Touring the world… on a bicycle

Most people who do a world tour go by ship or airplane, train, car even, but not many choose peddle power.

Swiss couple, Alena and Marcel Egli have always wanted to do a world trip and for them going by bicycle was the only option.

“For us, the best way to get to know a country and its people is to travel by bicycle. It is the perfect mode of transport as you make good progress, but you are not too fast to miss all the small and big surprises along the way,” said Marcel.

They started peddling in their home country, Switzerland on September 15, 2012 and have covered 24,600 kilometres over 29 countries.

Currently cycling through South Africa, this intrepid couple were spotted recently, enjoying the weather and the welcome of our beautiful Dolphin Coast.

“We have had so many memorable moments, but what has made the tour so special for us are the people we have met. The hospitality was overwhelming in places such as Turkey, Iran, Tajikistan, Mongolia and also in South Africa,” he said.

“It was often in places where you usually only hear the negative things that happen, where we had the most touching encounters with locals,” said Alena.

So far, they have been travelling for 791 days of which they have spent 363 days on the bicycle, 230 nights in their tent (the other nights they were offered accommodation or found a spot to stay) and have had 34 breakdowns.

It was not always smooth cycling though, as they had to interrupt the trip after six months to fly back to Switzerland, because of Alena’s health.

“Back then we were still riding on two regular touring bikes, but Alena had huge problems with the saddle and was riding in pain all the time,” said Marcel.

They eventually stopped and flew back home from Turkey for a few weeks to look for a solution to Alena’s pain.

“The weeks at home was the most difficult time of the whole trip, as we were desperate to continue, but did not know if it would be possible,” she said.

Hase Bikes’ special touring bicycle, which features a combination recumbent seat and saddle, was their answer and so they flew back to Turkey to continue as planned through Central Asia.

“In South Africa it takes us a lot more time to get from A to B than in other African countries, as we get stopped a lot for a quick chat, but we enjoy that very much and it is for this reason that we travel by bicycle. You would not experience those precious moments when sitting in a car,” said Alena.

“It is such a beautiful country with stunning landscapes and wonderful wildlife. We missed the mountains and the variety in landscapes in the countries further north,” said Marcel.

When they are not cycling, they look for a place to sleep, stock up on food and water, cook dinner and wash their clothes by hand.

Once they are done with house keeping, they generally just manage to plan the route for the next day, read a few pages of a book and back up their photos before falling asleep.

The couple are passionate about photography and love reading fiction and non-fiction books written by authors in the country that they are currently in.

“Reading is what we enjoy doing most on a rest day, when we are not sightseeing, hiking, game driving or catching up on the many emails that clog our inbox, which keeps us reminded of our life back home.”

After spending January and February cycling through Zambia and Zimbabwe, they are spending March in South Africa and were cycling through the North Coast last week.

“When will we stop? We do not know, when we do not enjoy it anymore, but for now we are still having fun,” said Marcel.