EPISODE 47
Travels with Dexter
On this episode, you’ve got a front-row seat to one of the wildest rides of the year. Follow the story of Ana Carmen Navajas as she evolves from an innocent 14-year-old who brought along a water pistol and a pile of CDs on her first group overnighter to a hardened road warrior. A critical moment in Ana’s adult life came when, while living in England, she rehomed a naughty, energetic dog named Dexter. Together, Ana and Dexter took on increasingly challenging bicycle tours, accumulating new friends and extraordinary adventures at every turn. You’ll hear how a wheel falling off Dexter’s trailer in England’s Lake District led Ana to meet a British couple who later wrote a song about the incident. Then, a year ago, Ana and Dexter sold everything to chase her dream of riding for one year from Europe along the Silk Road to Xi’an. In Muslim-majority countries, Ana faced immense scrutiny as a woman traveling with a dog. Nowhere was this more apparent than in Afghanistan, where the pair survived a Taliban raid and Dexter had a gun pointed directly at him. Outpedaling every obstacle in their path, Ana and Dexter have proven the power of optimism and perseverance in the quest to fulfill a dream.
Episode Transcript
Ana: And when I came up, I saw the old fortress of the old town, and then I did cry and said like, wow, yes, we are in Xi’an. After one year and so many stories and battles and emotions, and yeah, we are finally here.
Gabriel: You just heard Ana Carmen Navajas describing the emotional finish line of her yearlong voyage from Italy to Xi’an, China. By tracing the Silk Road to the home of the terracotta warriors, Ana fulfilled a dream decades in the making. A dream deferred by initial inexperience, career demands, and a global pandemic. Remarkably, she was accompanied every kilometer by her faithful canine companion, Dexter. Together, they navigated the complex cultural challenges of being a solo woman with a dog on a bicycle in Muslim-majority countries. In Afghanistan alone, they endured countless Taliban checkpoints, survived a raid during dinner, and even faced a heart-stopping moment when a gun was pointed at Dexter. American author John Steinbeck chronicled his own adventures with a French poodle in the book Travels with Charley. Referring to Charley, Steinbeck wrote, “If he occurs at length in this account, it is because he contributed much to the trip.” As you are about to hear, Dexter didn’t just contribute to Ana’s journey – he defined it.
Sandra: You’re listening to The Accidental Bicycle Tourist. In this podcast, you’ll meet people from all walks of life and learn about their most memorable bike touring experiences. This is your host, Gabriel Aldaz.
Gabriel: Hello, cycle-touring enthusiasts! Welcome to another episode of The Accidental Bicycle Tourist podcast. Every once in a while, the Instagram algorithm serves me a post that really makes me want to know more. That’s what happened with Melanie Schautt, leading to the episode, “Salt Flat Tires: A Bikepacking Roller Coaster Ride.” And in November 2025, it happened again. There was a post in Spanish from a woman with the handle @munkoride, who apparently spent one year cycling across 19 countries to Xi’an in the heart of China. Also pictured with the woman and her bicycle was the dog in the back. Very interesting. As if that wasn’t enough, the post in Spanish concluded with this sentence: “Y por último, gracias a aquellas personas que no creyeron en este sueño porque nos dieron fuerzas para mostrarles que no estaban en lo cierto,” which roughly translates to, “Thank you to those who didn’t believe in this dream, because they gave us the strength to prove them wrong.” I just thought, wow! I just had to know more about munkoride and I’m fortunate enough to be able to. Ana Carmen Navajas, thank you so much for being a guest on The Accidental Bicycle Tourist podcast.
Ana: Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to speak to you today.
Gabriel: There’s a lot in one photo. You, this unusual bicycle, this dog. Where do we begin with this dream to get to China?
Ana: Yes, that’s so many answers in only one question. And my question is, how long do we have? It all started when I was 14 years old. So that was my first bike ride. And just to speed up a little bit the explanation, I read a book about a journalist from Catalunya and he cycled the Silk Road from Istanbul to China. I was 14 years old and I thought, maybe one day I could do that as well. But back then, I never knew about a woman doing such a long trip and I didn’t know that it could be even possible. So years went past and I did other trips on my bicycle and every time the trips were more ambitious, I was more curious about what was happening around the corner so the trips were farther and longer in time until one day I decided I would leave everything and head to China.
Gabriel: Where were you growing up?
Ana: Yes. I grew up in a small town in southeast of Spain. It’s called Almansa. It’s the last town in Albacete if you go towards Valencia, Alicante.
Gabriel: Yeah, Albacete province.
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: Yeah, that’s a less-known part of Spain for tourists.
Ana: Yes, it’s like inland and we don’t get many tourists. There is a Camino de Santiago de Levante pass by but very few people.
Gabriel: We’ve talked about this on the episode, “Los Caminos de Santiago.” We’ve talked about that now, like, every town has a Camino de Santiago of some kind running through it. There’s 30 of them. It’s become such a popular thing. You have to be on the Camino.
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: What was your first overnight trip?
