UK to Dharamsala

March 2007 - February 2008

Whilst we're on our journey we will send regular updates as well as a contact number in certain countries.

Latest Update:

10 April:
Finally more people in higher places are speaking out. Also: the wholy absurdity of the Olympic Torch:.. going in airplanes, on buses, having to be violently protected. The Tibetan (and other campaigners) rightfully ventured their frustrations, even though the way in which, at times... And many people from China are angry at seeing their big party threatened. And as to our once beautifull little planet - meanwhile: - in such a total mess. Today and tomorrow the focus will be on a town that maybe once deserved the name "Buenos Aires." 

The challenge of the next bicyclecaravan is to invert those negative energies. Let's try to turn it into a positively inspiring manifestation, a peace caravan:  pro bicycle, pro people and pro planet. And along the way try to do things the right way as much as possible.
We're "all in the same boat" and for too long we've been divided by focussing on the differences: race, sex, language, religion, lack of respect, egoism;.. "us against them," etc.   Whereas in the end we all want a bit the same things: share a quiet life and be a bit happy.  We'll be heading towards the European rainbow gathering in Serbia and should be on Serbian soil by late July.
It was in June 1969 that "Give Peace A Chance" was recorded in Montreal, Canada.
A lot of time has passed since then..

March 30th:
Normally we would've sent out a happy new announcement about the next bicyclecaravan some two weeks ago. But exactly then things started happening. Upset, saddened, disheartened by all the continuing violence, bloodshed, oppression and added negativity. 
As to the situtation in Tibet.. wrote a few things down early (plus some recommended viewings) last year and you're getting a lot more information now through the media. One of the main (remaining) reasons that China colonised the Tibetan areas is because it needs the mineral resources to keep its' economy growing. The consequences of that kind of strife on - amongst others - human rights and the environment (there and elsewhere) we all know.

28 February:
Phase two of this project will set off early June and head from the U.K. to Serbia. It will be a bit along the same guidelines as last year's edition: whoever wants to join is welcome to come along, as long as agreeing to keep to certain ethical codes of conduct. And we'll be putting up our tents wherever we're welcome. We forward no contact email address at this stage due to the enormous amount of non-serious applications we had to deal with last year.

Finally a word of remembrance and respect to Rik-Jan, who was one of the participants to the 2007 edition. Last month he died in a road-accident on the Continent. He has joined a long list of people that keep on dying every year in traffic-related accidents.

23 Nov:

Due to the current problems in Iranian Baluchistan, the continuous instability in Pakistan as well as the impossibility for all of the remaining participants to obtain a visum for that country we saw little incentive to continue our journey and have thus decided to disband the bicycle caravan last week in the city of Yazd, Eastern Iran. We wanted to do this journey overland and due to the Pakistani (and Afghani) problems the only other option would've been to go through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and then China which given the time of year, the extra visum costs plus the need to pass through China and occupied Tibet were out of the question. 

Thus the first edition of the bicycle caravan came to a slightly premature end on the 17th november in Iran. Disappointed? Not entirely: in spite of it only being a test-run and thus having opted for almost no publicity and/or exposure in the media over the last 8 months we managed to attract 22 participants from 12 different countries, which was more than we had counted on. We've gained a lot of useful experience, we were able to verify conditions firsthand for most of the journey, established plenty of contacts along the way and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of cycling through areas not usually visited by tourists.

A big thank you herewith to the many (really too many to mention) that have positively encouraged and/or effectively contributed to the project thus far. 

The coming two months we want to use to reflect on the past year, think more about a future edition, and see how many people are genuinely interested for coming along next year. If we have enough solid candidates we will do a second (more publicised) edition starting in March from a beautiful undisclosed location (in Southwestern England.) If we're not fully sure we may opt to focus on 2009 instead and simply do a shorter bicycle caravan in Europe in the summer. More info to follow about this in the coming months.

Always keep an eye on this page for regular updates.