This past February university friends Nono Konopka and Max Jabs had an extraordinary idea — to bike from Berlin to Beijing raising money for charity along the way. Both had volunteered at aid organizations during their studies and shared a passion for fighting educational inequality around the world. One caveat to their planned adventure? Neither of them had ever biked long distances, let alone traversed various countries and continents cycling. However, that didn’t deter the two Germans who started their journey as Biking Borders in August and have since crossed countries such as Greece, Macedonia and Turkey. Along the way they’ve raised thousands of euros to help build a school in Guatemala, which holds the highest illiteracy rate in Latin America. I caught up with them to find out their most rewarding and scary moments so far, and how they are getting their charitable message out on their way to Beijing.
How did you come up with the idea for Biking Borders?
Max Jabs: In the beginning, it was just a crazy idea we had. It all started this year during our last university semester getting our bachelor’s degree in Amsterdam. We really wanted to do something that would have a social impact. We had both previously volunteered and thought about whether we should do that again, or create something new ourselves. We knew we wanted to go on an adventure that would help others. We had recently seen a documentary about someone biking from Oregon to Patagonia, and then thought, let’s do this too. Six months later we started cycling.
Your goal is to impact educational inequality, what does that entail?
Nono Konopka: As we were finishing our degrees we felt very grateful for the education we had received. We both agreed that if we did a project together the proceeds would go towards education.
I had lived in Mexico and traveled through Guatemala working with children in pediatrics. Max had volunteered in Vietnam. Through my volunteer work, I got to know Pencils of Promise, and we decided that we would want to partner with them. Max and I had both studied international marketing and learned a lot about digital marketing and social media, which we were able to apply to this project. So far it’s helped us get thousands of donations from all over the world.
Why did you choose biking as your method of transportation? Neither of you has biked long distances previously, correct?
Jabs: That is correct, I think the longest was to university and back. Nono didn’t even really do that.
Konopka: I always took a car even for like two kilometers [laughing].
Jabs: If we really want to raise €50,000, we needed to create a lot of awareness. We wanted people to be like “what, why are you doing this?” We didn’t train for it at all because we knew we would have so much time actually cycling until we got to Beijing.
Konopka: It was also the most challenging way to get there which made it interesting for us.
Jabs: It would be an awesome adventure, we would be seeing places we would never see otherwise. At 15-20 kilometers per hour, you start seeing the environment and people in a very different way.
Tell me more about that, what are some of the things you can see from a bike that you normally wouldn’t see?
Jabs: People. With the bicycle people wave at us, stop us, and say hello. We meet people, they don’t even speak English and there’s no Google Translate, just body language. Everyone is so kind and welcoming, for us as cyclists it’s an amazing gift.
Konopka: The landscape is amazing. It’s incredible if you think about the fact that we’ve come all the way from Berlin on a bicycle. It makes you so aware of your surroundings because you’re so slow, you can really take in what’s around you.
What’s the most challenging part of biking?
Konopka: It’s not the biking actually, it’s everything else. For example, when we wake up in the morning in our tent, the tent is warm and outside it’s very cold which makes getting up and out challenging. Then we need to do so many things before we start cycling. We need to eat breakfast, roll up our mattresses, pack all of our belongings, get the bicycles ready and then we finally hit the road. It always takes forever and it’s insanely annoying. While you’re on the road you also have to look for water, but you can’t buy it in the middle of the day because you don’t want to bike with a lot of extra weight. You always have to think about food and drinks in advance, especially if you’re going through really rural areas. When we were in Greece in some areas there were very few people, and sometimes we would bike 50 or 60 miles without water.
Jabs: The cycling itself is enjoyable. We listen to audiobooks, sometimes we talk – not that much though [laughs]. We always need to look for camping as the sun is setting because searching in the woods when it’s dark is not fun at all. Or easy!
Are you always staying in a tent or do you overnight somewhere else?
Konopka: I actually just did the breakdown of where we’ve stayed so far. We’ve spent 52 nights in a tent, 28 days invited to someone’s home and 20 times we paid for a hotel. We typically stay in a hotel when the weather is very bad or we’re really exhausted. So, when it’s super cold or super rainy, for example. We also get accommodations when we really need wifi or a shower. Initially, we wanted to save the money but in places like Turkey or Macedonia, a room is around €12 for both of us.
What have been some of your most memorable moments?
Konopka: A lot of moments weren’t fun at the time but now I’m happy we experienced them. Our scariest moment was when we were surrounded by a bear in our tent.
Jabs: On the other hand we’ve had some very positive experiences, like incredible hospitality. Recently we met a man in Albania and he insisted that we stay with him and his family. We had dinner and met all of his relatives. It’s interesting because, in places where people don’t really have a lot, people are really willing to give which is really nice.
Konopka: We’ve also loved being in nature – we’ve both grown up in cities or suburbs, but now we’re outside all the time and watching the seasons pass. It’s great.
Jabs: Another amazing moment was when we woke up in Greece one day and Ashton Kutcher had shared our video online. Through that, we got around €2000 in donations and like 70,000 clicks.
What do you miss the most when you’re on the road?
Jabs: Our girlfriends, friends and family, of course, nothing material. One unexpected thing I miss is having a real kitchen. We only have one little petrol stove with us. So, if we want to cook pasta we have to boil water the water, make pasta, then boil the sauce and mix them together. I miss cooking simultaneously!
Konopka: Because it’s so complicated to cook you get really lazy, even about making an easy thing like oatmeal. We don’t miss the food, but we miss the way of preparing it.
Jabs: I also miss having a closet. I miss having order and having everything organized. A lot of the times we’re on the road we don’t lose things but we don’t know where they are either.
How can people support your cause?
Konopka: We always say we want to put more social in social media. We do a lot of Instagram stories of just us being tired in a tent, keeping it real about our travels. That allows people to follow our entire journey. We would love it if people could follow the project, tell friends and then donate. We have a fundraising page and 100 percent of the money goes into the mission of building of a school in Guatemala. Regardless of whether we attain our goal, all proceeds will go to the school but we feel confident that we can hit our number, €50,000.
