Category: nature

Finding Solace in Solis – Helsinki 25.06.-01.07.2024

i feel as though my brain cells are rotting and expanding at the same time. the crew we have and the company we keep know how to get things done, are nerds in various topics, and together our skills are (almost) endless. but we do not forget to also have fun and laugh and to communicate across culture and language our weird senses of humour. in the north of helsinki we were greeted so warmly and with such hospitality by some of the people from solis who generously hosted us in their garden for a week. we were fed fresh…

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Tall Bike Tour

At the end of August 2018 I built a Tall Bike and cycled it 250km from Copenhagen to Växjö, to start my studies. Here’s a spoken word-esque account.     Bike touring by yourself on a tall bike (with no spare parts and minimal tools) is two things: 1. Astoundingly beautiful. 2. Existentially terrifying. I saw the tops of trees flickering copper, gold and crimson silver in the sun and happened upon a goth’s picnic on some forest roadside. They looked embarrassed for me, having heard me singing moments before. There was tarmac melted into long cracks in the road…

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Alltag

Bin schon vor ner Weile am Camp angekommen. Wie R. schon sagte, immer wieder beeindruckend, was die Scouts fuer Orte finden. Diesmal im Garten eines gelben Ferienhauses. Niemand hier, Rollos unten, Rasen frisch gemaeht. Wasserleitung! Menschen tauchen, eine nach der anderen mehr oder weniger erschoepft auf, ihr Rad die letzten steilen holprigen Meter hinaufschiebend. Die altbekannten Gesichter blinzeln in die Sonne und erkunden den Ort. Laden das Essen ab, welches sie in Pappkartons oben auf ihrem Gepaeck festgezurrt haben. Das Cooking-Team nimmt ihnen die Sachen dankend entgegen, sichten, schmieden Menue-Plaene: Alles-was-wir-haben-Suppe mit… Hungrige schnappen sich die matschigen Bananen, fuettern sich…

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The Curonian Spit

From Kaunas, the biketour cycled for 5 days to reach the Curonian Spit, a long piece of land that starts in Kaliningrad (Russia) and streches for 100km in the ocean next to Lithuania, where you have to get a ferry back to Klaipeda on mainland Lithuania. We took the ferry to Nida (again, some kind of a puzzle in which we had to fit 14 bikes, 3 trailers, and tons of luggage into a small space…), the most southern part that belongs to Lithuania, and cycled north from here. The spit is a protected area of land and a UNESCO…

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Cycling along Nemunas

From Kaunas we had several days to cycle along the Nemunas river to the coast. We camped on some beautiful beaches on the way. From Kaunas, a perfect bike path led us out of the city for about 20 km. We didn’t meet a single person on the way, and no one in Kaunas seemed to know about this path. Eventually, the bike path turned into a sand road and then into a small foot path, which at one point crossed a river on a bridge so narrow that we had to lift the trailer over the railing. The worst…

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The Żubr

The Żubr (bison) is the biggest land mammal in Europe. Żubrs have been extinct in many parts of Europe for centuries, the last ones living in the wild were killed in the 1920s. After the second world war, some Żubrs living in zoos were released into the wild to create a new population. All Żubrs that live in the wild today are the descendants of only 12 individuals that were released from zoos, which is quite threatening to their genetic health. The biggest population of about 800 individuals lives in Białowieża Forest, where we stayed for several days. Male Żubrs…

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Białowieża Forest

Białowieża Forest is a big forest that spans across the border between Poland and Belarus. It is known to be the only leftover primeval forest in Europe and home of its biggest bison population. We stayed on the Polish side of the forest for 5 days. We were also planning to cross over to the Belarusian side through the newly-opened bike-only border crossing, but unfortunately the Belarusian border guards didn’t want to let us pass with a dog. The forest was impressive, but at the same time a bit disappointing. It was amazing to cycle through it. It is so…

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