On the road: HOW TO HITCHHIKE A MOTORCYCLE

Saturday, 25 August 2007

HOW TO HITCHHIKE A MOTORCYCLE

August 8, 2007

"Lisboa-Vladivostok" said a sign on one jeep which we passed in a minibus. We got dropped off at a gas station in Gusinoozersk and started waiting.
"I do not know if hitchhiking actually works this way that you choose the car to pick you up", I told Sue.

It did.

Antonio Demaglie, an Italian, was living his dream of travelling Eurasia from coast to coast on a motorcycle. His team had only one member - Marina. This brave Russian woman had been working for seven years in Antonio's family as a nanny. Now she became a driver of the jeep following Antonio and his dream.

In the beginning they passed us, but then returned to tank their vehicles. After a short introduction, Antonio decided to pick us up for the ride to Ulaan-Baator - the capital of Mongolia. We filled the back seat with our backpacks and I took the front by Marina's side. Sue got to be crowned with the helmet and was to sit behind Antonio on his shining BMW. The journey could begin.

Travelling South from Ulan-Ude the landscapes changed into mountainous steppes. The weather was on our side as was our luck.

August 9, 2007

After sleeping just off the road in our tent, we woke up at 7 to cross the Mongolian border. To the surprise of us all the border point had closed 20.30 the previous night and had to open at 8:00 that day. "I love Shengen," said Antonio. He repeated this short sentence many many times during and after long bureaucratic procedures and even longer time of waiting on that Russian-Mongolian border point. When we finally entered Mongolia around noon I was the one wearing the helmet having the chance to take in the road with the wind in my hair. From time to time Sue and I changed places. From time to time we stopped to take pictures, to visit the nomads, to converse with the camels, to have lunch, to visit the market and finally to say good-bye. Antonio and Marina dropped us off in Ulaan-Baator near the 5$ Youth Hostel we intended to sleep in.

Good luck and thank you guys for the dream-like ride. We hitchhiked a motorcycle - who would have thought that possible!

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TO VILLA ANGOSTURA

This is the story of how I unexpectedly discovered another paradise corner of the earth. The truck driver Pedro was merciful enough not to let me out on an empty crossroad in the middle of the night and brought me home in Junin de Los Andes. When the next morning I was looking at the map, the idea of going back in itself became alien, even after Pedro and his wife Olga had said the road to Villa Angostura be empty and dangerous for the lack of pavement. These landscapes I saw when traveling from Junin de los Andes to Villa Angostura on May 12th were thus a true surprise present. The photos were taken thanks to my kind ride - Jorje and Lucia, who stopped every now and then to record at least a tiny bit of what we saw.

AS SOUTH AS POSSIBLE

A good-bye to Chascomus (in the province of Buenos Aires) on the 8th of May ment a new beginning - a return to a round zero where past was just a story and future a white sheet, yet to be written. I met people and got to know them for the given time - for however long the journey lasted. At night there was always a safe place to stay as if prepared, and not once I experienced hunger. I was on the road in total for seven days arriving to my destination in Punta Arenas on May 15th.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Confucius

Kenji Miyazawa

not losing to the rain
not losing to the wind
not losing to the snow
or to the heat of the summer
with a strong body
unfettered by desire
never losing temper
cultivating a quiet joy
every day four bowls
of brown rice, miso
and some vegetables to eat
with everything
never letting emotion
get in the way
watching and listening,
and understanding
and never forgetting
in the shade of the woods
of the pines of the fields
being in a little thatched hut
if there is a sick child
to the east
going and nursing over them
if there is a tired mother
to the west
going and shouldering her
sheaf of rice
if there is someone near death
to the south
going and saying
there's no need to be afraid
if there is a quarrel or a suit
to the north
telling them to leave off
with such waste
when there's drought,
shedding tears of sympathy
when the summer's cold,
walk in concern and empathy
called a blockhead by everyone
without being praised
without being blamed
such a person
I want to become

2001: Summary

Destinations: 1) Louvre Art Museum, Paris, France; 2) "where the green meadows reach the snowy mountain-tops, and in the sky you can see the weather forming", North of Scotland; Travel companion: Piia Taremaa (until Paris). In the second part of the journey I hitchhike on the wrong side of the road and end up in Italy. Scotland is cut off once again when I spend the night in a British prison in Dover, as I enter the country illegaly (unknowingly). After my deportation to France I seek to find the tundra in the North of Sweden and Finland. Duration: 6 weeks. Budget 100 DEM

2005: Summary

MY HITCHHIKING CV