Steppe FM : The Grand Departure : April 2021, France
We left on March 21st, the day of spring. We, is Aymeric, Jehol and I, Alexis.
We started the trip by bike, without our trailer because it broke during the test the day before. Nevertheless, at the departure time, many of you wished us luck. So thank you !
We pedaled for three days with our bikes loaded with 40 Kg each. Good weather was present and the wild bivouacs too. The departmental roads being not very busy, jehol could run on the side of the road, in short the beginning of the trip is great.
We made a first stop and a first podcast at the lake of Esparron where we tried the folding wood stove in front of the setting sun, a cheap beer in hand.
Then we continued northeast to Serpençon Lake. Despite the overloaded bikes and some technical problems on them, we were making 35 km per day. We can't do more without asking too much effort from the dog...
We need a cart to speed up...
A day of rest at the lake of Serpençon to reorganize the weight on the bikes and then started the last straight line to Briançon and thus the climb to the alpine summits.
Surprisingly everything went well. We were very slow on the way up, but we never have to put our foot down. And the dog followed us, always a few centimeters to the right of the bike. The motorists often made gestures of encouragement, proof all the same that our faces were tomato red out of effort!
Finally after the two big climbs of l'Argentière la Bessée and the one of Briançon to La Salle les Alpes we arrive to Le Bez : Place of our first project.
For nearly 25 days we sleped under the teepee in a field, whether it was windy, rainy or even snowy. We worked with the youth hostel in Serre Chevalier to set up a 65 sqm permaculture vegetable garden. On the program: designing the garden, work of the ground, recovery of mulch and other organic matters, panting of the seeds which will be transplanted after May 15 and realization of a calendar and rotations of culture.
We also met a lot of incredible people, especially at the Maison Bessouli where we took all our meals and spent all our evenings. The house is a participative construction site realized by an association. It is composed of 14 volunteers in carpentry, electricity... But from mid-June this old abandoned building will become a place of welcome and life mixing locals and refugees.
In a bicycle association (l'atelier Cyclonique) we were able to change the brake pads, tighten the crankset and replace one of the racks that was already bent and threatening to break. We also received help to repair our first broken cart and the association offered us a second one that would serve to carry the dog.
In partnership with LowTech With Refugees, we also conducted three workshops for exiled that were able to continue despite Covid. One, in the refuge of Briançon (Tous Migrants !) with an initiation to leather sewing (making of belts, bag's, key rings...), another (in the premises of the Atelier Cyclonique and with their help) was to realize a bicycle cart only in scrap metal. And the last one, in a friend's vegetable garden, was an initiation to the study of soils and it's main principles of permaculture. By the way, we learned from an Afghan exile that the name of the dog "Jehol", which for us means "crazy horse" in Afghan according to a book by Kessel, was not pronounced like that at all but rather something like "Guéhrol"!
And then, we also took the time to learn (a little) archery, lure fishing and fly fishing (even if we didn't get anything), spent many evenings playing board games or remaking the world while drinking beers with great people!
Eventually, after all these busy days, we hit the road again on April 26th on our steampunk bikes towards Italy and the first border at the time of Covid!
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