A Tale of Harnesses and Bike Saddles …
When Sandrine contacted us in the autumn of 2022, it was for routine maintenance on her Kruyer III, which she had already been flying for two years during her zero-carbon round-the-world expedition. Looking for trusted support to carry out her mission with confidence, we met and formalized our partnership. The bond between the Kruyer harnesses (I, II, and III) and zero-carbon world journeys is a long-standing tradition (*)—and it shows no signs of slowing down.
Here is Sandrine's story in her own words…
(*) For context, the original Kruyer I was designed in close collaboration with Olivier PEYRE during his seven-year world tour starting in 2008.
In November, Olivier Peyre and I sat together for the very first time, exchanging stories on acro, ocean crossings, and cycle touring.
When two paragliding pilots biking around the world cross paths, there are no coincidences—only a shared passion for saddles and harnesses.
It all began long before my own world tour, after a magnificent flight hugging the cliffs of Saint-Hilaire, chatting with Didier at the Lumbin landing field shop. Strolling through that free-flight library had become my ritual ever since Didier re-equipped me top-to-bottom on a shoestring budget following my return (completely broke) from three years living in New Zealand.
My gaze locked onto an arresting image of the Salar de Uyuni: a bearded man on a bicycle saddle being propelled by an inflated paraglider. It was the account of En Route Avec Aile by Olivier Peyre. In a flash of clarity, I thought: that guy figured it all out! I devoured every page while grinding through my geology PhD between Chambéry and Ushuaia, nursing long-held dreams of circling the globe by bike and hitchhike sailing. However, hauling twelve kilos of traditional flight gear on a bicycle didn't appeal to me in the slightest.
Fast forward, and for two years now I've lived on the road with a single-skin glider and an ultralight harness—the Kortel Kruyer III—tucked neatly into my bike pannier across 35,000 km, halfway around the globe. In 2022, life intervened in Australia, requiring an express visit to France to support my father through health issues—an opportunity seized to have my harness inspected and tuned.
The Kortel team revealed that my ultralight journey was part of an even broader legacy, tracing back to the Kruyer's inception with Olivier Peyre himself!
Kortel Design played matchmaker, and suddenly I was sitting across from that very same bearded adventurer, swapping our saltiest boat-hitchhiking stories, close calls, acrobatic launches across remote corners of the world, and magical places we never wanted to leave—tracing our past routes and future dreams across maps of Australia and Nepal. I soaked up his advice, especially regarding his kite-biking trials. In his eyes, I saw complete understanding of the profound joys and relentless challenges of sustained expedition life: he spent seven years on the road; I've spent two so far. We could have talked for weeks. Energized by this passing of the torch and now back in Australia, I carry his mantra with me: “Never lose sight of the horizon, and keep moving forward.” I can't wait to pedal north toward Darwin!
For the latest updates on my combined paragliding, cycling, and boat-hike expedition (the Wing Tour), I'm currently preparing to cross the Australian Outback. You can follow my journey at awingtour.com, featuring stories, videos, photography, and watercolors from a journey that has soared above Mexican deserts, drifted past the erupting Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala, and ridden island thermals in Bora Bora. While mostly living present in the moment, you can stay connected via Instagram and Facebook as I approach the journey's centerpiece: the Himalayas via Langtang.
Follow Sandrine's complete adventure at awingtour.com
One afternoon, as I was going about my post-cycling life (which essentially means anything as far removed from bicycles as possible—meticulously planning a Moroccan paragliding-hitchhike trip or figuring out how to neatly fit a reserve parachute into the Kolibri…), my phone rang. It was Guillaume: “You need to meet someone,” he told me.
At that moment, I could hardly imagine another soul on this planet being crazy enough to combine long-distance bicycle touring, hitchhike sailing, and paragliding. Yet the very next day, Sandrine showed up, recounting her personal epic with glowing enthusiasm. True, she had the good sense to prioritize comfort with a recumbent bike, pairing a modern single-skin glider with a much refined Kruyer III; but fundamentally, it was the exact same story all over again!
In the whirlwind of conversation that followed—we had so much ground to cover—she rekindled all those embers resting quietly in the back of my mind, where we store the defining chapters that shaped us. She shared her trials on sailboats, the stubborn tenacity demanded by endless flat straights, and that unwavering passion needed to steal a flight despite bone-deep exhaustion from pedaling. Her awe cast a vivid light back on old dreams. It inspired a longing for adventure all over again!
The En route avec Aile journey has inspired a worthy successor; the adventurous spark carries from traveler to traveler—the very spirit of the Kruyer at Kortel! Fair winds, Sandrine, and never give up!