Human Connections Across Continents

Jerry Kopack [00:00:02]:
Welcome to Bike Life, a podcast from the Warmshowers Foundation. Here we celebrate our global community of touring cyclists and hosts who make life on the road unforgettable. Through stories, insights, and shared experiences, we explore the connections that fuel every journey. Whether you're pedaling across countries or welcoming travelers into your home, you're part of a movement rooted in generosity and adventure. Discover more and join the community@warmshowers.org now let's hit the road together. Hey, everyone, this is Jerry Kopeck, the host of Bike Life, coming to you from the Rocky Mountains of Breckenridge, Colorado. Today's episode is a good one because it reflects the heart of Bike Life. Adventure, unexpected connection and.

Jerry Kopack [00:00:53]:
And the lifelong friendships forged on the road. Paul and Vivian, whose solo journeys from Europe to South Africa led to an unexpected and lasting friendship when they met in Ethiopia. Their story is a powerful reminder that some of the best parts of bike touring aren't on the map. Gentlemen, welcome to Bike Life.

Vivian Meteer [00:01:12]:
Hello. Hello. Hello, Jerry.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:15]:
So, as you know, Warmshaw is a global community, so I always like to ask, where am I finding you guys today?

Vivian Meteer [00:01:23]:
So, Gerry, I'm in Burgundy right now in my hometown, and, yeah, going to live next to south part of France, close to Montpellier.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:34]:
Okay. And Paul, what about you?

Paul Edkins [00:01:36]:
I'm in London, in England.

Jerry Kopack [00:01:38]:
Gotcha. Okay, now you both started your journey solo. Can you share what inspired you to take on such a massive journey like this? Paul, why don't you go first?

Paul Edkins [00:01:50]:
Yeah. It was a confluence of many things for me. I'd grown up in South Africa. I'm from Johannesburg originally, and I moved to Europe when I was a teenager, and I missed bits of South African life. I wanted to explore Africa. I wanted to go on a big adventure, big cycle. I'd read Mark Beaumont's book where he cycled around the world, and that inspired me. There were a few other things as well.

Paul Edkins [00:02:15]:
Like, I was a bit down in my job, but I'd just gone through a breakup. I wanted to have a sort of mental health reset, I suppose. So there were a few things that came together, and I thought, why not do something that's well outside my comfort zone and see if I can prove to myself that I can do it?

Jerry Kopack [00:02:31]:
So you set off with a goal to go all the way down to South Africa. Like, were you thinking, like, Cairo to Cape or something like that?

Paul Edkins [00:02:40]:
Well, I wanted to do this journey to help another cause as well. And there's a. An organization in South Africa called the Black Mambas, who I raised some Money for. And they work at. They're an anti poaching group and they're the first in the world that were all made up of female rangers. And so I thought, this is about animals and protecting them, which I care about. It's about female empowerment, which I think is a great cause. And so I contacted them and said, would you mind if I sort of did this in conjunction with you? And they said, great.

Paul Edkins [00:03:11]:
And they work in the northeast of South Africa. So that was my end point. And I thought, why not just start from my home?

Jerry Kopack [00:03:18]:
Vivian, what about you?

Vivian Meteer [00:03:21]:
So for me that was. It's about travel. Also my previous trouble in. In South America, I crossed Latino America from US to Ushuaia six years ago. And on my way down to Ushuaia, I met a lot of cyclists on the way go, they was going from Alaska to Ushuaia. There is like a big road, a cyclist road, doing that. And then I had the chance to chat with them. So a lot of cyclists who explained me the experiences on the road and crossing the hands and also America.

Vivian Meteer [00:04:06]:
And it was like a huge thing for me. Like I was dreaming about it. And I was also traveling as a backpacker and I was thinking to miss a lot of things on the road, because as a backpacker you are taking like a bus, train or hitchhike. So you are passing from a point A to a point B, but you can't see anything between the point A and the point B. So that was something that I want to see. So when I was back in France, I was like, okay, so the next trouble will be on a bicycle. And then I was dreaming about Africa for few years now and I started to make some research about cycling in Africa. And I saw a lot of stories about cyclists crossing Africa from Cairo to Cape Town.

Vivian Meteer [00:05:05]:
And this is how the idea of crossing Africa stopped for me when I go back to when I went back to France and started to think about the next travel.

