Letter 0
30.06.02 High speed ferry to Ystad (Sweden)
All was as one could expect. I woke up early and didn't sleep well for the
last one and a half hours. Got up long before the alarm was due to wake me.
Had plenty of time. Took it easy.
But as time went on it seemed more and more things needed to be done. So I was
5 minutes late as usual when I locked the door for the last time. Met with the
mailman in the street and had
the last two envelopes in my hand. Experience tells me that 5 minutes are hard
to catch up in a distance of 15 km. But I did better than expected. According
to my test rides with luggage I had
expected max. 15 km/h as an average but quite easily I maintained more than 22
in spite of a light head wind. So after a little while I was closing in to
Rønne and still had the envelopes in my hand.
At a traffic light I had them put away.
But let me introduce myself and my project. I am 53 years old. Are teaching at
the technical gymnasium in Rønne and live in Åkirkeby. That's on a tiny danish
island by the name of Bornholm.
I am heading for Santiago de Chile to go on bike from there and to La Paz in
Bolivia. A distance of min. 2500 km. I expect to do 4000. Until now I'm
sitting on the high speed ferry on my way to Ystad to
go from there to Svågertorp Station to get on the Øresund train to Copenhagen.
It's thursday and my flight isn't until sunday, so I have some days to do the
last adjustments and shopping. What did I forget?
Passport, money, tickets, visacard, train ticket...it should all be there...
well, I couldn't find the extra lenses for my bike glasses, a yellow and a
clear type. Maybe they are somewhere, maybe not - I have to do
without them.
I forgot to tell you for how long I'll be gone? 4000 km and 2 months. That'll
be around 65 km each day. That will be realistic I think, also in that kind of
terrain I will have to deal with. But including resting days
it'll soon be near to 80-100 km a day. I started feeling a pain in my ass
already 4 km outside Åkirkeby, but that was the first part where I was going
at a forced pace. The rain is beating the window panes here
in the ferry. In spite my journey is planned so it should NOT be raining. I've
been careful to choose the most dry parts of the world - so what's the point?
01.07.02 Transit area in Sao Paolo
All of a sudden I'm sitting dead beat in the transit area in Sao Paolo. I
crossed the equator for the first time sometimes this night. Now the sun is
supposed to rise in the east as usual, but instead of moving against
the south west it will have to move against the north! Let's see if it's true?
The first impression of Brasil is, that I que up nicely among all the others
when a group of brazilian women arrive pushing their way in front of us.
And when I find the mens room I understand portuguese: the toilet is closed
due to cleaning. So I sit down to wait for the cleaner to end his job - NOONE
else does. That's typical for these people?
Now it's 7.05 local time. Due to the time difference we have had an endless
night for 12 hours. The sun rise around 6.30, so it probably sets at 17.30 -
that's fairly as expected. I can still hear danish spoken from time to time