Djoeke Bareuds, a native of the Netherlands, is passing through North Texas, but what makes her journey special is that she is making this trip primarily on a 15-year-old bicycle.
Bareuds began her journey when a close friend, Christa Polder sent her a text message, in January 2006, suggesting that they quit their jobs, hop on their bikes and see the world. They quickly made a plan and began their journey in July 2006.
Bareuds decided that she would sell her house in addition to quitting her job before she left for the trip. “I wanted to experience that freedom,” said Bareuds. She gave away most of her possession as well, keeping only the things with sentimental value.
The women would take 10,000 euros each, about $13,800, and travel on it as far as it would take them. They began their journey by traveling north to Denmark and then on to Sweden and Finland, which was one of their favorite places to travel because of Sweden’s laws on camping.
Sweden has enacted several laws that give travelers access to uncultivated land. The law allows travelers to pass through the land as well as camp on it without having to get permission from the owner. The only restriction on these laws is that the campers must be “out of the way” and “leave no trace.” Bareuds and Polder were able to take full advantage of these laws, even sleeping on a golf course one night.
“We couldn’t find anywhere else, all the land around was really rock,” said Bareuds. They spent the night on the course, next to the tee with the intention of waking up early in the morning and leaving the course before anyone else arrived. However, it was raining the next morning, so they had to stay in their tent. The rain continued throughout the morning.
As they rested in their tent, they could hear golfers outside the tent as well as course workers.
The rain stopped at 3 p.m. and Bareuds peeked out of the tent when she believed no one was around. She was surprised to find that there was a man outside the tent working on the course. The man greeted her with a smile saying, “Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
The women then went on to Latvia and Russia where they traveled on the Trans-Siberian Railway, a 6,000 mile train route China from Moscow that takes an average of seven days. They took the railway to Beijing where they returned to their bikes.
When Bareuds and Polder arrived in China, they found a country that was much different from anything they had expected. They were able to see first hand what life in a communist country is like.
The land was polluted and dirty. The severe pollution forced the women to ride with bandanas over their noses and mouths. “We didn’t talk to each other for days, because we didn’t want to open our mouths. We didn’t even want to breathe,” said Bareuds.
Bareuds described the roads as the “industrial revolution.” Factories lined the road on both sides for miles. The people lived in small villages that were a part of the factories, which they worked in. China was Bareuds’ least favorite place, not because there were not beautiful places to see or because the culture was distasteful, but because of the pollution and poor living conditions the people suffered.
Despite these poor conditions, Bareuds said that the people were very kind and even quite positive. The people were also very curious about the women.
Whenever they stopped, they would quickly draw a crowd. The people would touch the women and go as far as to open their bags and look through them. This was not an attempt to steal anything, but rather something, that was culturally normal and done due to curiosity, Bareuds said.
After over a month of cycling through China, the women crossed the boarder into Vietnam where they were able to see an instant change in the countryside. After traveling through Vietnam, the women traveled to Cambodia and Thailand.
In Cambodia, the women faced the danger of landmines when they stepped off the road. Bareuds said it was very common to see people missing limbs. When they were here, they never got off the road unless it was on a path that they knew locals traveled often.
In Thailand they made their way to a national park where there were to be wild elephants roaming the area. They spent a week in the park each day trying to catch a glimpse of the animals and each day they were unsuccessful. They would ask the other visitors at the campsite if they had been able to see the elephants and each day they would get the same casual affirming answer.
After the week was up Bareuds and Polder decided that, it was time to continue. On their way out of the park, they were lucky enough to see an elephant next to the road. They stopped to take a picture of the elephant when it began flapping its ears in anger.
The women looked ahead for a way to escape, but saw that ahead of them was the herd of elephants crossing the road with their calves. They had no escape route, however as the herd finished crossing the road they jumped on the bicycles and began racing down the road with the elephant chasing them.
When they passed the herd they stopped to catch their breath and breathe a sigh of relief, but this turned out to be premature relief. The elephant was still chasing them. They again raced away on their bikes this time not stopping until they were sure they were safely away. “When we stopped, we just fell on the ground laughing, almost hysterically,” Bareuds said.
In April 2007, Bareuds and Polder reached Bangkok, Thailand where they parted ways. Polder decided that she was ready to go home while Bareuds went on to San Diego.
Bareuds then traveled to North Texas through a combination of cycling and trains. Bareuds plans to take a train to South Texas where she will follow the TransAmerican Bicycle Trail to Charleston, N.C.
From there Bareuds plans to catch a freight ship that will take her across the Atlantic Ocean to England. This is the only part of the entire journey that Bareuds planned because she had to purchase the ticket early.
Bareuds said she would bike around England for a while before returning home to the Netherlands. She was not sure what she would do once she made it home, but she plans to figure that out when she get there.
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