Interview with Pablo Calvo @BIKECANINE

In 2015 you decided to "drop everything" and travel the world with your bike, tent and your little dog Hippie, but before making this decision you already had a strong connection with cycling and did big challenges for solidarity purposes. Do you remember how your hobby started? Did you practice other sports besides cycling?

I have always liked sports from handball to skateboarding, snowboarding, running with my dog... Since I was a child I learned to ride a bike and I loved to ride around my town on my bike. 

My connection with the bike was in 2010 when I made my first bike trip from Gijon to Santander but without any intention of anything, just to try something different. The second one was from Seville to Gijón, already better equipped and more planned, not so improvised. And well, from there the snowball grew until today.

Although you have two amazing travel companions: Hippie and Pizza, we know that when you are on the road, and especially if you do it alone for a long time, you find yourself with your thoughts and sometimes with your biggest fears. Would you like to share with us some of those moments and how you manage them? Do you feel that traveling alone you are more demanding with your own goals than if you were traveling with a companion?

From traveling alone to traveling accompanied, the truth is that it completely changes the travel experience. I like both things and obviously traveling accompanied has fun moments especially if they are good friends with whom you are traveling. I like to travel accompanied, but not for too long because in the end I am a person who likes freedom and traveling accompanied means giving in. I like the balance between the two. I find it more difficult to go from traveling accompanied and alone and vice versa. That transition. But the more you travel alone, the more prepared you are. Like everything in life, the more you practice it, the better you get at it, and traveling alone is one of those things. And it's worth breaking that barrier and traveling alone because incredible things happen that don't happen when you're accompanied.

 

It all started with "a silly trip" by bike from Gijón to Santander and since then, this way of life has taken you to incredible places: North Cape (where your book Expedición Cabo Norte was born), Georgia, Greece, Turkey... Perhaps this is always the most difficult question to ask someone who loves to travel but, is there any destination that has particularly marked you?

Before my way of traveling was different because I could cross countries in two days but I can't tell you anything about my experience there. I traveled miles and I have passed through many countries but I can't say that they have marked me. I have spent a year and a half in Georgia and I am incredibly fond of it. It is my second home. I have spent two Christmas and I know the country well, its politics, its people. Now I'm in Turkey and I also love it: it's perfect for traveling by bicycle and has a very interesting history, the people are very open and the landscape is beautiful. I am also fond of Albania after living there for 3 months. It's usually the places where I've been living the longest that have left the biggest mark on me.

And on the other hand, any place on your wishlist that you would like to visit but haven't been able to yet?

So many. I would love to travel all the countries of the world with time to get to know them. Alaska, the whole region of Patagonia, Mongolia, Nepal... Truly, every country has something to offer. I hope I have time to continue traveling and discovering our incredible planet.

 

We know that one of your dreams to fulfill is to have a boat and continue traveling "without limits". When you do, what role do you think the bicycle will play for you at that time?

I come from a coastal city, I have been a lifeguard and I have always dreamed of owning a sailboat before I turn 40. Now I see it a little complicated but I hope and wish that it will happen soon because I would love to continue discovering the planet from the water. I could take my bike on a sailboat and stop in different places, move around with the bike and return to the sailboat to visit another destination. That would be my dream, and I'm sure I'll make it come true! Because that's what dreams are for, to fulfill them.

And finally, what advice would you give to someone who has just bought one of our bikes and wants to ride it around the world?

Don't overthink it. From home it always seems more difficult and when you are there you discover that it was not so difficult. Nothing is so dangerous or so complicated. Don't be afraid or ashamed to do something because that slows down our freedom and there is nothing more beautiful than freedom.