Jerry Kopack [00:05:16]:
Got it. And so I'm looking at a map and Paul, you had to come through France. You could have just picked up Vivian on the way, right?

Paul Edkins [00:05:24]:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I'm afraid I sort of skipped France a bit. I just did Dunkirk and then immediately left.

Jerry Kopack [00:05:31]:
Okay, got it. So you guys both know you're from Europe. Europe is amazing. They have amazing Eurovello roots. But tell me how different it was once you crossed into Africa.

Paul Edkins [00:05:44]:
Oh, yeah, you go, Vivian.

Vivian Meteer [00:05:48]:
I think. I think that all is about cultural things, you know, and you've got this part of density of population. Who is going to Do a big change in the travel. Like when you are cycling in Europe, you have got space to do campsite for the campsite for everything. It's really easy to pitch your tent everywhere. When you start in Africa, it starts to be really difficult. There is, like, people everywhere and you have to manage that. And that's the first thing for me, which was a big change in this trouble.

Jerry Kopack [00:06:37]:
Yeah. And Paul, what do you think? I mean, you're from South Africa, so your experience with the African culture, but it's still. It's quite a bit different. It's a shock coming from Europe. Right. What was your experience like?

Paul Edkins [00:06:50]:
Yeah, it was a huge shock for me. I went from the south of Turkey, which is. Got a few tourists, but as Vivian said, nice big roads, wide, good surfaces, and flew across the Mediterranean to Cairo. So my very first experience of cycling in Africa was trying to get from the airport in Cairo to my hostel. Insane. Just so many cars all over the place, vehicles coming backwards the wrong way, donkeys. And that was the city. So I think Cara is known for that.

Paul Edkins [00:07:22]:
But outside of the cities, my sense was that you're treated like a minor celebrity, you know, so you get a lot of attention and as Vivian says, you. It's difficult to pitch a tent without sort of creating a little crowd around you. And on the roads, you've also got to be careful of the quality of the roads and a few more mechanicals occur because you've just got to watch out for bumps and things like that. So, yeah, I'm a lot more alert. You have to be.

Jerry Kopack [00:07:47]:
But.

Paul Edkins [00:07:47]:
But fun at the same time.

Jerry Kopack [00:07:49]:
Yeah. It seems like in my experience, the most difficult part of the cycling trip is just kind of starting out, sort of getting your wheels rolling, getting out of the city, getting away from the airport or whatever. But it seems like once you kind of roll out into the more rural areas, everything is sort of calms down, it comes more relaxing, the people become more engaging and more welcoming. Is that. What was it? Do you feel that way too?

Paul Edkins [00:08:11]:
Yeah, absolutely. I think that the place I felt least comfortable was always the extremities of a city where things are moving fast and, you know, cyclists aren't really taken care of. Inside the city, you probably either walking or exploring, you're not really doing a lot of journeying, but you're right. As soon as you leave that sort of frenetic pace, then it's nice villages, you stop and have a chat to people, you have really nice interactions.

Jerry Kopack [00:08:38]:
So, Vivian, how did you guys actually meet? In Ethiopia, in Ethiopia.

Vivian Meteer [00:08:44]:
So for me, I was in a town named Sodor. And in the morning I wake up and I received a text from a WhatsApp group that we were using with Paul. It was a WhatsApp group with all of the cyclists crossing East Africa. And one of the guy was asking, who is going to be close to the Moyali border in Kenya? It's the border from Kenya to Ethiopia. And I was close to this border and Paul also. And Paul was answering to the text saying, here, I'm in Harbor Bench today and I'm going to be probably in Moyale in few days. So I keep in touch with you. And the thing is, from Sodo, I was going next to Araba Minch.

Vivian Meteer [00:09:42]:
So I was like, oh, there is someone in Harbor Bench right now and I can probably meet him today, actually at the end of the day if I'm good. So I started to contact Paul on WhatsApp, starting to catch up in Arbormich. And then, yeah, Paul told me that he was staying for one more night in Harbor Minch. So he will be there tonight. And yeah, this is how we met in Arbormych in Ethiopia.

Jerry Kopack [00:10:19]:
I'm sorry, how long had you been cycling for when you decided to meet up with Paul? How many days, weeks, months?

Vivian Meteer [00:10:29]:
I was cycling for six months in this point.

Jerry Kopack [00:10:33]:
Okay.

