Susan took up cycling as a hobby about 10 years ago and since then has gone on to spend over 2 and a half years on a cycle tour around the world. Susan visited 15 countries on four different continents. Meeting amazing people along the way and having fantastic experiences, which she has shared on her blog (pfaffingandcycling.wordpress.com) . Since then, Susan has gone on to become a Breeze Champion and she set up Leicester Women’s Velo with a few other Breeze Champions in Leicester. Susan is also one of Cycling UK’s “100 Women in Cycling 2019”. Susan hopes to inspire you to go on your own adventure! New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday and Thursday at 7am UK time – Make sure you hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out. The tough girl podcast is sponsorship and ad free thanks to the monthly financial support of patrons. To find out more about supporting your favourite podcast and becoming a patron please check out www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast (http://www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast) . Show notes
• Getting back into cycling 10 years ago
• Coming back from a round the world cycle tour
• Family life and learning how to ride a bike
• Wanting to be a ballerina
• Health and fitness and being the fat kid at school
• Dislocating her shoulder
• Going on holiday to NYC
• The struggle of getting into a routine
• Leaving her job to become a full time personal trainer
• How work took over her life
• Making the transition to becoming a full time personal trainer
• Getting back into cycling
• Building up the courage to join a cycling club
• Sky Ride Locals
• Being willing to try new things
• Starting to think about bigger rides
• Breeze Rides and becoming a breeze champion
• Getting a group of women to cycle across France
• Learning how to cycle tour
• Gaining new skills
• Trying to find the right bike
• The rush of getting from A to B
• Where the idea came from to cycle around the world
• Going back to work to earn money for the trip
• Starting to tell people about the cycle tour
• Trying to decide on cycle routes
• How her journey and plan changed
• Why New Zealand started to appeal
• Taking 2 years to plan the adventure
• Decluttering the house to rent it out
• Saving money and the budget for the trip
• Gaining knowledge regarding bike maintenance
• Cycling around Taiwan
• The magical moments from the trip
• Transitioning back to a normal life
• Living with her mum
• Not wanting to come home
• Thinking about the next cycle adventure
• A cycle around the coast of Great Britain
• Final words of advice
Social Media Website pfaffingandcycling.wordpress.com/ (https://pfaffingandcycling.wordpress.com/) Instagram @susanlonghaultrucker (https://www.instagram.com/susanlonghaultrucker/?hl=en) Twitter @Susan_Doram (https://twitter.com/susan_doram?lang=en)
My name is Susan Susan dorham I’m based in leester I’m from Leicester leester born and Brad I’m a keen cyclist so I got back into cycling about 10 years ago and have been quite actively involved in cycling I used to be a personal trainer and I’ve done a whole range of different
Things like I used to be in clinical research as well this year I came back for around the world cycle tour um which I did I was lucky enough to be able to do for just over two and a half years oh my God so amazing I can’t wait to talk
More about all these amazing challenges and your passion for cycling but I’d love to hear more about what life was like for you growing up did you grow up with siblings did you come from a cycling family you know do you remember the first time you got on a bike I have
An older brother and had an older sister my sister sadly passed away about 10 years or so ago but um myself and my learned to to ride my dad taught us to ride my dad didn’t actually pass his driving test until he was in his 50s so
He cycled everywhere and my sister cuz she was older she never learned how to ride and it’s quite funny cuz she used to always be quite jealous of the fact that we learned to ride and she didn’t but I guess it must have been more economics why um my parents just
Couldn’t afford to get her a bike and get her on a bike or so but it is quite it is quite funny that she is always she has always been quite resentful of it but I’m quite impressed that she actually although she couldn’t cycle she actually taught her daughters How to
Cycle yeah as I say my my dad taught us how to ride and so obviously as kids I think I must have learned to ride when I was about four or so just riding all over the place fell off my bike at 5 and broke my thumb but then still managed to
Get back on back on my bike so and there’s been periods during my life I suppose where I’ve not had a bike I think especially once I left University you then get the car and you don’t need a a bike so you don’t cycle so much and
Life gets really really busy when you were little what did you dream about being when you were going to grow up like do do you remember what you wanted to be I wanted to be a ballerina I remember but obviously I we didn’t have I didn’t have ballet lessons so that
That sadly came to the end quite quite soon also but but I suppose that’s the whole thing that little girls always want to be well no no no no that’s a generalization isn’t it and um but that was a thing that a lot of little girls
Wanted to be when they were growing up so I remember I wanted to be a ballet dancer yeah oh that’s so cute I love it I just I think when I when I hear that it just pops into my head of these you know these little tiny girls is wearing
Their little tutos and trying to point their toes and hold their hands above their head so in terms of sort of like fitness and health is that something which has always been a part of your life because you talked about sort of being a personal trainer were you
Involved in sports at University you know how did that all fit together oh no I was was a fat kid at school so I mean like I did I did play some SP like I I think let me see at school I did play hockey I did a little bit of high jump
And discus but I remember like things like cross country and I remember back in the days when we did Cross Country Light especially at school like at about 10 or so and we had a park next door and so our Sports teacher would just tell us
To go run in the park which obviously would never happen now when you think about it sending a group of 10 year-olds during the daytime through the park unsupervised whilst the sports teacher sat in the the staff room but I would always come last say for example like in
