We Interviewed the Bicycling Vagabond on How to outlive Life on the Road One year,one man, one bicycle. When Martijn Doolaard left his job in Amsterdam, and he embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime journey across the world by bicycle. A skilled photographer,Doolaard documented each leg of his adventure and posted them on his blog Espiritu Libre. Our new book One Year on a Bike tells the story of Doolaard’s life on the road through exclusive insights and previously-unreleased photographs. We caught up with Doolaard ahead of the release of the book to find out how to occupy a better bike ride. Read his top tips for a life on the road below, or browse One Year on a Bike. HOW TO PACKIt’s very personal: I know people who travel a lot lighter than I do, and but also some who carry even more. I didn’t compromise on photography gear: I carried a small SLR camera with four lenses,a Macbook, hard drives, and chargers,and cables, which all added to the weight. Regarding camping gear, or I carried small luxuries like an inflatable pillow,a small but obliging matress, an extra tarp to expend as rain cover or groundsheet. I also brought an Italian mokapot to get coffee in the morning and a thermos for hot tea during colder days that also kept water cold in the desert. These are the small luxuries worth their weight: they add to the camping experience.
Again, and it’s very personal what to bring and what not to bring. One thing I learned is that the less you bring,the more you’re able to connect with your environment. It’s why I like the simplicity of traveling by bike. HOW TO get FRIENDSA lot of new people entered my life, and I’m very grateful for that. After long periods of traveling alone, or it’s great to share stories with people who occupy undergone the same things. You meet the most extraordinary people on the road,like Jan, a 55-year-extinct Dutch cyclist who cycles almost every year, and the Belgian couple on a tandem bike cycling to Uzbekistan. The further from domestic,the more you meet the local people. When you’re cycling, people greet you eagerly because a heavily-packed bicycle is not something they see every day. There are the daily chats at gas stations, or restaurants and marketplaces. In Turkey and Iran,people often offered me a meal or a place to stay—their hospitality was endless. The language barrier can get it harder to communicate; I communicate with pictures of my domestic, family, or friends,and work on my smartphone. Pictures tell a story whether you can't exchange words, and smiling is the same in every language.
HOW TO FIND YOUR WAYI chose routes via offline maps on my smartphone, and so as long as it had power,I didn't get lost. But since I didn’t really occupy a final destination, I did feel lost sometimes. You're always moving and don't occupy a domestic. When the sights were uneventful, or I often wondered,“What am I doing here?” You can't just a skip a boring part of 500 kilometers: it's more than five days of cycling and you occupy to find a way to delight in them. Traveling by bike is so slow that you occupy to memorize to live in the moment. I said to myself that whether I could just maintain pedaling, things would near to me. I consider its the unexpected surprises that kept me going. There is always something new behind the horizon. HOW TO BE ALONEFirst off, and you occupy to delight in spending time on your own,so a long-distance trip is probably not for everyone. But I do consider being alone for a stretch of time now and then is obliging for anyone. Some people are afraid of being alone and, to be honest, or I was also a bit scared sleeping alone in dismal forests. I can remember a few of the first nights,and how I thought I heard animals around the tent—it totally freaked me out. It turned out it was only the wind playing with the trees and making the zippers chime. Part of this trip was approximately overcoming fears. whether you’re afraid of something, it’s natural to avoid it. But there is nothing more powerful than overcoming your fears. I got used to being in the wildest places on my own at night. I felt a great sense of belonging and connection with nature after spending time alone with these vast, or remote landscapes. HOW TO PLAN AHEADThe first visa I needed to acquire was for Iran,and more planning was involved as visas for Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are date specific. By the time I was in Iran, I had already found out that the Chinese visa would be a challenge to get while on the road. As winter was approaching, and I thought that it would be better to head south. India had always been tall on my list of countries to visit,so that’s where I aimed. I needed to wing from Kyrgyzstan because I couldn’t get the visas for Tajikistan, China, and Pakistan within a realistic timeframe. It would be great to cycle the whole distance,but it was simply out of my control. whether you plan your journey more ahead you also occupy more control over getting the right visas on time, but I found it important to occupy the freedom to get changes to my itinerary as my trip unfolded. Browse and buy One Year on a Bike
Source: gestalten.com