Ana: As your podcast’s name, accidentally, I got involved in my first bike ride. I was just walking on the street. It was summer so it was school holidays. I didn’t have anything to do. I crossed this friend on the street and she said, “Oh, Ana, do you know about this activity, about bikes that is happening next week?” I said, “No, but if you say bikes, so sounds good. I will sign up myself and Rebeca, my best friend.” And she didn’t even know. So I went and I signed up both of us. The following week, we were involved in this crazy adventure that I never knew that would last till today and has changed – yeah, well, changed or shaped me in a way. So on this trip, I was part of a group. So we were six participants and two leaders. So in total, eight. And we were five nights. We just followed the river and ended up in Almansa. For me, that was an open eyes. Like, it was the first time that I put my bicycle in the train. I never have done a trip like this, so I didn’t know what to pack. So back then we didn’t have GPS. So I packed a lot of maps. I packed my Discman with a pile of CDs because I didn’t know what would we do for the whole day. Like we don’t have to get bored. I packed my water gun to play with my friends. I packed very, very useful things.
Gabriel: Yeah. Water gun doesn’t usually turn up in your bike packing, packing list these days, but hey, I like it.
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: Okay. I guess what I meant was when was your first unsupported overnight?
Ana: So my first night by myself, I really wanted to do it. And you know, the first step is decided when you cannot find the best time and place to do it. So yeah, I was living in Murcia in south Spain and I decided, today I take the – just for the weekend – I take the first bus that is going to take me maybe 100 kilometers. And then, wherever I think is going to be safe, I’ll try to sleep by myself there. So I went to Caravaca de la Cruz and I continued towards Murcia south. The time was ticking. I really couldn’t find a safe place in a greenway where there is no traffic and nothing around it. And I was like, no, this is not good enough. This is not good enough. And it was getting dark and I saw like a picnic bench and I thought, yes, I will sleep on top of the table because I will feel safe.
Gabriel: That’s the final place you came up with on top of a picnic bench?
Ana: Yeah. So it was a picnic bench. No, no, hold on, hold on. It was a picnic bench just by the side of the greenway. And I thought, okay, so I cannot hear anything. So that means might not be a town nearby. So no one is going to come here in the middle of the night. I will sleep without tent because it was warm. So just with my sleeping bag on top of the picnic table, my legs were hanging, but I just crunched and was fine. And then I tried to sleep, but this smell, I couldn’t sleep because a very strong smell would come like very often.
Gabriel: A smell of what?
Ana: I don’t know. I didn’t know what it was. I thought like, is it me? No, it’s impossible. I’m only one day.
Gabriel: So it sounds like it wasn’t a good smell.
Ana: It wasn’t a good smell, but I didn’t know what it was. Finally, the first light of the day. So I decided to walk around and see what it was because I was very curious. And then I just crossed the greenway and I climbed this little hill and I saw like a big lake, tank, that is where they clean the waters of the big town, you know?
Gabriel: Oh yeah. The water purification building.
Ana: Yes. Yeah, but I couldn’t see it when I arrived there. That was my very first night in myself and I felt safe, but I didn’t sleep much because of the smell and the curiosity to know what it was. There is always a first time.
Gabriel: Yeah, and that sounds very memorable. While you were doing these tours in Spain, it sounds like you always had this article in the back of your mind about the Silk Road. This was always a dream that you had?
Ana: It was always a dream, but I was young. I was very innocent, I think. And I didn’t know when would it be possible to do it, so I started near home and I was still at the high school and then I went to university and then I started doing longer bike rides around where I was living then. The experience teaches you and it’s like you grow along the way. And then was a time when I went to do Erasmus in Germany and then I decided, okay, so I will do small bike rides and see how it feels to do it in other countries. And it felt really good, although very cold, different and rainy, if I compare to the south of Spain.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Ana: So actually I was then time since I was 14 that I would use a tent in a bike ride. In Spain I never used a tent before.
Gabriel: The bicycle infrastructure in Germany is quite good.
Ana: It’s really good. I was really surprised. I’ve never felt that way, like man I was amazed. I felt like I was in my car instead of in the bicycle. So I think my breaking point was when I finished the Erasmus, the year, I had to decide how to come back home and then I decided to go by bike.
Gabriel: Nice.
Ana: Yeah, so then it would be the first time that actually I would cross countries until I get home. It was over 2,000 kilometers because I did a little bit of zigzagging and it felt really, really good. And then I realized so maybe the Silk Road could be a dream come true.
Gabriel: You’re slowly gaining confidence and making longer trips and seeing how it goes.
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: That’s the way to do it. Well, that’s one way to do it. There’s also people who just get on the bicycle…
Ana: And go!
Gabriel: I don’t know. It feels like the right way to do it, slowly achieving new milestones, like crossing a country or sleeping alone, outside. Just so we have an idea of the time, how many years ago did you go from Germany back home?
Ana: That was 16 years ago.
Gabriel: Wow, 16 years ago.
Ana: 15, 16, yeah.
Gabriel: So this has really been on your mind for a long time.
Ana: A long time, yes. The Silk Road has been overall my dream but in my list I always had little challenges that kept the flame, let’s say, alive. The most difficult part is just to start doing it, because it’s like you finish university, then you start working, you get promoted, then you get better, you feel good and you never find the right time just to leave everything and go. So if you do it, your mom, your dad, your family, friends are like, “But you are crazy now that you are here, how are you gonna go?” But yeah, it’s time goes and times never come back.
Gabriel: That’s right.
Ana: When I finished university, I started working in Berlin and then I moved to England for one month to learn English but I stayed
Gabriel: Okay. Now where in England were you?
Ana: I was seven years in Cambridge and the last three years near Brighton in a small village.