Cross country I I couldn’t understand why you would absolutely batter yourself yeah I couldn’t understand why you would batter yourself and absolutely knacking yourself in so no I did a little bit of sport but no I wasn’t particularly sporty and so like at University no I didn’t really do that
Much sport I might have I might have done a little bit of aerobics like at College I did a little bit of volleyball I tried to get back into volleyball after University and at work whilst I was working but um I dislocated my shoulder and so that meant to say that
My attempts to try and get get fitter and get into team sport were was H hampered by the shoulder dislocation and and to be honest that I mean like I’ve dislocated my shoulder four times and to be honest the first first dislocation which I kept was when I was absolutely
Drunk one day at at un and um after that once you you’ve had one dislocation it makes you predisposed to to other ones so I wasn’t really that much into fitness when I was was younger it was more one day I went on holiday to New
York and I walked a lot and I didn’t eat as much and I realized when I came back that if I exercised a little bit more and did a little bit more and watched what I ate I’d start to lose weight and so that was more how I started to get
Into fitness and especially the job that I was doing which was traveling well it was International and National travel I found it was difficult to actually get any sort of routine so it was difficult to join any clubs or groups and so by going down the gym was the only thing
That I could really fit into my lifestyle at the time so that’s more how I started to get into say being a little bit fitter and being a personal trainer did you end up leaving your job to become a full-time personal trainer yes
Yes I did yes yes I did yes I did so I as I say I was in clinical research and I was called a clinical research associate and you get to drive a nice car and uh wear a suit and go to doctors and hospitals and tell them we’ve got
This wonder drug test it on your patients and we’ll pay you for it for the first couple of years I absolutely loved it and then after a few years where it and where it just takes over your life where all I was I must have
Been about 60 or 70 hours a week of working and just finding myself sometimes working on the weekends working in the evening sending people emails at 10:00 at night and getting a response back at at 10:05 or so and then just one day waking up and thinking why
Am I doing this and it was just like it’s just it’s just because because of the money and then I was just like that’s just not a good reason to um to be doing a job or so so yeah I gave it up CU I thought you don’t know until you
Try and if you try it and if you don’t like it then you can go and try something else I just gave up clinical research and became a personal trainer and I ended up doing it for about 13 years up until I I left the UK um whilst
Doing other things as well um so yeah was it easy to make that transition to sort of becoming a full-time personal trainer to Just One Day have an income and next day not I think I had a lot of the things in place that meant to say
That I could put it in into place and then by jumping in in with two two feet first means to say that you’ve got to put everything yeah you’ve got to put everything into it whereas I I think I was very much of the mindset well if I
Only did it part-time then it might be really difficult to um try and get it going also so for me it was just let me just try it and see and if I didn’t like it then there’s always other things today yeah so you mentioned um you know
Before you started with um with the personal training you were doing like lots of lots of travel lots of national travel lots of international travel it was hard to get into any routines getting back into Cy cing how did you make that transition was it just
A case one day of okay I’m just going to start cycling everywhere um was it a case of right I’m going to set myself a cycling challenge you know what what steps did you take to get back into cycling again so there was this group called Lester spokes who always I would
Always see on a Saturday morning and they’d be meeting meeting up to cycle and I’d always see them and I’d like think I want to do that I want to do that but not actually like it was initially trying to build a the courage
To turn up and I think at the time I’d also um recently not long bought a new bike what I thought was like a super fast um super light bike but it it was really heavy it was a heavy hybrid with um suspension and really fat tires so it
Wasn’t itn’t as light and as fast as I thought it would be and then eventually building up the courage to actually go out on a ride with them and they were really really good where um cuz although I was a personal trainer and I I taught
Spin spin classes I done spin was one of the classes that I did all the time um I turned upon to one of their rides on my bike and everybody’s on more skinny tires road bikes but they all waited for me at the top of the hill and I just
Remember that one that first ride and I can still remember it where it was 30 mil and I was absolutely battered and and then going to my mom’s house falling asleep on the setti and just like really struggling to get back home after afterwards but um and so it was
Interesting so it was more that they were very very encouraging and so in Leicester we also had Sky Ride locals and Sky Ride so Sky Ride locals were um on every Sunday there were lead rides so I I started to take part in those as well and that just started to build up
My my confidence so it’s a good it’s a good question because it wasn’t something that I started off on my own it was something that I joined a group or went along with activities that actually got me more into it I think a lot of people can feel actually they
They want to join a group they want to get that support but you you can feel a little bit apprehensive about joining like a new Club and new group putting yourself you know outside of your outside of your comfort zone H how did you make that first step are you quite
Confident about you know joining new things and and joining the initial Club did you have friends there already how did you take that first step so I didn’t have any I didn’t have any friends there at all but I think in the past cuz I’ve always tried stuff I’ve always like I’ve
