At the beginning of the day, the fog had fortunately disappeared and we could see a beautiful view. After a few interviews and a coffee from the nice family, who had offered us their driveway as a place to stay, I started cycling. We arrived in the middle of the merciless Andes. My route leads through the Cordillera Central, which is the highest of the three mountain ranges in Colombia with more than 5,000 meter high volcanoes. That means that I have to fight against extremely steep and long climbs every day. Today, at the end of the day, it was an incredible 4,000 vertical meters! If I wanted to bring this daily performance in Austria, I would have to go up the Grossglockner High Alpine Road three times. Especially bad are the descents at night. In the rain and crazy traffic with huge trucks, I have to brake constantly and never really get any speed on the downhill.

Even the cars are struggling with this steepness that I have never seen in the Alps at a pass. Especially my 23-year-old Toyota, which I bought for 1,000 euros for Cairo2Cap, does a great job. Many helping hands have supported me, to make him fit for Africa and now for Ice2Ice. The descents are very difficult for my team too. It’s hard to stay right behind me because we are stuck in traffic and then, of course, I am still faster with the bike.

Just before Medellin, a really special visit awaited me! Inge, who accompanied me and Chris at Cairo2Cape two and a half years ago, hired a car to meet us on the route. Especially now that I see a team of three doing what Inge has done alone in Africa every day, I can’t praise her enough. Thank you very much for the incredible team effort and support during my World Record Tour 2016.

Medellin, once the most dangerous city in the world, presented itself with chaotic traffic. The metropolis is huge and that’s why we wanted to drive through as fast as possible. However, Kerstin and Sami took the opportunity to get new equipment for the drone. At a gas station, I waited with two new fans for my team before we drove a few more miles to the next night stop.