Gabriel: Oh, Cambridge is beautiful.
Ana: It’s very beautiful. Flat, but beautiful. Yeah. I started living in England in 2013. All my holidays or when I have a few days off, I would go on a bicycle always trying to find the next challenge or the next adventure, whether it is on the mountain, on the road, along the beach. And then I always wanted to travel with a dog. I didn’t know how would it be but always wanted to travel with a dog on the bicycle. I didn’t know the speed of a dog or how many kilometers the dog would walk or run so I had no idea but I had that in my head the same as the Silk Road. So, having a dog. Four years after, on the place in London and I said, “Do you have a dog that is energetic and is about 10 kilos?”
Gabriel: And likes bicycles?
Ana: The thing is you need to be super careful because they are super precise. And then they showed me Dexter and I thought Dexter was crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy and I thought like, I don’t know if it’s 10 kilos but we can have a go. So Dexter is 27 kilos instead of 10.
Gabriel: No way. Oh my gosh. Okay. I thought you said they were super precise.
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: 10, 27.
Ana: Super precise. Yeah, 10 to 27, doesn’t matter I think because Dexter was so crazy. They thought like, “Let’s give Dexter to the Spanish girl.”
Gabriel: Dexter is a male dog.
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: How did he get his name?
Ana: Yes. He came with that name so I kept it. Honestly Dexter had so much energy that in the mornings I had to wake up like one hour and a half before and go on the bicycle or running with him because he had too much energy, too much energy. Anyways, this was March and I had the idea that on my holidays for the summer I would go to Tuscany in Italy on the bicycle and I thought like, okay, so I have from March till August to train a dog somehow on the bicycle because I really want to go to Italy on the bike and that was the first bike ride of Dexter around Tuscany.
Gabriel: How did you get the trailer for him?
Ana: I didn’t know if a trailer would be an option or a box, a box at the back, a box at the front or nothing, just run. It was a trial. So the dog can run 30 kilometers a day. So I’m happy to do 30 kilometers only or more. The dog is able to run up to 10, 11 kilometers an hour. Dexter is okay. So if I push him more, so he would run less kilometers. So then I decided, okay, let’s get a trailer and I can put a lot of stuff in the trailer, Dexter as well, and we go.
Gabriel: Oh, wow.
Ana: But he was very unsettled because I was his fourth family in only one year. Yeah, he was very unsettled, very nervous. I needed time to create that bond. I spent a lot of time with him, but he was very difficult to manage. He was a really strong will and took me maybe six months to get that bond and say like, okay, so now we can communicate. So I had my idea about how to train a dog, but without considering his needs. So now I know his personality and I can adapt what I think and what is better for him and what he needs, you know, so we can keep the balance better. I remember the first day that I wanted to try the trailer, I put him in the trailer inside the garage. I zipped it up, everything. Okay, you are secure. You are barking, but you are secure inside. Let’s go! I pushed the bike two meters out of the garage and the dog was out. So he ripped all the fabric of the trailer. And then I thought, oh my God, this is going to be difficult.
Gabriel: Wow.
Ana: But yeah, like with patience and created that bond and see where his limits are, my limits are and time, we got there. We got there.
Gabriel: That was the first trip.
Ana: This was the Tuscany trip. Yeah, like to try to keep my balance between work and feel good myself. So I tried always during my holidays, do bike rides. I remember the time when I said, now is the time to do the Silk Road, was in February house. I left my job. I spent three weeks to repair my bike and all my stuff and everything. But just before one week, so everything closed, no?
Gabriel: Yeah.
Ana: COVID came.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Ana: And then I felt like, why did I wait so long?
Gabriel: Oh boy.
Ana: Yeah. Then between like, shall I go? Shall I stay? Shall I start working again? So then I did a bike ride in the island. So from John o’Groats to Land’s End. But because I didn’t know how long would last the situation. So I did like three times coast-to-coast while I was going down.
Gabriel: Normally that’s the end-to-end, E2E. But you did E2E, C2C, C2C again.
Ana: Yeah. Let’s review the situation. Okay, let’s go back to E.
Gabriel: Amazing. So you made it a much longer trip.
Ana: That was like kind of to make up for the Silk Road, let’s say.
Gabriel: Let’s hear a little bit about that England trip. So first of all, what kind of bicycle were you riding?
Ana: In England, I was always riding my mountain bike, because I liked going off-track. I only had two bikes, so I didn’t have much money to spend on gravel or anything. So I have mountain bike and road bike that had the gears in the down tube.
Gabriel: Oh, okay. Vintage!
Ana: Vintage. Steel frame. If I had like three, four days, I would take the road bike on a three, four days’ bike ride. I did the South Downs Way with the road bike.
Gabriel: Oh, whoa, okay.
Ana: Yes, yes. And if I had longer times, I would take the mountain bike and do maybe Lake District or Peak District.
Gabriel: What’s one specific adventure from your big trip in England?
Ana: I remember people on the way, like the English culture in general. To me, it was really nice to meet them on this way, on the bicycle. I really have really good memories about that trip. He was still young, like three years old, a lot of energy, but we had already that bond and we had a lot of fun. I remember one day in Lake District, so it was raining, going down a hill, a lot of traffic, and I just wanted some shelter to get warm, dry. I was super fast on the road. And all of the sudden, I start smelling like smoke. What is that smell? I look back and I see Dexter, like leaning to one side, like nearly falling offf. And where supposed to be a wheel, like coming a lot of sparks. So I just lost one wheel. I lost one wheel of the trailer.
