It hadn’t always been my intention to travel by bicycle. This idea kind of developed and grew from humble beginnings into something much more grand indeed.

 

I left England when I was 25. I had bought a work visa for New Zealand and as I began to dream about far flung destinations, I also began to realise that I actually had top get there too.

 

As I began to think about it a little more, it dawned on me that perhaps New Zealand didn’t have to be the end goal and the flight there just a means to an end. It dawned on me that perhaps the actual journey could become my chance to travel.

 

With this in mind, I began to ferociously devour anything and everything I could with regards to travelling overland. I read books, visited blogs and searched the Internet high and low for all things overland. In the end, I settled on the idea of travelling from England to Hong Kong via Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and China. Yes I would take the famed Trans Siberian railway.

 

Whilst living in Auckland, New Zealand, I then realised that it was going to be mightily difficult to actually travel around the country on my own in any meaningfully independent way.

 

All my friends had their own cars or vans, and since I couldn’t drive, it became apparent that my only other options were to hitch hike or take a bus. Both had their downsides with the biggest one being the fact that they would impinge on my freedom to go anywhere I wanted to.

 

I then hit upon using a bicycle to travel around the country. I asked myself was it even possible and did people actually do it. Not only was I to find out that it was indeed possible but also that it was to become the only way to travel for me.

 

Fast forward ten years, and I have now criss -crossed Europe and cycled to Vietnam too.