Special talk recounts epic bike adventure

Bainbridge Islanders Paula and Lorenz Eber will present the travelogue “Cycling Through Vietnam and Cambodia” later this month at The Traveler.

The event, co-hosted by Squeaky Wheels, is 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25.

In April and May 2018, the Ebers undertook a 900-kilometer-long independent cycling tour along the coast of Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, ending their journey with a ride through the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia which is one of the world’s most extraordinary religious complexes. The Ebers will show pictures and videos of their journey and provide practical advice and tips on traveling through Vietnam and Cambodia today.

The pair started their married life together on a bicycle, spending a two-month honeymoon pedaling through Holland, Belgium, England and France. Naturally, when their two daughters Anya and Yvonne came along they simply threw them in a bike trailer and continued cycling: up and down Puget Sound, along the Oregon Coast, and then on a 600-mile cycling and camping trip to Alaska when the girls were 5 and 7 years old.

After cycling through Alaska, it seemed the only logical trip left was a family bicycle trip around the world.

And so, carrying six panniers, two tents and four sleeping bags — their only possessions for 16 months – Paula and Lorenz set off on two tandem bicycles with 11-year-old Yvonne and 13-year-old Anya. Their goal was to cycle a complete, unbroken circle around the world for asthma.

They survived an earthquake in Taiwan, drug smugglers in Siberia, and the bite of a 7-inch poisonous molokau in Tonga, and arrived in Washington, D.C. after camping and cycling for 480 days and 14,931 kilometers through four continents and 24 countries. Organizers of the special program say the family is the first and only to have circled the world by bicycle.