"car-free adventure" self-designed & self-supported bicycle tour adventures

BICYCLE TOURING EXPERIENCES

Stories from our Adventures   select topic & click   The Lady & the Canal Operation Vietnam Petroglyphs The Hiram Bingham Train                                                                       ..there is no city by this name on my map (Tuscany)

Tour Stories car free adventure ___________________   The “Stories” webpage provides experiences written about from our bicycle adventures.  The majority of these stories are about experiences we have had with the local populations while bicycling all around the globe.  Included are some unique “non-bicycle” related experiences which interested me.  These stories have been written  using a bit of poetic license.    At bicycle speeds the cyclist is exposed to all aspects of the route's surroundings. Touring on a bicycle is a social event.  The experiences along the route are always interesting and always memorable.  The people along the route are curious about what we are attempting to accomplish and interested in hearing about our goals.  They never shy away from being helpful and many go out of their way to provide the help when needed.    One of the most difficult tasks for me is to stay on the route to my destination each day. The routes we select to ride are off the beaten path because that is where we want to ride.  Since it is off the beaten path the signage at the intersections to the roads does not exist.  They need not be marked because the local population has no need for them.  We have learned “by doing” that one always verifies the route before riding miles in the wrong direction.    Verification of the route requires that we enter into a conversation with the local population.  When cycling in a foreign country that conversation can be very interesting because of language.  On several occasions I have been forced to pantomime my request following the three words I know of the local language.  Often the people speak english perfectly no matter how remote the location where I am asking for advice.  I have always received positive, helpful responses.       ...bike friends we met from Holland ...(Ebbs, Austria)

..sharing the road with the locals (France) ..    ..waiting to enter the tunnel (Vietnam)..    ..pausing for lunch on the road..Tuscany..

..on the road near Troyes on our way to Paris..  ..the lady we met in the outskirts of Paris who attempted to tell us how to take the bike path to the Eiffel Tower...she gave up and decided to ride with us instead..  ..we made it thanks to the coaching from lady we met at the canel...

When we reached the outskirts of Paris the road pattern became confusing. We had to avoid the major freeways into Paris which prohibited bike traffic.  We picked our way along trying to avoid getting totally lost.  At one point my son yelled at two bicyclists “Paris” as they rode by.  They gave us the thumbs up and we attempted to follow, but by the time we got on the road behind them they had disappeared.  We wandered toward Paris finally coming to an intersection the roads of which were not on our map.  This was typical of the whole trip.  The maps were not detailed enough for bike navigation. 

As we pondered which road to take, a lady rode by on her bike.  Jack again asked “Paris.” The woman stopped and Jack asked, “Do you speak English?”  The woman said, “Oh yes,” in perfect English.  We told her that we wanted to get to the bike path along the Seine so we could get to the Eiffel Tower.  She told us that we could ride on the bike path along the Canal de l’Ourcq most of the way and began to explain how to get to the bike path.  Then she stopped trying to explain how to reach the bike path and said she would show us the way and rode off on her bike.  We followed. 

She took us the wrong way on a one way street which with the wave of her hand indicated she did this all the time to shorten the trip.  After maybe a mile we reached the bank of the canal.  We were at street level and the bike path was beneath us.  I took two pictures of the lady with Jack as they studied the map.  Again she decided it better that she ride with us a short distance to show us the way.  She said that when we met she had been going to the Foret Regional de Bondy near by to read, it being such a beautiful spot, but she would change her plans and ride with us along the canal instead. 

As we rode along she provided the history of the buildings along the canal and the general history of the area.  She told us what had happened to the area during World War II.  We rode for several miles and after a time she disclosed that she had exceeded her typical bike trek distance along the canal.  She also told us she was 77 years old!     

We approached the end of the bike path along the canal.  Our guide tried in vain to explain how to get from the canal to the Seine.  She saw two men setting on a bench preparing to roller blade along the bike path.  She joined them and their conversation, in French, which became very light hearted.  We had ridden about sixty miles and I was tired.  We wanted to get to the Eiffel Tower.  After a bit, the two men got up from the bench and looked at the map Jack held in his hand.  In fairly reasonable English, they told him how to get to the Eiffel Tower. 

