The Final Countdown..

Today is the 27th March 2018 and this marks the final four weeks to what has been the most amazing thing I have ever done. I guess time has been creeping up on me since I booked my flight home but as the final day looms ever closer; the reality of actually having cycled around the world is slowly starting to dawn upon me. I guess I just see myself in the moment as someone who is bumbling around on a bike, sleeping in the woods and eating banana sandwiches but as I think back to all the countries I have passed and all the people I have met it really has been one hell of a journey.

I think sums my last three years up pretty well

You get to sleep in the most beautiful places

Riding my bike in the high Andes in Bolivia

When I left England I was pretty sure I would make it that if I just cycled a little bit every day I would eventually propel myself around the world. I remember when Finola and I first arrived into France it was dark around 10pm when we disembarked off the ferry, we had no maps and we decided to camp in this little French park. I didn’t even know how to attach the fly sheet of the tent and broke my headlamp in frustration! We awoke to rain coming in the tent and a French security guard shouting at us “NON ALLER” We quickly packed up and found a cheap French hotel!! I have come a long way since those early days.

I am often asked what I am going to do when I finally get home and apart from drinking lots of beer with my closest family and friends I really have no clear plan. I guess it will be hard to settle at first, I am so used to seeing new things everyday and constantly being on the move that it will seem strange at first to being back in one place but I am looking forward to being part of a community. I have seen and experienced so much but always I am passing through, not being able to be part of wider community and this is something I am looking forward to. I also do not think I will be able to be part of the 9-5 lifestyle and will have to set myself on a new and exciting career path and I look forward to what this will bring.

Staying with a family in Uzbekistan

5* treatment from the doctors and nurses of Mengzi Hospital in China

Always have a border crossing beer :)

When I left England three years ago one of the things I wanted to prove was that the World is really good place and I can confirm this is wholeheartedly true. I have received so much beautiful hospitality on the road, people who have opened their homes and hearts and for this I am truly thankful. I am just some bum on bike but people just keep on surprising me with gifts and hospitality, even as I write this today I met a older American couple at lunchtime who saw me riding and after a quick chat invited to the local pub for lunch. This hospitality has been received around the world, from Turkey to China to Columbia to the USA, with people wanting to share stories and show me their hometown. I look forward to paying all this back once I get back to Reading, and I am very excited to invite travellers into my home and show them all the highlights of Reading.

I know I have not updated this blog since I last had a crash but so much has happened. After the crash I wanted to leave social media and wanted to leave the website alone. I think I was low on confidence and I just wanted to get cycling. I have my mojo back now and I have cycled through Guatemala and Southern Mexico with Kenneth and Marie, I have crossed into the USA and been interrogated at the border, I got drunk on a boat in Texas, set fire to my own leg and have been meeting so many progressive minded people from the USA that the trump election really does seem to have come from a strong minded minority. I won’t write everything that has happened to me here as I am going to save those stories for the book…

All in all I am ready to finish this damn bike, am ready to return to England and ready to rest my legs from cycling over 46000 km, through 39 countries, 5 continents and across 1 world!!

Here's to the next adventure  :)
Thanks
Tim

El Chalten National Park, Argentina

Its always a happy moment to reach the Ocean.

Entering the USA

Me at the Great Wall of China!!