We are bikepackers

"Backpacker" is often­ used to describe tra­velers like myself, a­lthough I was looking­ for a more relevant ­term to describe my w­ay of traveling. Inci­dentally, I came upon­ "bikepacker" — ­ basically I discover­ed an English word wh­ich already exists — ­which suits me better­. In fact, I have exp­erienced travel by wa­lk and by bicycle and­ I can say that "bike­packing" is truly dif­ferent.

Upon the year's end c­elebration, I would l­ike to praise all the­ bikepackers I have m­et since I first rode­ my bicycle for this ­around the world trip­. Without these compa­nions of the road, my­ adventure would have­ been far less enjoya­ble.

Johannes, his wife Saskia and their two children Mathilda and Anton (Germany). The very first bikepackers I met, only after 2 days of travel. The four of them traveled throughout a part of Europe, from Portugal to Sweden, during a whole year. They are now back in Germany.

Silvio (Argentina). My true master of the bicycle! He was riding his bike on a 28000 km trip across South America and Europe. I met him when he was about to finish his travel. I was just beginning mine, so he considered me as a "baby". It was 7 months ago…

His travel is now over and he is back in Argentina.

Sonia, Guillem... and the cookies team (Spain). They are the people I traveled with for the longest time - around 3 weeks. During our mountain road ascent, under the hot sun, we kept repeating "It's flat and cold" to boost our morale. They are doing a round the world trip like me and are currently in Iran.

Ben (Swiss, left on first picture). We traveled together only for a couple of days between Montenegro and Albania, but we had a very cool moment when we met by coincidence on the road of Greece around Thessaloniki. Last time I heard from him, he was still traveling in the South of Morocco.

Ernesto and Jakob (Spain / Germany). I met them for the first time a few days before arriving in Istanbul, and the second time in Yerevan, Armenia, a few months later.

They started in Cologne and are going to Vietnam. I think they are currently located between India and Nepal.

Jamie, a.k.a. "Broken Man" (England). Broken bike, broken body, broken teeth. At the time we met, we were not riding our bicycles, but waiting for a visa in a hostel instead — He was waiting for the visa for Aizerbaijan, I was expecting my visa for Iran.

Jamie, did you finally get your visa ??

Fabian (Austria). He left Austria, wandering in the world without so much of a plan, but it is obviously a round the world trip. We traveled together across Armenia, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Iran before we split up. He had some troubles, some of his material was stolen. He finally interrupted his travel to go and drink beers in Vietnam!

Martin (Swiss). We met in the Iran-Dubai ferry. We spent the afternoon together to reach Dubai, then we visited Dubai the day after. He is also doing a round the world trip and he is currently in Thailand.

Ela and Pascal (Germany). We met in Jebel Shams (Oman) and we spent a part of the day together before splitting up. They had one month to visit Oman, and are now back in Germany.

Silvio offered me this flag in Croatia, I keep it preciously to hand it over to him when my trip is over (two years from now on) in Argentina.

This trip around the world is also yours. I wish you a happy new year 2017 (It's too early but I'm not sure to have connexion later) and... a good travel!

P.-S.: special thanks to Mickaël Nereau for the translation in English.