Yonas and Corentin: some news from our bikers

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Yonas and Corentin: some news from our bikers

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Yonas and Corentin gave their first pedal stroke on 21 October in Brussels. In less than a month, they've already reached Serbia. We tell you all about some of their adventures!

For the past 25 days, Yonas and Corentin have been driving east (find out more about their project). They've already passed through seven countries, discovered dozens of landscapes, received several litres of rain on their heads, but their motivation is still intact!

When you embark on this kind of journey, there are bound to be a few unexpected things on the agenda: "Every night we sleep in the forest or in orchards out of sight. We had a little surprise one morning when a forest ranger came to wake us up in German to tell us that it was forbidden to sleep in a tent in a nature reserve and that we had to leave", they recount.

The weather was not kind to our bikers. They explain, "After a short week of rain, all our stuff is wet, on the last morning we had to put our stuff away in the rain, the tent is soaked. We put on our still-soaked shoes to get back to pedalling."Fortunately, they were able to launch an appeal on the Warmshower website and enjoy a warm night with welcoming German hosts, which was perfect timing for Yonas's birthday.

The rest of the journey through Germany was made up of beautiful landscapes, painful hills and encounters with many welcoming hosts. A few reunions with old Erasmus friends also gave them a taste of the country's festive atmosphere. Austria confronted our adventurers with less clement temperatures. "Yesterday morning was a rude awakening: at the bottom of a valley, we woke up in our tents in 4°C temperatures. Despite the biting cold, Corentin had the brilliant idea of taking a morning swim and cycling shirtless. By evening, we'd climbed a lot and were seeing more and more snow, but luckily Lukas was able to put us up! He gave us a cosy little chalet with an open fire. "The next day, they set off on the biggest climb of the trip, 500 metres of gains at an average of 7%, arriving at a ski resort in the evening with no solution for sleeping. "We were in a bind. So we decided to ring people's doorbells, and what a surprise it was when the first person we rang opened the door straight away, spoke English (you wouldn't think it, but it's rare in Austria) and offered us a meal! A big thank you to this hero Fabian and his 12 horses who saved our bacon! "Yoco

Then came the crossings of Slovenia and Croatia to arrive in Serbia, where the logistics became more complex: "We were completely lost (no 4G, Cyrillic alphabet and nobody speaks English) so we had quite a hard time understanding the value of the local currency and getting around but we soon got used to it! Not being able to read the writing, we order things randomly in the restaurants and hope it's good. That night, Yonas ordered a chicken sandwich (and asked for all the sauces in it by mistake) and Corentin ended up with ... a half-metre pizza for 4 people! "

After around 1,700 kilometres, Yonas and Corentin continue their adventures and head ever further east, with Malaysia in their sights.

Don't forget to support them and, through them, Louvain Coopération's projects in Cambodia. They are counting on you! Thank you

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