Two Giants--South Africa and Venezuela

Every once in a while you run into a giant. A tree that stops you in your tire tracks and warrants a couple of hours of your life.

The giant on the right dwells in a sleepy town, barely on the map, near San Cristobal, Venezuela. We were looking for an alternate route to get to the border of Colombia and bumped along the cobblestone streets into the town square of San Pedro del Rio. Oh my God. The tree. It spanned the entire park. A living umbrella shielding us from the relentless sun. This is a tree you could spend a life under.

The road from San Pedro del Rio winds up into the mountains before steeply descending to Agua Caliente. Colombia is a stone’s throw away, but you have to continue to San Antonio del Tachira to legally cross the border into Colombia.

The giant on the left resides in the former homeland of Venda in South Africa. Legend has it that the gods plucked the baobab tree out of the ground and shoved it back upside down. The trunk is designed to store water in a land of frequent drought.

I stopped and lingered at the base of this giant, pondering what a baobab bike would look like.

<span style=”font-size:78%;”>photo (Two Giants, 1995 South Africa/2007 Venezuela) by Willie Weir</span>
<span style=”font-size:78%;”>click photos for larger image</span>
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Originally posted on the Adventure Cycling Association’s blog.  The Adventure Cycling Association’s nonprofit mission is to inspire people of all ages to travel by bicycle for fitness, fun, and self-discovery.

Lesotho Huts

When I pedaled across Lesotho (the mountain kingdom completely within the borders of South Africa) there was exactly one paved highway. I was never on it. Instead, I pedaled on roads that could only be described as linear collections of large rocks. I remember one day’s progress … 9 hours of struggle … 17 kilometers.

I wheezed my way up to a small school at about 11,000 ft. I was invited to visit a classroom. The teacher spoke enough English that he could translate for me. I talked with the students and answered their questions about my bicycle journey.

In return, the students decided to sing for me. Now this was not the school’s choir. This was a history class.

Chills ran up and down my spine for the next 20 minutes as I listened to the soul of a country expressed in song.

I wish I had a photo of the faces, but for some reason not a single image from that roll of film turned out. Which, in some ways, makes my memory that much more ethereal. You can hear their singing at the link below. (The rough translation I was told: “When the sun goes down I am lonely. When it gets dark, where will I sleep?).

audio recording (Lesotho Serenade) by Willie Weir
photo (Lesotho hut 1995) by Willie Weir

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Originally posted on the Adventure Cycling Association’s blog.  The Adventure Cycling Association’s nonprofit mission is to inspire people of all ages to travel by bicycle for fitness, fun, and self-discovery.

“Most books about cycling end up being about nothing other than cycling–sort of like what The Great Gatsby might have been like if it were a how-to about making money off moonshine and gambling. Willie Weir’s Travels With Willie is one of the rare bike books that gets it right.”Read the rest.