[Day 13]

Last Friday, Timo and I visited the infamous ‘Calais Jungle”, a refugee camp in Northern France where currently between 4000 and 5000 people live in tents, donated camper vans and self-made cabins. Timo wrote an opinion piece on our visit which summarizes our thoughts and discussions that we had after our visit.

The Calais ‘Jungle’ is not wild after all

The French city Calais is host to over five thousand migrants, each of them living either in the infamous Jungle near the Eurotunnel or spread across different squads in the same area. The Jungle exists since early 1999 when migrants from Kosovo arrived to the French city. However, it owes much of its fame to the recent arrival of refugees who come from Afghanistan and Sudan.

Ever since this influx, media has reported on the situation in Calais with daunting stories. Images of violence and burned-down tents have made the headlines. However, the stories of the every-day life in the camp have been rather unheard. I don’t mean to say that violence is not, at least occasionally, part of the life in the Jungle, but these incidences are a few extreme examples of heightened tension in the camp and do not reflect the overall, day-to-day atmosphere. The energy on behalf of migrants who are stuck amidst their pursuit for a better life can transform into frustration and conflict, but it has also generated a near village-like organisation in the camp. Knowing that there is little going back or forth for most inhabitants, they started to create a temporary home for themselves.

During my visit there I received a hair cut in one of the hair salons in the camp, followed by a dinner in the Sunshine Restaurant that serves Afghan national cuisine, before heading over to the Darfur School where refugees can learn English and French. There are also a number of churches and mosques. Some of them are just a few meters away from each other, and people coming from either direction occasionally shake hands and engage in brief conversations. This contradicts a large part of media reports that suggest diversity in the camp has led to nothing but conflict and ethnic tension. No, it has also led to greater tolerance, perhaps even acceptance between the people with various ethnic and religious backgrounds.

If I were in the shoes of any of the people living in the Calais camp, I would sooner or later try to find ways to release my anger. A warm meal and some new clothes could not tame me if I had spent the past few months trying to reach a safer place without any success and any prospect of betterment. Speaking to a number of aid workers and refugees in the camp, I heard the same message again and again: “When frustration reaches its peak, this is when journalist come and take out their cameras. Up to this point, however, where people concentrate their energy and hopes to overcome their struggles against all odds, news often don’t make it passed the Jungle’s fences.”

Reports about conflict and violence in the Jungle point out some of the ongoing problems in the camp. These problems are not generated by the refugees in the camp, but by the circumstances they live in. Facing this reality requires engagement with refugees, recognizing their human dignity and empathizing with their challenges ahead. I feel ashamed… last time I took a pepper spray with me to the Jungle. I prepared for conflict rather than conversation. Next time, surely, I will bring a dictionary instead.

I can only add that I have never had an experience where stereotypes were proven wrong as quickly as during our visit. Everything that I have ever heard about this place was overturned over the course of five hours. From now on I will try to not call it Jungle anymore as this term does not fit the reality that we witnessed there. Yes, it is somewhat of a legal non-place, where people live in unbearable conditions and where violence does occur. But it also is a suitable example that even in the most dire circumstances humans will still be, well, just that. Alive, with dreams and hope and dignity. The most valuable lesson that we took away from this day is best expressed in the words of Samuel Goldwyn:

‘ Go see it and see for yourself why you shouldn’t go see it’ .

To be continued…

[Day 1]

Yes, that”s right. the Countdown above is now counting up. That means we have finally started our trip!

After a very busy week full of last-minute tasks and finishing our university essays, we are now officially on the road. This morning we drove our – quite overloaded – bikes to the Peace Palace, where some of our friends were already waiting for us to wish us good luck on the road. From there we put our first destination in our GPS – Rotterdam! And as you can see in the picture, we did make it after a beautiful two-hour cycle along the famous Dutch canals. Here we are staying with our classmate Yora Veerkamp for the night – Thanks Yora!

Besides being warmer than expected we encountered our first companion, which we haven’t planned with. There were many grass pollen flying around and Timo is contrary to the usual quite affected by them. Running nose, constant sneezing and dry eyes, he got it all. We’ll see how it goes during the next couple days and hope that it doesn’t have too big of a impact on his physique over the long run.

