torsdag, juli 13, 2006
My old home, but a new life
I'm thinking about buying a sailboat now. The boat I'm thinking about is swedish, 6,35 meter. I think the boat could to a big distance, it would be cool to go on a long journey again.
that's all for now, carpe diem
söndag, april 30, 2006
Back home, the beginning of something new
After about two weeks I left. I booked tickets with airplane to go home. The 19 of April I left the cave and my friends, Erik, Durita, Freya, Shaun, Csilla, Concho, Ossian, Anders, Lena and Luna. When I walked out in Sweden, it really felt like home. The smell, all the nature, the cold breeze.. Robert, my brother was waiting for me. We put the luggage in his car and then we drove closer to this journeys end. Suddenly, while looking at the trees, I realized how far I cycled. "I went on the bike, from here, and down there!". It was so beautiful. All those trees passing by the carwindow. I started thinking about the wind. She has helped me during all of this journey. Sometimes she pushed me in the Europe, sometimes not. But I she was never so concerned there, because help was close if i needed it.
But in the Sahara she was the one who helped me the most. Maybe the wind thought I couldn't do the desert. So she tested me for several days. The wind was so strong, it was cold and rainy. But I passed this test, and then she knew I could do it. And I deserved her pushing me forward in that waste landcape. Beacause the winds were with me since that day. Now I was going out of the car to were I started the 9 of May 2005. This was the 20 of April 2006. The wind was quiet now. As soon as I looked up I saw the eyes of my mother in the door of her house. I walked out on the street I've been playing since I was a kid. And I screamed. The wind helped me again, she took my scream out over all the places I've been, it told all the people I've met, and others I've seen, the scream was the one from me, Martin. And it told everyone I was home. Everything in the universe stopped, and became one. I've succeeded.
fredag, mars 31, 2006
The turning-point of my journey
I went out of the huge city Dakar and on a dirttrack in to the bush. This was cool. In a village the children were helping me to push my bicycle forward in the sand and we crossed a paved road. I continued to Toubab Dialow were I stopped to the next day. I wanted to make I stop here because the waves were good. I surfed on my body in the sunset, beautiful.. Next day I continued but the dirttrack was gone. I tried to cycle on the sand of the beach whitch was a difficult business. Soon I gave up but soon found the dirttrack. I wanted to go back to the paved road so I went inland to cross the road.
I went in further and further and I got more and more tired. There was a lot of sand on the track and I had been pushing the bike since eight o'clock, the time was now twelve. I was lost in the bush, I'd been chosing several ways just to move forward. I knew that the way back was so long so I continued. Up came a little village. The women and children was surprised over the "toubab" (white man in their language) turning up from nowhere. I saw a donkey with a cart. The donkey belonged to a man who was working. After some discussing we made an agreement that the man's little brother was going to take me out to the paved road for 800 CFA.
Soon we were on our way. The donkey was hauling it's cart with my bicycle, luggade and one kid. The other kid (the brother) was controlling the donkey. We didn't move fast, but I appreciated to walk slowly instead of dragging that bike in the sand. The sun was blistering. We passed two other small villages were the people were interested in our business. Then we came in to the town Diass, where we found the paved road. I payed the boys for their work, we said goodbye. I was tired, the time was two o'clock. I got invited to eat with two shopkeepers. I ate and then I continued. On the fourth day I reached the Gambia. On the borders I got to know that my english friend Tony Eveling had passed the borders only a little time before me.
I was happy and cycled on everything I had. This road from the border to the ferry was like a Switzerland cheese. Zigzagging my path, I hoped to bump in to Tony on the road to Banjul, but I never did. I passed the Gambia river with the ferry. My idea was now to book a flight with the Gambia Experience, a english company, to London. But they wouldn't accept my overweight, so I had to send over the bike seperatly with a freight company. The price of DHL was 800 Euros. Crazy! I would never pay that, a lot more than I payed for the bike! I took for granted that the other freight companies wouldn't be so cheap in any case. I took a fast decision to go back all the way with the transports available. It would be fast if I did it intense, and way more cheap than flying. The following day I was to be on my way north.
tisdag, mars 07, 2006
Which way?
I feel that my journey will change a lot in a short future. But what way will I choose? My bicycle has been with me over 10 700 kilometers, from Eskilstuna to Dakar, about ten months. The thought of moving to my cave has grown stronger since the day I left it, I've been dreaming about it often. But not quite yet, I still have some things to do before I go back to Spain. We (me and Joshua) have searched for a sailboat to cross the Atlantic Ocean, talked about riding horses and gold panning further in the continent, rafting in the Niger or Gambia river. I see so many new ways I could change to, instead of cycling...
My energy is coming back after a negative period in Senegal. I start to adapt and to accept. After lots of ice-cream, chawarma and other good stuff put in my stomach, company with my friends Joshua and Emma, I feel ready to move on. Next stop I already know, a big party in Banjul, the Gambia!
måndag, februari 20, 2006
Chamonix and Mount Blanc
Glad to have made another goal I cycled in to Chamonix. At the tourist office I found Diddi, Sandra's aunt. The weeks before Chamonix I thought was going around in my head, I was thinking about climbing Mt Blanc. I told Diddi and Pierre about it. They said that if I do it, I have to do it with a guide, otherwise it's to dangerous without experience. One day I saw a Haglofs backpack (a swedish brand). The guy having it was from Finland and his name was Jaakko. We trekked toghether in the Mt Blanc Massif and had fun. Both of us had wanted to climd the big mountain. But it never happened. It was something I decided, not to climb it, and it was a hard decision. I knew that Diddi and Pierre didn't want me to climb it, and I can understand that. But the possibility was with the guide, but a guide? I don't want to be guided up when I can do it myself. So I left Mt Blanc unclimbed, but one day we will meet again, and then I will be prepared.