Gabriel: Didn’t you also notice that the friction increased? Like you weren’t rolling as smoothly now?
Ana: Well, I was super fast and a lot of noise of the cars. I mean, the friction to me doesn’t mean anything because I’m heavy anyways.
Gabriel: Okay, but it’s just, you know, two wheels, it’s smooth, and then one wheel, not so smooth.
Ana: I was like that for hill. Can you imagine?
Gabriel: No.
Ana: So the funny thing is, I went down to the bottom of the hill, I left my bag in the trailer and I thought, I cannot leave you here in the rain. Let’s go together to find the wheel. So I go with my dog, with the lead, up the hill to see if we can find the wheel. And then this car stops. It was a couple. And they said, like, “Oh, we have seen your bike. So just wondering if you need any help.” I said, “Yeah, I lost a wheel.” And they’re like, “What?” They stop the car, get out of the car. And in the rain, three of us plus Dexter, we spent like maybe one hour up and down, up and down the hill to try to find the wheel, and we couldn’t find it.
Gabriel: You couldn’t find it?
Ana: No, we didn’t find it.
Gabriel: It fell into the lake of the Lake District.
Ana: Or in the bush. I don’t know. I don’t know exactly where or when I… you know, because I was super fast, maybe it was already in Land’s End. I mean, this is one of the things that amazed me and makes me warm, like how amazing people are on the way. And like a couple of years ago, more or less, I received a message of the husband saying, check up this song. My wife has composed a song for you. They made a song out of this situation. And it was very funny.
Gabriel: Was it a rap song?
Ana: No, it’s like kind of pop, country.
Gabriel: The British couple who helped Ana on that rainy day were Stuart and Sarah Brierley. The YouTube link to their song dedicated to Ana and Dexter can be found in the show notes. Here is a sample of the song with thanks to Stuart and Sarah.
Gabriel: How did you resolve this problem?
Ana: Yeah, summarizing. I never lived Dexter with anyone, but because we spent one hour together and I felt like they were nice people, they took Dexter and the trailer in the car, and I cycled about 10, 15 kilometers – I can’t remember exactly – to the campsite. So we met there. And then once in the campsite, they took me to the bike shop to order a wheel that arrived maybe two or three days later.
Gabriel: Okay. And then you were back on the road.
Ana: Back on the road.
Gabriel: Now let’s get to this trip. We’re building up. We’ve got the dog, the trailer, the longer adventures. You were halted by COVID, but then a year ago in November, you set off. And where did you start from on your trip?
Ana: My initial idea was from home, Spain. I started cycling south and my sister lives in Lanzarote, in Canary Island.
Gabriel: Okay, that’s kind of the wrong way.
Ana: Yes. I started cycling like that, like to my sister, Lanzarote. And then my idea was to take a boat or ferry or something, a cargo to Brazil, and then cross to cross to China and start the Silk Road on the right direction. So like from China to Europe. Yes, it would take me maybe two years to get to the start of the Silk Road, but it wouldn’t have been okay. But when I arrived to Canary Island, I cycled for three months there and I didn’t find any boat. I ran out of money and I found a job in Italy. So I went to Italy to work. I stayed for the season about eight, nine months working in Italy. And then I decided, okay, when I finish the job, shall I go back to Canary Island or shall I continue this way? And then I decided to continue towards east. This is the kind of the magic of a trip. It’s like you start planning, but along the way, you come up with other little plans because other things comes up and you need to readjust. But the essence of the trip was to do the Silk Road, whether it is east to west or west to east.
Gabriel: Yeah, amazing. So you started in Italy and I guess your first main stop would probably be Istanbul?
Ana: So I started in Italy and I went to Austria. So I went north and then south to Peloponnese, to the south south of Peloponnese, Mani Island, and then up to Thessaloniki and Istanbul.
Gabriel: I would say Istanbul is sort of an end point of the Silk Road?
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: All right. Now it started to get more interesting.
Ana: Yes. When we cross Istanbul, I thought, “¡Ahí va! we are in…”
Gabriel: ¡Ahí va!
Ana: ¡Ahí va! We are in Asia. Amazing. Okay, it feels the same, but let’s continue. Yeah, and then we went to Cappadocia. And maybe one thing that I really would like to mention is during this first, let’s say, part of the trip, which was over the winter, from November to March, Italy to Cappadocia, Turkey, I was on-and-off and meeting a French family. So a family from Paris, Ferriere, traveling three beautiful girls, the mom and the dad.
Gabriel: How were they traveling?
Ana: By bike.
Gabriel: So what was their setup then? The girls had their own bikes. They were old enough.
Ana: The two older girls, so seven and nine, were cycling by themselves by the end of the trip. They were cycling maybe 40, 50 kilometers a day.
Gabriel: Nice.
Ana: And the little one was four and they bought her a bicycle halfway of the trip to start cycling when it was safe or maybe at the end of the day when we arrived.
Gabriel: And the younger one was in a trailer.
