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| Two bikes, Two cities, 1200 kilometers, One goal: change the world by teaching kids to read |
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| Emotional highs and lows on the Friendship Highway |
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| Every photo at this site represents an emotional moment for us. The Ride to Read put us through almost everything. The photos in this section, though, capture some of the kinds of feelings we had while on the ride...by no stretch are they the only emotional moments we had - just representative. Emotion: Thankfulness Left: In Kathmandu, we went with Mingmar to see his one-room house in a Tibeten Refugee Camp. Five people lived in the room. His mom made us tea and gave us biscuits. We sat there, surrounded by everything they had. Mingmar told us stories of what it was like to live there. It's hard to imagine... I gave his mom a postcard of Zurich. Then wondered if I should of. |
| Emotion: Anticipation After so long, the moment when we knew we were going to start was among the most significant. We chose to start the ride - officially - in front of the Potala Palace. From there would be our first pedal strokes. As we headed down the road, we just looked around and smiled - waving to people, chatting with each other, one woman with a baby on the back of her bike kept up with us for awhile. Tears came to both our eyes, I think. Finally - after six months of work, after so much time, effort and money, we were finally setting off to do what we dreamed of - and the result would be books, libraries and kids with better lives. |
| Emotion: Fame There were days on the Road that were sheer joy. That were fun and exciting. A great day was when Peter from Swiss Television caught up with us and filmed us for a day. (That's Nicolas riding toward Peter and his camara on the ground.) Those in Switzerland might have seen the footage on SF1 in July. |
| Emotion: (extreme) discomfort Our last full day in Tibet, the ride to Nylam, was one of our epic rides (as mentioned in our journal). We rode in sub-zero temps all day, eventually riding into 40k headwinds, a rain/snow/sleet storm with herds of wandering yaks. At this point, I've already lost the vision in my left eye due to sleet scratching my cornea (what a nancy!). |
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| Emotion: Relief Perhaps one of the greatest highs...FINALLY making it to Lhasa after those million god forsaken days in Cheng Du. We landed. We got picked up by our guide. We drove out of the airport and we saw the big 'Welcome to Lhasa' sign. If we hadn't been trying to catch our breath from the thin air, I think we would have screamed! |
| Emotion: exhaustion And there were days we thought would never end. On the ride to Gyantse, day 3, we covered 116.69 kilometers. Words can't express the physical and emotional exhaustion. Maybe this picture can. |