In 1997, BikeAbout began the first human-powered, land-bound circumnavigation of the Mediterranean Sea. Beginning in the fall, a pre-selected team of five BikeAbout riders and their computers set out eastward from the Spanish city of Ceuta located on the Moroccan coast to bicycle the full circumference of the Mediterranean basin, finishing nine months and more than 10,000 miles later in Gibraltar.

The journey took BikeAbout and an excited Internet network of schools and enterprises through Morocco, Tunisia, Malta, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, Syria, Turkey, Greece, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Monaco, France, Spain, and Gibraltar.*

What Is BikeAbout? In the interest of greater peace and cooperative understanding, BikeAbout, as its name implies, aims to increase awareness about and access to a world region and its people by bicycling around (or about) it, carrying, using and teaching about globally-linked computers at scheduled school visits and special events.

By example and through talks, lectures, presentations and class discussions, including demonstrations of basic online services, i.e. email, live on-line "chats'' and World Wide Web discussion groups and forums, BikeAbout highlights the growing importance of cooperative regionalism, international exchange and the use of technology in education, as well as environmentally sound travel and the safe practice of sport.

Networked and non-networked schools and enterprises following the trips via the BikeAbout home page on the World Wide Web or other means join in a shared adventure of discovery and exchange. The subsequent web of contacts spun by BikeAbout riders and collaborators helps make it possible to continue to share information about the world with the world.

BikeAbout-the Mediterranean. BikeAbout-the Mediterranean was BikeAbout's inaugural expedition. It involved the direct participation of many high schools in the United States and many more in the Mediterranean. The interests of thousands of students, teachers and scholars were served.

Fulfilling a Need. In this age of technological know-how, the number of exciting interactive instructional tools available for live and lively cross-cultural exchanges -- especially between networked and non-networked schools -- is still surprisingly small. This situation, however, is slowly changing as governments and private enterprise step in and support efforts to provide hard- and software essentials. What is still lacking is an abundance of inexpensive, quality tools that use the unique and full potential of modern technology like the Internet. BikeAbout is such a critically needed tool.

Budget. BikeAbout-the Mediterranean took 13 months to complete (9 of them on the road) at an approximate cost of $108,460 in addition to the material contributions of essential tools by their manufacturers and retailers.

*BikeAbout visits were contingent on travel advisories and restrictions at the time of the trip. Local conditions prohibited visits to Algeria, Libya and Yugoslavia. Cycling safety is a priority! We are committed to obeying the local, national, and international laws of all visited countries.