Last spring I stumbled across some amazing online photos from a young man on an around-the-world bicycle tour. Consider the one above that was taken in Tibet.
I quickly traced them to Daniel Lang at his Project VELAIA website. He's a German bicyclist who happened to be in New Zealand. At the time, he had traveled some 16,000 miles; I wrote a short piece about his bike tour on my blog.
Daniel recently contacted me to say he had completed his tour. He's back home in Furfeld, Germany, after completing his nearly 25,000-mile (40,000km) journey by bicycle and recumbent.
Homecoming
He pedaled through Europe on the last leg of his trip, passing through Amsterdam, where he was impressed by so many people riding bicycles. On his last day of cycling in Germany, he stopped at the house where he grew up before he reached his family's new home:
“Now I visit this place where I’ve spent so many years of my life, the house where I had grown up in, the street where I had learned cycling and the center of my little world until a few years back. A strange feeling in my breast.”
I can imagine his feelings after being on the road for 20 months across 5 continents. At his website, Project VELAIA, he charts his meandering route around the globe.
Carfree rally
He was among 20 adventurers who set out in 2007 on the Beijing to Paris Carfree Rally, to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of a car rally across Asia and Europe. The travelers took different routes for their car-free tour; Daniel did it by bicycle in the opposite direction — from Paris to Beijing.
After cycling through Europe, the Middle East and into China and Tibet, he flew to Australia and New Zealand (left), where he spent months bicycling.
Then he explored the southwestern United States by bicycle before winding up in South America, where he was met by his father. They bicycled through the Andes, visiting Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and Chile.
So what does a 23-year-old do now that he's bicycled around the world?
“I'm wondering whether a 3 months update of my website with picture edits, more GSP information and more information in general would make sense or whether I should better start immediately with work.”
He's also planning to do some lecturing about his travels by bicycle. I'm sure we can all learn about from his experiences. Check out his Project VELAIA website for his travelogue, route, and information about his bike and equipment.
More high resolution pictures from Daniel's around-the-world bicycle tour at VELAIA at flickr.com.
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