IAN HIBBEL - CYCLE
TOURIST EXTRAORDINAIRE - RIP
Ian Hibell was tragically killed by a
hit-and-run driver on the Athens - Salonika highway on the 23rd
August 2008.
Ian was a real inspiration to me. I first came across him in the
1970's when John's Bikes in Bath displayed his Argos
bike in their shop window,
fresh back from the Amazon. It had built-in mud-scrapers operated
by handlebar-end levers, a built-in massively solid pannier rack,
and was adorned with his trusty machete and rubber snakes and
spiders. I was about 16 at the time and it showed me what was
possible by bike; such as from Nord Capp at the very north of
Norway to Cape Town, crossing the Sarah alone, and from Tierra del
Fuego at the southernmost tip of the Americas to Alaska,
including the first crossing of the infamous Darien
Gap. His death
occurred nearing the end of a 'training run' to Athens to prepare
him for a yet another transcontinental journey, at the age of
74.
I was lucky enough to meet Ian in 1996, and interview him for
Cycling Plus - click here to read the
interview on the Published Work page.
Here is an
audio recording of Ian describing how the Darien Gap crossing came
about, from the planning in New Zealand to arriving safely on the
other side in Panama - Click here
(you may need to save to
your desktop - MP3 file, 9mb, 15 min, 44 seconds).
I will put some further extracts from the interview here
soon.
Here are some links to obituaries and other web pages in Ian's
memory:
The
Economist
The
Times
The
Guardian
Bike
Brothers
Ian and companians Crossing the Darien Gap by
Bicycle (YouTube video)
Wikipedia
Photos
of Ian
And lastly please consider supporting victims of illegal and
dangerous driving through the work of these organisations:
The Slower Speeds
Initiative
RoadPeace