Alps - 31 passes in 3 weeks

3rd highest pass in Europe....we came up 48 numbered hairpin corners on the East side

Highest pass in the Alps.

Stelvio Italy

On the train after the accident

Near St Moritz

Chamonix

Mt. Blanc

site of Maria's accident....going DH

Mr. round the world cyclist

Germany

France

Canada vs Swiss in Alp d'Huez France

Hi Everyone...hope you've had a fun summer and that all is well wherever you may be.

We just finished our bike trip in Europe and are back in Frieburg after spending 4 days on Volker's parent's farm near Kassel Germany. I hope to send photos sometime during the 1st week of Sept from Benghazi. We rode 1850 kms (88 per day avg-longest day 138 km) in 21 days straight....no rest day. 32 passes (alot of the ones used in the Tour de France) which added up to about 27,000 vertical metres, roughly Mt. Everest from sea level 3 times. My bike and luggage wieghed about 55kg and Maria's about 25-30kg. We free camped without any problems every night except for one paid campsite in Val d'Isere and spent the 2nd night being spoiled with great food at a friend's house in Romanshorn on Lake Constanz. (Thanks for the great hospitality, Roman and family!)

Starting from our good friend Volker's place in Frieburg (we've ridden in Central and South America together previously), we rode with him for 2 days to Romanshorn, where he rode back to Frieburg in one day (200kms) to work for 1 week. After which he rode to Martigny Swiss to meet up with us again and rode with us for the remainder of the tour. The following is a rough sketch of the route:From Frieburg we biked into Swiss...a few hours in Austria and Liechtenstien along the Rhine and back into Swiss....thru Davos....into Italy for 2 days....through Bormio....St. Moritz.....back up the Rhine to Andermatt. Down the Rhone to Martigny and up to Chamonix...Val d'Isere...and some of the big climbs of the tour de France (alp d'huez, Galibier, col d'isran etc).....looping back up into Swiss and lake Geneva at Thonon/Evian.

With 4-5 days left to go, we were cruising downhill from Gstaad when Maria hit a wet railroad xing at a bad angle and took a tumble at about 25-30 kph. She landed on her right shoulder hard and was in such pain that with the help of a farmer, we took her to a clinic 3 km away and had it x'rayed. Fortunately nothing broken, but she did overextend something in the shoulder and has to keep it immobilized for 10 days, followed by physio. She was quite lucky with no helmet! A personal choice which she has now reversed. We spent the night in a hotel and then 3 easy train connections back to Frieburg in about 5 hours....4 days earlier than planned.

No bumps on my noggin, but I did loose about 5 kg, although I think I put it all back on after Volker's mom's home cooking, sausage, cheeze and schnitzel! It has been a very wet summer here and we had snow on a couple of occasions, but the wet weather never lasted more than a day and was only moderate on a couple of occasions. Switzerland we liked best for its numerous bike paths and signs, plentiful water fountains, as well as the immaculate appearance of its towns. Italian drivers were the worst, rarely waiting behind to pass after a curve or for an oncoming vehicle, with Germans and Swiss the most courteous. $3.00 Can cups of tea most everywhere and aside from bakeries, we cooked all our food on the Trangia/alcohol stove.

We didn't meet alot of peple as on other tours as we don't stand out from people here....touring and racing cyclists are everywhere...we were rarely asked where we are from. The roads of the mtn passes are simply amazing and provided us with much challange (some 13-14% grades), alot of fun downhills and many wonderful vistas to oooh and ahhh over, at times climbing higher than some lower glaciers.

Almost no wildlife, although passing thru Swiss National Park, a warden informed us that they had seen their 1st bear in 100 years!!!!!!!! However, he went on to lament that this may be bad for tourism, as people may be afraid and stay away. All depends what you value....shut the park to humans I say and let the bears and other animals have it back.

