Ecotopia Bike Tour Starts in Sofia on July 4

News.bg, Elitsa Grancharova, 23 Jun 2008

The annual international bike tour Ecotopia will start in Sofia on July 4 and will end in Sinop, Turkey, on August 14. Everyone can register at the website of the event, while an exact map with the route through Bulgaria is available at the website of the local partner of the event, Bikevolution association.

Ecotopia bike tour asks its participants to demonstrate their wish for a clean environment by riding their bicycles. It plans to visit alternative, environmental and artistic projects and communities, nature monuments and people, who preserve them or resist their destruction.

Anyone can join the tour, whether for its entire length or only partially. During the tour, participants will organise a host of events to raise the event's profile, as well as explaining the risks of the nuclear energy and introducing the opportunities of the renewable energy sources.

The Ecotopia bike tour route is 600km in Bulgaria and more than 1000 km in Turkey. Participants will start gathering on July 2 and will leave Sofia two days later, stopping over in Samokov, Velingrad, Beglika and Teresh on the following nights. On July 9-10, participants will have a day off in the environmental educational center Future Now near the villages of Arda and Goudevitsa.

On July 11, bikers will continue to Ardino and Kroumovgrad, where the Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs have stopped a project for gold extraction by using cyanide technology. On July 13-14, the cyclists will have a day off in the center for vulture protection in the village of Madjarovo, and would reach the border with Turkey on Svilengrad on June 15, where they will take part in a protest against the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline.

On July 16 the participants will cross the Turkish border and ride their bikes to Yenkadin.

Photo by Ecotopiatour in Spain 2007.