The couple who cycled all the way from Oxford to Sydney. Inspiring video and more details on http://www.undercurrents.org/bike2oz
Soon after meeting Lou Anna one of the first thing she asked me was if I’d like to travel with her back to Australia I immediately said yes but she wanted to get there as sustainably as possible there was only one option the bicycle we researched the physical route but no
Amount of preparation could prepare us the mental journey we weren’t about to undertake as we travel through Europe everything we saw confirmed our decision to cycle the Alps may have been high but our mood was even higher dedicated bike lane guided us safely alongside the traffic but we decided to continue and
So made our way across Greece and into Turkey and then we worked in a stunning Center and found kapadokya it may have been unbelievably beautiful but we weren’t the first to stumble upon it we were in the middle of the Turkish tourists loop we decided to get away from the tourist
Trail so continued east towards around by this time it was 45 degrees before midday let me hey hey it’s a really boiling in his horrible outfit I didn’t want to pedal the whole way to Australia all I could think about was getting enough liquid into me to survive
Until evening but the problems facing the locals put mine into perspective with local fears about global warming and climate change it’s confirmed to us our decision to cycle and not fly back to Australia we wanted to stay longer but were arrested after photographing a mural on
A university wall then when we filmed a military possession we suddenly found a gun pointing at us it was time to make a very quick exit into Pakistan me so it’s basically just men men men everywhere and every single one of them when they passed by I have a very good
Long stare at me by the time you’re really tired you’ve done lots of cycling you know you’ve had maybe 300 people trying to talk to you and a lot of the time it’s with only sexual intent and it does become quite draining after a while cycling through Pakistan was the hardest
Part of the entire expedition at that point the environment came very low on my priority list we needed to reclaim our sanity with India a next destination be the place to do it our first thought is to get away from the hot dusty flatlands so we turned north and climbed
Into the foothills of the layers and then an email from Australia arrived tellings of a ship that would take us from Mumbai to Singapore we had to leave in a hurry and head down into the dusty low legs we made it as far as Delhi before the
Pollution started getting to us and for the bicycles ear a constant saw nose swollen glands and we don’t have a car we didn’t have any illness it’s just that’s happened we finally escaped from the hazy polluted capital and continued south towards Mumbai and our ship the sea voyage gave us time to reflect
Together outdoors to recover our strength and to relax the most of the time as we approached Southeast Asia we went on to pirate to that they’re heavily armed machine machine guns and they’re in danger so if they are born in nothing to learn just don’t try to to be ie or something
Well we finally made it through immigration and customs and we’re here in Singapore this place is clean it’s modern it’s full of shopping centers and everybody’s got a mobile phone this is not India we spent many hours in many days searching for a she ate that would take
Us the last leg to Australia speech you soon bye yeah we’ve finally got the ship to australia such relief been here so many weeks and so in four days time or thirty fessor much we are setting sail from Singapore or way to Brisbane and within a few days we found ourselves
Approaching the port and my family suddenly we were back in a country where people knew about environmental issues where they had time to worry about the state of the world there was time for us to think to the world isn’t as black and white as it seemed from the luxury of
Our English base and concern for the environment doesn’t even squeeze onto the agenda for most people we learned a lot about ourselves we found it hard but really we had it pretty easy when the surroundings got tough we could just pedal a little faster we had an escape
Route the people living there didn’t and then it was nearly over after cycling through of a stunning Australian countryside we arrived in Sydney it was the first time I’d seen the bridge and it meant one thing with made it 12,000 kilometers through 16 countries over 15 months now that I’m back here with
Friends and family around me it feels as though it was a dream but I managed it somehow to bike tours you
5 Comments
Inspiring! …and did you have a whole film crew with you?! If not, you made a great efford filming it! Bicycle is definetly the greenest and best way to get around!
No the couple filmed the trip themselves
I have to say that I'm quite impressed with your journey, and you should be proud to have persisted through such an arduous undertaking. I have to say though that you are portraying the people from the countries you have passed through in a condescending way, and I wonder if you are aware of it. To imply that these people are somehow "trapped " in a mentality that accepts pollution and the degradation of our planet seems uninformed.
Where did you sleep when on the bike at night?
i would love to do this. keep thinking life is to short not to do it! but then again it could get a lot shorter along the way……. nah fuck it i still want to go!