Aside from Maria's accident, we had super tour and feel fortunate to have the good health, fitness and energy necessary to be able to enjoy such adventures, especially now that Maria is not such a young chick anymore :)......or is it that a couple of "over forties" were lucky to keep up to her? Photos to follow in a few weeks...back to Benghazi on the 29th to start school on the 4th and planning to bike Kenya/Tanzania/Uganda for 1 month over xmas. Looking forward to hear news of your summer adventures.... Steve and Maria (and Piglet too)http://www.bsb-edu.org/ A ship in harbour is safe--but that is not what ships are for. John A. Shedd

Noticed on the flight back from Zurich to Benghazi that it is 2,000kms as the crow flies.....We cycled nearly the same distance going up and down and around. The Japanese cyclist has been travelling for 7 years by bike...see the list he keeps on the frame of his bike. He will visit Libya the winter. Last photo is Maria's crash site....very bad angle for these tracks, with no more than the standard warning. France had a the great idea of showing a large picture painted on the road, showing a cyclist falling. Don't know why the meticulous Swiss haven't done the same for their dangerous crossings. The farmer who helped us said it was the third bike accident he has seen there recently. Maria is recovering well.http://www.bsb-edu.org/

Libya - Skyline hike above Raj Al Hilal

Road trip to the heart of the Sahara Desert - Ghat Libya

Raj al Ghoul in the heart of the Sahara desert....what a scramble!

Jump to the pump....Libyan style

Tuareg

Going to Niger ....whith a whole lot of luck

Raj al Ghoul

Sand storm

salt lake in the middle of the desert

Libyan speed bumps

Nigerian woman

Old medina of Ghat

Nature's sandblasting

Harrassing the wildlife

Bread?

Salam alekum! Here are some photos from a recent road trip into the Sahara, April 1 -11. It&#8217s nearly 2,000 kms from Benghazi to Ghat in the SW corner of Libya; very little traffic, warm temps in the 30&#8217s, beautiful mountains and friendly people. Great camping for 10LD per night and only spent 50LD (40-45 Can) on gas to drive 4,300 kms! Photos are numbered and hopefully appear in order. See JPEG titles for brief explanations and for more hot air read further elaborations below..... 7. Immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa loading up for the return journey. Note the water jugs on the side. They generally take 2-3 weeks if they make it at all. In mid-May 2001, a Niger-registered truck was found in a remote stretch of the Libyan Sahara; alongside it were the bodies of 93 people who had died of thirst. For those of us who visit the desert for pleasure, it is worth remembering that crossing the vast Sahara is a matter of life and death for some. If it wasn&#8217t for the oil, (95% of all exports) Libya would very likely have the same poor standard of living at the other Saharan nations and therefore fewer immigrants searching for their El Dorado. 12. Even though the sand is very fine and soft on the feet (finer than most ocean beaches) the particles are relatively heavy so even the strongest winds can rarely lift them much higher than an adult&#8217s shoulders. 14. Umm al-Maa lake. One of the 11 or so lakes in the Ubari sand sea. They have a very high salt content and one can float easily; the water is &#8220cool&#8221 on top and hot tub temperature about 5 feet down. There are also full of tiny shrimp which the local people harvested for centuries until Ghadaffi kicked them out in the &#8220name of progress.&#8221 A few of these lakes have recently dried up; deep drilling for intensive desert agriculture and piping water to the coast through the &#8220Great man-made water project&#8221 (predicted to last a mere 50 years) are the likely culprits. We are one very short sighted species. 20. Tuareg are the once nomadic, indigenous people of the Sahara. Most are in permanent settlements these days and those who are better-off financially, take tourists around in 4WD&#8217s. They are one of the few people in the world for whom men, but not women, must wear the veil. It serves a social purpose in the hierarchy of relationships as well as protection against wind and sand. Tuareg women enjoy a high status in the community; inheritance is through the female line and historically, only the women were able to read and write. They are also able to pass freely between Libya, Niger, Mali, Algeria, and Mauritania&#8230.borders mean nothing. 37. We spent 3 days scrambling this massif and never got to the true summit; steep-sided cliffs/rock bands on all sides made route finding quite challenging (and no guide book). There was very little indication of previous human presence; no trails except for much lower down and only 2 cairns. We did get to the summit plateaus which were capped with soft sandstone pinnacles, which I&#8217m not sure if they could be climbed, although a historical reference claims it is so. I&#8217m guessing they are about a 4,000ft climb. The only information I could find on this mountain refers to a historical reference in which in which Heinrich Barth, one of the greatest Saharan explorers, reached the summit, but was completely exhausted and thirsty by the time he got there. One the way down, he lost his way and collapsed and to stave off thirst he cut open a vein to drink his own blood. 27 hours after setting out, he was found by a local Tuareg man, feverish and close to death. We carried plenty of water. Thrills, fun and excitement abound&#8230&#8230now its back to school for the final term. FYI, the school website is now operational at: http://www.bsb-edu.org/ Ma&#8217as salama&#8230&#8230Steve and Maria We dance round in a ring and suppose,/But the Secret sits in the middle and knows. Robert Frost