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Two-wheeled adventurers cycle from London to Lhasa

13 February 2009 08:39 (UTC +04:00)

Bakuâ€“ APA-Economics. Eager adventurers - Krista Bernard, from the Byron Shire, and her partner, Daniel Coward, on an epic bicycle journey from London to Lhasa, will travel across Azerbaijan in spring.
With environmental awareness high in their profile, their project, named RideHimalaya, is raising money for Rainforest Rescue, an Australian non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the worldâ€™s dwindling rainforests and saving them for current and future generations.
Rainforest Rescue is committed to a number of biodiversity ecosystem-related projects aimed at protecting tropical forests including buying land threatened by deforestation in aid of the fight against climate change.
â€œOur aim is to travel sustainably, live simply and create peaceful connections with the people we meetâ€¦. We plan to use Reise Know-How maps for the Caucasus section of our expedition,â€ says Krista Bernard.
â€œIt will be a great learning opportunity and chance to expand our cultural appreciation of the world. Many daunting challenges lie in-store,
but ultimately our feeling is that of excitement,â€ Daniel adds.

Bike Ride Route and Schedule

After 4000 kilometers (2500 miles) of tough pedaling across Europe, they are working and resting in Istanbul, Turkey for the winter to continue cycling for another 11 000 kilometers (6800 miles) on to Georgia and Azerbaijanâ€¦. in spring.
Before Turkey, their expedition took them on a route through Europe via the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria.
After crossing the Caspian Sea into Central Asia, they will cycle through the deserts of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, where they are expecting scorching summer temperatures of 50 degrees. Conversely, the 5000 meter passes in neighboring Tajikistan will see the cycling duo dealing with altitude and sub-zero temperatures. No doubt there will be celebrations by the time the couple reach China. From there, they will pedal across the vast Tibetan Plateau, known by locals as the roof of the world, to reach Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People’s Republic of China, before snowfall closes the high altitude passes.
As the seat of the Dalai Lama at the foot of Mount Gephel, Lhasa is the highest capital in the world. Lhasa literally means "place of the gods".
The journey is inspired by Kristaâ€™s epic 15,000 kilometre solo bike ride from Indonesia to Egypt between 1996 and 2000. During this time, she decided to forsake air travel to make her journey as sustainable as possible. In the same way, the couple hope to make the entirety of their journey without flying, whilst raising money for a vital environmental cause.

Technical issues & Statistics

They are traveling the world on hand-built Koga-Miyata bicycles. These bikes are built especially for touring and come already equipped with front and back racks, drinks bottles and stands. Having dealt with countless broken spokes in the past, their bikes now have 4 extra spokes on the back wheel to reinforce them.
Their interesting moments in figures:
Distance cycled: 2559 kilometres
Biggest day: 93 kilometres
Top speed: 73.2 km/h
Average distance cycled per day: 55 kilometres
16%: steepest hill up
14%: steepest hill down
Punctures: 4 (all on Danâ€™s back wheel)
Major cities: The Hague (Holland), Antwerp (Belgium), Cologne (Germany), Salzburg and Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Slovakia), Budapest (Hungary)
Most surprising camping place: Lake Tinninger, Bavaria, Germany (heartened by a kind local man named Walter, who quite unexpectedly brought them a bottle of wine in the evening as they huddled in their tent in the rain, then he revisited them in the morning bringing fresh pretzels and croissants!
Interesting winter in Istanbul: It extends both on the Europe (Thrace) and on the Asia (Anatolia) side of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world which is situated on two continents. Imagine that only a bridge separates the two halves of Istanbul, placing one half of the city within Europe, the other half in Asia.
Most difficult language: Hungarian

Krista and Dan express gratitude to the Australian Geographic Society, ecologicalhosting.com, Hilleberg the Tentmaker, Nelles-Verlag, Reise Know-How and everyone who help them along the way.
If you would like to get updated about their expedition and help them raise money for the rainforest projects, just visit www.ridehimalaya.com