Vivian Meteer [00:10:34]:
Yeah. And Ethiopia was one of the most difficult part of crossing Africa, and it was really good and nice to meet Paul on the way in this country.

Jerry Kopack [00:10:48]:
And Paul, how long had you been on the road for similar time?

Paul Edkins [00:10:52]:
About four and a half months, I think.

Vivian Meteer [00:10:53]:
Okay.

Jerry Kopack [00:10:54]:
Yeah, similar. So you guys have both been riding solo and you met up and it's like, hey, it'd be cool to meet up with someone who speaks the same language, came, comes from the same place. And how did you decide to decide to ride together?

Vivian Meteer [00:11:12]:
That was obvious. I don't know.

Paul Edkins [00:11:14]:
Yeah, it was easy.

Vivian Meteer [00:11:16]:
Yeah, it was so easy. I mean, at the beginning, Paul left Arbo Minch the next day, and I was staying in Arbor Minch for a rest for one day off. And then Paul told me, yeah, we just keep in touch and let's see, maybe we're going to meet later in this travel. So let's keep in touch. And the thing is, my next move was, I don't remember the tone of the next move, but I met to get Paul over there because he did it in two days and me, I did it in one day. So we meet again in this town and then we decided to cycle together for a month.

Jerry Kopack [00:11:57]:
Yeah. And did you guys find that cycling together? Did you have to change your routines? Did you cycle at a similar speed? Did you eat at the same times? How did your experience change going as a duo?

Paul Edkins [00:12:11]:
Yeah, so Vivian mentioned there that he caught up to me and I think for me it was a bit of a change because he's a lot fitter than I am. And so, you know, climbing those hills, I really appreciated him pushing up and leading me and making me focus and get up those big hills. I thought Vivian was very organized with like taking on water and eating at the right times. I'd been a bit lackadaisical about that, a bit wishy washy. So he was doing a lot more miles than I was typically in a day. So I had to up my game and I appreciated that.

Vivian Meteer [00:12:44]:
And.

Paul Edkins [00:12:44]:
And he kept me healthier. And what I really enjoyed about it and I think what made it easy for us was there was so much to see in Ethiopia and most of our time was in Kenya together. There's so much to see all the time. I felt like conversation was easy. We were pointing out things on the side of the road. We were sharing experiences, like what it was like to go through Ethiopia, which I agree with Vivian was a really tough country to be in sometimes. So we had lots to talk about. The conversation flowed.

Paul Edkins [00:13:17]:
The times we would eat roughly the same, the kind of places we wanted to stay in were roughly the same as well. So it was just really easy. I think we were very lucky that our styles were quite similar.

Jerry Kopack [00:13:28]:
So, quick question. I've also cycled solo through a number of countries, but I also cycled with friends or a partner. And several years ago I met a couple from Switzerland and we decided to cycle together. And my experience was significantly different from a kind of social experience perspective. Meaning when I was cycling solo, it seemed like I was more outgoing, more kind of interested in meeting people. When I was with somebody, I sort of had this, this connection, this unit, this entity, and I was less likely to be social. Did you guys find like you were less socially outgoing or kind of the same?

Vivian Meteer [00:14:07]:
Kind of the same, actually for me. I agree it didn't change this kind of thing with me, but yeah, and we were sharing a lot and everything. Like Paul is a good spotter. And when we were crossing north part of Kenya, we saw a lot of animals and sometimes Paul was stopping on the road and just show me, you know, hannibals birds and a lot of things. And that was so nice. And it didn't. That was not a wall with the, the people. What we met also on the road, basically.

Vivian Meteer [00:14:47]:
We, we had the same social life, I mean with the, the locals and the other people that we met on the road.

Paul Edkins [00:14:55]:
I totally agree. And it was, I think we added to each other because, you know, I got to see people interact with a guy with long hair. You know, they loved his long hair. So I got to see what that was like. We got to film each other as well. You know, I hadn't done much self filming, which my family was saying I needed to do more. We got to share different foods that we'd found that the other one hadn't. So there was a lot of kind of bonus stuff, I think.

Jerry Kopack [00:15:21]:
So that's really good to hear that. It didn't really change your, your rhythm. You cycle at the same pace or have similar pace. You kind of like to do the similar things. What made you guys decide to eventually part ways? Just different routes.

