Today the 18th June 2018 marks ten years of cycle touring, on the 18th June 2008 I set off on my very first long-distance cycle ride and the start of my cycling adventures! The longest distance that I’d cycled before this was 200-miles, and now I was about to embark on a 1500-mile trip from Spain to England!
After completing that first long-distance cycle ride, I found I had a real taste for long-distance cycling and cycle touring and haven’t looked back since!
In ten years of cycle touring a lot of miles have passed, 52,679 to be precise! And in those 50,000 odd miles, I’ve been shown nothing but warmth and friendship wherever I’ve been. Often when I’ve not been able to find somewhere to stop for the night, complete strangers have taken me into their homes and given me a bed and food for the night and taken nothing in return!
At times the roads have been tough, and I’d be lying if I said I’d enjoyed every day, of course, I haven’t but the tough days have been very few and far between and are soon forgotten! Replaced with the many wonderful days I’ve had in the saddle!
In ten years of cycle touring, I’ve cycled in 38 different countries on five continents, and I don’t have any intentions of stopping just yet! And although I’m not cycling very much at the moment, I will return! By my reckoning, I’ve still got another 158 countries and at least one continent to cycle and explore! Plus parts of the countries I’ve already cycled in, that should keep me going for a bit!
In the ten years of cycle touring, I’ve raised with your kind help over £18,000 for charities.
The bike
My ten years of cycle touring have all been on the same bike! My trusty Thorn EXP now nicknamed Passepartout! Which if anybody doesn’t know: Jean Passepartout was the fictional character in the Jules Verne novel, Around the World in Eighty Days, and is the valet of the novel’s Englishman’s main character Phileas Foggs.
While I never cycled around the world in eighty days, and my names not Phileas! My bike is like my valet, carrying my bags!
Many of you have been with me right from the start, and I thank you for the support you’ve given me over the past ten years, and I look forward to the next ten years and beyond!
Books
Some of the daily blogs that I send out when touring have now been re-written and made into E-Books and paperbacks which are available to buy from Amazon.
