Before you start wondering what the hell is wrong, let me clarify that I am talking about my BIKE I got my bike on this day last year.

In the past one year I haven’t biked much – maybe because there are so few months when cycling is possible (excuses excuses). My last trip was to Kortright Center some 35 km away on 28-October-2007 almost the beginning of winter. That was already stretching it because the freezing winds gave me flu and headache the next day.

This weekend, to welcome the spring, I’m going for a bike ride again. Unfortunately temperature will still be around -2 deg C. I am desperately waiting for spring / summer now.

Happy Birthday to my bike.

A 72km bike ride along the Sea of Galilee coast checking out prominent Biblical sites.
Caution: This particular blog-post is going to be excessively long.

7:30, I start with the sunrise.

Sea of Galilee
Sea of Galilee (गॅलिले), slso known as Lake Kinneret (किनारेट), is the largest fresh water lake in Israel. This lake is 209 m below sea level, the second lowest lake in the world after Dead Sea (also in Israel and I’ll post abt it). The lake has several sites of Christian significance around it in addition to being historically important for the Jewish.

Biking
I rented a mountain bike from Hostel Aviv for 50 NIS and started on this route equipped with a map. The route going along the lake is 65 km long but since I took a detour, I had to travel about 7 km more. The terrain is uphill for the initial part (upto Capernaum) and then more or less a flat ride. Since I took liberal breaks at different sites, I finished the journey in 8 hours, but my average speed on road was abt 14 kmph, not bad! If you are visiting this area then I will definitely recommend a tour on bike, it is very refreshing

Measurements

Ginosar: The Jesus boat

Jesus boat and me

In 1986, two fisherman brothers discovered the remains of an ancient boat that dates back to 1 CE, believed to be Jesus era. 27ft long and 7.5ft wide, this boat is delicately preserved at the Yigal Alon (यिगाल अलोन) Museum in Ginosar (गिनोसार). There is an excellent documentary that shows how the boat was excavated, removed, cleaned and reassembled – a process that took 7 years. This was my first stop and I met some people from a neighboring Kibbutz here. I had only read about Kibbutzs before and it was good to talk to real people working there.

Mt. of Beatitudes

Church of Beatitudes

It is believed that Jesus delivered the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ at a place around this location around 30 CE. This sermon is said to contain the central tenants of humanity, something that is shared by many religions. For example – ‘turn the other cheek’ or ‘resist not evil’, ‘judge not, lest ye be judged’ or the Golden rule. Mount of Beatitudes (बेटिट्युड) is located on a hill. The church is very beautiful, and the surrounding garden gives me amazing peace of mind. Also, the climb to the mountain top was an overkill and I was sweating like crazy when I reached here. I shed my clothes, but then it was cold, so had to wear them again (hehehe). The restaurant sells stuff that is bound to burn your pocket, and I got mine burnt.

Tabgha: Miracle of the Multiplication

In this fruitful garden, Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.

Nice Church at (टॅब्घा/ताब्घा).
There was a little water fountain outside and I had a quick shower there while tourists/pilgrims who were arriving from big tour buses looked at me with disgust admiration and astonishment. Ah, it felt so good.

Primacy of Peter
This was a mystery as I did not have information about this chapel in my guidebook, nor did any tour bus stop here, so it was deserted except me, my bike and statues of Jesus. All I know is Peter was the favorite Apostles of Jesus of Nazereth and probably this Chapel is dedicated to him. The sepia picture shows a shepherd begging Jesus saying ‘Feed my sheep’.

Capernaum:

Ruins of an ancient Synagogue (ज्यू मंदिर) where Jesus prayed

Jesus lived in (कपर्नॉम) town along with his disciples after he moved from Nazereth (नाझरेथ). There are several architectural excavations that reveal old Synagogues, Monasteries, houses and courtyards.

Rest of the journey:


I only paused briefly at the Greek Orthodox Church (the distinct red building in the pictures below) admiring the numerous peacocks and the ambiance it had. The Church was closed, but at a table outside, the priest dressed in black robes was having lunch with some visitors. Needless to say I was invited to join them but it was all meat and since ani simkhoni, I had to politely decline.