Before we left, our lady companion asked if I would write to her when I returned to the states.  I said sure and she asked if I had a pencil and paper.   Both were not things that I carried as required equipment in my pack.  Not to worry, she stepped into the street and flagged down a car.  She asked for a pencil and paper but the first car had none.  Without hesitation, she stopped a second car.  The street was narrow and when a car stopped it blocked the street.  The second car produced pencil and paper and while stopped blocked two other cars which had been proceeding along the road.  She wrote down her address, returned the pencil and thanked the occupants of the car.  All the while the two cars being blocked patiently waited, staying off their horns.  I could observe the occupants of the two cars and the occupants both looked as though this happened all the time.  Never in America!

I put the slip of paper with the address into my pack.  We said our goodbyes to the Lady of the Canal and headed for the Seine and the Eiffel Tower to meet the support crew.  I corresponded with the lady of the canal upon my return and received a very sympathetic letter immediately after 911 from her. 

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…….as I floated to the surface I was frustrated but I had done what I could to prevent a disaster. When I got to the surface I stretched my arms across my upturned kayak and held on.  The woman in the two person kayak that I had forced to the wall of the tunnel put her hand out and yelled for me to grab on which I did.  My arm in her grip we slowly drifted with the tide toward the mouth of the tunnel.    The guide was in a kayak next to us and I thought instead of coming out of the tunnel looking like a pathetic old man being saved by a woman maybe I could drop some of the “old” persona for a few hundred yards and grab onto the back of the guide’s kayak for the remainder of the trip out of the tunnel.  I got his attention and relayed my plans to him and grabbed onto the back of his kayak.   As we exited from the tunnel I noticed the deception had worked.  The members of my group drifted in their kayaks close by with that expression on their faces which related the message “that poor old man!”  The guide told me to climb onto the back of his kayak.  I struggled onto the back of his kayak and he paddled me over to my kayak and I clumsily transferred onto my kayak.    Back on my kayak and paddling with the group back toward the boat my mind began to drift back over the last few months of preparation for this trip…….   I am a CIA agent.  I work undercover.  My specialty is “old.”  “Old” is a name the company assigned to using age as a cover.  On assignment I act old similar to the blind kid in the wheelchair who transported the guns in “Westside Story.”  I am basically ignored on an assignment which allows me to get into position to gain advantage over my opponent.  Old people are avoided. “Oh my God that old man is walking this way.  Let’s leave!”  It is an excellent cover for a secret mission.      My assignments are relayed to me at a location near my home.  I enter stall three of the men’s room in the lobby of a hotel near my home each week at 2 o’clock.  I wait 5 minutes, flush and leave if no contact is made.  If someone enters stall 4 during my visit I wait for a tap of a foot beneath the wall between the stalls. I respond with a double tap. The information is then passed beneath the partition by a hand holding a memory stick with encrypted information.  I remain seated until the courier has exited. We never meet.      The agency has been using this “clever” method of communication effectively for years.  The only blemish occurred during a routine contact in the airport in Minneapolis where an agent became involved in an “incident.” He had tried to extricate himself from the ruckus without blowing it and in so doing had to arrest the person in the adjoining stall. The person turned out to be someone of note and the agency was pissed.  To save face the agent was assigned to locate the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq indefinitely.   The information provided by my men’s room taper ordered me to Vietnam. The agency had received information that plans were in progress to use a device in an attack on a US citizen.  The device to be used was called a “Launched Overhand Air-born Forward Ejection Repeater” (LOAFER). The agency had no knowledge about when or where the attack was to occur and had been instructed to investigate.      My assignment was Vietnam.  Web traffic had the device hidden there until it was to be used.  We were advised to use caution.  Vietnam has invested heavily in the subprime real estate market and Wall Street who also has a large investment in congress had passed the word along to government agencies that it would be unfortunate if the US were found to be involved in any “activity” unknown to the Vietnamese government.  