Paul Edkins [00:15:36]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Vivian will tell you so, yeah, we had a lovely time heading towards Christmas of 2023 I think. And we had a lovely Christmas dinner just the two of us in a little town just north of Nairobi. Around the equator. Yeah, yeah, yeah, around the equator, yeah. And then we got to Nairobi and celebrated the end of the year at a big end of the year party in Nairobi. So that was quite fun. We made quite a few friends at a hostel there and then we just had different routes.

Paul Edkins [00:16:07]:
I needed to go fairly quickly down in a sort of straight line to where I wanted to be. And I think, Vivian, you had much more cycling to do.

Vivian Meteer [00:16:17]:
I wanted to see the area of the big lakes, so I went through Uganda and Rwanda and more. West part of Africa.

Tahverlee [00:16:34]:
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Jerry Kopack [00:17:21]:
So Paul, give me some of your your your favorite places. Like was there a. A country that you were really looking forward to seeing or a place that you were sad to leave because it was so incredible. What was one of your favorite countries?

Paul Edkins [00:17:37]:
Turkey was probably my favorite, which is not enough. I wasn't. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a surprise. I. I knew I was going to spend a lot of time in Turkey, and I. I didn't want to go through the center, climbing all the mountains. I'm a bit lazy, so I just stuck by the coast.

Paul Edkins [00:17:53]:
But I also knew that the coast would be beautiful.

Vivian Meteer [00:17:55]:
Yeah.

Paul Edkins [00:17:56]:
And it really was. I loved the food in Turkey, the people. The weather was great at that time, so I had a lot of great experiences there, like toasting marshmallows out of methane vents from the earth and just being in beautiful old historical towns and things like that. I mean, I love going to the great national parks like the Serengeti and the Mara and the Kruger park in South Africa. That's. That's where my heart is. So, yeah, the. The heart of Africa really, really gripped me when I was going through.

Jerry Kopack [00:18:28]:
How was it when you finally got back to. To South Africa or the place where you were from? Was that pretty emotional?

Paul Edkins [00:18:35]:
It really was. People say, when you're preparing for a trip around Africa, aren't you scared? And I wasn't really, to be honest. I don't know why. I just never felt that scared. I always felt like, I'm from Africa, I can handle it. The one country I was nervous about was South Africa because, you know, Joburg is known for its. Its assaults, and it's quite a dangerous city. So I was nervous about going back to my old place.

Paul Edkins [00:19:02]:
But instantly I saw those smiles on the faces of the border guards who were just curious to talk to me. I relaxed and I realized, oh, I am from this country. Even though I perhaps don't look like it, my heart is part of it is still there. And I really loved it.

Jerry Kopack [00:19:18]:
That must have been amazing. Vivian, what country did you really love or were you looking forward to seeing along your trip?

Vivian Meteer [00:19:28]:
I could say Mozambique.

Jerry Kopack [00:19:30]:
Mozambique.

Vivian Meteer [00:19:31]:
Mozambique 1.

Jerry Kopack [00:19:33]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Vivian Meteer [00:19:35]:
Mozambique was so nice. The people, I mean, people were so nice with me along the way. They helped me a lot to find water, to find food, to host me a lot. Also, I had some amazing experience hosting by locals, and this is why I wanted to live in this trip, to be in contact with people, and this is the perfect country to do it.

Jerry Kopack [00:20:03]:
Interesting. And what kind of landscape do you prefer? It sounds like Paul doesn't love the mountains, the Alps. He likes the coastal stuff. Vivian, what about you?

Vivian Meteer [00:20:14]:
I love mountains. I love mountains, even if it's painful.

Jerry Kopack [00:20:18]:
I really like it.

Vivian Meteer [00:20:20]:
When I crossed The Alps. That was at the beginning of my trip. That was amazing. You know, it was like I crossed the Alps for four days, it was so high. So you have to push every day, but the landscapes and everything was breathtaking. So that was amazing.

Jerry Kopack [00:20:45]:
So this is a question I like to ask, and for any trip of your length, things inevitably go wrong. Was there ever a time when you thought, like, wow, how am I going to get out of this one, Vivian? Anything like that?

Vivian Meteer [00:21:03]:
In some parts of Ethiopia. Yeah, that was pretty difficult.

Jerry Kopack [00:21:08]:
Yeah, you mentioned Ethiopia, both of you. Is there something, a story about Ethiopia that you want to share?

