Gallery of Jim Blilie's Photos:

World Bicycle Tour, 1990-1992

THE BIG SLIDE SHOW

All images are copyright © James W. Blilie, 1990 through 2010, All rights reserved

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning

all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas

and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts

of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues

from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance

which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can,

begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."  (Often attributed to Goethe)

Back to Main Photo Page

Back to Basic World Tour Page

Quick links:

The world through a fisheye lens

My traveling ID card

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

These are THE BIG SHOW of my slides from my trip around the world with Jeff Mellor, 1990-1992.

There are many more slides in this set than on the main world tour page:  About 2600 total.  I spent

some time in late 2009 going through all my slides from the world trip and I selected many for scanning.

The results are on this page (slide shows).  Many of these have been seen only by me and many of those

I hadn't seen since 1993.  The trip itself is outlined below.

This map does not show the Europe portion of 1992:

Europe:

As noted, there are a total of about 2600 slides.  You may want to view the briefer show on the main page.

These images are a small sample of the 13,000 slides I took  It took me two weeks, working 8 hours per day,

seven days per week just to go through the slides the first time.  Since then, I've done a couple of

culls of the slides:

  (Slides going into the bin and covers going to recycling)

This page is under construction.  I intend to do web pages in the future for these photos.  However,

after just scanning and then editing in Photoshop ~2600 slides I need a break from this!  But, as I said,

more to come, I hope.  I used JAlbum to produce these slide shows automatically.  I recommend using

JAlbum, which is free.  Thanks to Kevin Beretta for telling me about JAlbum!

Back to Main Photo Page

Back to Basic World Tour Page

For the slide shows:  

Click on the link below for the country you want to see.  Then:

Click on the first picture (upper left picture) on the black photo album page and then

Click the "play" button at the upper right of the view panel to start the slide show.

Enjoy.

The Photos and Slide Shows:

Before the Trip (planning and preparing):  Slideshow or webpage  (18 photos)

Hawaii:  Slideshow or webpage  (66 photos)

Fiji:  Slideshow or webpage  (52 photos)

New Zealand:  Slideshow or webpage  (236 photos)

Australia:  Slideshow or webpage  (259 slides)

Singapore:  Slideshow or webpage  (54 slides)

Malaysia:  Slideshow or webpage  (113 slides)

Thailand:  Slideshow or webpage  (138 slides)

Nepal:  Slideshow or webpage  (314 slides)

Kenya:  Slideshow or webpage  (170 slides)

Egypt:  Slideshow or webpage  (68 slides)

Denmark:  Slideshow or webpage  (43 slides)

Germany 1:  Slideshow or webpage  (25 slides)

Netherlands:  Slideshow or webpage  (42 slides)

Belgium:  Slideshow or webpage  (77 slides)

France 1:  Slideshow or webpage  (6 slides)  (We were only in France this time for 2 days.)

United Kingdom 1:  Slideshow or webpage  (57 slides)

Portugal:  Slideshow or webpage  (54 slides)

Spain:  Slideshow or webpage  (80 slides)

France 2:  Slideshow or webpage  (149 slides)

United Kingdom 2:  Slideshow or webpage  (90 slides)

Ireland:  Slideshow or webpage  (69 slides)

United Kingdom 3:  Slideshow or webpage  (126 slides)

Norway:  Slideshow or webpage  (50 slides)

Sweden:  Slideshow or webpage  (30 slides)

Germany 2:  Slideshow or webpage  (39 slides)

Poland:  Slideshow or webpage  (29 slides)

Czech Republic:  Slideshow or webpage  (74 slides)

Austria:  Slideshow or webpage  (28 slides)

Germany 3:  Slideshow or webpage  (43 slides)

My traveling ID card *   (34 slides)

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign.  See a collection of funny and other road and trail signs that we

encountered as we traveled around the world.  (239 slides)

The world through a fisheye lens  (295 slides)

(*  I took photos of my ID card on the 0th index on the film so that if the film ever got separated

from the address label, they could still find me.  These are some of the more interesting ones that I

kept -- you can see something of where they were taken.)

Back to Main Photo Page

These are scans of my Kodachrome 64 (and a very small number of Ektachrome 100) slides

From Jim and Jeff Mellor's bicycle tour around the world from Nov-1990 through Oct-1992

All images are copyright © James W. Blilie, 1990 through 2009, All rights reserved

I used a very nice, yet inexpensive scanner, the  Epson V500  I like it very much.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Outline of our trip:

From Nov. 15, 1990 to Oct. 6, 1992, with a five-month break for the winter of '91-'92, Jeff Mellor

and I traveled around the world through 26 countries, mostly by bicycle.  While in the "developed"

world, we bicycled 1000 miles per month, camping each night.  In Asia and Africa, we traveled by

train and bus and used guest-houses.  We encountered 16 different foreign languages, of which we

needed to learn at least the rudiments.  We rode a total of almost 11,000 miles on our bikes, camped out

at least 350 times, and climbed several mountains including Pt. Lenana (16,350 ft.) on Mt. Kenya in

Africa.  We took a three-week, 220-mile hike around the Annapurna Range in Nepal, which included

a 17,700 ft. high pass.  I took 13,000 photographs and wrote 1000 pages of journals.  No experience

in my life, except my university education, can compare with these travels for the depth and breadth

of learning or for the perspective gained.  It was one of the peak life experiences, up there with

marriage, children, university education.