Wanted to try different things and as well um so I will I will turn up to stuff and if I don’t like it I’ll leave and I have had that situation where I turned up to something and nobody T talked to me so I think I left after
About 5 10 minutes but at least then youve tried it or you’ve given it a go I think I I stayed more than 5 to 10 minutes actually thinking about it but nobody really talked to me me so it was just like it’s time to go all I mean I
Think in the past I’ve tried a running club where I wasn’t fast enough so I was quite basically told well maybe if you go in that direction you’ll get back to the clubhouse or so so and they’re not I mean that’s not great because that doesn’t get the person to come back but
I suppose maybe from those experiences it sort of makes you real toughens you up a little bit to um to maybe accept that that might happen and then there’ll be another group that you might be able to try um to go along to so it was it I
Suppose it’s the whole thing you don’t know until you try so at least I tried it and for me it was a group that that were social cyclists that wanted more people to go along so your cycling is starting to to progress you’ve got this new bike you’ve joined a new Cycling
Club you’re doing like the local Sky rides you’re getting more involved you’re you know you’re falling asleep with a happy smile on your face what happened next when did you start thinking about doing bigger rides oh so I suppose it was over a period of time
Because yeah I was doing Sky rides and then I I also did Breeze as well so I was a participant on one of the first Breeze rides and the breeze leader Mariam I remember during the ride she was like why don’t you become a breeze
Breeze champ and I was like no no no not going to do it not going to do it so obviously I became a breeze champ and I became a Sky Ride local um ride leader um and started that also built up my confidence cuz then that also meant that
I had to to start thinking of roots whereas say with Sky rides and leester Spokes and leester um Lester spokes did do long rides as well I always followed somebody so the good thing about doing Breeze and being a leader is I actually had to get maps out and try and find
Different routes and um so that that all helped and with the long rides as as I said um Lester spokes uh they did R long rides so I remember we cycled down to Oxford and back which was um 80 miles down 80 miles down there and 80 80 miles
Back so that was a way of building up my rides and over the over the years Leicester we had quite a few Breeze Champs in Leicester so we all got together and formed a local women only Cycling Club um Leicester women’s V and so those rides would they’d start off
With small Five Mile rides all the way to you know 30 40 50 60 mile rides and then there was one woman who was a breeze champ Indie who she’d actually cycled from Bordeaux to naron and back before several times and so she came up
With the idea of why don’t we get a group of women to cycle across France so like doing the French coast to coast and because of the whole Breeze Network she was able to get the word out there that she was organizing a trip a cycle cycle touring camping trip from Bordeaux to
Naran and back and it was that was was going to be two weeks but there was always the option that people could just do one week and and go go back and so I suppose that was yeah that was the start of it and we always joke about it now
Where we like say it was it was like a boot camp because every day it would be cycling to the the campsite building your house cooking your food washing your clothes going to bed waking up the next day and especially for me I I made the mistake of wearing a white cycle
Jersey so the white cycle Jersey that I’d washed the day before that was nice and clean was absolutely mcky by the time I’d left the the campsite because putting your tent away you’ve got to put it against you and it’s it’s all it’s all absolutely mucked up and so I
Suppose that was the start yeah that was a good start of it because by then I’d also invested in a a cycle touring bicycle as well which was ideal for carrying carrying heavy as anything but ideal for carrying everything with me and so that started to progress to where
As a group of women we would cycle tour as well as in France in the UK so and for me um especially there would be like coming up to May bank holiday I would like say to these group of women anybody fancy doing a coast to coast anybody
Fancy doing coast and castles and um I I would just like say I’m going to do this I’m going to stay at these places anybody fancy joining me and generally most people would say yes yes yes because it it was a susr route so it was all sign posted it was already organized
I’ said where the accommodation was and they could just turn up and not think about it which for me worked perfectly because then it was a a way of me helping to and like looking back now I can see it was a way of me learning how
To organize all of this cycle touring and um also at the time initially I wasn’t that confident necessarily at cycling on my own so it meant to say that I’d get people coming along with me but also if nobody did turn up my my whole determination was still still to
Do it to do it anyway it would just be on my own and so that gradually built up and I started to do more cycle tours then I gradually started to do cycle tours on my own in the UK as well so from shopshire back to to from shury to
Leicester for example or down to Somerset Etc all along the Southeast coast so I started to gradually um build up my confidence and start cycling um solo as well oh my God I love that and I’m just thinking about like the trip of cycling the cycle touring across France
For two weeks just sounds amazing especially when you’ve got like a group of like like-minded women I mean oh what it was what was that experience like I mean especially on like the first couple of like you know the cycle tours and the bite packing what sort of what
Sort of new skills were you learning or what sort of things were you like ah okay that’s how you do it or that’s where oh okay so that’s you know I don’t know do you know what I mean like the new sort of skills that you start
Developing when you do it so much I mean because the whole thing is to be as light as possible and of course nobody is going to be light um and so the whole whole idea of um trying to be as minimalist as possible so for me I
