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So you have twelve months off
work, and a bicycle to travel on, and you want to see the world.
Where do you start? Where to you go to? How is a route borne?
I spent several months trying
to find a reason for a route; a common theme; a purpose, but to no avail.
So I asked myself a series of questions and took into account a number of
factors instead. Once I had the answers to these questions, I found
that I had a route.
The Rajhastan area of India;
The Holy Land; parts of my own continent of Europe that I had never
touched; the great cities of
Budapest, Athens, Cairo, Delhi, Singapore, Bangkok, New York; the barren
and wild, natural beauty of the Millford Sound; wonders of nature - the
Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls; man made wonders - the Pyramids, the Taj Mahal.
I felt that I wanted a
mixture of both, so I threw Europe, India, America, South East Asia into
the hat.
I probably decided here that
they were not. I did not want to sacrifice seeing some wonderful
places just because they did not have a cycling specific infrastructure.
However, I look forward to cycling in some of the Asian countries, where
the bicycle is treated as part of the transport fabric of the country.
A resounding "Yes!"
Too many long, dark, cold and wet English winters have fuelled my desire
for warm sunshine and blue skies. My route had to follow the summer
around the world. Of course, it will rain sometimes, but at least it
will be warm rain.....
A quick calculation of miles,
versus available cycling days soon convinced me that it would not be
possible to make a complete circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle in
only twelve months. But I did want to be able to complete certain
milestones. How about two "sea to sea" traverses?
Europe and America were both put on the agenda.
I had reckoned on an average
of £15 per night for accommodation, and to achieve this, I knew that I
would need to balance my time between developed and less economically
developed countries.
My home city of Liverpool,
and New York City are conveniently situated at either end of the long way
around the world with only the Atlantic Ocean between us. To cap
that, the two cities have recently been twinned, and this seemed to tie
the knot on the trip very neatly.
The outcome of all this is a
six-stage route which will take me through twenty-five countries and into
five continents. Of those countries, I have previously visited only
five:- England, France, Germany, India and briefly, the U.S.A., so the
route provides me with many opportunities for totally new experiences.
For details on my exact
route, which I will be updating as I go along, click on The
Journey icon. |
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