Ana: Yeah, it was in a trailer and the mom would carry her bike at the back of her bike. They were loaded, as me. And we met in Korčula for a week. Then we split. Then we met again in Albania. Then we split. We met again in Athens. We split and we met for the last time in Cappadocia, because our routes were like crossing all the time. And we had, like, the pace was the same. To me it was really good because the girls would play with Dexter and for the girls was really good because Dexter would play with them. So we just were like the parents and I talking and laughing and the kids and the dog were taking care of each other. It was a really nice memory that I have from the winter. And in Cappadocia was the last time that I met them. They cycled back to Paris and then I continued east. A really, really nice memory from these times.
Gabriel: Oh yeah. That’s something very special. And did their trip end in Cappadocia or did they just go a different way?
Ana: Circular route. So they started in Paris and they finished in Paris. And the farthest they went was Cappadocia.
Gabriel: So that’s why. Oh wow, that’s so cool.
Ana: Yeah, last thing I wanted to mention is like, I remember Clara, the mom, said, “Say goodbye to Ana and Dexter because we go back to Paris and they go to China.” And the older daughter, Zoe, said, “Why mom? It’s not fair that she’s going to China and we go back to Paris.” Yeah, that’s got stuck to me. So it’s really, really nice.
Gabriel: Oh yeah. It’s not fair.
Ana: “It’s not fair!”
Gabriel: Lovely. Those people will be friends for life, I think, after this.
Ana: Yeah, I think I will have to do a detour before arriving to Spain.
Gabriel: Yeah. Cappadocia. Okay, and then across Turkey and then…
Ana: I wanted to cross through Russia to go to Central Asia, but you could only have three days visa. And for me, three days to cross seven or eight hundred kilometers is too much…
Gabriel: Yeah.
Ana: On my bicycle. I decided to try to see if any caravan would do the crossing. I heard from this German couple that they would do it and they were happy to take us and the bicycle. So the dog, myself and the bicycle. So then I cycled to Georgia. But unfortunately, two days before arriving to Tbilisi, they messaged, saying like they had to go back to Germany. So they would cancel the trip. So then as I was in Georgia, I decided, okay, so because I cannot go through Russia, so I will go through Iran. So then I went to Armenia, Iran, and then Afghanistan and all the Stans. So change of plans.
Gabriel: Yeah, well, that happens.
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: One interesting question is, as you entered in the Muslim countries, first of all, you’re a woman and second of all, you’re a woman with a dog. As you were getting further east, how are you received in these countries? This is not something that people see. What did you experience in those countries?
Ana: Yeah, maybe it’s not something very common to see, but I didn’t know how we would be received. To be honest, most of the time we were welcomed. It’s true that hardly never I was invited inside a house because of Dexter. So maybe I will pitch up the tent outside of the house and then Dexter will stay in the tent and I will be inside having dinner and then going back to the tent to sleep with him. So first impression, they wouldn’t come close because of the dog. And then once we start talking and they realize that actually he’s safe and he’s not gonna bite or anything like that, so then some people would even ask, can I pet your dog? They find it funny to take pictures or selfie with the dog. Yeah, all the time. I have to say, like, to me, it was really good to have him in these kind of countries because I felt safer. Many gentlemen, for example, wouldn’t come close to me because the dog was there. Or if something happened, I had Dexter there and I could ask Dexter to bark and then they would be scared and would run off. Yeah, I think in certain situations, I’m glad that Dexter was there.
Gabriel: Hey, speaking of Dexter, how easy was it to find food for him?
Ana: It was difficult in some places. For example, in Iran, from Turkey, just in the big towns, you would find food and the big towns are the places that I avoid because I don’t like big cities, crowds. So I normally buy a big bag of food, like 14, 15 kilos. That will last for about three weeks. And then when I see that I’m kind of running out, so when I get to three kilos, I start panicking. And then I try to reroute my track to a big town and hopefully I will find. Because Dexter is very picky. He doesn’t like rice or bread. It’s just meat or dry food and I don’t feed him with meat all the time because I’m not rich. For example, when I left Yerevan in Armenia, the south of Armenia is very hilly, like to 2,000 or even more. And I had a bag of 15 kilos plus the dog, because I didn’t know how it would be in Iran, you know?
Gabriel: Right.
Ana: So in some section, I had to leave the bike, take the 15 kilos, walk, then take the bike, walk. Yeah, but the good thing of this is that it gets easier, because Dexter starts eating and then the food…
Gabriel: The weight goes down until three kilos and then it goes up again.
Ana: And then up again.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Ana: One funny situation. I’m sorry about that guy. I don’t think he’ll listen to this. But it was when I crossed Iran to Afghanistan. First of all, I have in the helmet a mirror, because I feel safer to see the traffic passing by. And they thought it was a camera. I was like, “No, no, look. It’s a mirror” The police at the border was like, “Camera no! Camera no!” “No, no. It’s a mirror!” “Okay, fine.” So I take it off and showed him properly. That was a mirror, like a mirror that you have to guess what is coming because he’s so dirty and scratched and everything. Anyways, this guy, I think was upset. I don’t know if because of the dog, because of the mirror or I don’t know or the situation that we were living in that moment. This was June and say, like, “Okay, open your bags. And I opened my two front bags. Without looking, he put his hand all the way down and took out Dexter’s toy. It was like a ring, no? And looked at me and I point at Dexter and then he dropped it. And without saying anything, left, I guess to wash his hands. And when he came back, he came back with gloves on.
Gabriel: Oh, man.
