my plane to San Francisco.

Phenomenal CouchSurfer Danny, one of my hosts here, has printed out the South Island and stitched it together. He marked the most interesting places and I’m sure that his experience in outdoors in the Kiwi country will guarantee me a great time.

Additionally I’ve bought 2 maps, 1:500 000 for the South Island and the book “Classic New Zealand Mountainbike Rides, 6th edition” – it is a strange feeling as I’ve never been prepared and equipped with maps so good before!

I can’t wait to get on the trails and roads again but have to spend another day to get a proper tent and down sleeping bag for the coming adventures.

And while I am at it I want to thank some more people for contributions to my project:

• My sister Verena took some of her first self earned salary to guarantee her brother a warm shelter (tent) while he is on big tour! Thank you so much!
• Hans Rudolf Schaer, a fellow touring cyclist, for extending my flickr account where I put all my pictures for another year!

Over the past 1 to 2 weeks I have made some changes to the structure of the website:

• Changing Image Header, a feature that was broken since the beginning could be fixed and I’ve already put in about 30 different header images which change randomly
•  Distance Cycled and Latest News fields on the top right showing you the distance cycled so far and my latest mobile number with country code
• Categories english and german, where I am still sorting in the posts, so you can chose to only see the posts in your language
• The Recent posts and Recent comments in the right sidebar to see what’s going on
• A kind of newsletter, called FeedBurner, where you can subscribe to by putting in your e-mail address. So you will get the updates sent to you while they are still hot
• And I have put in my wishlist with gear and stuff I need or think I need

Wow, what a stroke of luck: I was browsing through some outdoor shops in the Christchurch city center and stumbled upon a 25% off offer for Exped tents. Exped is a Swiss tent maker and I’ve stayed with Marc in one for a few nights in Tibet.

With the Exped Vela 1 Extreme 1person tent with a lot of space for the time in NZ I hope I won’t get wet too often during the night and will be more relaxed to bring you the best photos and stories.