Always have Envy of everybody else and and even during my two and a half years away I just was envious of everybody else carry being able to carry far less than me I just and especially toiletries I never mastered the art of carrying less toiletries or trying to be really
Minimal with it as I saying I got a cycle Touring bike so I remember spending ages trying to find um the right bicycle for me because I’m I’m 5 foot2 and most of the bikes that I knew out there um which were made by certain
Brands were just too big for me and it was it took me about a year and a half and then finding a bike shop up in Harriet that actually had a smaller frame bike bike for me and I remember my like my first two years of cycling not I
I had a rack on the front wheel and a rack on the rear wheel and for the first two years just looking at the rack on my re on my front wheel but never using it just never knowing why have I got a rack on my front wheel and I’ve got all of
The weight at the back and it which I later found out you’re not supposed to do because obviously you’re sat on the back wheel on the saddle which is on the back wheel and um all of the weights on the back so if you’re going up the H
Upper Hill your front wheels going to come up off off the floor or so I mean off the ground so that’s why you have um the pias on the the back but that I mean like that was something that I just I just didn’t I just didn’t know as you
Were saying with so many women because the first year that we did it I think Indie managed to get 27 people and it was funny where in the mornings I think sometimes we’d stop off for coffee like people would just be wondering why why why are those women
Why is there so many women just like carrying all of that stuff it just I think it just seem so odd to a lot of people that there were so many of us and I remember my first year of doing it it was it was very much a rush to get from
A to B and this was like a big a big learning curve um there was always a rush to get from A to B and except for there was one woman in the group who at the start of the year in January um she could only cycle six miles and our tour
Was in July and so she’d spent her time from January up until we were going picking up her Spa Pace trying to go a little bit faster trying to go a little bit further but every day she was always last but then she also said I know I’m
Slow so I’m just going to take the time and start taking in all the views and that was that was a a really big learner where I was like yeah there’s a to be but it’s all the bits in between and taking in everything taking in your time
Not necessarily rushing to get to to the end of to the campsite and so that was that was one of a major thing that I learned um not to necessarily rush to get there because it’s it’s the journey is the getting there as well and in between and meeting people Etc what an
You know an incredible experience to go through I mean 27 women riding across France I mean just incredible for other women to see that as well because that’s inspiring as anything when you look up and think wow look at all these badass women out there cycling following their
Dreams so you’ve been cycle touring in France in the UK you started in groups you started to do more solo trips the distances are getting longer and then tell us about the idea when you started to think hold on let’s go and cycle around the world let’s go let’s go visit
Canada and the United States New Zealand and Australia and Indonesia and Singapore and Malaysia and all these incredible countries how did that dream start to evolve so I think it was more um it was more somebody actually suggested it to me cuz I think if it hadn’t have been
Suggested to me I don’t think I would have actually gone cuz I wouldn’t have actually thought that something that I could do with the groups that Indie had organized um and there was one woman in the group who one year she was she was
Going to go on a cycle T she was saying she was going on a around the world cycle tour and she asked if anybody wanted to join her and so another one of my friends mentioned that to me she was like why don’t you go and join her and I
Was like well I could do but and I remember the first thing was like but who’s going to look at my cat and and my mom and my mom as well but yeah the cat came first and it was just something that I’d never actually ever considered
Until somebody actually said to me you could do it because I suppose I was going on these cycle tours and at the time I was working part now because I think I was like 10 years into having done personal training and I absolutely loved personal training the only
Downside is is it’s the unsociable hours so what I managed to do then was get a job part-time in sports services and administration and part-time as a personal trainer so that actually worked where um I actually was able to get more of a social life as well so I could go
Out in the evenings rather than like with personal training where I was working in the evenings or on the the weekends and so I suppose I think I was just moaning to my friend like say no but I’m just a bit bored or so um it’s a
Nice it’s a nice job it’s but it is just going to work every day day in day out Etc and so my friend suggested why don’t I go with this other woman and so um it started to get me thinking yeah I could do that and so I started telling
Everybody I’m going on a round World Cycle tour I think I did I did this in about 2015 before I actually um before I actually went um so by telling everybody two years before I’m going to travel around the world you’ve got to do it whereas if you just say it to yourself
You don’t have to do it so I started telling everybody unfortunately cuz at the timing the woman the other woman who was in the group who was going I couldn’t I didn’t go with her um cuz I needed to stay for my mom’s 80th and
Things like that so I didn’t I didn’t go with her but it was it was a great Catalyst to actually get me get me going but it was also being quite directionless as I am and not really knowing where to go I just knew that I
Was going to go and so it was also looking at different cycle roots and finding out what other people had done and cycling the Americas is quite a well-known route so that’s that’s one reason for starting in Canada and doing a bit of the rock is and and doing
Vancouver the Sunshine Coast it was and Pacific Coastal Highway and the original plan was to get all the way down to South America but then when I got to America um to the United States in Oregon I changed my mind and decided to to go to like New Zealand and Australia