Paul Edkins [00:21:19]:
Well, I did get food poisoning and I spent some time in a hospital. Hospital in Ethiopia. I guess there were. When you read reports about cyclists going around Ethiopia, you often hear about the. The tensions in the villages and strangers are not always that welcome and the kids throw stones and things like that. I think one or two times we had a bit of aggression towards us. I know there was one time in Ethiopia, I was climbing a hill and a school broke, ended for the day. So all the kids rushed out and they saw me.

Paul Edkins [00:21:53]:
And, you know, we had one of these things that Vivian ended up calling a UU party, which we used to love, because the kids would run out and say, you, you, you, you, you. So we had a bit of a you, you party. And. And I found it a bit difficult to get sympathy for my. My stomach pains, as I. That I was having at the time. But I think in general, we. We helped each other in Ethiopia to sort of be not so isolated.

Paul Edkins [00:22:17]:
I think it was nice to share some of the intensity of the country. I mean, Ethiopia generally is a very interesting country, but they've had a rough history with tensions between tribal regions. So it's a bit difficult and cyclists are not that common there. I think if you'll allow me to tell one quick story in.

Jerry Kopack [00:22:36]:
Absolutely.

Paul Edkins [00:22:37]:
In Kenya, possibly one of my shocks and ones I wasn't sure about getting out of was I'd misjudged my timing to get from one side of Amboseli national park to the other. And I was cycling outside the park. I wasn't allowed to go through, obviously, the lions and hyenas and things inside. But I ended up cycling in the dark. Really bad idea. And the guide said to me, you have to take a motorcycle in front of you, otherwise you're going to get lost. I said, all right. So we were.

Paul Edkins [00:23:05]:
We were going really fast in the dark. I was following this guy and I didn't see a rock smacked. It went Head over heels, it bent my front wheel. But two minutes before, my torch from my head had shown a hyena about 20 meters from the road. So I suddenly realized, oh, my goodness, am I going to get attacked here? Luckily, the guy realized I wasn't following him, came back, and I said, can you just protect me from the lions, please? Because in Kenya, they have no fences around the national parks. It's all open. And he said, don't worry. If the lion attacks, it will eat me first.

Jerry Kopack [00:23:41]:
Why?

Paul Edkins [00:23:43]:
It was just his way. Like, he's. He's a Maasai warrior. It's his ground. He's going to protect me. I mustn't worry. And I was like, please watch out for the lions. You know, while I was trying to fix my wheel, so I was a bit under stress there.

Paul Edkins [00:23:55]:
In the end, it was fine. One of his mates came over with another motorbike. My broken bike went on his, and I carried all my rucksacks with him, and we made it.

Jerry Kopack [00:24:03]:
But, well, sounds harrowing. I had a similar notion. I was traveling through Zambia, Zimbabwe, and also Botswana a number of years ago, and for some reason, I stupidly, naively thought I could just cycle through one of the parks. And I pulled up to the gate in the guard shack, the person who was in there, and I said, hey, can I cycle down this road? It's tarmac, it's straight, it's flat. He's like, no, you can't cycle through a park. There's elephants here. I was like, I don't see any elephants. And he turns, he points.

Jerry Kopack [00:24:35]:
There's this herd of elephants right there. He's like, elephants can kill you. Like, okay, good, I will go around. Sorry about that. But he did say, like, you could wait around and hit your ride on the back of a jeep or something like that. It's like, I really want to ride. So, you know, stupid American thought I could get away with this thing. It's like I had no idea.

Jerry Kopack [00:24:53]:
But I didn't quite see hyenas anywhere like you did, so Bravo. I guess.

Paul Edkins [00:25:01]:
Just normal for their lives, I think.

Jerry Kopack [00:25:03]:
Yeah, for sure.

Paul Edkins [00:25:05]:
We don't realize what it's like.

Vivian Meteer [00:25:07]:
Yeah.

Jerry Kopack [00:25:07]:
Vivian, did you have any. Any interesting animal encounters throughout Africa?

Vivian Meteer [00:25:11]:
Yeah, elephant. Yeah, Yeah. I got this story in Botswana. I was running of this nice road, you know, straight line, and then there was like an elephant, like, pretty close to the road. And I passed next to it, next to the elephant. But to. Yeah, like, it was like five meters from the elephant. And I was thinking, yeah, that's fine.

