I first met Tetsuro & Hiro [on the right with helmet] up in the Yukon on my way home from the Dempster Highway this summer. They were headed from Alaska down to Ushaia on a long bike tour. Their English was limited and my Japanese non-existent so we couldn't communicate much, but I did offer them a place to stay if they passed through Calgary. We exchanged one garbled email after that and I didn't hear from them again so I assumed we were not going to cross paths a second time.To my surprise a few weeks later I ran into Hiro hanging out in an alley near my apartment. When I inquired about Tetsuro he was surprised himself as he thought his friend would already be at my place. A bunch of emailing, text messaging and mobile phone calling later we tracked Tetsuro down and steered him to my apartment.
Sadly Tetsuro would have to end his trip in Calgary as his father was gravely ill. I helped him arrange a flight back to Japan and the three of us spent a week hanging out waiting for Tetsuro's flight home. Our poor language skills were a bit of a trial, but we managed to figure out the basics. Eventually Tetsuro boarded a flight for Japan and later that day Hiro embarked on the next leg of his bike tour to South America.
You can see some photos from their visit here and here. Tetsuro's blog is here.
If you are a cycle tourist and need a place to stay or some support in/around the Calgary area drop me a line and I'll see what I can do to help you out.
2 comments:
Nice story and photos. Did these guys ship their bikes from Japan or did they build them up in Alaska?
That's a lot of gear they're hauling.
They shipped their bikes from Japan....Tetsuro was riding a Surly LHT and Hiro was riding a Japanese bike. They had A LOT of gear....I'd probably carry about half that much on the same trip, but everyone has their own idea of what's necessary.
Post a Comment