And other countries and discover somewhere else discover somewhere else different and I think also my journey changed my journey changed a lot I think um because preparing for it you read other people’s books and a lot of the books that you read are a lot of outdoor adventure books unfortunately are by men
Sounds but they are and so it’s a different perspective and so I suppose it set me up to think okay I’m going to do this I’m going to get a stage where I’ll be cycling like 100 100 miles 150 mil a day while camping doing all of these things because that’s what I’d
Read and I’d not really read anything different initially that was that was my journey but then it changed when I got to America to the United United States and I stayed with a host who said why not go to New Zealand and she she cycled toward in New Zealand she’d show me all
These different pictures and so New Zealand started to appeal to me because I knew people in New Zealand and I knew people in Australia and also I mean for the past 20 odd years well 25 years ago I went to tonger in the South Pacific
And I I taught maths and Science and so I suppose since leaving like since leaving there and for the past 20 odd years I’ve been wondering what happened to people and what’s happened to the country and so from when she said why don’t you go to New Zealand it also made
Me think yeah I could actually go to my my old house in Tonga and go to the old school and just have a look and see how the country has changed and so the journey changed a lot from being something which was maybe in my head and
Maybe a visiting places in a tick box to being something more about meeting people that I hadn’t I hadn’t seen in years as well as staying with people that were hosting me or meeting people along the way so did you give yourself two years to plan and prepare did you
Know that you’ve been away for two and a half years or were you going to be a little bit more um flexible with everything yeah I didn’t think it would take me two years to get get ready it just so happened that in 2015 I said to
People I’m going to go travel the rent world and it took me two years to get myself sorted so I was only working parttime so I thought I need to work full-time which was which was a a real challenge to try it was I just moaned
Every day at the fact that I was working 5 days a week which is what everybody else was doing um so I had to get a full-time job which was going back into clinical research which I didn’t really like but it was a means to an end that
Was part of it so it was to help with saving up it was also the preparation just the decluttering of my house I I can’t believe how much stuff I had I think I’d lived in the house for 20 years and I just had so much stuff and
It was just trying to declutter my house so that I could could rent it out that was the major thing um just decluttering my house I’ve got so much stuff and at the moment I’m not in my house it’s still rented out and all I can think
About is all the stuff that’s still up in my Loft at the moment that’s just sat there that’s been sat there for the past like three years that’s been a learning thing where there’s just so much stuff that we have that we just don’t really actually need that was a lot of the
Preparation as well as reading books just just getting like my finances in order I think the biggest stress was banking it was something that I’d not thought about but obviously I I didn’t think that I’d be away for 2 and a half years so I think the plan was maybe 2 years
But even still trying to access your funds I think that was always my biggest fear of trying to access say my savings and the worst thing would be if you can’t access it you’ve forgotten all of your PIN numbers and they’re just like no you’ve got to turn up to the the
Branch in person and you’re you know you’re somewhere in New Zealand or Australia and I mean I did have a bit of a stressful scenario because all of my paperwork came to my mom’s house whilst I was away and one day she got this letter which she decided was junk mail
She didn’t bother opening it so she did a Return to sender and it was my bank account and it was like so they froze my account so that was a scenario that that did actually happen but before I went it was uh trying to work things like that
Out but I managed to resolve the issue how much sort of budget were you planning for were you trying to budget monthly did you have a set sum that you wanted to have in your in your backup like in your savings account before you went away you know what sort of numbers
Were you working with with that’s so funny cuz I’d meet other cycle tourists and they’ tell me about their budget and I’d like be like yeah I should try and budget I did I did try because you’d hear stories of people like we’re on like $2 a day
And then once a month we’ll treat ourselves whereas I was just initially I was just like like obviously I’d saved I had my house on rental so I had income from that and you do hear stories of people say traveling for three years on £3,000 and that’s it but no I didn’t
Have a budget I just spent my money and that that was it that sounds really quite Reckless but it was just I think especially as I mentioned earlier suddenly I lost my sister when she was 50 and I I just turned 50 this year and I think that also put things into
Perspective that I might as well just have a little bit of fun and enjoy it and whether I spend all of my money and only have enough for 3 months and have to come back or as I was lucky enough to be able to go away for as long as I did
So no didn’t have a budget I suppose a positive is it meant to say I maybe went to places I went to see things I went to galleries I went to museums Etc and things like that so I went to do stuff and enjoy a lot of things so no I didn’t
Have a budget did you have any fears about your trip about the adventure about sing around the world anything that that was sort of not not prayed on your mind but was just there sort of in the background um that made you think a little bit harder I I felt very much
Maybe I felt a little bit more invincible because I was in a nice position where financially I felt if I was in a sit I could bypass an area for example easily if I felt an area might not be a good area to go to so if I felt
Maybe particular part of wherever I was traveling to wasn’t a wasn’t good then maybe I felt I was able to maybe get some other transport to get me through there I think the thing with cycling is it takes you off the beaten path which is great and you can interact with
