List - bikepackground.com

Jan

1

2000

List

Aug

23

2019

Bolivia & Peru: Trail tales

How would you explain the concept of tourism to an elderly man who had spent his life on 4600m, in a secluded valley, in company of his lamas and alpacas? We did our best - and failed. "What do you want here?" He repeated his question with skepticism. We tried to break down the reasons for our presence: "We are …

Aug

6

2018

Kyrgyzstan: All good things come in threes

"Pervyy raz?" Asked the taxi driver in Russian when we were driving towards the center of Bishkek. "No, we are in Kyrgyzstan for the third time", we answered. „Akouda?" Came the next question. "Schweizaria" we continued the question and answer game patiently, already knowing what would come next. Et voilà: "Kyrgyzstan …

Jun

24

2018

Morocco: I really like the hike-a-bike

At Easter we got snowed in. We looked out of the door and saw how thick white flakes were covering the spring green. We have been working already for eight weeks now. Slowly we were finding our way back into the old life, even though sometimes we wondered how it could happen that we were back into it. A particularly …

Feb

28

2018

Now it‘s time to be home

When we landed in Basel before Christmas, we were thinking of a short travel break in Switzerland. Spending the holidays with the family, sleeping in the same bed for a few weeks, feeling at home in one place for a while. And after this time-out, set off for new goals with new curiosity and eager to live the life on …

Dec

20

2017

Jordan & Israel: Desert Groove

Desert and bike: two things that usually do not like each other. A pity, because we love desert. Being in absolute silence, only the wind and the own breath in the ear, monochrone colors in ocher and brown, in which a little plant becomes a miracle, nights without light pollution, but sleeping under the bright Milky …

Nov

1

2017

Madagascar: the power of media

Shortly before midnight, October 21th: We are standing in the departure hall of Antananarivo Airport, Madagascar, bidding farewell to five happy explorers, whom we showed our "personal Madagascar" during the last month. A wonderful group, awesome memories, encounters and experiences. A mosaic stone in our own Madagascar …

Sep

14

2017

Chasing gold in the Russian Altay

"You must have seen everything!" friends say sometimes when our nomadic lifestyle becomes a topic. Of course we haven‘t, but we need to admit that it is becoming more and more difficult to find places where our wanderlust still wakes up the butterflies in the stomach. We are no longer happy with copper coins. We want …

Aug

12

2017

Mongolia: Adventure without Hashtag

A hashtag ["#"] is a type of metadata tag used on social networks which makes it possible for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. (Wikipedia) With the city of Hovd we reach the desert. Red rocks, sand, a few lonely camels. Corrugated roads, rattling teeth and bones. But there is waiting …

Jul

24

2017

Mongolian proverbs

"As long as your horse is strong, travel and learn to know different places." Uliastay. Not mentioned in any travel guide book explicitly and only a small dot on the map: Aimag capital of the Zavkhan province. But actually it is just a small Mongolian village. No place you have to see. And certainly …

Jun

17

2017

Tibet: The head in the clouds

Our head is in the clouds. Not real, virtual. The satellite image shows nothing but a large, white surface. Zooming in, the page reloads, now the clouds are gone. Brown contours, and barely visible, somewhere between the shades a thin brighter band - our track. It winds along the hills to a lake. Then up to a pass. That …

May

12

2017

Seven years in Eastern Tibet

It is always amazing how fast the years go by. Mementos begin to fade, resembling more and more the bleached prayer flags which were waving over us in the Jinsha Valley seven years ago. We were convinced that these translucent tissues were spared from the wind, that they would withstand all the weather. Like our memories. …

Mar

19

2017

Magic Myanmar

Mingalaba! It sounds like a magic spell, the Burmese "hello". Mingalaba! And as a magical, fairy-tale country Myanmar has been marketed worldwide in the last years. Top Destination 2017, crowned as a land of golden smiles, an exclusive destination: now you have to go, just after the opening, before the country loses …

