The obvious question that you might ask is “Why?” In Britain, everyone asks “Are you doing this for charity?” It seems that in the UK people seem to think that everything vaguely difficult must be being “done for charity.” But I don’t go for it. Why should someone else pay for my holiday? If I was serious about supporting a charity, I would donate all the money I would spend on this trip, and stay and work for another year, and donate all that money. Riding a bike isn’t all that difficult, or unique – why should someone donate money for it?
No, I’m doing this for myself. I want to see the world, and going by bike is a great way to do it. It’s cheap, and you travel at a nice speed. Not as fast as a car, not as slow as walking. Rather than going point to point between cities, by bike I get a chance to go through smaller places where few, if any tourists have ever been. If I see something nice and want to stop and take a photo, then I can just stop and do that. Want to stay somewhere? Fine, do it.
But make no mistake, it is also a challenge. It was tough going at times, and there were both good and bad times. It’s how I handle those times that matters.
At the end of the road, my views on this haven’t really changed. I’m still happy that I didn’t “do it for charity” and did it for my own reasons. It was tough at times, but after a while, it just becomes your routine, what you do. You don’t think too far ahead, only to the next major town. Even then you don’t work out the finer details until you’re actually on the road. When you have that sort of perspective, it’s easy to deal with. It’s when you think too far ahead that it can all get a bit much.