The long forgotten dream

The very first adventure

I don’t really remember how we realized we had the same dream, me and my closest friend Jonas. A dream about discovering the world from the saddle of a bike equipped with panniers containing the bare minimum necessary for survival. Problem was we were teenagers with no money, no bikes and nothing else of the gear needed. That of course didn’t stop us from drooling over catalogues from Specialized and Cyclepro for hours and hours. Even though we had nothing going for us, it didn’t stop us from dreaming that one day it would happen…

Some summer further down the line we both had earned a little money to attempt an adventure in a smaller scale. We set course for Gotland and for touring the island on rented bikes. The bikes were 3-geared citybikes and came with a small cart and an old cotton tent. Except for the minimal equipment we of course had the boombox on top of the cart to loudly announce we were coming to the great joy of the locals.

Of course we overestimated our cycling capabilities and had to push really hard to keep the scheduled timeframe. It was fantastic to see Visby, the islands historical town and the famous ”raukar” (sea stacks) on Fårö and many, many other beautiful places. A perfect appetizer for upcoming adventures.

The first thunderstorm revealed that our tent was anything but waterproof and from then on, everything was damp the rest of the way and our boombox had got a bad case of short circuit and was reluctantly declared dead.

In short we had a great time. But that was until we realized that even though we spent almost no money the wallets were getting empty. I don’t remember if we had two or three days left of the trip when we used our last money to buy a pack of biscuits and a bottle of carbonated water that were all we had to eat and drink until we would get home again. I think that was the most hungry I’ve ever been, before or after. The ferry and commute back home lasted forever and ever.

Anyway, we survived - and we were left undeterred from all by our hardships - on the contrary - we were more inspired than ever. But even so, it would take about 30 years until the next adventure.