So, after 5 hours of up terrain cycling, I was pretty exhausted. I ran out of my power bars and oatmeal cookies and water. I did not eat breakfast because everything was closed when I left Tiberias, and unfortunately there were no little stores on this way. God I was starving. I secretly asked Jesus to come back and multiply bread and fish for me, but he didn’t come (maybe it was his Christmas break.)

Finally I found one restaurant on the side of the road – yes very much like our Dhaba! – on the Yehudiya junction (north-east corner of the lake). I was so hungry that I told myself that falafel and humus were the best foods on earth. I stacked the pita bread full of olives, pickles, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, beet, peppers and other veggies. The lady gave me freshly fried spicy eggplant and some other thing (I never found it anywhere again). I had both – freshly squeezed orange juice and mint tea. After a contentful burp, I hit the road again. Wish there was a place to nap (wow a whole paragraph dedicated to my lunch!)

The remaining journey was tiring, probably because there was nothing much to see. But the real cause of pain (pun intended) was the uncomfortable seating of the bicycle. I tried various innovative methods to make my (sensitive, precious, private) body parts at ease but then the whole area became insensitive.

Roads in Israel including this part are in quite good shape. The drivers are also considerate (compared to India, not Canada) but sometimes they like to ‘play’ with cyclists…hehehe. Only on a few occasions I was forced off the road, but it was fun nevertheless.

Kinneret beach was beautiful, but I had painful reasons to reach back to the hostel asap.

Tiberias!

I was back to Tiberias before sunset. What a wonderful day it was Cycling and walking gives me a strange feeling of connection with the area, something that I will always prefer over booking a tour bus. (Maybe its a good thing to do after 40 years when I am old.)

Update: While I was riding from Kinneret to Tiberias, another cyclist went speeding past me. I don’t like when someone overtakes me for no reason and I sped after him. But I couldn’t match. Later I spotted him relaxing on the promenade just before Tiberias and since he seemed friendly we started chatting. I made a very good friend Yair who comments here regularly. Others – if you are reading this but not commenting then I hate you (nah, ofcourse not )

Next day I left to visit the ancient city of Beit She’an (बेट श्यान).

This blog post is part of my Israel travelog series. I spent 3 weeks in Israel during Dec’07-Jan’08 and all my travelogues and pictures are recorded on this website. Please visit the Index page by clicking here to get a complete Israel travelblog. Thanks

It was a pleasant weather. Somehow I like mildly cloudy sky:

Ducks and Geese swimming in a small pond in Summerlea Park:

Spring was just arriving. The trees looked more brown than green:

Some neighborhood:

Bell in Cruickshank Park:

Scarlett Mills Park:

People fishing near the Old Mill Bridge. Later, the trail passes under the subway station, it looks fantastic.

Finally we crisscrossed under a maze of freeways and Go Train lines to reach the Humber River Bridge. This is the point where the river merges into Lake Ontario:

Lunch spot:

Structure in Downtown (I don’t remember the name)

Sailbots at Yacht Clubs:

And finally, our [tag]bicycle[/tag]s

Links: Photos clicked by Vaarun and Evgeny

Any guesses how we went back to the university? Subway and Bus…! Thats right, we are allowed to carry bikes

[tag]Avijit Chakraborty[/tag] is a 35 year old [tag]cyclist[/tag] from Kolkata, India who is [tag]cycling[/tag] across 62 countries around the world in 20 months, covering about 64,000 km. As of July 2006, he has completed 48,000 km across 48 countries. Currently he is in Peru, and after cycling across South America, he will continue his journey across the African continent – South Africa to Egypt. In the final leg, he plans to cover Australia and east Asia.

→ Read the complete story

I’ve tried to capture comments from some of the people who met him on his way. If you have met him, seen him or heard him speak, do share your experiences by commenting below.

