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 Number of days:
60Total length:
4200 kmAverage daily distance:
70 kmNumber of participants:
two (four) |
 Two months on the road. To the Red Sea by bikes. The time and the builders of
time. Turning the pedals of our bikes we become aware of the magical
transformation of space into time...The idea to
choose this particular route goes back to about a year before the expedition
was realized. What had drawn as to visit that part of the world is probably
a difference which is evident between European and Arab civilization. To meet the
people who had different lives, to get to know their way of thinking and the
way they see life. 
We've had a very
pleasant journey through Turkey. A huge, beautiful land, major part of it is
situated on the Asian soil but it's turned towards Europe. It happened quite often
that we actually forgot we were in Asia, we were reminded just by the voice of
the Moslem priest from the minaret. We had no problems with the people
there, not even in faraway and out-of-the-way villages, and not in metropolis
either. The fact we were coming from Serbia didn't bother anyone. The people were
very kind and always ready to help. Many
times we were very nicely surprised both by their kindness and by their
professionalism. I'll give you just one interesting example which describes how
we were accepted there. In Izmir we were the guests of the BISAN Company,
Turkey's biggest manufacturer of bicycles. When we left Izmir, on our way to
Ephesus we had a malfunction which we couldn't handle ourselves, and the stuff of
the nearby petrol station couldn't help either. Then we thought of calling
someone from the BISAN and ask for help. Although the people at the petrol
station were trying to convince us that we would just waste our time and that
after all we were in Turkey and not in Europe, we phoned one of our hosts from
BISAN, and in just 20 minutes they sent a crew from their service and they
repaired the bike, while the people from the petrol station were watching
in disbelief.
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...Riding according to the eastern rules. Sirens on the road. Everyone is sounding the horn of his car. It makes thinking difficult and atmosphere tense. The clash of cultures causes chaos in heads and harts... |
| The real shock came for us when we entered Syria. On the first day we rode about 70 kilometers to our first station - a town called Aleppo. There we got to know an unbelievable way the people drive in Syria. Our hair stood on end until we reached Aleppo. Then next ten days there was a real inner struggle in us, the clash of the customs and traditions of east end west. The hardest thing was that we couldn't find our solitude and rest even for a short time. If we stopped somewhere on the road, immediately a vehicle would stop and the travelers would come out to shake our hands and sit with us. |
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In smaller towns
and villages we were constantly surrounded by crowds of children (and people in
general), wherever we went they followed us. They greeted us, touched us, offered
food and drinks. In some villages we slept in real "dumps", together with the
workmen from Egypt because there were no better hotels. In a small place called
Ariha we encountered problems that arose due to the change of food.We got a serious case of diarrhea. Sasa
sweated at night, didn't sleep, had a fever, high temperature. The temperature
and the fever passed but at last someone had to pay the price for the "mad"
drivers we encountered. In Tartus, Sasa had a clash with a van. Luckily, except
for the damage done to the bike, some scratches and nine stitches on his chin,
he had no serious injuries. We were starting to get used to the East and
starting to enjoy it too.
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| ...The ride is the time when you are focused on yourself. Pedaling the bike starts the turning of the wheels of self-analysis and contemplation. While, at the same time you're collecting the information from the world around you, information necessary for the ride. The trip requires a conscious and full participation of the subject in the event. The most important thing is to be aware of your own responsibility and possible guilt for everything that's happening on the road. Discovering the errors within yourself and in the relationship with the surrounding, and correcting those mistakes bring the change in the course of events. Being aware of the signs from the outer world and listening to their echo inside of yourself, and then acting in accordance with your nature but keeping aware of the signs, all that represents an example of governing the flow of events and choosing the route of the travel... |
There
are many pictures which are engraved in my mind, but stronger than anything
else are some moods and emotions which have been engraved in my mind.However hard we try to govern the flow of events, sometimes (not often) it happens that things get out of hand. You find yourself in a situation from which you see no way out. You are physically and mentally exhausted, the muscles disobey, the head empty. Then deus ex machina comes along - that's something to be experienced. The sight as if taken from the Kusturica movie. The Arabs - women, men, children, - all dressed in their typical clothes, with scarves on their heads sitting or walking on the beach, swimming in the sea all dressed. A contact with water brings inexplicable joy. The miracle is complete. We are lying in water as if lying on a mattress. It's impossible to sink. It's very hard to swim too. The salt water burns the small wounds on the skin. The joy of acquiring something new. We're walking on water. We conquered the lowest spot on the earth, on the soil. We come out of the water, slimy and salty as herrings. We went back to the Royal Road and followed it to Aqaba on the Red Sea. Three hundred and fifty kilometers through the desert...A long ride through the desert, hours and hours pass and you don't sea a sign of civilization anywhere, despite high temperatures blood can really freeze in the veins, Had we not known there was a city about a hundred kilometers away, it would have been horrible... Meeting with the desert is something really special. Especially when you had set a goal to conquer the whole Jordanian dessert by bikes. We entered it with some fear which, as the day went on, slowly disappeared, and then appeared again as the day came to an end and sharpened out senses. We were armed with a compass, a map and our will. Four days of riding to get a reward in the end - bathing in the Read Sea. We would like to thank the City Council of Nis which was the sponsor of the Yugoslav part of our trip, the Faculty of Electronic Engineering and the Student Association of the same faculty, our Embassies in Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria and Jordan that have helped us a great deal on our trip. We would like to thank also all those people who always help us. Without them, each of our trips would be pointless: our parents, girlfriends, friends. Text in italics by Sasa Kolic |