To be continued… 🙂

[6 days until departure]

Yes, that is correct. Finally, there is less than a week on the clock. It is very unreal in our minds and sometimes we think that we have not quite yet realized what is about to happen. However, despite a rollercoaster of emotions and a heap of small last-minute things that have to be organized, we are full of anticipation.  The four generous donations which we have received so far did their part to ensure that we put our very best into the planning process. Thanks to Pamela, Annette and Manus!

What really gave us motivation today was the support we received from the amazing staff at a special local bike shop here in Den Haag. Prijssnijder is not only a trusted retailer of Merida but they also manufacture their own brand of bikes. The head mechanic Melvin took five hours to ‘cloth’ our bikes with all necessary equipment. He attached durable locks, mounted rear carriers, ordered saddle bags, gave us water bottles, streamlined saddles and put enough lights and reflectors on the bikes to make us visible from a mile away.  You can expect a video before we leave!

For now, a big shout out to the owners Nick van Rijswijk and his dad, for deciding to sponsor Refugee Roads. We will make good use of their amazing equipment. If you are also looking for excellent service and a fair price/quality ratio, make sure to pay them a visit!

So long,

Florian & Timo

Hey Friends!

Even though we are currently in the middle of our final exam week, we want to take the time to inform you about something, which we were hoping to avoid. Timo and I will need more time to finish our most important essay this semester. Due to us picking up the bikes from Merida on Friday (yup, we’re excited to finally receive them as well!) and moving to our new appartement, we can only start working on it later than initially expected.

We’re thus planning now with starting our journey from the Peace Palace on June 6 at the absolute latest. So here is our new countdown:

[11 days until departure]

Stay tuned, your

Florian & Timo

[12 days until departure]

Exciting news: This morning we received the final OK from our sponsors in regards to the Refugee Roads bikes!

MERIDA Germany is equipping us with two 29er Hardtail MTB’s in the Big Nine Team Issue. Over the course of the past five weeks we worked together with their very helpful staff, namely Thorsten Lewandoski and Mario Meßmer, to organize the logistics. We are overwhelmed with the support and trust that MERIDA is placing in us and are happy that they are enabling us to undertake this journey.

Next week we will drive to Mönchengladbach to pick the bikes up at Georg’s Fahrradladen. The guys there will receive the delivery and assemble them for us. Thanks to you in advance already!

[17 days until departure]

Wow, what a day. 10 hours of watching online reviews, reading technical specifications and comparing prices lie behind us. But we succeeded! We finally have ordered all necessary equipment for our trip. Our empty bank accounts are the proof of that 😉

For our biking GPS, we decided to go with the Teasi One³, as pictured above. It is rather affordable if you consider how value-packed it is. Mounted on our bicycles it will guide us along the Balkan Route as we are able to download all country maps in Europe for free.

We have also settled now on the Videocameras which we’ll use to record the Refugee Roads. We have looked into DSLR’s, Camcorders, and various alternative Actioncams. But in the end, it is hard to beat the GoPro series. We approached several distributors, including GoPro themselves, for possible sponsorship. However, without success. So we went ahead and ordered one GoPro 4 Silver and one used GoPro 4 Black. The Black will be used for slow-motion shots and interviews, whereas the Silver will primarily be used to capture the action along the way.

In addition,we purchased a lot of small but necessary supplementary helpers, which range from a solar charger, a power bank, and multiple mini-SD Cards to an external monitor for the iOgrapher and a variety of mounts for the GoPros.

We are obviously not only spending money but we are working on many other fronts, which we will talk about in due time #bike sponsoring 😉  There are so many puzzle pieces which are needed for our trip and we’ve added a couple more to the picture today. With less than three weeks to go, Refugee Roads is starting to take shape. We’ll keep you updated!

Have a great and sunny weekend,

Florian & Timo

[29 days until departure]

Our iOgrapher Go including some neat side equipment (see photo) is on its way to us! This beauty will arrive minus the monitor but plus Manfrotto Lumiemuse 3LED Light and Deadcat within the next two weeks – excited to start shooting!!!

Ps.: No. We didn’t get a special discount for posting this here 😉