People but also it can also maybe take you unknowingly through areas that maybe aren’t that great I never had such a scenario anyway um I mean I did get lost all the time but that was all part of the adventure but um no I didn’t have anywhere where I didn’t feel safe what
Was the biggest challenge that you faced while out on the road oh oh this sounds really awful making a decision I’m going to sound so spoiled at the end of it making a decision sometimes because but they were like really nice decisions and it was more
About shall I stay here shall I go there what shall I do next it sounds awful it’s like I’ve I’ve got a I’m in a sweetie shop and I just couldn’t make a decision that was but that just make it that was the most difficult thing really with regards to maintaining your bike
Had had you done any courses what you did you just learned skills over like sort of the the years that you’ve been cycling you know how did you feel about handling like the mechanics of the bike I mean like I was really really lucky and I suppose because of all of the
Rides that I’ve done all all of the the stuff that I’ve done within Leicester with regards to cycling there’s a bike shop in Leicester bil B spokes um company and Billy the owner I I remember going to him and like saying I’m going to go around the world what do I need to
Change on my bike and so he changed a few things and then he actually said if you need to know any sort of bike mechanic if you want to come and spend some time with me come come in on a Saturday and spend some time with me and
So he was really nice cuz I could go in there ask really stupid questions and not feel silly and he showed he showed me loads he showed me loads which obviously I can’t remember but and there’s a lot of stuff that you can’t actually do unless you’ve got the
Equipment and there’s only and you there’s only so much that you can carry anyway but at least it meant to say that he gave me the knowledge to know if something was wrong with my bicycle what needs to actually be be done so if I went into the B shop they wouldn’t be
Able to they wouldn’t R be able to rip me off so much cuz I’d know a little bit more about what was going on tell me what cycling around Taiwan was like Taiwan was fantastic Taiwan oh because that was the whole thing because most bikes are made in in Taiwan like
Midrange bikes and so my bike which is a surly was made in in Taiwan and so I thought I’d go that was it’s a big thing cycling around the whole island and it’s an amazing cycling infrastructure um just all these Cycles lanes that are made specifically for bicycles and as
I’m cycling around meeting people who are like cheering or thumbs up or punch in the air as you cycle around um clapping or having some people and people like I remember meeting a group of people who told me to come along along with them and they took me on a
Ride and they they were kind enough to give me dinner Etc and things like that Taiwan was fantastic cuz it is just built for cycling it’s got an amazing cycling infrastructure that there so yeah Taiwan was fun I fun I spent spent five weeks there do you just sort of
Cycle around like the coast of the island is that sort of the route that you took yes there’s there’s other routes as well but yes I cycled around the yeah I cycled around the coast the east side is Absolut is the hilly hilly side but absolutely beautiful and the
West side is more industrial there are trains there as well just a fantastic infrastructure yeah how was the language barriers how did you how did you cope um did you learn some Taiwanese I that’s the right language it was it’s ch Chinese Chinese Taiwanese of all the
Countries that I went to there was only one that I struggled with and that was South Korea South Korea I struggled with a lot more but um obviously with things like Google translate Etc that makes things a lot easier but I tried to learn a little bit of Chinese but not that it
Was more please thank you hello and not that much at all but a lot of times my conversations would be me speaking to somebody in English which is awful them speaking back to me in Chinese but we’ managed to sort things out it was and
That was a lot of a lot of times in a lot of countries where it or it would be pointing at things but that was what I really really enjoyed as well just the whole being able to communicate with people even though you don’t speak the
Same language I remember when I was in Cambodia and there was this woman she was so funny um I went to have breakfast and we I managed to communicate to her that I was cycling um across Cambodia and during the conversation she asked me how much my bike cost and I knew
Straight away what she was asking but I thought let me try and pretend that I don’t understand what she’s she’s saying but she was so insistent and she was she tried it did it so many times and she got money out to try try and um like
Like make me know what she was trying to get across that I had to eventually tell her how much how much my bike was that was the fun part of communicating with people who um you don’t speak the same language cuz you can end up having such
Laugh with people and not realize and just the whole fact that you you don’t speak the same language but you can have a laugh and have a lot in common as well yeah I’d love for you to share like just some of the magical moments that that
Happened on the trip some of the highlights now that look back which may be still in your in your memory and I know that is hard to do when it’s such you know you’ve been traveling for such a long length of time through so many different countries but what are a few
Of those magical moments that really stand out for you so um remember this one recently actually um it was when I was cycling in Cambodia so of all the countries I went to Cambodia was the one that I struggled with them the most because when you enter a country like
Your entry into a country also affects how you feel about that country and I knew that there were um scams on the border so I was going from Vietnam to Cambodia and I’d been told that there were scams scams on the border and so I managed to avoid the scams but it still
Sort of like leaves a little bit of a bitter taste in your your mouth about a country when you like think oh the scams on the border and also Cambodia the roads the roads were quite potted and every day I had to do like a 100
