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Davide Travelli ~ on the Sufi Trail â¤ď¸
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Davide took on the formidable Sufi Trailâa hiking routeâwith his bike fully loaded for adventure. His journey was a true test of resilience, made even more challenging by a hernia, bicycle troubles, a rocky fall, and a wildfire!
Despite it all, he triumphed, and this year he gifted us an incredible 5-hour film capturing every detail of that epic hike-a-bike journey. Thank you, Davide, for being our inspirational cycling star!
Cycling the world - Asia: Bonus episode Istanbul to Konya, following a thin line of dust, faith, and stubborn curiosity known as the Sufi Trail: ride to the light, hike to the light. A simple motto but nothing about this route is simple. It begins in Istanbul and runs close to 800 kilometres across Anatolia to the mausoleum of Rumi in Konya, stitching together villages, forests, ridges, dry plateaus, and long quiet spaces where the mind has too much room to wander. This was my second time on the Sufi Trail, in 2019 I rode the cycling route. This time I chose the harder conversation and bikepacked the hiking route, loaded bike and all, where the climbs are steeper, the trail often disappears, and forward motion is something you negotiate rather than assume.
For more info on this route head to sufitrail.com
MY GEAR FULL LIST
But such an adventure doesnât happen without support. If his travels inspire you, consider fuelling his journey through a one-time donation (PayPal.me/davidetravelli) or a monthly contribution (*Alaska2Patagonia.com/support*). Every bit helps keep the wheels turning.
Follow Davide as he pedals onwardâbecause the world is vast, and the road never really ends. Also, we are grateful as were Davide travels great movies follows, you can see the previous episodes on his YouTube channel and get inspired by Davide and off course his pizza.
đ Follow the Journey:
đ Blog: Alaska2Patagonia.com
đ¸ Instagram: @davidetravelli
đĽ YouTube: @DavideTravelli
đ Facebook: Davide Travelli
The road calls. Will you answer? đ´âď¸â¨
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I love being âhomeâ but.. the world is my place too ~ by Natalia Mihai
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The year 2025 started with a long bus ride to a sketchy location.
(For those curious: Whalley, BC.)
No kidding; I didnât bring a shank. True story!
For a church New Year celebration, no less.
By the time I got home {safe} {what a comfortable, relative word} in the wee hours of that first day of a new quarter century into the 21st century, Iâd had enough of âout there.â
Squirrelled myself away, hibernating like a true north mama bear. Day in and day out, night after night, my potato chip addiction apparent that first week.
But. I was âhome.â Safe.
What did I do to whittle away the tedious hours of long dark rainy patio door shaking in the wind days, weeks & months, where it gets dark at just shy of 4pm?!
(And the sobbing is heard across the land!)
Found scrap paper and wrote out a book.
In longhand! (Topic/Subject under wraps until I can actually type it out..)
Full manuscript. All hand written.
Tsk or head shake..
Kid #1 would leave before light to go to school and come home after dark, to find me hunched over at the table: hair askew, pens thrown at pigeons perched on the deck lying everywhere; library books strewn out, wading through aforementioned empty potato chip bags - page after page: perhaps usable book material, but that didnât seem important.
Just to hear the pen scratch at the paper, writing words out, felt therapeutic.
Writing thoughts, using mental alacrity is akin to a really good form of art therapy.
Then. One day it became May.
Did I stay to enjoy the most gorgeous city in the whole world as spring blooms?
Why, no!
Jumped up, remembered a dream I had, wrestled with the choice, and two days later flew into Cairo, Egypt. |
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The hunt in the East Delta Nile for Moses (yes, that Moses) was on!
Three weeks later, ending in Nuweiba, staring at the sea, watching a ship float away to Aqaba, as the lone camel and I kicked cans together, dejected we didnât get on the ship.
Though, I stared across into Saudi Arabia..
Little did I know then..
It was clear I was through with Egypt.
Tucked into my mindâs eye, I had forged a new map; the path of the exodus (yes, yes that exodus) and now I had to move on.
Itâs just how things are as a nomadic intrepid gypsy traveller.
Flew to Istanbul. Somehow connected with a friend to spend time in surreal Goreme, to connect with a friend I met in Lebanon - to visit with his family in Ankara, to surprise The Sufi Trail in Bolvadin, which is like homecoming again and again.. wow..
2025 youâre turning out pretty good!
Turns out, all I had to do was â leave home!
Got to the bus station Esenler and called my friend Abu Sham.
Told him, âbring me a sandwich!â
He did!
Then I took the night bus to Bucharest, Romania!
My dad and mom were there for a while, and I surprised them too!
Must add, my mum with her sixth sense would go to the gate each day to look for me.
