The Accidental Bicycle Tourist
Host Gabriel Aldaz sits down with other bicycle touring and bikepacking enthusiasts to have unexpected, revealing, and often humorous conversations about their most memorable bike touring adventures. You’ll hear individuals, friends, partners, and families from all walks of life share the joys (and sometimes challenges) of bicycle touring. A willingness to explore the unknown, overcoming self-doubt, resilience, and experiencing acts of kindness from complete strangers are recurring themes. Gabriel hopes that the episodes, dropping every other week, will inspire you to get out and see where the road leads you.
For links to podcast platforms, feedback via email, the podcast website, and Instagram:
https://linktr.ee/accidental_bicycle_tourist
The Accidental Bicycle Tourist
ABT055. Maps and Miles: Connections Beyond Borders
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Israel or Palestine? Damascus, Syria or Damascus, Virginia? West Virginia or Western Virginia? To David Landis, all are points on a map. David has made it his mission to find shared humanity across borders, even in conflict zones like the Middle East, through hiking and bikepacking trails. Having first visited the Middle East for a semester abroad during his university studies, David returned there to live for almost a decade. During his travels in the region, David experienced the incredible kindness of people he met, with several becoming lifelong friends. He’s also felt the sorrow of having some of those friends or their relatives killed in violent episodes that continue throughout the Middle East. As someone who has tried long-distance hiking, bicycle touring, and bikepacking racing (surviving waist-deep snow and concrete-like "death mud" on the grueling Tour Divide), David has come to the conclusion that, somehow, it’s all about the people and building trails that connect them.
David has an account on Instagram. His Urfa-Urbil bikepacking trip is catalogued in this story map.
David’s Camino de Santiago guidebooks are published by Village to Village Press and his trails are developed through V2V Trails.
You can watch the movie about the Elk Rut Ramble on YouTube.
For links to podcast platforms, feedback via email, the podcast website, and Instagram:
https://linktr.ee/accidental_bicycle_tourist