The Idea
[guiding principle that determines someone’s thoughts and actions; concept of something at a high level of abstraction].
It was 6 o’clock in the morning when the first alarm jolted us out of our sleep. Hours before, the first climbers had already left the parking lot. In the cold morning the air that drifted through the slightly open window, made us snuggle deeper into the warm blankets. A mixture of excitement, curiosity, and anticipation finally got us dressed and heading towards Austria’s highest mountain in the first morning light. We spoke little and let the beat of our footsteps match the beat of our hearts. Thoughts were divided. It felt like a normal day in the mountains, at the end of which we would come home happy and tired, back to a full fridge, a warm shower and a soft bed. But we both knew that today would end differently. That this adventure we had been planning and preparing for months would start today. Our thoughts were marked by doubts and uncertainty. Too big were the planned mountains, too uncertain the countries that we wanted to cross and too far away the destination toward which we were striving. Along with all the encouragement, we also experienced a lot of scepticism and doubt. Some of them have remained in our minds despite all the efforts not to admit it. What if we overestimate ourselves? What if we expect too much from our bikes? What if we underestimate all the countries? What if we don’t make it? The first steps over the glacier brought us back to the present. The crampons creaked with every step into the eternal ice. Meltwater made its way through the frozen surface, leaving rivulets that look like veins or maybe more like the traces of tears in the smooth glacier. We paused for a moment and listened to the sound of the glacier streams. With each heartbeat water flows down into the valley that we can neither stop nor get back. Even though we would often like to stop time and undo what has happened, we know that this is not in our power. But even though we cannot completely undo anything in life and in this world, we can still decide how to take the next step. With which motivation, with which intention and with which goal we move forward. We will move forward in the coming weeks only using our legs, with the motivation to understand how far our legs can carry us, with the intention to link the highest mountains of the countries we cross by bike and with the goal to arrive at Mount Olympus and show that we can do anything if we only really want to. We reached the summit of the Grossglockner in the best weather and perfect conditions, starting our story. A story about resilience, change and willpower.
The Resilience
[the psychological resistance; the ability to survive difficult life situations without lasting impairment].
The coming days were marked by escaping the rain. We made it up to Triglav, the highest mountain of Slovenia, before a cold front catched up with us in Croatia. Our bodies were already exhausted from the first four days, yet we couldn’t afford to take a break. Too many kilometres still lay ahead of us and the rain was too much on our tails. Croatia’s backcountry is characterized by wide, empty fields and abandoned houses. This loneliness turned out to be great luck for us. Again and again we found shelter from the rain and thunderstorms under the roofs of abandoned houses. Often we spent hours, half talking, half silent and mostly freezing in places where people once lived. We tried to imagine the sounds of life that were once heard in these houses. The clatter of dishes, the dull echo of footsteps over old wooden floorboards, the babble of voices, the splash of water and the laughter of children. At some point we realized each time that the rain will not stop and we overcame ourselves to keep going. We spent hours in the pouring rain on our bikes and eventually reached inhabited places and fortunately always found a hot shower and a warm-hearted person who gave us a home for one night. We loved the nights in our tent and it didn’t take long until it became our little home. A place of familiarity and security, feelings that are rare on this kind of journey. Still, we really appreciated a bed and a hot shower on those days, when we were soaked to the bones. We were walking on the edge between pushing the limits of our bodies, and yet never going beyond. Getting sick in this situation would be the death blow to our plan. We made it dry up to Dinara, the highest mountain of Croatia, and were surprised by the rain that started 20 seconds after we got back to our bikes. After an hour under the 10 cm canopy of a container, there were not many resources left. We began to understand more and more that we have only a certain amount of mental energy per day – our mental bullets. Once the cartridge is empty, it becomes difficult to face the daily challenges. The rain, the heavy legs, the sore butt, the hunger, the fatigue, the bad roads, the roadkills, the garbage, the smells, the traffic. It’s the things that you don’t even notice when you’re fresh that suddenly start to wear you out. And still, we woke up every morning with a full cartridge of mental bullets, packed our bikes and started paddling. We learned a lot in this first weeks. About our limits, about our needs, about our perception and how different it can be. But most of all we learned about the resilience we build, that when we fall asleep physically and mentally completely exhausted one evening, we can wake up the next morning with the same motivation, anticipation and confidence as the day before. We learned that the only comfort zones we have are our bikes, our tent and our partner. Isn’t this in the end what life comes down to? A safe home, people we care about and a goal that keeps us moving forward.