Ana: I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I mean, like, you put your whole hand inside, so you can’t find anything in these bags. I think he felt like it was burning. It was like lava or something.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Ana: Like, I think he came with three fingers only.
Gabriel: It’s burning. So actually, that is interesting, though, because Afghanistan is a country that most bicycle tourists avoid with the Taliban being in power. You know, we had a previous guest, “Open Source, Open Roads: The Hacker Bikepacker story,” with Javi and Rebecca. They followed more or less your route.
Ana: Yeah, I listened to that podcast.
Gabriel: Oh, you listened to that one. Oh, okay. Yeah. So they decided to fly from Iran to one of the Stans, not Afghanistan. So how was it then with the Taliban? Did you need to be escorted? And did they need to know where you were spending the night and all of that?
Ana: This was one of the reasons why I wanted to try through Russia, because I wasn’t sure about crossing Afghanistan as being female and having a dog. I don’t know, it’s I think mixed communication you get before entering the country. And once we entered in the country, it was much easier than what I created beforehand in my head. So it’s true that the Talibans were there all the time. So we could be stopped a day, like 10 times to ask for the passport and the certificate that allow us to use the roads. But at the beginning, I have to say, like, made me nervous a little bit to see them covering their guns all the time. Sometimes they will come to your site while you are cycling and they will ask you to stop. You don’t know if they are locals or if they are Talibans. It’s like, if I ignore you and I continue and you are a Taliban, so I don’t know what is the balance here. So you have to keep stopping all the time. The days were really long, because at times you felt like you don’t make any progress because you are being stopped all the time either for Talibans or for locals that want pictures or try to talk to you or giving a watermelon or something like that. The Talibans, they try to keep safe the tourists. Maybe I was lucky and I didn’t have any bad experience with them. It’s true that one night they came in the middle of the night and asked to move, but it was like midnight and we were like, “We are fine here. We will take the risk. Go and we’ll be fine.” He said like, “No, no, no, no. Have you got a gun?” And we’re like, “I don’t have a gun, but I have a dog.” And then like, “Okay, okay, okay.” And they left. So maybe the dog is a good sign on that way. So the only thing that I was a little bit worried about with the Talibans was in one of the controls was a older Taliban. They stopped us. We gave passport, the certificate, and then this old Taliban said something like, “Dogs are not Allah’s friend,” and pointed at Dexter with the gun. And I said, “No, no, no, it’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.” And I started cycling without telling him anything, you know, like, and I feel like I don’t know if he’s serious or not, but I don’t want to test it. That was the only kind of unsure situation with them. So for the rest, I felt safe, I have to say. Another story to mention, we got invited in a house to have dinner and to sleep there. But because Dexter, because of the dogs, we had to stay. The dinner was provided, let’s say they really had a factory. Before you enter in the factory, they have like the display of marble. So we were outside sitting surrounded of this work of marble. And they brought food and was super nice. They asked their friends to come. So I don’t know, we were like, let’s say 15 people there. And obviously, we’re all men and only me as a female. All of a sudden, not exaggeration, maybe 50 Talibans came everywhere, like through the roof, through the wall, through the door, through the windows. You know, like when a lot of ants come?
Gabriel: Yeah.
Ana: Like with guns, with shields or with everything.
Gabriel: Oh, wow.
Ana: It was like, what’s going on? We didn’t know what they were saying, but they were pointing at me. And then later on, they explained that they came because someone said that was a female with a lot of men and that’s not allowed in Afghanistan. And then they explained that I was tourist, that I wasn’t a local and that the following day I would leave. They were fine, but two Talibans stay on the roof just overlooking that we were actually going to sleep there and nothing is going to happen.
Gabriel: Wow.
Ana: That was, boof.
Gabriel: It sounds like they treated it like some kind of undercover operation or something.
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: 50 people just turned up and you’re like, “Okay, I’m having dinner.”
Ana: Yeah.
Gabriel: Wow.
Ana: Fine. They had to say what time I would leave, where I was going, so everything, because I wasn’t allowed to be with them and they could be in troubles, let’s say, for me in there.
Gabriel: Yeah. Did you spend every night in your tent or did you also use some kind of accommodation?
Ana: Yeah. So I try not to rely on accommodations because of Dexter. Since Greece, to find accommodation where dogs are allowed is very difficult.
Gabriel: Right.
Ana: Very rare. Well, very rare, no. Never inside the house. I got invited to sleep inside the house in Iran, in Mashhad, but the dog had to go to the third floor where it was the terrace. So I had to carry the dog three floors because the dog cannot touch the carpet that covers the stairs. So I had to piggyback three floors, piggyback three floors down. I ended up sleeping with him because I didn’t feel comfortable to leave him the whole night.
Gabriel: All of this is because in some way, dogs are considered impure.
Ana: Yes. Most of the time they use dogs to protect their animals. They don’t domesticate them and they consider them very impure. They don’t really like them. So I don’t… I mean, I don’t blame them. Everyone is free to have their own village. I respect them and I try always when I go somewhere, so to have Dexter on lead because I don’t want to bother someone that I’m going into their country and then Dexter is going to be loose and lick everything and give the impure saliva everywhere. No, eh.
Gabriel: Yeah. Sometimes you hear in Afghanistan, there’s the case where locals spot your tent and they might even open the tent and look in or it’s something very unusual for them and they’re very curious. Did that happen?
