marcmichel.ch

Travels
- col-1
  - Eurasindica (2019 – 2020)
  - Overview
  - Map
  - Pictures
  - Blog
  - Equipment
- col-2
  - Eurasia 2.0 (2018 – 2019)
  - Overview
  - Map
  - Pictures
  - Blog
  - Equipment
- col-3
  - Eurasia (2015 – 2017)
  - Overview
  - Map
  - Pictures
  - Blog
  - Equipment
- col-4
  - Nordkapp (2014)
  - Nordkapp
  - Map
Highlights
- col-1
  - Eurasindica (2019 – 2020)
  - Mongolia
- col-2
  - Eurasia 2.0 (2018 – 2019)
  - Lake Baikal
  - Winter in Siberia
  - Zorkul Nature Reserve
  - Afghanistan
  - Bartang Valley
  - Chechnya and Dagestan
- col-3
  - Eurasia (2015 – 2017)
  - Armenia in Winter
  - Karakorum Highway
  - Deosai Plains
  - Shingo La
  - Ladakh
  - Manali-Leh-Highway
  - Spiti Valley
  - Myanmar
  - Pamir Highway and Wakhan Valley
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- Who Is Marc?
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Nordkapp

My 100-day long Nordkapp tour in summer of 2014 took me from Switzerland to the Nordkapp and back.

Map

(The approximate route was created later.)

Marc on Instagram

Most likely, I had been suffering from an autoimmu

Most likely, I had been suffering from an autoimmune encephalitis (which means that my immune system started attacking my brain). We don’t know what caused my immune system to start attacking my brain, and most likely we’ll never find out. I still had to get a treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) every month for the last year. The IVIG introduces antibodies from the plasma of healthy donors, which removes harmful antibodies and reduces inflammation. So, basically (as I understand) this treatment “resets” my immune system. A few days ago, on 2nd July 2021, I got my last IVIG (for now - maybe forever). In the coming months, the specialists will run many tests again and check everything. As we stopped the treatment with IVIG now, we will see if I can be without IVIG or if there will be a relapse. We will also check my left leg (because of the thrombosis), especially trying to figure out if I have a higher risk to get another one in the future.

Although there was most likely a lot of bad luck involved to get this rare disease in the first place, there was much more fortune in the whole outcome: For example, it didn’t happen in the wilderness of the Changtang (where we were between September and December 2019 and where we didn’t see humans for 75 consecutive days), I wasn’t alone, it happened in a town where we already knew some other people, I got the right treatment very quickly and most importantly it looks like my brain recovered completely.

I am very grateful that I am doing so well since many months now and I am extremely thankful that Grete as well as all the lovely helpers in China (as well as all the medical staff involved) were taking such good care of me, especially as I needed a lot of attention 24/7 before returning to Switzerland.

The drawing (the picture from this post) I made in the psychiatry in Meiringen in the beginning of August 2020 while I was recovering from my psychosis. Somehow, I was constantly thinking about my childhood. And as I liked to draw these kinds of circles as a kid, I decided to do the same.

That’s it for now. Thank you all for your lovely comments and messages! ❤️

Ready to explore the wilderness for 2+ months on 9

Ready to explore the wilderness for 2+ months on 9th September, 2019.

If I am not following you and you want to repost my content, feel free to do so, but please either tag me properly or preferably send me a short DM – I like to know where my pictures end up 😉

Washing the dusty tent in the Lake of Brienz on 19

Washing the dusty tent in the Lake of Brienz on 19th September, 2020

Apart from the thrombosis, my fast recovery continued. My brain seemed to work fine, and I could solve many riddles every day and I didn’t get as tired as I had gotten in the beginning at home.

In September, I also felt ready to clean the equipment like the dusty tent or the panniers. Luckily, I am living at the lake of Brienz, which made washing the tent a relatively easy task.

In October 2020, I had to do a long test of my brain resilience. Fortunately, all the results were normal, and it looks like my brain just works again as it is supposed to. Thus, I am not unemployable like I was until I did that test. I started working as a private math tutor and in November 2020, I could start working as a (substitute) math teacher. Luckily, even the workload (of sometimes well over 100%) was no issue for me.

For me, it’s very impressive to see how it is when a brain stops working properly. I am extremely grateful that I recovered so fast and so well – it’s like a beautiful miracle! But as I have a memory loss from the worst 3 or 4 weeks (the time when it all started in China as well as the first week back in Switzerland), it’s also difficult for me to really understand what happened. I see all these pictures and videos of me, but I just can’t remember much of this time. This makes it even harder to grasp what all the people around me – especially Grete but also my parents and sister - went through.

Being stuck in the mud in the wilderness on 29th S

Being stuck in the mud in the wilderness on 29th September, 2019.

