A Journey by Bicycle through Europe, Siberia, Mongolia & China

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The latest... July 2005 - All-new 2wheeels: The Return website launched, with details of the 2005/6 bicycle expedition from China to the UK, new writing, and more. June 2005 - updated practical information for cycle touring in Russia, China, Mongolia, Moldova, Europe - click here.

See diary section or daily log for more. [Old home-page photos are stored here.]

Can you recommend a place to visit between England and China? Or offer accommodation for a night, or a cup of tea? Send me a message....

Journey diary, updated regularly from the road.

Charity sponsorship in aid of the Nanren Project - please give generously!.

2nd March 04 - as featured on BBC Devon Online
29th Feb 04 - As heard on BBC Radio Devon this morning.

What's Up?

25th January 2004

I'm planning to set off in a month's time. Until yesterday, preparations seemed to be on track. Then I was hit by a car on my way to work.

I was half way round the A505 - A10 roundabout at Royston in Hertfordshire. A car drove straight into the side of me. I am a bit bruised and grazed but luckily not too badly hurt. If there had been another vehicle behind me it could have been a different story.

It wasn't a high-speed collision, but I was surprised by how hard you get hit, and by how far you bounce, even at low speeds. I was wearing a helmet and I'm glad I was.

The bike took a bit of a pounding though. I think the frame is OK, but most of the "peripherals" - wheels, derailleurs, handbars, etc - are bent, buckled, or otherwise damaged.

This website is always going to be a "work-in-progress" - I'll be adding to it all the time, both before I go and during the ride itself. Once I reach Shanghai it should provide a complete record of the ride, from its initial inception as an idea, through the planning stages to its eventual - hopefully successful - conclusion.

It is part personal diary, part travelogue, part technical manual, part fundraising and publicity tool, part personal organiser, part research aid, part stream of consciousness. To minimise visitor confusion, I will try, so far as I can, to keep these parts separate.

I don't think the two headlines are connected....

Until I actually depart (late February 2004), what you'll find here will inevitably be skewed towards the planning and research and side of things.

Once I get going, I will keep the site updated as I pedal east across France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, European Russia, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Mongolia and finally into China.

The route and diary pages are not bad places to start. I hope you may enjoy the ramblings but probably you won't. Did I forget to mention the Introduction? If you are looking for bikey things, try the bike notes; for visas and borders and police tactics try the travellers' notes. If you have no interest whatever in bikes, bike rides, travelling, Russia, China, Ukraine or Mongolia, then the best I can offer you is this page of sketches.

If you feel a strong urge to give some money to a good cause, may I recommend this link?

If you run a business that supplies things I would find useful on my tour (bicycles, loo roll, that sort of thing), you would be very welcome to give me a call and see if we can reach a deal.

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