Spokes around the world

YUCCA VALLEY — For most people, an adventure may be rafting down a river, climbing a mountain or flying off to an exotic locale for a two-week vacation.

But for Amaya Williams and Eric Schambion, both 42, life is a constant adventure, a thrilling two-wheel ride that has taken them to more than 60 countries around the world. So far.

The couple is traveling the globe soaking up culture, meeting new people and fulfilling a need for excitement, an escape from an ordinary nine-to-five existence. And they’re doing it on bicycles.

“We were reaching middle age, and we saw all our friends settling down with comfortable lifestyles and big mortgages, and we decided we didn’t want that,” Williams said. “We wanted to go on a big adventure.”

Figuring Africa was the most adventurous place on the planet, Williams conceived a plan to circumnavigate the continent on bikes. Her husband was dubious and needed persuading.

“He said, ‘That’s really crazy. There’s desert, war, famine, wild animals…’” Williams recalled, laughing.

But after exhaustive research they decided the trip was feasible and set off in June 2006. They started in France and biked through Spain and Portugal before arriving in Morocco. Their goal: Cape Town.

The couple found most Africans to be hospitable.

“Villagers get really excited when they see people on bicycles,” Williams said. “Your arrival is heralded and a stream of youngsters run along beside you. It’s the biggest news ever. Every tribe had a different, special name for foreigners.”

The trip was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. The pair traveled between 60 miles and 80 miles a day, each carrying a load that weighs about 110 pounds.

In Africa they camped out a lot, but were often accommodated in villages, usually in some basic kind of structure.

“It’s a little concrete block with bars on the windows, probably no electricity,” Williams explained.

“For water, probably someone has gone down to the well or the river for some buckets of water. There might be a little cubicle where you can take a bucket shower.”

The lack of traditional showers for hikers and bikers is a worldwide problem for wanderers. However, a network of like-minded people has come together to provide shelter for fellow nomads.

Which is what brings Williams and Schambion to the Morongo Basin after 31⁄2 years on the road.

Their hosts are Craig and Barbara Walker of Yucca Valley, who have given them the use of the small guesthouse on their property. Warm showers, warm bed and creature comforts, of which the couple took advantage for three days. It was a refuge after many months on the road.

Bike rebels, meet real rebels

Schambion’s incredulous exclamation before the trip proved prophetic. Besides encountering many wild animals, the couple had a near-brush with rebels in the Republic of Congo, faced corrupt officials and contracted illnesses that challenged their endurance.

In one incident in the Republic of Congo, the travelers were stopped by the military and advised not to go further because the area was controlled by rebels. They were told one of three things could happen: they could be allowed to pass, they could be taken hostage or they could be killed.

They were forced to take a slow-moving freight train guarded by heavily armed soldiers.

In another incident, though they rarely paid bribes on principal, the couple happily paid double after a drunken soldier in Equatorial Guinea took out an AK-47 and threatened to take them to jail.

Trip taps into years of savings

The couple travels on a budget of about $20 a day, most of which is for food.

“We know how to travel cheap,” Williams admitted.

Williams and Schambion, married for 11 years, were living and working in Germany near Frankfurt when they heard the call to adventure. They were working hard and putting away a lot of money.

“We probably saved 80 percent of what we were earning,” Williams said.

Strangers invite couple home

After circumnavigating Africa, which took about 17 months, Williams and Schambion pondered what to do next.

“We didn’t know what to do with our lives after that,” Williams said. “We got really used to the rhythm of being on the road, meeting new people, adventure and being exposed to new ideas.”

They decided to continue into the Middle East.

In Syria where the springtime weather was cold and rainy, people were especially hospitable, even though they rarely spoke English. Once the couple was allowed to sleep in a mosque.

“Often they invited us to come home with them,” Schambion said.

Perhaps the most challenging trials of the trip occurred when they came down with malaria. One day while still in Africa, Schambion threw down his bike and laid down on the side of the road.

“I can’t go any further,” he declared.

Williams worried because it seemed like they were in the middle of nowhere.

“I thought, what are we going to do?” she said.

But soon after a man rode by on a bicycle and said there was a hospital only three kilometers away. The sick man was able to go on after all, though the hospital was actually a small brick structure with no running water and staffed with only a medical student.

Nevertheless, the student started an IV on Schambion and laid him on a cot underneath a tree. He survived only to become afflicted with malaria again later, and then typhoid, even more frightening. In each case they were able to obtain medication for the ailment and continue their travels.

‘Maybe we’ll never be done’

Incredibly, the pair used only three maps while traveling 22,000 miles in Africa. Where there are few roads, few maps are needed. Ironically, Williams and Schambion had more trouble navigating from John F. Kennedy Airport to Brooklyn.

From New York the couple traveled to Montana, then on to the West Coast and into California. They came to the Mojave Desert specifically because they fell in love with desert vistas in Africa.

“The vast openness and great expanse of land …” Williams reflected. “The sky in the desert, in Africa especially, there’s no other light so the stars shine beyond belief.”

After leaving the California desert, Williams and Schambion headed for Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. From there they plan to travel into Mexico, through Central America and to South America. They plan to spend Christmas 2010 in Tierra Del Fuego.

That will have put them on the road for 41⁄2 years. After that adventure the couple is eyeing Asia. After that, who knows?

“Maybe we’ll never be done,” Williams ventured. “It’s become a lifestyle, and we’ll travel as long as we can live frugally and it continues to be fulfilling.”

To follow the couple’s amazing journey around the world, log on to www.worldbiking.info.

Article Source:hidesertstar.com