From 15th September to 9th December, Grete (@onewildstrawberry) and I (@marcmichel.ch) crossed the wilderness of the Changtang on the Tibetan plateau from east to west by fair means. We pushed our heavily loaded bikes through mud, sand and snow, but sometimes we could also push (or cycle) on hard frozen ground, frozen riverbeds or frozen lakes. During our 86 days in the wilderness, we didn’t meet people for 75 consecutive days, but we saw plenty of animals like chirus (Tibetan antelopes), wild yaks, kiangs, wolves and bears.

In the beginning of this expedition, we encountered a lot of snowfall and the ground was often very muddy. That’s why we started moving already in the middle of the night, when the (wet) ground was frozen. After mid October, we had extremely strong headwind basically everyday which made it sometimes nearly impossible and therefore totally pointless to push the bikes in the afternoon. In November, the night temperatures fell usually below -20 degrees, but because of the strong headwind during the day, we still had to leave in the night. In December, the night temperatures plunged even to -30 degrees, so that we didn’t start before sunrise anymore.

Because of the cold temperatures, Grete got frostbites on her two big toes and lost one nail. Fortunately there won’t be any long-term damage. Although we were eating pretty well, we still lost around 15kg of body weight each, which made sleeping at temperatures below -25 degrees a bit uncomfortable.

The time we spent out there was tough, but the beauty of the nature compensated for a lot of the suffering.

We want to thank our main supporter Exped (@expedint) as well as our other supporters tubus (@hebie_tubus_racktime), MSR (@msr_gear) and Veloplus (@veloplus) for providing amazing equipment.

If I am not following you and you want to repost my content, feel free to do so, but please either tag me properly or preferably send me a short DM – I like to know where my pictures end up 😉

Taking a breather while pushing the bike through f

Taking a breather while pushing the bike through fresh snow on 3rd October, 2019.

From 15th September to 9th December, Grete (@onewildstrawberry) and I (@marcmichel.ch) crossed the wilderness of the Changtang on the Tibetan plateau from east to west by fair means. We pushed our heavily loaded bikes through mud, sand and snow, but sometimes we could also push (or cycle) on hard frozen ground, frozen riverbeds or frozen lakes. During our 86 days in the wilderness, we didn’t meet people for 75 consecutive days, but we saw plenty of animals like chirus (Tibetan antelopes), wild yaks, kiangs, wolves and bears.

In the beginning of this expedition, we encountered a lot of snowfall and the ground was often very muddy. That’s why we started moving already in the middle of the night, when the (wet) ground was frozen. After mid October, we had extremely strong headwind basically everyday which made it sometimes nearly impossible and therefore totally pointless to push the bikes in the afternoon. In November, the night temperatures fell usually below -20 degrees, but because of the strong headwind during the day, we still had to leave in the night. In December, the night temperatures plunged even to -30 degrees, so that we didn’t start before sunrise anymore.

Because of the cold temperatures, Grete got frostbites on her two big toes and lost one nail. Fortunately there won’t be any long-term damage. Although we were eating pretty well, we still lost around 15kg of body weight each, which made sleeping at temperatures below -25 degrees a bit uncomfortable.

The time we spent out there was tough, but the beauty of the nature compensated for a lot of the suffering.

We want to thank our main supporter Exped (@expedint) as well as our other supporters tubus (@hebie_tubus_racktime), MSR (@msr_gear) and Veloplus (@veloplus) for providing amazing equipment.

If I am not following you and you want to repost my content, feel free to do so, but please either tag me properly or preferably send me a short DM – I like to know where my pictures end up 😉

My amazing tent Orion II Extreme from Exped (@expe

My amazing tent Orion II Extreme from Exped (@expedint) on the frozen Lake Baikal on 28th February, 2019.

I decided to publish some more pictures from my circumnavigation of the beautiful Lake Baikal last year.

In the late afternoon of 21st February 2019, I arrived in Kultuk at the southern end of the frozen Lake Baikal. I intended to ride my bicycle around the lake „by fair means“ (i.e. transporting everything needed on my bicycle, only sleeping in the tent etc.). I carried food for one month (39kg), ten litres of fuel as well as equipment to endure temperatures down to minus 30 degrees.

During the first week the conditions on the western shore of the lake were very good (i.e. very little snow on the ice) and I made good progress. In the north, there was snow on the ice, but often I kept finding tracks of cars that made pushing my bicycle easier and sometimes even allowed me to cycle. On 4th March (after 11 days) I already rode past Severobaykalsk. I continued to the north eastern end of the lake and then continued south. On the afternoon of 12th March, I was finally back on mostly snow-free ice.

Two days later, I got into a blizzard, but the strong wind blew the fresh snow away overnight. On 18th March, I got into another blizzard. The very poor visibility made the progress slow and even led to a shoe filled with water. In the morning of 19th March, ten to twenty centimetres of fresh and soft snow covered the smooth icy surface of the lake, making even pushing the bike very difficult. For safety reasons, I left the lake in Boyarskiy that day after 1340 kilometres on the lake and continued on the road.

