Confidences of travelers | Around the world on a pedal

Traveling is like riding on a mountain road. But among the ups and downs, there will always be those indelible memories that you carry with you all your life. The Press recounts the adventures, big or small, of fearless travellers. Today: Jade and Yanouk, a couple who have cycled more than 10,000 km, from Europe to Asia.

Laila Maalouf
The Press

“The idea of ​​leaving everything behind and leaving is the greatest ordeal of the trip. Once we’ve taken the plane and given our first pedal strokes, the rest is just fun and adventure,” says Yanouk Paquette-Labonté.

In July 2021, the 27-year-old flew to Paris with his lover, Jade Beaulieu, and their two bikes. When we spoke to them, the day after Thanksgiving, they were in Vietnam, where they were preparing to welcome Jade’s parents for a real vacation — without bikes! — three weeks.

If their destination was Malaysia first, they chose to go to Singapore in the end. As long as they are so close, they said to each other…

Behind them, Europe, with a Christmas in Crete in the company of other traveling cyclists met there; Central Asia, with its steep paths; then South Korea, a completely unexpected detour… More than 10,000 km traveled on two wheels, against all odds.

The hardest part of their journey? Undoubtedly Central Asia, a tough segment for morale, which took them from the desert roads of Kazakhstan to the mountains of Kyrgyzstan.

Then a few misadventures tinted their appreciation of Kyrgyzstan, notably stones thrown by teenagers and the theft of their precious water supply. “It was really the first time we felt insecure,” he says. We had our eyes wide open all night hoping nothing would happen to us. But in fact, these are a few small incidents. Bad encounters can be counted on the fingers of one hand; but the beautiful encounters… it would take a long time to list everything. »

From dream to reality

This world tour, Yanouk had dreamed of it for a long time. Even before meeting Jade in 2018. Passionate about cycling, he had already traveled across Quebec and the Maritimes on his own, before crossing the country with a friend, from Magog to Vancouver.

His plan was to finish college and fly off to his big challenge. But he fell in love in the meantime. And against all odds, Jade “entered into the adventure” when she had “zero experience” of cycling trips – barely two weeks with Yanouk, on the Véloroute des Bleuets and in the Laurentians…

“I was not a very active person in life, but I really liked to travel, says the young woman who will soon be celebrating her 30th birthday. I did a master’s degree in geography and several backpacking trips, and I always said to myself that I would like to travel around the world. With this project, Yanouk offered me the opportunity to realize this dream, even if I had never thought of doing it by bike. »

Of course, there was a period of adaptation. Then they divided the tasks quite naturally: she takes care of the logistics, he makes sure that they get to the fixed point while providing videos for their YouTube channel, Perdons les pédals.

With a budget of $40,000 for two years, or an average of $50 a day for the couple, they expect to be back in Quebec by next summer.

And even if they still have some 5000 km of road through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, before arriving in Singapore, they are already thinking about the aftermath. To rediscover Quebec by bike. But also to continue to build the community of cyclists they have created since their departure, and to inspire others to try the adventure.

“Our idea is to show that we are two very ordinary people who have just decided to live an adventure and that anyone is capable of doing it. We are certainly not athletes; it’s a question of time, of will”, concludes Yanouk.