Feb

12

2017

Arunachal Pradesh: Present

"We live in the present, the past and the future does not concern us." Paplav serves us spiced milk tea. He works as a teacher in Seppa and has invited us in his home. "I belong to the Nyishi, the largest cultural group of Arunachal Pradesh. Our people live only in the present, in the moment. Therefore I am so happy, …

Jan

27

2017

In love with North-East India

India was never a serious part of our travel plans. To be honest, we have it even ignored. To well we remember the Austrian cyclist, who we met around ten years ago on the Manali - Leh highway. "Flatland India by cycle? Forget it!" With sunken cheeks and exhausted eyes, he summarized his three-month tour: "Bloody dangerous …

Dec

24

2016

Places and faces of Nepal

Candles in the streets of Pokhara - warm light fills the homes. Colorful Mandalas made of sand on the sidewalks, an orange trail leads into the shops and cafes, usually directly to the cash desk. It is Tihar, the festival of lights in Nepal. The candles and patterns should bring happiness and prosperity. And in Pokhara …

Nov

12

2016

Nepal: Dolpa

The full moon rises over the mountain tops, a crystal ball on a marine velvet cloth. In violent gusts the wind blows from the pass, spreads coarse-grained sand and tears at the tent. The temperature is far below zero. We are cold, even though we are lying in the sleeping bag with thermo underwear, down jacket, and Goretex …

Oct

2

2016

With a broad grin in Ladakh

Like crumpled kraft paper are below us the dry mountains of Ladakh and Zanskar. Warm morning light licks the cold shadows of the valleys and projects bluish outlines on the snowfields and glaciers of the highest peaks. Slowly the plane lowers over the green oasis of the Indus valley, flies a final bend and lands. Exactly …

Aug

26

2016

Canada: A look at the bookshelf

For some time now we feel trapped in the same old story. Getting up, breakfast, pack up tent, start cycling. Dense is the forest on both sides of the trail, we pass through a dark green hose. A handful of dried fruit and a chocolate bar after two hours of riding. Two hours later, lunch time. Finally time for the MP3. …

Jul

18

2016

USA: Great Divide

Hot. The sweat resistant sunscreen flows to white islets on our arms. The skin feels like sandpaper. Salt crystals pattern T-shirt and face. The gummy bears are melted to a compact colorful mass. And the water bottles are all empty again. But the steep dirt road winds, unimpressed by our whining further upwards. Did …

Jun

5

2016

USA: Wild West

The USA - Hardly any other country we seem to know so well, without ever having visited it before. The yellow school buses - "Forest Gump" - the newspaper boxes - we smile, when we remember the scene in "While You Were Sleeping" when the newsboy caught the ice with the front wheel of his bike and flies with elegance …

Apr

8

2016

Alaska: "Wheelmen" in Wonderland

Once upon a time, when the rivers in Alaska still carried gold nuggets in size of a fist, thousend of fortune seekers broke up in the extreme north of America, settled on the banks of the Yukon and followed a common dream: to find Eldorado. Alaska flourished, fast as a wildflower after snowmelt. Settlements were built …

Jan

25

2016

Puna Projects

Preparation "Ah, mucha arena, mucha caminata, mucho viento!" One of the two Argentine bici-expedicionistas is complaining in the youtube video. Yes, it looks very sandy, more than half of the way from Fiambala up to the Paso de Buenaventura and further past the volcano …

Dec

8

2015

With El Nino in the Andes

At least you could count on El Niño. Every few years around Christmas time the trade winds would slacken and the cool Humboldt Current would warm up, destroying the feed and scattering the hungry mackerel, bonito and sardines. Ucañan’s forefathers had called it El Niño – the Christ child. Sometimes it was …

Oct

21

2015

Pura Vida in Patagonia

The world is big. The map of Africa lies sorted out on the floor, the bikes are packed in cartons and the panniers are just waiting for the final protective cover of waste bags and packing tape. Ready for the onward journey, but where? …

Aug

5

2015

Madagascar

There are places in the world that attract us in a special way and don't let us go anymore. Trigger for this could be spectacular landscapes, adventurous trails and roads or unusual encounters with people. In Madagascar it's a bit of everything. That's why we return again and again. …

