What is that? Two world-travelling bicycles? With some 80 kilos equipment each? They slowly circle the white stupa in Gyantse (some 280km South-West of Lhasa) and I keep my breath - what they move looks heavy!

 I was on my early-evening photo walk, enjoying the long shadows and the last golden sun beams. The from the ice-cold days and the strong sun deeply marked faces of the Tibetans gave excellent portraits opportunities – and the best thing: people like to be photographed. However, once I saw the two cyclists, I quickly walked to the stupa (important: always go clockwise around a stupa!) and said hello to the people on bikes.

Against the evening sunlight it was hard to distinguish the feature of their faces – however there was one guy with a long beard and a girl with glasses. They looked adventurous – and I could see that they had been on the road for a long time.
2.5 years they have travelled and some 30’000km lay behind them Martin told me. His girl-friend Birgit asked me about my route, and when I said that I was planning to hit Siberia in winter, she said “been there, done that”. With their bicycles. In 10 months through Russia. In December through Siberia. Sleeping in their tent - minus 47 degrees outside. Not being sure whether they would wake up the next morning.
They did wake up. Which is good – many more stories were following, one crazier than the other. Martin at gun-point, Birgit punching some Mongolians who wanted more than just saying hello, some angry Russian hitting their bikes with and axe, and so on. We talked a long time. When it got dark I insisted on inviting them for a beer – there was so much more I wanted to hear from those most adventurous travellers. We marched through the dark town (no electricity since days the locals told us) and entered a restaurant. Birgit told me that this was the first evening for long they entered a restaurant. They normally cook for themselves and, more impressive, in the last 2.5 years they had slept gin a hotel only twice.
We later met my Land-Cruiser-Tour travel-mates Gu, Kim and Arthur (arrgh, I hate to admit that I booked a guided tour through Tibet – but only because I really could not rent a car on my own and neither a motor-cycle) in a French restaurant with candle light atmosphere. “French” it was only called because the cook liked to make a “Flambé” out of everything – not necessarily an advantage we later learnt.
We exchanged stories for the good part of the evening, and when we walked over to our freezing cold hotel rooms (no heated room to be found in Tibet once you left Lhasa), the two Austrians started to mend a flat tire and then cycled some 4km outside town to set up their tent. Remember: we were on 4000 metres above sea-level in Tibet with temperatures hitting minus 10, and it was a dark night. If you wanna learn more about their adventures, visit their homepage www.biketraveler.net
Requiem: I call myself an adventurer – driving with a 4x4 car around the world. When I saw Birgit and Martin cycling down the street and into the night, I realized that I had to think in new categories, or, at least add a category to the existing ones. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to the Intergalactic Hard-Core Adventurers.