Ana: No, they didn’t open it, but they are very curious and it’s not like one would come. It’s like 200 would come and they would touch your handlebar first. They would change your gears while you are standing there. They will touch, touch, touch, touch and then in the end you have to say like, “You stop” and then they stop, but it’s like two seconds, they breathe, and they come again.
Gabriel: Yes.
Ana: I had this short story like we went to change money and buy a SIM card. So I was with my friend Nicholas and he went inside and I stayed outside with both bikes, two dogs and myself. A female with two dogs and two bikes. So like all of a sudden, I don’t know how many people, but many people. So this Taliban came with a taser and he was tasing people around me just to create a space.
Gabriel: Oh, whoa.
Ana: Yeah, with a taser.
Gabriel: Zzzzt.
Ana: Zzzzt, zzzzt, zzzt. Yeah, but it doesn’t matter, because the minute that they can feel again the arm or the leg, so they would come again, you know. So, and then another Taliban would come with a stick and will hit people in the shoulders and in the legs. Like that maybe 30 minutes until my friend came, but not because they wanted to do any harm on us, it’s just because they were very curious. My friend left his bike laying down on the floor, so they were standing on the front wheel.
Gabriel: Whoa!
Ana: And I was like, “No, no, no,” but they don’t, you know… like, they were just very excited.
Gabriel: But now you mentioned the second dog.
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: This friend Nicholas?
Ana: From Germany.
Gabriel: Nicholas from Germany, he also had a dog?
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: He was also traveling through Afghanistan with a dog at the same time you were traveling?
Ana: We decided to go together because it might be easier for us.
Gabriel: Oh, you were together the whole time in Afghanistan?
Ana: Yeah, kind of.
Gabriel: Okay, so not only did the presence of a dog help, the presence of a man and another dog also helped. And then did you keep going together? What was the next country after Afghanistan?
Ana: We were together until Samarkand and then he went to Pamir Highway and I went to Tajikistan but not on the Pamir. I was Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
Gabriel: So this is some very mountainous country here with some big climbs and high altitudes. You’ve got a lot of weight that you’re pulling.
Ana: And pushing.
Gabriel: And pushing. You made it through, one way or another. Push, pull.
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: What was Dexter like? Was he was like, you know what? I’m going to hop on or was he like, “I want to run up the hill?”
Ana: The Stans was over the summer. So it was hot and I was looking forward to go on some altitude because it was really hot during the day. And Dexter likes the heat until a certain extent. After that, it’s too hot for him as well. He was actually very happy to get a little bit cooler up in the mountains and it’s true that going through some passes, maybe talking to other cyclists, they would do it in one day and we would do it in three days. But to me, it’s okay. I take the time, I stop more or go slower and keep enjoying the landscape, making sure I have water and food and to me, it’s fine. I like mountains.
Gabriel: And then after that, did you go to Mongolia at all or just straight into China?
Ana: The initial idea was going through Mongolia, but it was too late by then. So I had to stop in Kazakhstan for one month because I needed to deal with Dexter’s paperwork, like certificates to be able to cross into China. And during that month, I was doing some hikes and a workaway. I really enjoyed the hikes going up to over 4,000 meters and seeing all the snow in August. The locals were really nice as well. This little place, beautiful, that we stayed for a month doing some works. This is a random guy for your program, another one.
Gabriel: Oh.
Ana: So he likes Italy a lot and he cycled for three years in Italy and he came back to Kazakhstan and bought this piece of land in the middle of the mountains and built his own wooden oven to cook pizza. Yeah. And he was actually doing like workshops of how to make pizza for Russian people, mainly. And now they had one donkey and two horses and they needed help to weld a door for the horses. So then I went and I did that job. That job would be like one week, two weeks maximum. But I said to him, “Look, the paperworks are gonna take at least one month.” And then he said, “Yes, stay here.” And I said, “Okay, I will do other jobs as well.”
Gabriel: Now, honestly, though, how was the pizza?
Ana: Amazing. Seriously, amazing.
Gabriel: And the wood-fired oven, he has learned it.
Ana: Yeah, very well. He’s a really, really talented man. He’s an artist. He does digital design drawing. Yeah, he has built his house. He has built his own sauna, so Russian sauna. It was super beautiful to be in the sauna and have in front of us the mountains with the snow on top.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Ana: Really nice stop.
Gabriel: Yeah, it sounds like a great place.
Ana: Yeah, that’s all what you need when you are traveling on the bike.
Gabriel: Great experience.
Ana: Yeah. And then we crossed to China.
Gabriel: Yeah, basically with that we do read Xi’an. That’s the very first post that I saw from you. I knew nothing about you before. Can you describe what it was to finally arrive after one year of travel and it sounds like decades of dreaming about it?
Ana: I didn’t believe that I was in China, when I crossed China. When I was maybe 100 kilometers away from Xi’an, sometimes I was thinking about it and I would get emotional and I never get emotional. And I felt like, this is such a weird feeling, but I don’t feel I’m going to get to Xi’an in 100 kilometers. I don’t know how it’s gonna be. So we were getting closer and closer and closer and I decided to camp just outside of the city, not to enter in the city when it’s dark, so it’s no point. And then the following morning we started cycling and I thought, okay, so we are in Xi’an because it’s a big city. So you have like maybe 20 kilometers of city. Okay, so that’s fine. And now what? I didn’t believe anything. I looked at Dexter, Dexter looked at me, but then down this tunnel and when I came up, I saw the old fortress of the old town and then I did cry and said like, wow, yes, we are in Xi’an. After one year and so many stories and the battles and the emotions and yeah, we are finally here.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Ana: I talked to Dexter about it. He didn’t seem any different.