Jul

1

2015

Countdown to Capetown

3400km to Cape Town: an encore of the rainy season, the Victoria Falls. Two steps forward and we are flushed. Two steps back and the sun shines. So it should always be. Yes, they are impressive, these shatter water masses which thunder here over a width of nearly two kilometers …

Apr

17

2015

Rainy season in Central Africa

Climate change in hours: a thousand meters it goes down to Uganda, it's getting green and tropical. High humidity, heat, sweat, sunscreen and road dirt – not only camp in the evening, but somewhere looking for a cold shower. In Kampala, we decide to take a cycling break, giving us a jeep with driver and go on safari. …

Mar

10

2015

Time shift in Ethiopia

And suddenly being on the road with a different time measurement isn't a mind game anymore, no longer a "what if ...", but a reality. By crossing the Ethiopian border, we become eight years younger at a stroke. In the country still applies the Coptic calendar with thirteen months per year and thus we enter the land not …

Jan

5

2015

North Africa: What if...

...time would suddenly no longer be measured in hours, minutes and seconds, but in the distance you move, in the way one goes every day? Some would immediately jump on the next train and travel to the next weekend. Then, they would probably move the less possible so that it never became Monday. And some would terminate …

Nov

25

2014

Oman: My Sultan, my hero

It is November 18th. As we walk this morning into the lobby of our hotel in Muscat, we hit almost a stepladder. On the top of it the receptionist tries to keep his balance while attaching a white-red-green striped balloon with an adhesive strip on the ceiling. "It's National day!" He calls out as soon as the balloon …

Nov

18

2014

Arabian nights in Oman

We're standing on the Omani border, surprised by the darkness. A long column of trucks is waiting at the checkpoint, headlights are flooding the terrain, vibrating motors, dust. Not a suitable place for camping. From the military base, we are politely, but firmly turned away, the Pakistani at the coffeeshop are underlings …

Oct

20

2014

Thumbs up North-West China

Zash! With a loud bang the noodles hit the table, are dragged out, then turned quickly around each other and end up with a renewed “zash” on the surface. The Uighur cooking gives us a broad grin while he lets them slip into the steaming pot of water. Then he turns around and pours plenty of oil in the wok. A flame …

Sep

7

2014

Sound souvenirs of Mongolia

"Memories ... they were not only an immensely valuable, but also an extremely fragile asset for him. There was no relying on it. Memories deceived. Memories faded. New impressions, new faces, smells, sounds laid over the old, loosing gradually in intensity until they were forgotten. At all costs, he wanted to prevent …

Aug

28

2014

North-East China: Aoluguya

Gu Genju sees the movie in his mind: "Aoluguya - the last reindeer hunters ...". A budget of four million Euros. That should be enough for the project. The village has long been ready. "Scandinavian style”, as it wanted the makers. Something out of the ordinary for extraordinary people. His appearance: Slight supine …

Jun

20

2014

Colors of East-Asia

Green. Tender fresh green, only just awakened. Small leaves on a branch, the buds could have jumped yesterday. The tree stands in front of an Orthodox chapel, a few hundred meters away from our hostel in Vladivostok. A flight over the ice fields of the Ochotsk sea is behind us, a season jump. The world is colorful again, …

Apr

25

2014

Siberian winter

A wave rolls towards the shore, underground. The water licks on the thick ice cover, triggers a low rumble. Sharp bangs spreading like a net. Suddenly the wide crack a few meters next to us begins to live. A crunch, like two steel plates that rub together. Slowly, a thick sheet of ice pushes over the other, piles up …

Feb

8

2014

Time-out in Nepal

The world is terribly complex. Every day we make about 20,000 decisions, the brain researcher Ernst Poppel has once calculated. Granted, most of them are routine. In fact about 90 percent of them. If we would collect for every single decision all arguments, weigh them all against each other, assess and think through …