The Change
[to do something different; to become different; to evolve]
As we reached the coast of Croatia, we realized the contrast of this country. We were overwhelmed by the density of people and consumption. It was hard for us to associate those places with holidays, even though the landscape and finally the weather were beyond beautiful. But although it was hard to identify with the places, we felt a relief to have made it this far. We enjoyed the benefits of tourism in this area. It was hard to leave all this behind as we were about to turn into Bosnia. We began to weigh the options and realized that it is hard to agree. But it is even harder to change a plan. To do something different from what you had in mind because the situation requires it. After long deliberations we decided to stay on the coast and enjoy the seaside. Montenegro surprised us with its scenic beauty, a abandoned pass road, an overgrown military road and warm people. In Nikisic we stayed two nights to climb the highest mountain of Montenegro, Bobotov Kuk, with light bike set-up in a one day push. We didn’t get far until we were slowed down by strong wind averaging 75 km/h. For 3 hours we fought against it, barely moving from the spot. We tried to motivate ourselves with laughter and singing, but finally we had to realize that there was no way we will reach the summit on this day in those conditions. We sought shelter from the wind in a restaurant that had no electricity due to the violent gusts of wind. The decision to turn around was difficult for us. But we began to understand that changes of plans were more the rule than the exception and are a sign of reason and strength rather than failure. We overcame the disappointment with excellent food and many cookies and reached Albania the next day. Once again we crossed a border to a country of which we knew nothing more than a few stories we have been told. We had the same strange feeling every time we crossed borders. A mixture of melancholy, because we were leaving behind something that has become familiar to us in the last few days, and uncertainty, because we were entering another foreign country, was spreading through us. From Montenegro to Albania, a lot changed. The currency, the religion, the history, the language, the food, the people. We spent our first evening in Albania on the terrace of an American couple who had offered us their couch for the night through Warmshowers. We drank wine and listened to their stories, the prayers in the surrounding mosques, the music in the background and the traffic getting quieter as this new, foreign place slowly went to sleep. We learned to love this constant change and slowly understood that change has incredible potential. Because only through change we can develop and do something different in this world.
The Willpower
[high degree of steadfastness and determination].
Albania was an interplay of emotions and impressions. We passed through the poorest areas and the most beautiful landscapes. We experienced hospitality and curious children as well as the feeling of not being welcome. Besides places of UNESCO World Heritage, small magical mountain villages and the Vjosa River, the first wild river National Park in Europe, we also came across countless street dogs, garbage dumps and run over animals. Our willpower was tested again and again – in a storm on the summit of Korab, the highest mountain of Albania, during a stomach flu in Tirana and on an almost undriveable 4×4 road just before the border of Greece. It was sometimes not easy to be patient with ourselves and even harder to be patient with the other person when your nerves are on edge. The exhaustion of the last weeks got noticeable, and every challenge demanded more from us. Not only once we came close to the temptation to give up, but the dream of Olympus was still present. The will not to give up, to have a goal for which it is worth fighting and the last faith in ourselves kept us going. The feeling of crossing the border of Greece motivated us for the last days to Mount Olympus. We crossed a national park and saw almost no cars for a whole day. Several times we were attacked by abandoned dogs, which cost us quiet some mental bullets. When we finally arrived at the foot of Mount Olympus we could hardly believe it. We have never been so close to our goal.
The Goal
[place someone wants to reach; something someone’s actions are consciously directed towards; the meaning and purpose to be achieved by acting].
We left the campsite by the sea with lightly packed bicycles. Our plan was to reach the summit of the Olympus massif in two days. We covered the first thousand meters of altitude on the bikes, then we continued by foot. In the early afternoon we reached the refuge enveloped by a blanket of clouds at 2100 meters. Already the day before we watched fascinated the microclimate on Mount Olympus massive, which is mostly covered by clouds in the middle of a bright blue sky. The plan was to stay at the hut, but after a refreshment the sky opened up a bit. We decided straight to give the summit a chance on this day. In fact, the clouds broke open completely as we reached the first pre-peak. By easy scrambling along the ridge we arrived at the highest point of Greece. Completely alone we stood on the summit and looked down to the sea, from which we had started in the morning. On this summit, which had been more a dream than a goal for weeks, we fell into each other’s arms and could hardly believe that we had actually made it. The pictures of the last weeks passed before our inner eyes. The doubts had been there until the last second and now made room to the feeling of joy and relief. 24 days, 2200 km on our bikes, 100 km on foot and 42000 meters of elevation after standing on the summit of the Großglockner, we had finally reached the summit of the highest mountain of Greece. In this moment it felt like we did something big. Maybe not big for the world, but for us it felt like we did something we were not sure we could do. We surprised ourselves. And isn’t this one of the most beautiful things you can do? – to be surprised by yourself.
Dripping.Dot. 