Gabriel: It was less emotional for Dexter.
Ana: Yeah. And he just said, “Where is my ball? Can we play?”
Gabriel: What is next?
Ana: So yeah, next is to go back home. I didn’t know whether going back in the plane or how, but I decided, after talking seriously with Dexter, to spend the winter in the southeast Asia – so Vietnam, Laos – and in spring go through China to South Korea, then China again, Mongolia and head towards Europe somehow, depending on visas.
Gabriel: So Dexter convinced you to stay on the bike?
Ana: Yeah, it was Dexter.
Gabriel: I think you wanted to fly, but Dexter said, “Let’s stay on.”
Ana: Yeah.
Gabriel: Good for Dexter. More adventures!
Ana: One point.
Gabriel: One point. Throughout it all, your parents, I’m sure, have been supporters and if you’re like most of the guests, the parents only hear a small part of what happens, because if they were to hear all of it, they might have a heart attack. Are you in that camp or do you tell your parents everything?
Ana: I tell my parents everything, but sometimes when it’s past.
Gabriel: Okay.
Ana: The last history about my parents, I remember being in Mashhad. My mom sent me a video. Because of the situation of the country, we didn’t get a good signal. So they were closing the country because of the war.
Gabriel: Just to be clear, this was when the United States and Israel were bombing.
Ana: Yes, so I was in Mashhad and all of a sudden, 200 meters, a bomb landed.
Gabriel: What?
Ana: I couldn’t see the video that my mom sent it to me, because you know what happened? Sometimes in Europe or in Spain, Germany, you get the news before you that are in the place. The video was, I could see kind of the television that my mom was filming with her phone and then I thought like, mom, what’s the video that you sent me? Like the television, what you have seen? Because I just seen that, but I didn’t say anything to my mom. She didn’t reply or I didn’t get the message because of the situation. Later on, I got a message saying like, “Oh, nada. Nothing, nothing. It’s a funny video of you when you were young.” I said, “Oh, okay, okay. Can we talk now?” I said, “No, no, no, I’m in a birthday party. We talk tomorrow. We talk tomorrow.” And it’s because we needed to leave the Mashhad as soon as possible, like everyone fleeing like crazy. Wow. The following day, “Can we talk now? The signal is so bad. Tomorrow, tomorrow.” “Okay, okay, okay. I can see that you are busy. You go, you go, you go.” Then when we talk, my mom was like, “Okay, I don’t want to talk more about that.”
Gabriel: And so you had a bomb land very, very close to you?
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: Wow.
Ana: Even more, we were detained because they thought we were spies.
Gabriel: Oh, yes. At that time, we talked about it. A number of bicycle tourists were detained.
Ana: Yes.
Gabriel: My last question is, we started the episode with this quote about the doubters. Can you give an example of a person who really did doubt you?
Ana: In general, sometimes you have the feeling that everyone says the same kind of like, your bike is too heavy. You are not going to go very far because it’s too heavy. Your dog in the box is better in a trailer. You are not going to go very far because your dog is in the box and not in the trailer. You are a female. You cannot go into the Muslim countries. You have a dog. You cannot go in through Afghanistan. You need a husband or kids to go into here. Sometimes I feel like, just because you have the label of being a female is super difficult. But my answer is like, but that’s okay. Like if I cannot go faster, I will go slower. If I cannot cycle, I will push my bike. And if Dexter cannot go in the box, so he will walk unfortunately for him. Sometimes it’s like, if someone doesn’t feel capable of doing what you are doing, then they mirror to your abilities, if that makes sense. And then every time that someone says a comment like this, I will go like, “I will do it. Don’t worry. I will show you that it’s possible. I’m not capable of many things, but I’m confident that I can get to places sooner or later on my bicycle.”
Gabriel: Cycling for one year across two continents is a feat for any cyclist. But doing it with a canine co-pilot is almost in a league of its own. Not only did Ana have the right companion, she gave me the impression of having made new friends everywhere they went. Ana and Dexter will soon be on their way back to Spain. I can’t wait to see where Dexter leads her next.
Gabriel: The transcript for this episode is available on The Accidental Bicycle Tourist website. I welcome feedback and suggestions for this and other episodes. You’ll find the link to all contact information in the show notes. If you would like to rate or review the show, you can do that on your favorite podcast platform. You can also follow the podcast on Instagram. Thank you to Anna Lindenmeier for the cover artwork and to Timothy Shortell for the original music. This podcast would not be possible without continuous support from my wife, Sandra. And thank you so much for listening. I hope the episode will inspire you to get out and see where the road leads you.
Ana: Before you enter in the factory, they have like the display of marmol.
Gabriel: Oh, “of marble.”
Ana: So we were outside sitting surrounded of this work of marmol.
Gabriel: Ana. Marble.
Ana: Marble.
Gabriel: Marble.
Ana: Marble. Gabriel: Yeah. Sorry. Marmol, Spanish. That’s Spanish. Yeah.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Ana: Sorry. Marmol, Spanish.
Gabriel: That’s Spanish, Yeah.