Jan

1

2014

Iran diary

18.11.13 Soon it's day. Arriving in a new country, taking the first steps. A stone silhouette at dawn resembles a veiled woman. Looking for breakfast and shopping for the day. A stealthy grip on the head, the scarf is still sitting right? Amusement over imitated products: …

Nov

11

2013

Caucasus

Yesterday we reached Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. Unprepared, no map in head, no hotel address written out, it was already getting dark. Carelessly, you might think. That sounds like hours of wandering, like unsuccessful attempts to overcome language barriers, like endless stress …

Sep

28

2013

Across Turkey

Women in mini skirts, women in headscarves, women in black veils. Opposites that catch the eye. Modern cities and remote villages, western thinking and rooted traditions. Businessmen in suit and tie, shepherds in knitting sweaters and tattered pants. Common to them all: The Turkish hospitality, …

Aug

31

2013

Encounters at the end of Europe

Once a year, Dragon comes from Serbia to Montenegro. After the long bus ride, he sits at the gas station in Niksic, drinking a beer before he walks one kilometer to his parents' house. There he stays in his deceased father's house, visits the family, travels the next day back to Serbia. …

Jul

7

2010

Borderland

A land ends, another begins. Where is the border? A tearing river, high mountains. Wild areas, beautiful and untouched. Lonely. You often can't move freely in this areas. If you don't wont to cross illegally the green border, you remain hanging on an invisible line. A land ends, another begins. Borderland. …

May

19

2010

Eastern Tibet

It's always amazing how quickly encounters pass. The wind carries them away, the sun bleaches them out like a cloth that has been exposed too long to the weather. All that remains, is a translucent fabric of voices and faces. A cobweb of stories and acquaintances. It lasts over time. In the Jinsha valley prayer flags …

Apr

6

2010

China

In Shanghai, it bangs. The Chinese New Year is celebrated devil-style. Clouds of black powder smoke is drifting around the corners and the sky explodes with fireworks. Red lanterns decorate the streets and fire balloons ascend far beyond the skyscrapers. It might scare you from all the noise, even if it's only meant …

Feb

8

2010

Japan: Mono No Aware

Mono No Aware. Every moment is a breath. Time is ticking away and leaves behind only memories. What remains and what goes forget, when you leave a country? Shreds and fragments only, the further away you get, the less accurate they are. You lose details and in return you see the outline. Clear shapes are easier to remember …

Jan

10

2010

Bayarlaa Mongolia

Whenever you ride your bike in a deserted landscape, it happens. The cyclist shrinks, the sky opens. In the beginning waits the uncertainty, the fear of loneliness. It stuffs at the courage, inforces the disorientation. Sometimes it is the lack of water, the wind, a hostile wasteland. Here it's the coldness, wheel tracks, …

Dec

1

2009

Altai

Eighty kilograms have been displayed at the luggage scale. We have been astonished ourself. Now everything is signed and sealed. The completely disassembled bikes block the rear part of the train compartment. Two nights and a day in the Turksib railway bring us, across the Kazakh steppe, into the Russian winter. …

Oct

20

2009

Magic Bus

We need several days for the logistical preparations of our Inylchek tour. We have to buy and to pack provisions for 14 days in the town of Karakol. Three days for our outward journey by bicycle to the Inylchek Base Camp, seven days of trekking to Merzbacher Lake and over Tjuz pass, another four cycle days to the Kazakh …

Sep

26

2009

Tien Shan

Speeding cars and lead clouds. On the way from Osh to Jalal Abad the hell is going on. The road has no end. A delivery truck is overtaking. Black label, yellow background: "Cooler and ventilation". Scrap from Germany. The license plate shows the letters APK. APK for Apocalypse? The road has no end. Two bunkers stuck …

Aug

22

2009

Pamir

The river foams and roars. Too much water for this season. The winter was hard. Remnants of snow are still sticking under the peaks, patches the barren slopes like the fur of a snow leopard. A few brown splashes clap from the Panj River, trying to reach the narrow dirt road that clings on the opposite side of the embankment. …

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