A year on the road... so far
nocyclist
Posts: 2
Hello cycling enthusiasts,
A pall of mine is 11 months into an attempt to cycle around the world. This is some achievement considering how unprepared he appeared to be.
Obviously he has done pretty well so far, but I'm sure there are those of you on here that can give him some good advice. Some of the fun is getting through situations on your own, but the odd golden tip can't half make the situation more enjoyable.
If anyone has any advice, please drop him a line at matthew.r.blake@googlemail.com
He's been managing to keep a website about his travels here - http://www.worldwidebikeride.com/ - but below is a little info about his motivations.
A pall of mine is 11 months into an attempt to cycle around the world. This is some achievement considering how unprepared he appeared to be.
Obviously he has done pretty well so far, but I'm sure there are those of you on here that can give him some good advice. Some of the fun is getting through situations on your own, but the odd golden tip can't half make the situation more enjoyable.
If anyone has any advice, please drop him a line at matthew.r.blake@googlemail.com
He's been managing to keep a website about his travels here - http://www.worldwidebikeride.com/ - but below is a little info about his motivations.
Why do this?
I wish I knew - a combination of wanting to travel, wanting to attempt something I wasn't sure if I could achieve and wanting to see the world from a different point of view.
Was I a biker beforehand?
Nope, I'd never cycled properly before but in my second year of university I took my bike with me to Kingston. I soon began cycling everywhere and was amazed to discover how easy it was to cover large distances in no time at all. It was about this time a friend showed me an article about Alastair Humphries, who'd just completed a 43,000 mile ride around the world and it was then that I decided this is what I wanted to do.
Why SOS Childrens Villages?
As it's a global ride I wanted to help a global charity and the work they do is excellent and has a lot of good reviews from people I knew.
As for the money I raise, all is going to help build a new childrens village and primary school in Zambia - I chose this because I wanted to be able to visit the place I was raising money for and when I spoke with SOS they recommended here and as it was a worthy cause (and also on my route home) it made sense to help this particular cause.
You can read about the development here - http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/1/5/2 ... Zambia.doc
I didn't contact SOS until September - as I said when I left home I was a complete beginner so I wasn't sure how far I'd get so I didn't want to speak to a charity beforehand only to find out I couldn't finish my trip!
What's the biggest lesson you've learned so far?
That's a tough one!
One of the biggest things that has been great about my ride is how it's always the people who have the least who are the most willing to share.
Other lessons as such would include:
- There's no such thing as a tailwind.
- If you lose or break a tool, you can guarantee that's the exact tool you'll need next.
- As long as your not obviously in someones way, people will let you camp wherever you want in the world without asking any questions
- If you love food then cycling is the ultimate way to travel because you can eat as much as you want and never lose weight
- It's amazing what your body can do when you test it!
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Truly fantastic and inspirational stuff there.0
