On 24 June 2014 we reported that Daniel Schwerzmann was preparing to cycle from Switzerland to Hong Kong on an amazing adventure to raise funds for Positive Steps! Daniel has now embarked on this incredible personal challenge, which is a journey of around 10,000 km in which he will be travelling through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Thailand, Vietnam and China!
He still has a further 7,000 km to do, but so far Daniel has raised £570 … which he will divide between Positive Steps and a Swiss charity he also wants to support. This is simply fantastic!
We have just received this news report from Daniel:
‘Hello from Odessa, Ukraine! 6 weeks after my departure from Switzerland and already 2700km on my clock I have reached the Black Sea! I experienced all sorts of encounters: good and bad, interesting and strange ones, e.g. the German farmer who showed me his collection of 6 tractors or the German student who is on a bike trip to Israel who I came across 3 times on the road. In Hungary I met my dad and his partner who happened to spend their holidays there and on top, in a town called Gjör, I was lucky enough to scavenge the last available room in an expensive hotel the same night as Sir Tom Jones held a free concert on the anniversary of the place. I already passed the trip’s highest point of altitude when cycling over the Carpathians where I rarely crossed a soul apart from timbermen who thoroughly wondered why anyone is crazy, well they probably thought “stupid”, enough to take on such exertions by choice. The most disappointing experience so far was my short “stop over” in Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Europe. Their waste management plan is non-exsisting and even the farmers throw plastic bottles into their own fields after having just finished ploughing it with an ox-cart. The room I stayed in was filthy, it was impossible to sleep due to a deafening noise until 4 am and in the end the “hotel’s” owner even ripped me off! Never mind. All the better were the last few days in Ukraine! People were really friendly and helpful in finding a nice spot to stay or rather a place to stay at all. I was spontaneously offered to share lunch and wine with a bunch of young people just at the side of the road and even invited for dinner, which ended in a night out in town until the early morning hours. Now I am preparing for a short flight over the Black Sea to Batumi, Georgia. Unfortunately, the ferry I wanted to take is out of service due to “unforeseen” maintenance. Maybe it was a serendipity that I have to undertake the crossing by air and not by sea’. To be continued…
See below the amazing photographs that Daniel has sent showing some of his adventures…
You can follow Daniel on his blog www.stan-goes-to-hong-kong.ch, where you can read much more about Daniel’s idea and his dream. Even though the website is in German, you can follow him on his way to Hong Kong – visualised by a map (select the ‘Karte’ tab) and also many pictures in the gallery.
And … it’s not too late to support him … with comments, a personal email to fa18@bluewin.ch or a donation of pp/km (pence per kilometre).
Thank you Daniel for supporting Positive Steps in this way …