Avijit has a website: BicycleAroundtTheWorld dot com. On this site you can find his travel route, or contact him directly.

Once again, wishing the best to Avijit

Read the updated story.

Hit the road

Walking to the temple

Shree Ganeshaya Namah

Babes

Bridge over Diva – Panvel Railway line

The road leading to Barvi dam, flanked on two sides by water pipelines, is full of ups and downs. Tiny hamlets dot the region.

Aum Suryaya namah

Aum Namah Shivay
We reached the Shiva Temple in about eighty minutes. As seen in the picture, at the moment the temple is being renovated. I hope they don’t paint it in gaudy oil based colors.

The temple is pretty old. Here is some information:

This exquisite temple was got built by Chittaraja—a king of the Silhara dynasty—in the late 11th century. An inscription above the north-facing door of the temple states Saka 982 (1060 AD) as the date of construction.

and we couldn’t help pity the sorry state of maintenance…

An Archaeological Survey of India board at the site states that the Ambarnath temple is “perhaps the oldest shrine dedicated to Shiva in the coastal parts of Maharashtra.” However, continued worship at the temple is affecting its beauty. Devotees still burn incense in the alcoves and pour milk over the Nandi idol. Some restraint on their part might allow their great grandchildren also to see the temple in its full glory.
– Read further (Sunday Tribune – Spectrum – Travel)

After some tea and vada-pav, we headed back thru a rustic path.
(This photo reminds me of high school mathematics – “Parallel lines meet at infinity”)

Three machines.

Santosh Iyer from Dallas TX writes:

I happened to bump into Avijit today morning. He was asking me directions. At that point i was perplexed as to who would be asking directions in US riding a bicycle. But having a conversation with him, it dawned on me who i was standing with and talking to.He is no less than a celebrity. That day i spent two more hrs with him talking about his experiences while riding throughout the world.He is an immense source of inspiration to anyone and everyone. The odds of meeting such a person in your entire life is amlost nill

Update (12-Apr-06):

Ram from OR writes:

He just gave a talk at HP Corvallis,OR. He is really amazing. He is very pleasant and modest. May God be with him!

Update (11-Apr-06):

Craig from Salem writes:

He’s in Salem Oregon tonight, planning to be in Corvallis before noon tomorrow. My friend is trying to organize a lunch for him tomorrow.

Update (28-Mar-06):

Alfonso from Kent writes:

I just had dinner with him in the city of Kent, Wa. A little before midnight we celebrated his 1st anniversary on the road (March, 28th)… Really nice person, inspiring and calmed, very focused. He leaves Seattle tomorrow morning (the 29th) on his way to Portland after cheking in at the Seattle Police Station at 8:00am as requirement by Record Guinness to keep track of his journey.

Swati Sircar adds:

FYI – He just left Seattle on his way to Portland.

Original story:

This guy takes it to the most extreme level. Avijit Chakraborty, 35 year old cyclist from Kolkata has so far traveled 38 countries covering 36,000 km in last 10 months. His target is to travel through 62 countries and cover over 64,000 km in a span of two years and enter the Guinness Book of Records.

He travels approximately 150 km each day and mostly sleeps at police stations, places of worship or his own tent.

Chakraborty had earlier completed a world tour covering 54 countries and 65,000 km on bicycle and later entered the Guinness World Record for crossing the Arctic Circle twice on bicycle in the year 1998.

He is carrying the message of pollution free environment and delivers lectures in schools and gatherings on the way. He meets students, government representatives and common members of the public.

All the best to Avijit.

“Every night when I am thinking I cannot do this, then I meet people and I get inspiration to go farther,”

References: Hindustan Times, Mumbai, Feb 10 | Routard.com (French) | The Rapid city journal | Sify | London Free Press | Biddenham (image)

We returned in 4 hours – successfully. It was a refreshing but a very exhausting trip. Weather was pleasant – and being a Sunday, it is a “free” day today. No worries.

- – -

Since you are reading this, I’d suggest you could also read travelogue about my bicycle expedition from Goa to Mumbai.
Here is the link