I was to act really “old.”   To cover my entry I joined a group bicycling across Vietnam which was supported by a tour group; “Active Journey’s.” The bike ride would culminate with a kayaking trip in Ha Long Bay where early reports indicated the device may be hidden.  I am an excellent cyclist but the task required that I act “old.”  I was instructed to ride behind the other cyclist and appear to be struggling to hang on.  I spent hours riding before the trip practicing to look old and pitiful. On previous assignments I had only to act old for a few hours but this would be more than a week of pitiful riding.  I had been trained to periodically pee on myself to simulate loss of bladder control but we would be traveling on a bus and I was afraid the other cyclist would throw me off.  Undercover activities can be carried just so far.       A side trip in Cambodia was undertaken before the Vietnam bike ride began to checkout a rumor that the device could possibly be hidden there.  I found nothing.  We returned to Saigon to begin the bike ride north.  As we rode north I lagged behind the other riders on the road and struggled.  Finally we reached Hanoi and went to Ha Long Bay, boarded a boat and headed into the bay for a couple of days of kayaking.  Each day we boarded a kayak and roamed around the islands at times passing through the tunnels under the rocks.  I pulled a detector behind my kayak that I had planted in a camera which scanned for the LOAFER device.  I got no indications until the morning of the second day.    As we passed through a tunnel into a cove I began to receive signals from the detector. I peered at the jagged rocks in the ceiling of the cave and ran my hand along several surfaces along the walls of the cave receiving several ugly cuts on my hands while looking for the device.  I found nothing.  As I exited the cave the signal stopped.  The device must be in the tunnel.   I had to get back into the tunnel but was not sure how to accomplish it without raising suspicion from the group.  Luckily our guide decided that the tide was too high in the tunnel he had planned to exit through and we exited the same way we came in.  I had decided the device must be under the water near the wall of the tunnel but how to get under the water?.    As we entered the tunnel my tracking device began to “ping” and as I tracked it I found myself pushed up against another kayak in the group next to the tunnel wall where I suspected the device to be located.  I needed to get under the water for a look around.  I quickly realized that my position was perfect.  I could use the old man ruse and fake that I had lost my balance and a fall from my kayak into the water next to the tunnel wall.    I deftly rolled my kayak to one side and fell into the water.  I moved along the rocks beneath the kayak with the detection device pinging in my ear trying to locate the device but found none. I had been under the water for some time and decided I had to get back to the surface before others jumped in to save an old man.    ………. I awoke out of my thoughts as we approached the boat where I would exit the kayak.  I did a clumsy roll onto the dock from my kayak and went into the boat.  As I passed the others who were standing along the side of the boat no one made eye contact.  The ruse had worked.  I had played “old” very well. In conversations about the incident later everyone assumed that an old man had fallen out of his kayak and luckily had been saved.  I returned to my kayak for the afternoon outing to complete the coverage of the area in search of the device to a chorus of “hang in there big guy.”  I just smiled to myself.  The things we do in the service of our country.                    I reported my findings to my contact at the CIA from Hanoi. Basically my report said “the device was not in Vietnam.”  My assignment over, we returned home from Vietnam.  In December while in the midst of a four mile, 15% climb on a training ride I was notified that the attack we feared had occurred.  President Bush had gone to Iraq for a farewell visit and during a news conference with the Iraqi president the attack was launched.  A reporter in the crowd stood up and hurled a Launched Overhand Air-born Forward Ejection Repeater (LOAFER) device at the President.  The attacker was able to get two off in fact and luckily the president was not playing my “old” man ploy and deftly ducked beneath both of them. We had missed it but luckily no one was hurt this time.  No harm no foul!  It is sometimes you win and sometimes you loose in the spy business but it never gets old!

 

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THE HIRAM BINGHAM TRAIN - Hiking the Inca Trail - Machu Picchu 2005

....our coca tea cups.......  ... dining in luxury .....  .... the meal ..........