Vivian Meteer [00:25:38]:
I can do it. I'm going to push and that's fine. But the elephant hear me and start to turn and then start to follow me on my way back. So I had to decide, okay, what to do now. So I went back for 200 meters. It was still follow me. So to be back again. And then a truck came just in front of me and start to escort me to from the elephant.

Vivian Meteer [00:26:06]:
So that was quite scary as an experience.

Jerry Kopack [00:26:11]:
Yeah, it's. I mean, in Europe and in North America, we have animals, but it's different than seeing elephants or hyenas in the wild. Right.

Vivian Meteer [00:26:20]:
Like, I think I don't realize the danger of the animals then when you are in front of it, actually.

Jerry Kopack [00:26:27]:
Yeah, I remember I was worried about lions or things like that. And what I was told was that elephants were much more severe of a danger than lions were. So, as you guys know, Africa is huge. Your trip was huge. Biking, what you guys did is no small task. I've spent some time biking through Africa and also Asia. And it seemed like the one common thread that really drew me to this experience was what I call the human experience. So the landscapes, the cultures, the food, sure, they're all incredible, but it was really the people that made it the most interesting.

Jerry Kopack [00:27:07]:
Vivian, why don't you go first and tell me about, like, a really great experience you had with some of the local people in one of the countries.

Vivian Meteer [00:27:14]:
In one of the countries. So that was in Mozambique for sure. So. So I had to join Zambia from Mozambique, from the city of Tet, so north part of Mozambique. And to reach the border of Mozambique, it was like something 300, 400 kilometers. And there was like nothing on the way, no city, no sailing, nothing. Nothing to sleep or whatever. So I have to adapt myself to find water, to find food on the way, like in the small shops and to ask the locals for water.

Vivian Meteer [00:27:55]:
And then, yeah, every night I have a place to pitch my tent because they were just giving me a space to pitch the tent. Like, I used to go to the church usually or the school, and that was the nice spot to have a place to pitch the tents. But yeah, it was something like just natural, you know, to give you a place to sleep and food and the shower also sometimes. So this part of of Africa, I mean, the north part of Mozambique was just good experience and good vibes with locals.

Jerry Kopack [00:28:38]:
And Paul, what about you?

Paul Edkins [00:28:41]:
Maybe you had the same experience, Jerry, but you know, the sort of 4 o' clock thunderstorm in Africa in the rainy season, when it comes, there's Nothing you can do. You just got to get out of the rain and wait for it to stop. And I got stuck in that once in the middle of nowhere, and I just needed some shelter. I was in a village in Malawi and I went to a shop and covered, you know, went under the COVID And it was owned by the chief of the village, the shop, and his name was Chief Bandawe. And he said to me, you know, we've chatting and I said, look, I need a place to stay. Can you just give me a shelter that I can put my tent? And he absolutely would not accept it. He insisted I come and stay with him. It was his honor.

Paul Edkins [00:29:24]:
And so he did. He invited me to his. His house through his tobacco field, and they boiled some water for me so I could have a warm sort of hand shower. They cleared out one of the rooms that one of the family was sleeping in so I could sleep there. They cooked me a special meal and they allowed me to eat by myself because I thought that was more respectful than to join them. I would have loved to join them, but it was. That was their way of showing respect. And then the next day, all the kids from the village came and chatted, and I stayed in touch with the son of the family over WhatsApp.

Paul Edkins [00:29:59]:
And we recently talked about some drought and some floods that they've been having there. You know, both extremes. It's a real tough, tough connection. But I feel like they did such a lot for this random bearded stranger. I felt very honored by their friendliness and generosity.

Jerry Kopack [00:30:21]:
Isn't that amazing? Just the curiosity, the compassion, the empathy. Like there was no fear. There was like no stranger danger. They saw this person who needed help and they didn't even think, like, of course we're going to help. We're going to offer you a place to sleep, we're going to offer you food. Yes, come into our home. I think that's, in my experience, it's been one of the really magical parts about bicycle touring. I mean, think about.

Jerry Kopack [00:30:48]:
I think, as Vivian mentioned earlier, or maybe you did, Paul, that you can take a bus, you can take a plane, you can still end up at those places. But when you go slow, when you travel by bike, look at all these people that you meet, these experiences that you would otherwise have missed, that makes the difference.