This map does not show the Europe portion of 1992:

Europe:

Our trip was through these countries:

[Hawaii:  The Big Island, a 2-week shake-down within the US, started Nov 1990]

Fiji, about 10 days riding around Viti Levu from Nadi to Suva

New Zealand:  Auckland to Wellington via Coromandel Penn. and a loop around the Southern

Alps from Christchurch and back

Australia, from Sydney to Melbourne via Canberra and Mt. Kosciusko, around Tasmania, bits and

pieces inland mostly bus to Darwin

Singapore

Malaysia, from Singapore to the Thai border

Thailand (no bikes; we sent our bikes to Denmark from Bangkok, not wanting to ride in Thailand,

Nepal, India, Kenya, or Egypt)

Nepal (no bikes)

India (no bikes; just passed through Delhi and Bombay since we were running way behind)

and then on to a long tour of Europe:

Denmark

Germany

Netherlands

Belgium

France

United Kingdom

Then a winter's break at home in the USA from Oct 1991 through March 1992, then we flew

back to Lisbon Portugal in March 1992:

Portugal

Spain

France

UK, we rode from Plymouth to Land's End then from Land's End to John O'Groats at the tip of

Scotland and via ferries to the Orkneys, Shetlands, and on to Norway over the North Sea (with a

detour from Holyhead in Wales over to Ireland and back)

Ireland

Norway

Sweden

Germany (former East Germany)

Poland

Czech Republic

Austria

Germany (Bavaria) and home in Oct 1992 from Frankfurt am Main

All images are copyright © James W. Blilie, 1990 through 2010, All rights reserved

Back to Main Photo Page

Time and mileage table:

Back to Main Photo Page

For the slide shows:  

Click on the link below for the country you want to see.  Then:

Click on the first picture (upper left picture) on the black photo album page and then

Click the "play" button at the upper right of the view panel to start the slide show.

Enjoy.

The Photos and Slide Shows:

Before the Trip (planning and preparing):  Slideshow or webpage  (18 photos)

Hawaii:  Slideshow or webpage  (66 photos)

Fiji:  Slideshow or webpage  (52 photos)

New Zealand:  Slideshow or webpage  (236 photos)

Australia:  Slideshow or webpage  (259 slides)

Singapore:  Slideshow or webpage  (54 slides)

Malaysia:  Slideshow or webpage  (113 slides)

Thailand:  Slideshow or webpage  (138 slides)

Nepal:  Slideshow or webpage  (314 slides)

Kenya:  Slideshow or webpage  (170 slides)

Egypt:  Slideshow or webpage  (68 slides)

Denmark:  Slideshow or webpage  (43 slides)

Germany 1:  Slideshow or webpage  (25 slides)

Netherlands:  Slideshow or webpage  (42 slides)

Belgium:  Slideshow or webpage  (77 slides)

France 1:  Slideshow or webpage  (6 slides)  (We were only in France this time for 2 days.)

United Kingdom 1:  Slideshow or webpage  (57 slides)

Portugal:  Slideshow or webpage  (54 slides)

Spain:  Slideshow or webpage  (80 slides)

France 2:  Slideshow or webpage  (149 slides)

United Kingdom 2:  Slideshow or webpage  (90 slides)

Ireland:  Slideshow or webpage  (69 slides)

United Kingdom 3:  Slideshow or webpage  (126 slides)

Norway:  Slideshow or webpage  (50 slides)

Sweden:  Slideshow or webpage  (30 slides)

Germany 2:  Slideshow or webpage  (39 slides)

Poland:  Slideshow or webpage  (29 slides)

Czech Republic:  Slideshow or webpage  (74 slides)

Austria:  Slideshow or webpage  (28 slides)

Germany 3:  Slideshow or webpage  (43 slides)

The world through a fisheye lens  (295 slides)

My traveling ID card *   (34 slides)

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign.  See a collection of funny and other road and trail signs that we

encountered as we traveled around the world.  (239 slides)

(*  I took photos of my ID card on the 0th index on the film so that if the film ever got separated

from the address label, they could still find me.  These are some of the more interesting ones that I

kept -- you can see something of where they were taken.)

Back to Main Photo Page

Back to Basic World Tour Page

Background image is fisheye shot of the east coast of Tasmania, April-1991

Last updated:  2-Sep-2010