Cycling Nomads :: the World of Ania & Robb Maciag ::

Dasht-e Kavir – the Great Salty Desert

robb — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:45:00 +0000

Ok. We did it half way :-) but please . .excuse me .. cycling in 50C is against Health & Safety Regulations even here ok ?
And BTW the train from Tabas to Mashhad was also veeery hot (but full of very friendly people) so we still suffered a lot :-)

We are in Mashhad but leaving tomorrow for Hate-the-tourist-why-they-want-to-come-here-give-them-5-days-visa country. In Short? TURKMENISTAN :-)
Still happy, still together, still .. or even more excited about all the new faces we gonna see in Central Asia.
Enjoy the pictures and … c’mon . .don’t be shy to write something. There is a little window on the bottom of the page. Use it :-)

Ania and Robb and Ben

[/caption] (c) Ben Robbinson don't stop Her NOW!!!! Porridge !!!!!!!!! 5:00 am Ice Ice Baby .... Ice Ice Baby .... wherrre is the camelll ? wherrre is the CAMEEEEELL ? sugar ? naaaaaaaaaa :-) here comes the Cheetah - dadadadada ... ;-) it's alright ... (is it?) Still Friends ;-) Still in Love ;-) still running away ;-) but well protected ... everyone ;-) Tabas, camping near the Holy Shrine of The Emmam Rezas Brother

3800 km and only 30 days visa

robb — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:28:11 +0000

We are in Shiraz at the moment. Looong, 2 weeks brake from cycling.
Visas, heat and friends .. :-) but we are getting ready to cross the Dash-e Kavir desert next week.
More @ www.cyclingnomads.org/ben

Big and Small Ararat - view from Iran

:-)

Tabriz

Tabriz, Bazaar

London ? no - Teheran!

Teheran - The Moneychanger

Teheran - The Knife Sharpener

Teheran - The Shisha Bar Owner

In the mountains. North of Teheran

Kashan - The Going Back from Bakery Father of 4

Kashan

Kashan - The Wool Seller

Kashan - The Plastic Flowers Seller

Kashan - There is nothing bad in stylish panniers :-)

Kashan - The Smile for Tourist Giver

Stay cool :-) It’s 41C today:-)

This Gorgeous Turkey

robb — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:56:42 +0000

We are not cycling much this days. Ania has some silly knee injury so we took a bus just to avoid climbing some 1200 m. Oh well .. part of the “team trip”.

We are around Van Lake :-) so to use it properly .. we took a famous ferry boat across the lake. Great adventure AND since we were the ONLY passengers the crew took us all around :-) and even “forced us” to have a lunch with them.

ok .. some postcards from the Gorgeous Turkey today. Here they are!

our bikes at the back of the ferry

love and kisses
like always

Leaving Syria

robb — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:04:29 +0000

one of my favorite ones from this crazy country :-)

a proper cycling postcard ;-)

lets name it .. it's hot ;-)

16 liters of water .. just for tonight

sunrise or sunset ??

after the desert/sand/dust storm :-)

hot .. not like in Europe ;-)

Hajji Ismail and his sheep

milking time!

oh yeah! it's holydays!

Al Hasakeh during the storm

but Mr. President is watching .. like always

:-)

on the way to Damascus

robb — Sun, 02 May 2010 09:32:48 +0000

“Welcome to Syria!” it’s the local mantra. One doesn’t have to speak English to know how to say it.
The best part of it? They don’t only say it – they do it. With smiles, with free coffee, free breakfasts, free fruits, free … you name it (almost ;-)
Great people!

Abdul ... another great host

it can go even steeper ?

another day .. another Falafel ;-)

Aleppo

robb — Sun, 02 May 2010 09:19:58 +0000

No time and money for too much internet …
so lets the pictures to speak :-)

Zajadajac wieeelkie Falafel :-)

bazarowe dzieciaki

maly lansik :-)

lansik 2 :-)

Mydlo z Aleppo. Z oliwek .. ponoc slynne ;-)

z ladunkiem na bazarze

Bazar w Aleppo

Halil and Iskanderun

robb — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:04:05 +0000

no time for writing ;-)
only photos today .. sorry guys :-) We are in Iskanderun .. 2 days away from Syria …

w okolicach Feke ... mala lesna droga .. :-) cuuudo

: uroki bocznej drogi :-)

nocleg w meczecie :-) takim malym, przy stacji benzynowej :-)

Halil .. nasz wybawca .. doslownie!

a drzewa pomaranczowe w pelnym rozkwicie

przepraszam Panie Ataturk - do Syrii to ktoredy ??

bzzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzz

it’s time to pack …

robb — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:40:37 +0000

aaaaaaall right!
We are leaving … eeeeeeee .. today ? OK … so what about the boxes?
sorry everything is in Polish but I belive .. you’ll get the picture ;-)

:-)

2 day to go

robb — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:38:24 +0000

yes it is ;-) and while we are packing . .you can watch some video of “Ania’s leaving pint” with some of the Itchy Feet guys. The funny thing is .. all 3 of them, Ania, Nir and Ben are gone already. Ania and Ben leaving for Silk Road in 2 days, Nir already in Kyrgystan :-)

only poor Alex … still there ..

more news … in 3 days .. from the road .. finnaly :-)
robb

28 days to go ….

robb — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:31:29 +0000

Yes it is. The Countdown widget on my desktop is telling me it’s 28 days to go. Looks like “almost there” but at the same time … shit .. it’s 28 days of waiting ;-)

Yeah .. well … Ania and I have been busy. Veeeery busy. First .. leaving UK and belive me or not it wasn’t easy :-) Party after party and … more party. So many friends left behind .. kind of. At least for a while. Hope they will visit us one day in PL. they have no excuses :-)

This weekend gonna be a big one. Some nice people invited us to Kraków to do some speeches about our travels. Ania is having her first one ever :-) Western woman traveling in Muslim countries. Ha! Nice one.

And me? Oh well .. after the first article in NatGeo [about my trip to China .. again] I’m having a “lecture” about … my trip to China . .again :-) Hope the new book is going to be on the market soon so I’ll have some break from … my trip to China .. again :-)

The bikes are almost ready. Since one of my bikes was stolen … so many people want to help! First, my girls+Shamus from Ark Academy decided to give me some money for a new saddle [Brooks B17], now some “internet friends” from Poland sending new brakes and a whole set of new super-tires. For free :-) Oh well …. for a postcard from Iran to be precise! ;-)

What else ? Hmmmm … Poland is cool. Virtually :-) Some snow, -10C and … tens and hundreds of deers! You drive along the motorway, lets say to Wrocław and you see big groups of them every few minutes.
After some problems with LOI for Uzbekistan everything looks good again and … iranian visa was 3 days to be ready :-)

So . .everything looks good, great and bright :-)
Fingers cross it will end up like this :D

Robb and Ania