About
Sweating up a hill in Bosnia
Ever since my short encounter with the brilliantly happy Alastair Humphreys in Turpan, China four years ago I have not been able to let go of the idea to bike around the world. Still at university it has never been an option. Once finished I decided to head out.
My name is Erik Ekedahl, my heart pounds for sustainable development and international relations. After a year at ENS, Lyon, France I came back to Sweden and Gothenburg to finish my master degree in Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Born and raised in Falun, Sweden I have been living in USA and France and worked as a volonteer in Central America, Australia. I feel at home in Sweden, a country I love, but have always been feeling comfortable traveling and living abroad.
I have long be in love with the idea to challenge myself, intellectually as well as physically. Long distance cross country ski racing and multi sport and a ultra marathon was on the 2008 agenda. In march 2009 I started my trip around the world by bicycle.
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Rotary International
The Rotary International Branch in Täby, Sweden has showed great interest in my plans to travel by bicycle, meet cultures and try to find means of sustainable development. Rotary gave me a letter of introduction to bring along around the world making it possible to visit RI clubs all over the planet. This I intend to do.
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Why bike?
For the sake of traveling in an environmentally friendly manner, the challenge and the pace which allows for contemplation and exploration.
Why 4+ years?
Let me say it would be a greater challenge to make it in shorter time but this is not quite what I’m after. I think that the whole trip requires me to bike some 60000 km and averaging some 100 a day it would take me a bit over 1.5 years. To be honest, who would like to rush through this kind of adventure?
Why not work?
I will! I love to work and I’m sure there will be plenty of time to work once I get back from this. I have my master diploma in engineering physics and it has been a theoretical, challenging and fantastically interesting road. Now I’m getting a PhD in life!
Why am i doing this?
There are many things that come to mind and I will share some of them. First I love the challenge and the traveling. Further I believe there is so much to learn, this would really be a chance to see the life lived in different conditions. I have a passion for sustainable development and as an engineer I hope to learn from techniques used in places where lack of resources are made up for by brilliant inventions and ideas.
Ideas?
I have things I would like to do and I like to get into contact with people in different political and environmental groups from all over the globe to learn and share. If you have an idea what to do or where to go, don’t hesitate to email me.
What did I bring along?
Well, I’d tell you if you really like to know, send me an email in that case. I got a load of good clothings from Bergans, waterproof bags from Sea to
Summit and equipment for my bicycle from the best bicycle shop in Sweden, Cykloteket. For good information on what to bring, have a look at Janne Coraxs homepage. It is in Swedish but let me know if you need help to translate it!