Kilometers to get to the next place and I suppose my preference would have been to do more like 50 or 60k so that I could take my time and it I went a time when it was really really dusty also there was a lot of construction going on
In Cambodia so it was just like every day I just dust in my mouth I and I really wasn’t enjoying it and I know that there was this one day where I had 100 kilometers ahead to do and I think I was broken after about the 10 first 10
Kilometers and I was cycling along and then this um this young lad on a bicycle was ahead and I overtook him and I was pedling along and then I looked in my my mirror and I noticed he was right on behind me so I started to pick up my
Pick up my speed I was like he’s he’s right behind me and so I started to pick up my speed and he started to pick his speed and so we ended up Racing for a while it was just absolutely fantastic because I mean at one point he had to
Turn off but it just had me laughing for you know it helped me over the next 10 20 30 kilometers on the rest of rest of my ride so I suppose that’s an example of some of the things that one of the things that happened on my journey that
Just made me made me smile as I was saying I got to meet up with a lot of people that I hadn’t seen hadn’t seen in years so going back to my old school in Tonga um and I was only there for two weeks cuz it was it was one of those things
With making a decision I could stay two weeks I could stay a month but I don’t I don’t know but I thought let me stay two weeks and then I’ll leave wanting more whereas if I stay a month I might I might be like you know not wanting
Anymore so during my first week turning up going to the school and seeing a lot of my ex students and quite basically saying to them so when am I coming around to your house when are you like setting up all my appointments for the following few days or so and meeting
Other people just seeing what what people were doing and how they were getting along um and then starting to hear that they were going to have a cyclone during my second week so all of those plans unfortunately all of those plans I had had to be scrapped also and
It was it it turned out it was like the worst Cyclone that tonger had had in 60 years because I I went in I knew that Fe I went in the February and I knew that it was windy it was always windy at that time of the year in Tonga but yeah it
Was a worst worst Cyclone but then the the other side to it is I was staying with a friend and just knowing that if if I was going to be anywhere in the world and being a cyclone being in Tonga was was a good place to be because because I was with
Friends and I knew that like Tonga is known as a friendly islands and everybody is really friendly the whole Hospitality so but then it meant to say I got to spend the whole week with my friend and just sitting and watching a lot of things and being reminded of a
Lot of things i’ I’d forgotten about um so yeah I suppose they two of two of the things that that happened and oh it’s all coming back and I I would go on for ages or so and I suppose it was just people’s General Hospitality um people’s
Kindness along the way there’s it’s it’s the whole thing that overall everybody is really really kind and being invited to somebody’s home so I met somebody in J Jakarta in Indonesia and I got on we got on really well and she was like why don’t you come to my home in somatra
Which was a different part of Indonesia and so I was like yeah okay and I went to spend three weeks with her and she took me around everywhere and just learning a lot more about how people do things and why people do things as well yeah how was the transition of coming
Back from you spending you know two and a half years cycling around the world to coming back home lockd down living with your mom again I live with my parents as well they’re freaking amazing it’s great um it’s it’s for me I I am so I’m
So grateful I’m so grateful that I came back when I did um because hearing stories of other people who were trying to um stay in other countries just waiting it out Etc and things like that or people trying to get back so I think really really grateful that I’ve most
Importantly got a roof over my head I think that was one one of the things that I um discovered when I was traveling and when I was doing the Pacific Coastal Highway meeting staying at the Hiker Biker sites and meeting a lot of people who um unfortunately had
Fallen on hard times so we’re homeless so um during my journey I met quite a few people who were homeless and it’s it is just a whole thing where you’re only a few steps away so I’m really grateful that i’ I’ve come back and I’ve got roof
Over my head and it’s nice to be living it’s actually quite nice to be living in the house that has been the family home for the past 50 years as well so um it’s that’s a nice thing I I know like a lot of my friends are like asking me aren’t
You restless and stuff but I’m like not really I think I don’t think that it will be my last cycle Journey um it might it might be a few years before I do another one or so but um it’s it’s been nice coming back home were you
Ready to come back home were you sort of almost like cuz life on the road can get very very tiring or just very sort of draining just constantly moving all the time were you sort of ready to settle back into a bit of normality for a while
Or are you thinking yeah let me answer I’ll let you answer that question before I ask you the next question no I didn’t want to come back I didn’t want to come back really didn’t didn’t want to come back so I mean like a lot of my plans
Were different so I I ended up that was it I ended up uh qualifying as a tefl teacher in Thailand so I ended up doing a tefl course and teaching English in in a school in Thailand initially I was there for a term and the idea was that
If I liked it I would stay a whole year so this was my plan at a time I would stay a whole year working there I would be able to save a lot more and then just continue traveling even more so I suppose the plan was wasn’t to come back
When I did I didn’t yeah I didn’t enjoy it so much in in Thailand um I’d done my one semester and it was like no um I need I need to leave and so then after Thailand it was Taiwan and South Korea and staying with a friend in the US and
Then I was meant to just stop off in Portugal on the way um but then I managed to slip in um a few days in Madrid so no I I didn’t want to come home I didn’t want to come home I wanted I mean I knew I was going to come home
