Book - Eastern Europe by Bike

You can see the whole of the book about our journey through Eastern Europe here for free:

Eastern Europe by Simon Taylor & Isabelle Bedard | Make Your Own Book

Best of Eastern Europe slideshow

The best photos of our journey through Eastern Europe

Use this link if viewing on mobile

Eastern Europe by bike

In the summer of 2012 we flew from Stavanger in Norway to Split in Croatia and cycled back:

 

The journey was one of 4200km and took 54 days during our summer holiday. Isabelle was 5 months pregnant at the beginning and was showing her lump towards the end.

We travelled through 15 countries:

Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden and finally Norway.

Some of the journey through Poland was on a train and we got a ferry from Tallinn to Stockholm to get back to Scandinavia. The ride across the centre of Norway was a challenge although the hardest and most spectacular bit was the Romanian 'Alps'

Russia Cycling Guides

Kazakhstan Road Guides

Mongolia to Istanbul route

Son Dynamo hub

We have started using a GPS in Norway to explore on our road bikes and found it really useful. The idea of doing a long cycle ride with a GPS appeals so when I discovered that I needed a new front wheel because my rim was really concave we decided to order a new wheel from SJS Cycles with a SON Dynamo hub built in.

We then bought a Busch and Muller 'E-werk' which allows the dynamo to have USB output and to change the voltage to charge lots of different things. So far we have used it effectively on mobile phones, USB and also an Android tablet.

The freedom given by the use of a GPS is amazing. It is especially useful when entering a city because thanks to the amazing free maps from Open Street Maps which you can just load on your GPS you get a perfect turn by turn guide to reach some of the most difficult parts of a city.

China to Pakistan Border Crossing - Kashgar to Sost

Cycling in Pakistan - Giligit to Chitral Video

Gilgit to Chitral Cycle Ride (taster) from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.

This section of the journey took 6 days of cycling and climbed over the 3800m Shandur Pass. We crossed the pass in October to try and reach the Kalash people of NW Pakistan, the only remaining indigenous non-muslims still living in the country. This film is just a brief part of a larger whole.

Trans Africa Route (by truck) on Google Maps

Whole route in Google Earth

The whole route is available here as a Google Earth kmz file. Just download and click to open the route in Google Earth (as long as you've got Google Earth on your computer).

All of the separate sections are available here to download and use to plan your own route. It's a good way to see the absolute emptiness of Mongolia and the magnificence of the Ile valley and the Tien Shan in China. The Altai and the Karakorums look pretty good too.

Ulaan Baatar to Kathmandu

Below is a Nasa World Wind video of the route from Ulaan Baatar to Kathmandu:
Download the route as a Google Earth file here


Ulaan Baatar to Kathmandu from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.

Crossing the desert in Iran

Here's a film made using World Wind, Nasa's simulation software, of our route across the desert in Iran. We took 10 days cycling from Neyshabur to Yazd. See here for more details. If you want to see this route in Google Earth just click here for the kmz file.


 Iran - Crossing the desert from Simon Taylor on Vimeo.

Mongolia to Turkey Road Guides

Golden Triangle Route in Google Maps

About 700km of cycling. We did it at Easter during Songkran and it was HOT!