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ACTIVITIES
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Top Ten Epic Bike Rides
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By
Ethan Gelber
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Round the Mediterranean
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Looking back at
Spain's Costa Brava
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As the word"Mediterranean" suggests, the people of this inner sea saw themselves as living at the center ("medi") of the world ("terra"). And not without reason. This simple tideless sea that links three continents has seen everything: the rise and fall of civilizations; the making and breaking of religions; the creation and decline of cities; the learning and loss of alphabets, of culture, of lifestyles; and an ongoing history of political turmoil. What could be more magical than a full circumnavigation of this source of Western culture? A cycle east along the Spanish coast and southern France to Italy, into eastern Europe and Asia Minor in the footsteps of the Crusaders and eastern Silk Road traders, south through the Middle East where Alexander the Great galloped as far as Egypt, and then west across North Africa following the path of the spread of Islam, this is a trip with history past, present, and future. And, as always, done at a pedaler's pace and with an eye open toward human interaction that brings it all home with oomph.
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Extended Rift Valley
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The Rift Valley
seen from the sky
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There's a great cleft in the world that runs through or near some of the most extreme places on the planet. I have never heard of this cleft having been run from end to end, but I still imagine that it would be a mountain-bike trip to end all trips. Starting at the heart of the Middle East, the Jordan Valley's Jordan River drops to the Dead Sea and the lowest point on the earth. From there it winds across the Negev Desert on the Israeli-Jordanian border, plunges into the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea, rises back to the surface along the Eritrean Coast, slices across the uplifted Ethiopian Plateau, and resolves into Kenya's famous Rift Valley. Sure, politics have placed large portions of this ride off-limits to travel, but the day the Horn of Africa is accessible to all is the day you will find me on my bike on the mountain ride of a lifetime.
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Australian Coast
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That famous Sydney skyline
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It's the smallest continent on the planet, but its 16,000-mile-long coastline of white sandy beaches and rocky cliffs is just too much too ignore for long-distance touring cyclists. Second only to Antarctica as the world's flattest and driest landmass, Australia is rich in geography and aboriginal history. While the limitless outback has daunted people for years — crossing today is no less intimidating than it was before speeding cars turned the background into a blur — the coast is a ribbon of comfort that has turned this broad base into a single nation. Any sprint along any seashore is full of the life common along a water's edge. In fact, a full continental circumnavigation will pull you through every one of Australia's major cities. And it will count as a notch in that badge of epic adventures that no one will pooh-pooh.
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