GERMAN BIKERS SCOUT NA FOR CLIMBING
AUGUST16-2000
By
Asem Mustafa Awan
ISLAMABAD
— German couple Harald Rein and Nicole Gonnel will be leaving for Lahore
for India after completing their tour of Pakistan on BMW 1000 cc.
The
couple, bikers cum mountaineers came specially for seeing the Northern
Areas and were having plans for climbing.
The
two live 20 km from the border of Switzerland at the bank of largest lake
in Europe which is Constance.
The
lake gives the view of the Alps and inspired us to visit Pakistan.
"We
thought we would be able to find some climbing shops where we can borrow
some equipment and do our climbing but it was totally opposite, we could
not even find some decent ice axe and the ropes were equally
dilapidated."
"It
was unsafe so we decided to stick with the biking."
Harald
and Nicole have been out from Germany since April and todate they have put
17,000 km on their bikes.
"The
tour has been very informative and we came across different people,"
said Harald who is a soft ware engineer by profession.
He
said," It my over time that I am spending here and this is our first
over land tour. Nicole is associated in teaching speech therapy/ sign
language to special children and prior to that we have done the tour of
Europe."
Answering
a query about any accidents in Pakistan Harald said," I took a nasty
fall a 100 km inside the Pakistan border near Nokandi. There were many
speed breakers and in the hot weather there were heat waves on the road I
couldn't see as there was no sign."
"The
people were very kind and they helped us and took my bike to Quetta where
it was repaired."
The
couple has been to seven countries beginning from Germany, Switzerland,
Italy, Greece, Turkey and Iran.
"We
will go to India from Lahore where we intend seeing the Ladakh
region."
The
two have the summits of Chimbarazo and Cotopaxi in South America besides a
number of climbs in the European Alps.
CAPTION:
Nicole Gonnel (front) and Harald Rein waiving to friends before the start
of the tour from Germany in March.