| 13.08.2010 the end of the trip |
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after 488 days and 26271km back in Switzerland
"As easy as now, after this long training, it will never be anymore," I told Lisa. It was easy to convince her for the 5 mountain-pass-road (Bernina, Julier, Oberalp, Furka, Grimsel) as the end of our tour! We followed the mountain bikers or road cyclists (not everyone on a race bicycle is also a bike racer) uphill and took the passes easily without being exhausted. It was fun watching the faces when we asked for help for a summit photo and the people asked for example: "Did you start in Andermatt?" And we replied "no, a little further, in China!" However, our used equipment: my worn out hat with plenty of holes, frayed cycling short or Lisa`s patched mud guards made us credible. Two times we camped on top of the mountain passes, the first time on Bernina we listened in the tent the evening news - Lisa to learn German and I to get since a long time some local news. After the first news: "please attention, near the highway between Düdingen and Freiburg is a dog on the highway" ... For 16 months we have seen thousands of dead animal corpses along the street. Everything we saw alive we also saw dead, from very small to large animals like camels. Few of the drivers seemed to respect us more respect than a straying dog. 16 months and 26’271km we were lucky, were never hit, even tough it was sometimes close and often dangerous. Every day, this danger was more acute and much more threatening to us than any terrorists we were warned and because of which some of the countries we visited are avoided. Also with our health we were quite lucky. Lisa's scratched knees from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are already healed and the spots of the bug bites disappeared again. Of course we suffered sometimes from diarrhea or had other small problems. Nevertheless, we were not very careful, ate everything and treated the water just with MicroPour drops. We had neither to visit a doctor nor interrupt our travel for a few days break due to illness. The bikes were just as healthy and fit as we ... both rear tires I had to change after about 20`000km, perhaps two dozen flats to repair and broken shift cable to change. In Turkey both rear hubs made unusual noise. I had to disassemble the hubs, polish the ball bearing rings and change the balls. Probably because of the very fierce sandstorms in China dirt passed the sealing and created friction! We have got thousands of impressions and stories, especially those with people. So often we were invited to peoples home. Had seen life’s which are so different than ours, could observe and process our feelings later on in the saddle. We had visited many historical sites along our route, seen remaining of many different old cultures and in the end it assembled like a puzzle. Even if it was not always easy (the larger the desert, the stronger the headwind the greater the conflict potential) we never thought on giving up. We had our original route idea time and again extended because we enjoyed the life as bike nomads more and more. For the many hours pedaling we were more than royally rewarded. After the next news item was reported that the dog has left the highway. We definitely arrived in my so little home country, where even a dog on a highway can make it into the main evening news. Everything seems a little petty, but nevertheless we are happy to settle down and start a new part of our life. |
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