China (all)

A solo, unsupported and mostly illegal ride from Kashgar in Western China to Lhasa in Tibet along the infamous highway 219. There's already detailed practical information about this tough route available, but nothing I could find which described in detail what the route was like to ride and had lots of big pictures.

This is probably one of the toughest routes in the world a bike tourist could do. The road is terrible, there are long stretches without food or water, much of it is at extreme altitude (5400m max with several weeks over 5000m), many rivers have no bridge and much of the ride is technically illegal.

The reward is astonishing scenery, amazing culture and a sense of utter isolation.

We are Tim and Cindie Travis.

We left our Arizona, USA home back in March ( 2002), and have been traveling by bicycle throughout the world. We have peddled through Arizona, Mexico, Central and South America. Our future plans include Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, Russia, Canada, and the USA. Our plans will take us the next several years to complete.

Visit our popular web site that is updated frequently as we travel. You will enjoy thousands of pictures, our daily journal, and the online discussion.

Un viaje en bicicleta siguiendo los paises que rodean el mar mediterraneo, hasta turquia, y paso de georgia y azerbayan saltando el mar caspio a kajhastan y desde alli hasta los juegos olimpicos de pekin 08, atravesando uzbekistan, kyrsjystan y china desde el oeste hacia el este, un viaje de 6 meses de duracion que acaba de comenzar y se puede seguir en la pagina web www.carabancheltobeijing08.com un viaje en solitario recorriendo la antigua ruta de la seda y como fin unos juegos olimpicos, que viento nos empuje en nuestras pedaladas!

Planète D. is our volunteering and filming world tour on the tandem bike. It’s that simple.

We cycle.
We film, edit and share videos.
We volunteer for NGOs.

A world tour on a rather odd bicycle.

As a rider of the Beijing to Paris 2007 Carfree rallye to celebrate better, carfree mobility (see www.beijingtoparis.com), I am riding in the opposite direction from Paris to Beijing.

I try to get in contact with local cycling culture as much as I can and to spread peace over the world!

The bike I am undertaking this tour with is a recumbent touring bike equipped with high quality components. So far (end of July 07) I haven't had a single technical defect!

We are performing a 2 years (theoretically) trip around Eurasia. During the trip, we are performing a photo documentation for ICOMOS, an expert organization of UNESCO about cultural heritage. The database created will be available on the website.

We wish with this project to perform some challenging cycling, linking with useful actions.

Our website relates our diary and we are putting plenty of photos and comments (and lots of other fields are going to come, such as advices, technical data...).

Welcome to the Wish Tour!

Below you will find the photos and journal from a two-year, 20,000-mile bicycle journey around the world.

Starting in July 2005, this journal will take readers across the United States, Europe, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Borneo, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

The journey began more than 20 years ago, as the seeds of a dream to circumnavigate the globe were cultivated from a deeply personal and painful experience.

[Absolutely stunning pictures.]

We are Sarah Erck and James Welle, two 27 year old ex-Microsoft employees who decided to get married, quit our jobs, sell all of our material possessions, and travel around the world on our bicycles for one year...or more!

It all began innocently enough in 2005 when Sarah's mom gave James the book Miles from Nowhere on his birthday. Sarah, being the bookworm that she is, read the book immediately and fell in love with the idea of riding a bicycle around the world. James was a little more reluctant at first; he was an avid cyclist but was worried about quitting his job and spending a lot of money on a trip like this. Sarah persisted and in the end she was able to convice James to take the plunge and in September of 2006 they decided to officially do the trip after James finished his work on Windows Vista. The fall of 2006 was spent furiously planning and preparing for our departure date of January 2007!

A travelogue from an 8 month, 16,000km bike tour from London to Beijing via the ancient silk roads.

A 40,000 km. 3 year ride through 30 countries, from far eastern Russia (Siberia) in winter, to London England, via Australia. Trying to cover the whole route by bicycle and boat only. I have encountered plenty of good times and a few tough ones, noteably in Siberia (camping at minus forty), Papua New Guinea (pushing my bike down a beach as no roads) and Tibet (in winter).

12 countries, 12,000 kilometers, five men and five bikes. This is the story of a remarkable bicycle journey across Asia nearly entirely by bicycle. At the time, we believed it to be geographically and politically, the most diverse summer ride the planet had to offer.

The website contains hundreds of high resolution photographs, extensive journals of each country and much advice on gear, immunizations, maps, routes and visas.

We are now in Cambodia, after 10 months of cycling thru New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand. Our site is bilingual.

Our web site is about the trip that we are now realizing. We have gone across the world to go back to Canada. We already crossed 5 different countries in 10 months. We will keep biking for around 2 more years. The subject treated by the web page is mostly about our trip (story, pictures, organisation) but we added a lot of other stuff like recipes, rock climbing, and small articles. We are French-Canadian, so our web site is belingual.

Joris en Stella fietsen vanaf augustus 2005 van Nederland richting China. Na een uitstapje door het middenoosten wordt nu de weg naar het oosten voor gezet.

The Route:

Americas: Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina
Atlantic Traverse: Azores Islands [Portugal]
Europe: Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey
The Middle East: Iran
Central Asia: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, India
South East Asia: Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia
Australasia: Australia

Welcome to the Brink Expedition!

Imagine attempting a global traverse that would take you 50,000 kilometres through some of the most difficult terrain and extreme weather on the planet, all the time attempting to use only human power and the natural elements.

Starting deep in the heart of Amazonian South America the Brink Expedition will encounter unforgiving Patagonian winds, snowed over Himalayan Mountain passes, monsoons on the sub-continent and the oppressive heat of Australia's Red Centre.

So while the clock ticks, the seasons will turn, making this a full-throttled Race Against the Elements!

This website accompanies the book ``Why Don't You Fly?'' (ISBN 1-905203-25-X published by Pen Press).

How does it feel to trade comfort and security for life as a nomad and to pare one's life down to the bare necessities? What is it like to push at the frontiers of one's physical and mental endurance?

``Why Don't You Fly?'' is the account of an epic adventure in search of an elusive sense of identity in which triumph, disappointment, discomfort, exhaustion and exhilaration all trade positions against a backdrop of prodigious physical endeavour. During a gruelling 16,500-mile examination of physical and mental stamina the author ate and drank in roadside cafés in the company of inquisitive lorry drivers and shared dormitories in remote Chinese villages with fascinated farm hands and gleeful mosquitoes. Sceptical western existentialism met religious fatalism in the restaurants and teahouses of the Middle East and India in the course of a physical and spiritual journey that constantly raised questions about the attitudes and values that prevail in the West.

The Website includes a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of the book, a sample chapter and 93 photographs.

In the fall of 1998 I set off on a long journey by bike. It covered more than 15000 kilometers and 14 countries. During this trip I was hit by rocks and cars, I was baked, soaked, and deep frozen by the weather gods. Mostly, however, I had a superb opportunity to see some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, meet wonderful people and enjoy the culture of widely differing lands. This site is about my bike trip from Sweden to South-East Asia via Eastern Europe, The Middle East, Pakistan, China, and Tibet. It also contains general information and links on bicycle touring and travelling in general.

Ernst Poulsen is a photo journalist, and has photos from bicycle trips to China and Israel.