On 22nd March, I was back in Kultuk where i had started 29 days earlier, which made (at least technically) my unsupported tour around Lake Baikal complete.

If I am not following you and you want to repost my content, feel free to do so, but please either tag me properly or preferably send me a short DM – I like to know where my pictures end up 😉

Resting after another muddy stretch in the wildern

Resting after another muddy stretch in the wilderness on 22nd September, 2019.

From 15th September to 9th December, Grete (@onewildstrawberry) and I (@marcmichel.ch) crossed the wilderness of the Changtang on the Tibetan plateau from east to west by fair means. We pushed our heavily loaded bikes through mud, sand and snow, but sometimes we could also push (or cycle) on hard frozen ground, frozen riverbeds or frozen lakes. During our 86 days in the wilderness, we didn’t meet people for 75 consecutive days, but we saw plenty of animals like chirus (Tibetan antelopes), wild yaks, kiangs, wolves and bears.

In the beginning of this expedition, we encountered a lot of snowfall and the ground was often very muddy. That’s why we started moving already in the middle of the night, when the (wet) ground was frozen. After mid October, we had extremely strong headwind basically everyday which made it sometimes nearly impossible and therefore totally pointless to push the bikes in the afternoon. In November, the night temperatures fell usually below -20 degrees, but because of the strong headwind during the day, we still had to leave in the night. In December, the night temperatures plunged even to -30 degrees, so that we didn’t start before sunrise anymore.

Because of the cold temperatures, Grete got frostbites on her two big toes and lost one nail. Fortunately there won’t be any long-term damage. Although we were eating pretty well, we still lost around 15kg of body weight each, which made sleeping at temperatures below -25 degrees a bit uncomfortable.

The time we spent out there was tough, but the beauty of the nature compensated for a lot of the suffering.

We want to thank our main supporter Exped (@expedint) as well as our other supporters tubus (@hebie_tubus_racktime), MSR (@msr_gear) and Veloplus (@veloplus) for providing amazing equipment.

If I am not following you and you want to repost my content, feel free to do so, but please either tag me properly or preferably send me a short DM – I like to know where my pictures end up 😉

Enjoying the first sunbeams on 11th November, 2019

Enjoying the first sunbeams on 11th November, 2019, after pushing our bikes for several hours in the darkness through the wilderness at temperatures below -20 degrees.

From 15th September to 9th December, Grete (@onewildstrawberry) and I (@marcmichel.ch) crossed the wilderness of the Changtang on the Tibetan plateau from east to west by fair means. We pushed our heavily loaded bikes through mud, sand and snow, but sometimes we could also push (or cycle) on hard frozen ground, frozen riverbeds or frozen lakes. During our 86 days in the wilderness, we didn’t meet people for 75 consecutive days, but we saw plenty of animals like chirus (Tibetan antelopes), wild yaks, kiangs, wolves and bears.

In the beginning of this expedition, we encountered a lot of snowfall and the ground was often very muddy. That’s why we started moving already in the middle of the night, when the (wet) ground was frozen. After mid October, we had extremely strong headwind basically everyday which made it sometimes nearly impossible and therefore totally pointless to push the bikes in the afternoon. In November, the night temperatures fell usually below -20 degrees, but because of the strong headwind during the day, we still had to leave in the night. In December, the night temperatures plunged even to -30 degrees, so that we didn’t start before sunrise anymore.

Because of the cold temperatures, Grete got frostbites on her two big toes and lost one nail. Fortunately there won’t be any long-term damage. Although we were eating pretty well, we still lost around 15kg of body weight each, which made sleeping at temperatures below -25 degrees a bit uncomfortable.

The time we spent out there was tough, but the beauty of the nature compensated for a lot of the suffering.

We want to thank our main supporter Exped (@expedint) as well as our other supporters tubus (@hebie_tubus_racktime), MSR (@msr_gear) and Veloplus (@veloplus) for providing amazing equipment.

If I am not following you and you want to repost my content, feel free to do so, but please either tag me properly or preferably send me a short DM – I like to know where my pictures end up 😉

Our track turned into a river bed in Mongolia on 6

Our track turned into a river bed in Mongolia on 6th August, 2019.

I am using the front carrier Grand Expedition from tubus (@hebie_tubus_racktime), which is a lowrider as well as a highrider, which gave me the possibility to mount my panniers higher and like that I didn’t damage my panniers while pushing my bike through this rocky river bed.

Picture taken by Grete (@onewildstrawberry).

If I am not following you and you want to repost my content, feel free to do so, but please either tag me properly or preferably send me a short DM – I like to know where my pictures end up 😉

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