The night after this decision I couldn's sleep. I layed thinking for a long while about what I should do instead. Cycle to Africa, that is big, Sweden - Africa by bicycle. No, it's not enough, I have to see some of Africa also. Cycle from Sweden to where the sand of Sahara begins, that will be my new goal, I will do it! That's also the words I told Diddi, Pierre, Elodie and Amanda, before I went back on the road again. Elodie said that Sahara is far away, something I new. That was why I wanted to do it.
A long journey begins
The night before going to the embassy we were on a campingsite. There I met a english hippie touringcyclist who changed my way of cycling to the better. During my journey I had always been cycling about 100km, I woke up early, and cycled to the evening. I asked this english man, who were cycling with the same kind of bicycle as mine, when he was going up tomorrow. He answered me "I don't know, when I wake up I guess". The second question I asked was how long distance he was going to cycle, "Well that depends how long I feel like cycling". He did not cycle with a cyclecomputer, he was a relaxed guy who had been young in the 60s, he told me that he lived the hippie life. This mans relaxed way of life made me change my cycling routine more relaxed.
After these three weeks, when I sat up on the bike once again, my knee was good! It was a warm summer day I left. The fields were green and all nature alive. I went trough Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and finally in to France. This was the country I had been cycling so long to enter. My first meeting with the french language was in Belgium. They spoke fast and it was not easy to understand. But I learned as I continued. Entering France was a little bit weird. "Is this it, I'm already here?" I asked myself.
That first day in my final country, I met a guy loaded like me with his bike. His name was Adam, and he was from South Africa. He started in Holland and was going to Italy. He was tall, almost two meter, and very friendly. We decided to cycle toghether to Strasbourg where my girlfriend was going to meet me. Adam stayed two days with me and Sandra at the campingsite in Strasbourg. We had been searching maps the day before he left. Adam looked for a good map over Switzerland. When I bought maps over France, a map over Morocco passed in my eyes. "Morocco, maybe I will go so far this journey" I thought for myself. When we left the mapsshop I had bought those maps over France, and also Rough Guides map over Morocco! Cycle Sweden to Africa, that's a long way, but I had been thinking about it before. But just thoughts. Now was reality. "If I want to do it I can do it" I said to Sandra.
Working and Studying
My first bicycle journey
A dream that failed
I was so sad that moment. I have dreamed so much to make it as a hunter, my father talked with me and my brother when I was younger about this. He told us that we would be strong parashout hunters one day when we are in the military. Well, my brother refused to do his service, and I was discarded. That's the story. I went home with the bus and I walked alone in the forest. It's life, I will do something bigger, I will maybe climb MountEverest, put up the flag of the army and piss on it, as a protest. Next day I went to a doctor to check my hearing, he said it was only this very high tone on my left ear, and that I hear like a normal person. Because this tone is very high. He said he could write a paper to the army that my hearing is good and then I don't have to do the test, but I was so dissappointed at the army so I said nevermind that.
This was not the only bad news. In the same times as I was discarded I received a mail from an archeologichal group I went with on a river in Sweden with their viking-boat. It was interesting to row with this ship, and I wanted to participate in the big project. To sail and row from Sweden to Azerbajdzjan. But with all my studies I couldn't care so much for this journey. So when the list of people going with was sent, I never found my name. At this moment I knew that if I wan't to be sure of doing something, and to succeed, I have to do it myself. In that way I have all the power, and I can accomplish anything that doesn't involve other people.
The viking project, http://www.vittfarne.se
Some History
Some links :
Mikael Strandberg http://www.strandberg.se
Göran Kropp http://www.nepal-dia.de/Aktuelle_Lage_/ Goran_Kropp/goran_kropp.html
Ola Skinnarmo http://www.skinnarmo.com
First posting
Hello friends I've met during this bicycle journey so far in the world!
Finally I start this blog in english so more people can follow me. I know there will be some faults in the text but nevermind that=)
// Martin
onsdag, februari 15, 2006
Me and Joshua
After many days of cycling we found a hotel not far from the Mauretanian border. Nice to clean up and wash of the sand that was everywhere. Check out Joushuas blog at http://joshtracker.blogspot.com
Blistering sun
Joshua walking with his bicycle. We had just met Emma before, a cool Irish girl who Joshua met earlier in Morocco. It was a nice moment, she gave us some Red Bull and her driver gave us a soda and a big peace of camel meat. We ate good that night!
Sunset
Joshua Perina took this photo on me after I cleaned four fresh fishes we ate afterwards. A Moroccan soldier had been out fishing, and when he saw us, he shared some fishes. Friendly guy, and nice meal, a bit salty though, hehe.
Footsteps
Footsteps at the beach in the Sahara. Me and Tony was doing some photographing. It's his shoes, hehe.
Derallieur
I took a photo on the derallieur of my bike. Tony Eveling is in the background, a english bloke I was cycling with between Tan-Tan and Laayoune in Morocco. Tony really knows how to ride a bike! He cycled from England up to North Cape in Norway, and from there he made his way down to South Cape in South Africa. Check out his homepage, http://www.tonyeveling.com, there are beautiful photos to see.