From my 50th part of my idea was like I’ll just come home for my 50th and then uh get all my presents that’s what I was saying to people for years I’m 50 in May so I’m going to go get my presents then and then I’m just going to go and uh and
Do something else again what else is on the dream cycle list what else is you know one of the cycles that you cycle rides or cycle Adventures that you’d like to go on I mean I suppose when I first came back and what with lockdown and then it was starting to think what
Other things that I could do so I think maybe but these are all the the ideas that maybe it’s better to Holiday in the UK at the moment so maybe a a cycle tour around the coast of Great Britain might be a great well would be a great idea
Actually just to see all of the beautiful scenery cuz that was one of the things where you know where sometimes you romanticize about stuff where when I was sometimes traveling and I’d be like oh but I miss those little quiet English country lanes and so um
And then when you come back you like think yeah but I missed the the nice hot temperatures also yeah maybe a dream one might be cycling around yeah cycling around the British aisles actually cuz we have fantastic scenery we have beautiful uh Countryside and although it
Does rain it’s not that bad it’s not that bad I’m like I completely disagree I hate the British weather it does rain all the time final words of advice for other women who want to get on their bike who want to get more cycling in their life
They may not want to go and cycle around the world or cycle around the coast of Great Britain but they do want to get more active you know what advice would you have for them well I suppose it is getting on your bike and getting going I think also things have gotten better
With cycling now where there are a lot more psych social cycling groups out there as well I think as especially as I mentioned like breeze for example Breeze rides are the rides where we’ll wait for you and we don’t go any faster than the slowest Rider and a lot of Breeze rides
Are sociable so the whole part of the whole reason for cycling is that you can stop and stop and have tea and cake or I’ve actually been quite impressed that I’ve not spoken that much about food with you CU a lot there’s a lot of things to do with food cuz you’re
Expending a lot of energy I would say if you if you’re looking to get on a bike try and find something like a social Cycling group and cycle with them if you’re not too sure where to go because I think also a lot of people feel are a
Lot are quite scared of the road and so I think the benefit of riding with other people is you’ll learn a lot more about um riding on the road getting confident um realizing that everybody is a a road user and has has has should have equal
Access to that road as well um and just just giving it a go and I think also um there resources out there like say for example somewhere like sustrans where you could find routes that are a little bit off off-road if you’re not so confident on the road and just just give
It a go really because I think also the whole I learned to cycle as a child so riding riding my bike just reminds me of being a kid on a Saturday just cycling cycling around everywhere um Etc so so yeah and Susan where’s the best place for people to find more information
About you to to read about your incredible adventures and to follow you on social media as you were saying my my blog which is faffing and cycling at wordpress.com I think it is it’s after after I came up with that idea I was like that’s I do faf a lot when I cycle
I I do faf a lot and faffing is with a p not um but also you can find me on on Facebook so Susan dorham and from Facebook you’ll you’ll be able to find my other other links as well and I am on Instagram as well um I don’t I don’t
Post too much to social media as that much as well but I would say Facebook is a good one Susan absolutely amazing to speak with you incredible to hear about your faffing around the world for two and a half years and your love and passion for cycling and I’m excited to
See well hopefully that you’ll be getting around the UK on another big cycle tour but thank you so much for inspiring other women to get on their bikes and to get active thank you thank you very much Sarah tribe I hope you enjoyed the episode with Susan what an absolute inspiration my name is Sarah Williams I’m the host of the tough girl podcast and the founder of tough girl challenges which is all about motivating and inspiring you while increasing the amount of female role models in the
Media so I just want to share a little email that I received from one of the listeners and where she shares a little bit more about how the tough girl podcast has made an impact on her life so it goes hello Sarah thank you so much for producing the tough girl podcast
While it may sound a bit overly dramatic I can honestly say listening to this has changed my life it’s been my go-to audio as I trained for my first marathon my plans like so many others have been swiped sideways by covid I wasn’t able to run the 40th London Marathon just
Before my 40th birthday but I’m hugely excited to be running the virtual race the podcast has opened my eyes to so many amazing women being generally awesome and hugely motivational when I’m having a tough run there’s always something in an episode that resonates and inspires me to dig deep and push on
Through it’s also promoted me to finally commit to a lifelong dream of swimming the channel I loved your interview with Lisa Williams and reached out to her after making my way through your back catalog she’s been very generous with her time and has given me great advice
To help plan for a 2023 Channel attempt anyway I just wanted to say a huge thanks to you and all of your guests and let you know you’ve made a difference I’ve also signed up to be a patron so you can continue putting us women back
In our places all over the headlines so that was obviously you know an incredible email to receive so thank you so much Leanne I really really appreciate um you taking the time to get in contact with me um I hope the marathon went really super well and best
Of luck with your Channel swim in 2023 it’s amazing to set these big audacious goals and absolutely just go for them and I also just want to say as well a big thank you for signing up to be a patron so the podcast is sponsorship and
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