Vivian Meteer [00:31:06]:
Yeah, for sure.

Jerry Kopack [00:31:07]:
Yeah.

Paul Edkins [00:31:08]:
So it's a lot more human. Yeah. You really feel like you're experiencing the country properly.

Jerry Kopack [00:31:15]:
Yeah. And so with a big trip like this, traveling by bike is. It's transformative. Do you think that this Trip has changed you in any profound way. You, Paul.

Paul Edkins [00:31:29]:
There is one thing that I have carried with me in a sort of transformational way, and it's actually down to Vivienne. And when we were going up big hills and he would go ahead of me and I'd get stuck and I'd have to like, motivate myself and get into that positive mental space. And I got to the top and I was like, how do you just keep going? You know, again and again with, how do you manage to fight the negative thoughts and keep struggling? And he says, I don't know. I just tell myself, just keep moving. And that simple three word phrase weirdly stuck with me throughout the rest of my journey. And so I had Vivian's voice in my ear when I was climbing all those mountains in Tanzania. You know, by then I was solo again. But I just thought, okay, Vivian said, just keep moving.

Paul Edkins [00:32:19]:
So I'm going to do that. And now in my life, when I have a struggle at work or, you know, if I'm taking a long journey, I just think, okay, every day, just keep moving. You do one small activity that gets you generally in the right direction and that's fine. And it'll have a kind of snowball effect. So, yeah, I have him to thank for that.

Jerry Kopack [00:32:39]:
That is good. Vivian, did you pick up anything from Paul or just from your journey in general?

Vivian Meteer [00:32:45]:
Yeah, I mean, the perception of the fear changed for me also. Like, I was really afraid about animals, about going to the desert also at the beginning of the trip and all of those points just passed away. I mean, there was nothing that much. That much, how you said, so scary, you know, that that was just in my head. So, yeah, the perception of my fear changed on the way, all along the way. And yeah, how you. You relax on the bicycle or you start to manage the bad situation also. So everything of that just changed myself.

Jerry Kopack [00:33:38]:
All right, so you guys are both back home. Have you guys talked about another trip together?

Paul Edkins [00:33:47]:
We haven't planned a trip yet. We did try to see each other in France, but unfortunately the weather and things like that got in the way. But we've definitely talked about meeting up again. Vivian's invited me to his home in France, so I might come and do a hike together or a quick cycle together or something like that. But yeah, definitely meeting up again could be fun.

Vivian Meteer [00:34:05]:
Yeah, for sure.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:06]:
I mean, it sounds like you're in the Alps, right, Vivian? Or just outside.

Vivian Meteer [00:34:11]:
Yeah, outside. Now, it was just for the winter season, but I will be back in the next winter. I think.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:18]:
Yeah, I love it. Well, gentlemen, I want to thank you both for making some time for me today. And if people want to follow along with your journeys, find out what you're up to, is there a way for them to connect with you both?

Vivian Meteer [00:34:29]:
Yeah, sure.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:31]:
How is that, Vivian? How can people find you?

Vivian Meteer [00:34:34]:
You can find me on Instagram, social media with my name and Vivian Meterie.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:40]:
Got it. And we'll have all these links in our show notes. What about you, Paul?

Paul Edkins [00:34:46]:
Yeah, I documented it on Instagram so I can put my handle there as well. Jerry.

Jerry Kopack [00:34:50]:
Got it. Well, gentlemen, I want to thank you both for tuning in today and sitting with me. I want to thank everyone else for joining our conversation today as well. And if you enjoyed our show, give us a like a share on your social channels or maybe just tell your friends. These stories hopefully will inspire you to set off on your own bicycle adventure and maybe make the world feel a little bit smaller, one pedal stroke at a time. My name is Jerry Kopak, and until the next time, keep the wheels rolling. And the story's coming. Thanks for joining us on Bike Life.

Jerry Kopack [00:35:20]:
I'm Jerry Kopak, and I hope you enjoyed today's episode as much as we enjoyed sharing it with you. Please leave us a rating and review or just tell your friends. This helps us reach more cyclists and hosts around the world. To learn more or become part of this amazing community, Visit us@warmshowers.org or follow us on Instagram @warmshowersoreg. If you'd like to be be a guest on the show or have a question you'd like us to explore, email us@podcastarmshowers.org.