The unexpected adds spice to an adventure.  We visited the ruins at Machu Picchu in Peru in 2005.  We stayed at the Sanctuary Lodge located at the top of the mountain at Machu Picchu after hiking into the site on the Inca Trail.  Our three days at Machu Picchu had come to an end and it was time to return to Cusco.    The return trip to Cusco would be by train.  The train station was located at the bottom of the mountain in the town of Aguas Calientes.  Aguas Calientes is where most of the tourists stay when visiting Machu Picchu taking the bus up to the Sanctuary each day.  I had a colleague from Cusco who was able to secure two nights for us at the lodge at top of the mountain.    To get to Aguas Calientes it was necessary to take a bus from the lodge and traverse down the mountain to the town below.  The only way to describe the bus ride down the mountain is wild.  The road is not the best and looks directly over the edge of a cliff the bottom of which cannot be seen because it drops off so dramatically.  The driver is on a schedule or coca tea and appears to be attempting to better his best time to the bottom of the mountain.  Since he is driving the bus it must be assumed to be a good driver or he would have died flying off the mountain by now, or this is his first day on the job and he is developing his skill on this run.  Mr. Toad’s wild ride ended successfully for us and we safely entered Aguas Calientes at the bottom of the mountain.    Our first task after exiting the bus was to locate the train station.  We located the station, checked our luggage and verified our time of departure. The departure time provided us with time to visit the bustling flea market which covered an area of several square blocks in the town.  We went shopping.  We walked through the market but my wife could not find the bargain she wanted.    We returned to the train station a few minutes before departure and our train was waiting.  We were unaware that our tour service in Cusco had scheduled the “Hiram Bingham Train” for our return to Cusco.  The train is operated by the Oriental Express folks from Europe.  I had no clue what riding on the Hiram Bingham train was about.  In fact at the time I had no idea who Hiram Bingham was which would not come as a surprise to my community of friends.   We were met as we entered the train by a doorman who guided us to our seats or I should say table.  We entered a private booth with a table covered by a very elegant table cloth.  The remainder of our car was laid out in the décor of an expensive restaurant.  A short time after we sat down our waiter appeared and gave us a quick verbal tour of the train.  He explained that there was an entertainment car two cars forward.  The entertainment car had a live band and dance floor.  There was a bar where one could order their favorite beverage.    We would be served a multi course meal.  Tonight’s selections were shown on a menu he provided.  He asked if we wanted to start with a cup of “coca tea” our Peruvian stable.  We of course said yes.  The coca tea was served in special Indian pottery mugs which we brought home with us to commemorate the event. It was our wedding anniversary which made the entire event even more special.    After we finished our coca tea we went to explore the dance car.  The band was lively and the layout was quite pleasant.  We only stayed briefly and returned to our table and told the waiter we were ready for dinner.  I am unsure of the time required to return to Cusco from Aguas Calientes by train but it went unnoticed.  We spent the time enjoying the delicious meal and reminiscing about our Inca Trail adventure, the ruins and views of Machu Picchu.    Our adventure did not end immediately when we exited the train.  To exit Cusco a train must transverse back and forth up three inclines until it reaches the height of the valley floor before it begins its journey.  The Hiram Bingham train did not attempt this maneuver to enter Cusco and instead stopped at a station North of Cusco.     It was late and the location was remote.  At first we stood with a crowd of people who had exited the train as well.  As these folks were picked up by cars from Cusco the crowd thinned out rather quickly.  A car from our tour agency did not show.  Finally as the last car came to pick up a passenger the guy said we should come with him.  He said I am sure there is room so we joined him in the car for the ride into Cusco.    I have always been fortunate when stranded and have been extended a helping hand in many difficult situations while traveling.  This has happened so often on my various adventures that I have decided it is not luck.  People are good.  They will come to your aid and in many cases without you even soliciting their help.  The driver dropped us off at our hotel ending a perfect day.  Of course we had a cup of coco tea in the lounge of the hotel before turning in.    The next day our guide was very upset because we had not been picked up at the train station and apologized over and over.   The folks who supported our trip to Peru provided us with a very memorable adventure.  My wife says it was her "best."  The great thing about our itinerary was that we were by ourselves with our guide and driver which allowed us to adlib on the trip.  When we saw something we wanted to get into as we toured or if we asked to visit or participate in something that we had heard or read about that was not on the agenda it was arranged.  Often arrangements had to be made on the fly.   The tour group made our trip to Peru especially wonderful.

Google> Hiram Bingham Train  > click on Hiram Bingham in the search list for  details about the train

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