How sweet. Home, was now where I was born.
Itâs an interchangeable place; this thing called home.
Someone left the oven on, so we just spent the week watering my uncleâs lawn and moving as little as possible.
Going back to where I was a small child on the farm - my first real âhome.â
Meh.
Seems like some nostalgic moment stuff; you just grow out of it.
Maybe washing myself in the courtyard with a hose had something to do with that!
My next jaunt was into Moldova - selfie with the Romanian president (!) was super cool
& then into Transnistria.
Worst hostel experience ever. (thatâs not true!)
(Thereâs been so many bad ones!)
but it was super uncomfortable..
Surprise! New friends invited me to stay in Florence for the night â what a great experience! And then home. Again. |
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Home for Kid #1 birthday.
Then. This bug got me. So I left home again, and went into three more countries: Georgia; sweet Georgia! Armenia! With its million churches, and then into Azerbaijan.
Looking for my kidâs grandfatherâs roots.
Too many threads to explain all my travels, but there are reasons for these choices!
Kid #2 had a birthday, so I came home to celebrate that. The bug had me by this time, and my next flight - - my next flight was out to Saudi Arabia. What?!
I had to. Moses went that way.
Oh, and this little train track of Hejaz was that way too.
Scorching sands. Scorching sun.
Walked from Tabuk to Medina. Yes. You read that correctly. All but 120 kms of very desolate desert.
And got stopped by every cop in the country.
NO one walks here. Itâs such an odd activity to the whole of society.
Almost got to Mecca (but my promise to my mother-in-law is complete!)
Of course, finding Moses was top notch criteria: in Haql and in old Midian; today called Badâa - more pieces of our main man of the hour Musa.
And when it was time and my would-be host in Bahrain dodged my text ~ I didnât wait for another invite - I did an important impulsive thing and jetted off to â- Damascus.
Praying the whole time, but my fifth attempt was a cake walk - turns out - they now offer a visa on arrival! Hamdallah!
Yâall remember I love Paul! Yes. Yes.
That Paul.
Found Straight Street of Damascus fame.
Walked the line of the Hejaz (would NOT recommend this to anyone!) {eeekkk}
But - itâs done.
Whatâs done? You may ask? Itâs a wait and see.
But. Think map. A new map! Across â
Itâs a super cool amazing project completed!!
Did a wee little humanitarian project.
Made some more friends, ate $1 falafels, saw the wounds, heard the horrors, felt the hope in the air at the one-year anniversary of the beginning of a new era in Syria ~
By now. Itâs time. Itâs time to go home.
Itâs the holy days approaching and itâs time to see kids.
But first.
Why not! It seemed fitting.
A train trip across TĂźrkiye, starting in Istanbul and ending in Kars. All. The. Way. Across. The. Country.
Madness? Or chill time, to process?
Same difference.
Somehow, Iâd kinda forgotten that I had to get back to IST to fly home.. back straight, all my clothes on, on the windy highway. Hand out. |
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The first truck stopped and drove me eight hours. Only 32 more to go..
Six years ago, I left home to go to my kidâs dadâs cousinsâ house in Istanbul.
From there I was to start an elusive trail across TĂźrkiye: starting in Istanbul - ending in Konya.
801 kms across the country, on foot, in winter.
What I didnât know then, was that it would take me across so many more lands, miles, homes, couches, beds, hotels, flights, trains; countless hiking shoes: many many many hundreds; actually thousands of kilometres walked - all to come back to the very same place I had started at.
Home. Home is where the pillow meets your head just right and many dozens of clean clothes await. Or is it?
For me. Iâve made home just about anywhere.
Itâs the willingness to brave the unknown and meet it with a smile and remember plan a b c d etc ~
So much joy in the delight each day brings as new experiences, frontiers are explored.
Maybe others had gone before, but no one has walked quite the same distance/path/route
& certainly no one else has seen the sights from these eyes, as itâs just as much an inner journey as the physical.
Hike to the Light.
Itâs healing, rewarding and satisfying.
âAnd sings my soul,â as I stepped out of this yearâs faith-based event; and the year turned into the next: January 1, 2026 - and the fog had embraced the city, and the cold night air nipped at the exposed face and hands: I cinched my coat, jumped a puddle and ran for the departing sea bus.
This is the teaser, for the books about â25 are sure to be written ~ yet ~ Iâm already packed.
True story. New kit. New shoes.
Is it Destination or is it Destiny ~
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Our field operation manager Natalia Mihai is a one of a kind globetrotter, and her pictures are as inviting as her hiking style to get your shoes on and go roam the globe....starting with the Sufi Trail... |
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