Granada - Istanbul
5000 Kilometers of Cycling Landscapes
One day in high school, when I was a teenager in Argentina, I told my friends the details about a secret project I had been mulling over for the summer after graduation. I wanted to ride with my bicycle 1700 kilometers from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, in north-western Patagonia. This was in the mid-1970s, when political turmoil and violence were at a high point and the general situation of the country was highly instable. My friends laughed at the idea and disregarded it for lack of touch with reality. I kept the planning for myself.
Knowing that my parents would disapprove of such a crazy project, I quietly thought on every detail: reparation of my old bike, the best roads, food and water, camping equipment. No one among my friends showed any interest on coming with me. They had other plans or considered that the enterprise was too challenging and unrealistic. That summer I had to sit university entry tests. The project was postponed. Time passed and it never happened.
But the idea of a long-distance cycling trip survived in my heart during many decades. The bicycle has always been with me. Feeling the breeze on my face when cycling is a practical way of feeling free. I cycled alone or with my children on the seat behind. Many times I shared a silent sunset riding on the plains north of Miami with my eldest son and daughter. I remember when I taught each of my five children to ride their first bikes. In the United States, Argentina or Switzerland that magic moment came to life when they started biking on their own and without the training wheels.
If it is true that most people undergoes a midlife crisis, in my own one the bicycle played a central role. It was the means of feeling my space and freedom and, as well, a good athletic restart after a breakdown. I always remember the waves of light expanding during a ride in Buenos Aires with one of my sons sleeping on the child seat.
Already in Europe, I cycled many times in Switzerland and France with my wife Estelle and our two boys in the trailer. One great summer we spent a couple of weeks cycling in the west of Ireland. It was an amazing holidays. Living at a distance from the office in Geneva, I used the bike as a means of transport to commute almost every day. It was practical. It was fun. It was great. And it was freezing in winter!
In June 2023, inspired by my friend and fellow rider Paco, I cycled from Granada to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain through Camino Mozárabe de Santiago and Via de la Plata. Later in September, with my son Jerry, we sailed to Melilla and from there we biked to Tanger in northern Morocco.
***
In the Spring of 2024, during eighty-nine memorable days, I solo cycled from my home in Southern Spain to the Queen of Cities, Istanbul.
People do ask such questions. Some are genuinely curious. Others have expectations, sometimes projecting there own insecurity and fears. Other questions are less naif and sometimes hide certain aggressiveness, or plain lack of judgement, such as the one I was addressed to before the trip: Wouldn't a good flight be faster and more comfortable than the bicycle? Perhaps I was doing this as a form of gathering material for a new book? or, Maybe I wished to be an influencer in search of sponsors in the travel business? or even, Maybe I was escaping from problems at home or perhaps a breakup?
I write the song of my own life. Sometimes the melody turns ugly. Other times it doesn't match the chords. But I have a great help from my family, friends, unknown people, the spirits of the trees, the attentive gaze of a cat, the birds chirping. Angels and dead people. The migrants - they are the real heroes -, covering more or less the same way but in the opposite direction. The sea, my friend. Mountains and rivers. Light and emptiness. God, who knows how to arrange all this swirling storm of a cosmos in a certain order that escapes my limited understanding. Thus I manage to write a song that I generally like. I do this because I seek an inner path with myself.
If all that is too philosophical, take this one: I do it because I like it so much!
People also ask, How do you do it? How can you ride a bike during hundreds and hundreds of kilometers? Well, the answer is simple, and comes from someone I loved so much. My father used to say that all great exploits have been achieved in the same way: step by step, inch after inch. It is amazing how far you can reach at a slow pace. Piano piano si va lontano...
A photo-based video of this journey has been uploaded to:
https://youtu.be/mavM1pDolfw?si=-7dO2LvgOU6F7pXd (5 August 2024)
 |
| At the Golden Horn, Istanbul |
Statistics
Total distance: 5043 km (net cycling distance: 4705 km)
Average distance per cycling day: 77.13 km
Average cycling hours per day: 4.93
Countries: 11 (cycling, 10)
Languages: 10
Key equipment
