Cycling from the UK to Russia... ARE YOU CRAZY?!?! Maybe
August 2016 and there I am, waving off to 200 or so people as I set off on a cycling adventure which was ‘planned’ to be from the UK to China. In truth it was a relatively easy decision to make to do a trip of this nature I weight up the following;
9-5 job = boredom x lack of personal progression
OR
Cycle from UK to China = tough prospect + no training + potentially best lesson in life
Obviously I opted for the latter of these two made up calculations. The decision was actually pretty easy due to the fact I was MEGA naive, I didn’t take into account everything, to start off I didn’t really realise how far away China was! I had no idea what equipment was good or needed, never cycled more than 26-miles in one go but more so I didn’t realise how much mental strength I would need.
The mental strength I was able to somehow conjure up got me through some incredibly tough circumstances, it showed me physical strength I didn’t realise I had and it also was a lesson in letting my emotions out. I cried at times, I did and there is no point in trying to hide that, emotions are what makes us human. I had to do some pretty grim things too such as shitting in the woods, yes I brought truth to whatever saying that is…
I cycled for so much, so much to prove to myself, to learn for myself and hopefully progress as a persona and grow a deeper understanding of myself and life. I thought it had happen, heck I thought I had learned that all back in 2015 when I travelled around Southeast Asia… I didn’t. I am only 24-years of age whilst writing this and there is no way I can answer those grand questions with certainty, I have actually more questions than answers, but that’s good right?
Along with this motivation for my travels I had an even greater purpose in that I wanted to show the world how beautiful human beings are, I aimed to meet as many people and build connections to then share with the world, reassurance that humanity still prevails! I’m doing this still with my project called ‘Faces & Places’ – I may do a whole post about this (let me know if you’d like that…).
Another aim and motivation for my trip was to share experiences my experiences in a realistic but positive manner, to show people also that you can do anything (almost anything) if you desire it enough. The way I aimed to prove this was with the fact I’ve had cancer twice and yes I am only 24-years old, I had no training, I had no idea about bicycle mechanics – all in all the odds probably weren’t in my favour but I’ve gone for it!
So you may have realised that the title says Russia not China and that is because I unfortunately had to fly home from Russia due to illness and have had to wait to fly back out to continue my journey. HOWEVER I do pick my trip back up next month as I fly to Kazakhstan on the 24th of July… let the good times roll!