London to Sydney

ridertothesea

I've been giving serious thought to the big one - London to Sydney.....( I did a bit of a warm up last year..coast to coast across USA, Seattle to Boston...www.cyclingusa.blogspot.com)

Have any of you out there headed down this road - so to speak? Or know somewhere that I could get information? Any ideas how long this would take?

I'm Irish - visas shouldnt be a problem.

(I did USA in 45 days 81miles/day with 2 rest days)


Ridertothesea

Mad Mat

life is to short, just go for it.

DomT

Cass Gilbert did the trip in '98 and wrote about it in Cycling Plus, he has a website: http://www.cyclesydneylondon.com/

psmiffy

any good reason west to east USA - ive been thinking about it but my natural inclination is the other way

Irish passport - is it easier with eastern bloc asian countries for visas (I think i qualify as I was born in ireland)

Tourist Tony

http://artemisworldcycle.com/

A man I met on my Australian tour.

Philip Davis

There is a bunch of Irish lads cycling to Beijing at the moment, you could probably get visa hints from them. For some reason I can't open the website now, but its www.biketobeijing2008.com.

There are lots of websites out there by people doing similar rides. www.raph.nl is a good website for searching individual websites. www.crazyguyonabike.com is also a very good source for up to date accounts of travelling through parts of Asia.

Although the forum is a bit screwed up at the moment due to massive incompetence and greed, probably the best source of info for long distance riding is the On Your Bike branch of Lonely Planet Forum (www.lonelyplanet.com). If you search through that forum you'll find loads of threads on getting visas in obscure parts of Central Asia.

It would also be worth getting Stephen Lords 'Bike Touring Handbook' from Trailblazer guides. So far as i know Trailblazer are soon releasing a new version of their Silk Roads guidebook, which is one of the best for practical information on getting through Central Asia.

The main problem is visas and permits in certain areas. Iran should be easy enough with an Irish passport, but there are no guarantees. Some of the 'stan's only give transit visas with a very limited timescale, so requiring a dash to get through. There is also an issue with getting a visa for long enough to cycle through China.

ridertothesea

Thanks Phil.... I had seen some of those sites and Stephen Lords book..All very useful. The Lonely planet guide is a new one for me. I'm going to look now. You sound very experienced?

PS, most cyclists across US go West to East with the prevailing wind... I found the wind was with me across the mid west but apart from that it was usually 50/50. Also the idea of going east to west along the pioneer route is probably more 'Romantic'. I have heard that it is easier to get visas in the middle east with an Irish passport because of our nutrality.

Regards,

Ridertothesea

Philip Davis

Riders, I'm afraid I can't call myself all that experienced! But I have done a few tours out in Asia, so i know the problems and issues. I want to to do that trip myself (but probably aiming for Singapore or Shanghai), but it'll be a couple of years before I can get a year off work. There is a definite advantage in having an Irish passport in places like Iraq, but there can also be a problem if there isn't an Irish embassy in one of the countries, it can create a few hurdles. It also doesn't help that its become well known in those countries that some Americans and British get Irish passports if possible for travelling. Oh, and its more difficult in Egypt, they still bear a grudge after Jack Charltons accusation of Egyptian cheating in the 1990 World Cup!