Candid – Page 2 – Ecotopia Biketour

Kamenitsa eco village

Candid July 25, 2016 August 29, 2016

From Minsk we cycled for two days to Kamenitsa / Каменица. Due to our tight schedule, this was our only proper wild-camping night in Belarus, which we spent without problems on a beautiful meadow that smelled like Thyme. On the first evening, when we cycled through a small village, suddenly we were surrounded by dozens of kids on bikes. They were very eager to fill our water containers for the night and were extremely excited to get some of our tall-bike and “Fuck Cars” stickers. Kamenitsa is a small village about 120 km north-west of Minsk where several families from Minsk…

Shanti Dom

Candid July 21, 2016 August 29, 2016

Due to our short visa, we had to take a train to skip most of the 400 km of cycling from Brest to Shanti Dom, a yoga farm with an international volunteering programme about 70 km west of Minsk. Lucky as we are, it started raining cats and dogs just after we got out of the train to cycle 40 km, but when we finally arrived, we were greeted with a beautiful sunset and rainbow. Shanti Dom is an old school building on the countryside in the middle of nowhere that a young hetero couple is turning into a yoga…

Biketour in Brest

Candid July 19, 2016 July 19, 2016

After so many fails, we couldn’t believe it when the bus started going and actually took us into Belarus. At the bus stop we were already awaited by Valentin from Radeja Bike Club, with whom we had been in a lot of contact with to prepare the documents for the visa application. Valentin was over-excited to lead us through the city, and communication was a bit difficult, as he only speaks Russian. With Radeja Bike Club, he has been organizing long-distance bicycle tours in many countries, including western-European ones like Spain, and camps for people with disabilities in the forest,…

The Żubr

Candid July 8, 2016 July 3, 2016

The Żubr (bison) is the biggest land mammal in Europe. Żubrs have been extinct in many parts of Europe for centuries, the last ones living in the wild were killed in the 1920s. After the second world war, some Żubrs living in zoos were released into the wild to create a new population. All Żubrs that live in the wild today are the descendants of only 12 individuals that were released from zoos, which is quite threatening to their genetic health. The biggest population of about 800 individuals lives in Białowieża Forest, where we stayed for several days. Male Żubrs…