Candid – Page 4 – Ecotopia Biketour

Biketour in Vilnius

Candid August 5, 2016 August 5, 2016

Next, to Vilnius. Back to cycling (legally..) on the roads! We first camped in the back of park in the centre, but it was quite exposed – it was below a tourist viewpoint, and now the scruffy cyclists with their tents, small dog, and giant pots were the newest tourist interest. We also got woken up by Italian segway tour guides with megaphones. The next day, whilst half the group huddled under the tarp from the rain (apparently it had actually followed us from Belarus) another person in the biketour met a friendly local who offered us space in his flat!…

Out of Belarus: Rest days on the lake

Candid July 27, 2016 July 19, 2016

Apparently leaving Belarus is easier than entering – a quick passport check (we’re not even sure that our registration stamps on our migrations cards were checked in the end!) and a cycle though the checkpoints without even any questions about the dog in the trailer! After a day of continuous rain, the sun was out as we crossed the border in Lithuania, in greeting to the wet cyclists. We cycled a short distance from the border, and found beautiful lake. Due to a shorter visa for Belarus, we had a couple of days to spare before our next appointments, so we…

Kamenitsa eco village

Candid July 25, 2016 August 29, 2016

From Minsk we cycled for two days to Kamenitsa / Каменица. Due to our tight schedule, this was our only proper wild-camping night in Belarus, which we spent without problems on a beautiful meadow that smelled like Thyme. On the first evening, when we cycled through a small village, suddenly we were surrounded by dozens of kids on bikes. They were very eager to fill our water containers for the night and were extremely excited to get some of our tall-bike and “Fuck Cars” stickers. Kamenitsa is a small village about 120 km north-west of Minsk where several families from Minsk…

Shanti Dom

Candid July 21, 2016 August 29, 2016

Due to our short visa, we had to take a train to skip most of the 400 km of cycling from Brest to Shanti Dom, a yoga farm with an international volunteering programme about 70 km west of Minsk. Lucky as we are, it started raining cats and dogs just after we got out of the train to cycle 40 km, but when we finally arrived, we were greeted with a beautiful sunset and rainbow. Shanti Dom is an old school building on the countryside in the middle of nowhere that a young hetero couple is turning into a yoga…

Biketour in Brest

Candid July 19, 2016 July 19, 2016

After so many fails, we couldn’t believe it when the bus started going and actually took us into Belarus. At the bus stop we were already awaited by Valentin from Radeja Bike Club, with whom we had been in a lot of contact with to prepare the documents for the visa application. Valentin was over-excited to lead us through the city, and communication was a bit difficult, as he only speaks Russian. With Radeja Bike Club, he has been organizing long-distance bicycle tours in many countries, including western-European ones like Spain, and camps for people with disabilities in the forest,…

The Żubr

Candid July 8, 2016 April 28, 2017

The Żubr (bison) is the biggest land mammal in Europe. Żubrs have been extinct in many parts of Europe for centuries, the last ones living in the wild were killed in the 1920s. After the second world war, some Żubrs living in zoos were released into the wild to create a new population. All Żubrs that live in the wild today are the descendants of only 12 individuals that were released from zoos, which is quite threatening to their genetic health. The biggest population of about 800 individuals lives in Białowieża Forest, where we stayed for several days. Male Żubrs…

Białowieża Forest

Candid July 6, 2016 April 28, 2017

Białowieża Forest is a big forest that spans across the border between Poland and Belarus. It is known to be the only leftover primeval forest in Europe and home of its biggest bison population. We stayed on the Polish side of the forest for 5 days. We were also planning to cross over to the Belarusian side through the newly-opened bike-only border crossing, but unfortunately the Belarusian border guards didn’t want to let us pass with a dog. The forest was impressive, but at the same time a bit disappointing. It was amazing to cycle through it. It is so…

Happy birthday Knödel!

Candid July 4, 2016 September 8, 2016

Knödel (dumpling; full name: Eismarillenknödel, ice-cream apricot dumpling) was found on the Biketour in 2014 under a trash-bin in Bulgaria when he was only 2 weeks old. He has spent more than one third of his 2 years of age cycling through more than 20 countries. Knödel likes to play silly games and do silly things, but when someone comes too close to his trailer, he turns into a monster. Today is is second birthday, so here are some particularly unphotogenic photos!