Inspirational people

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Let’s talk about inspirations.

In the interests of brevity, I’ll avoid explaining how my collaborations with Graham Dunning and Richard Sewell have been personally transformative, why I can’t get enough of Sarah Angliss waxing lyrical about any of her many areas of expertise, or how I think Bear Kenchington and Tim Hunkin are national treasures, instead, focussing on the specific influences that have led us to embark on our tour…and our wholesale change of life.

Having planned our trip for a long time, we have watched, read and listened to many accounts from the road. This provided us with the inspiration we needed to set off but we also meet many inspirational people each day as our paths cross. We wanted to list / shout out some of the people so far, to provide an insight into our inspirations and hopefully pass on a bit of that energy. Let’s start with the people we have followed online, or even encountered in real life, prior to setting off. Many of whom we still follow when we can, through their blogs, YouTube channels etc. In no particular order:

95,000km cycled, 6 continents visited, 82 countries visited, 4750 days travelling. Cycle touring inspirations don’t get much better than Jin, who toured solo from the age of 24, with an amazing attitude and charm that I reckon could see you through pretty much any situation. We found Jin inspirational on so many levels. Firstly, based on our experience (backed up here), there are far fewer young solo female riders out there compared to male solo travellers and especially for Beck this gives her confidence seeing women just doing it. Secondly, the stats at the start are just mind-blowing. Such a remarkable can-do attitude. Jin also just seemed to muddle along, learning as she went, suggesting a lower bar to entry than you sometimes sense when you see super slick touring videos. We’ve loved watching Jin’s YouTube channel.

In a similar vein—only much newer to the world cycle touring game—are Arev & Mathias of Amazing World Bike Tour fame. The amazing thing about this channel is you get to witness how quickly they go from novice tourers to world cycle tourers. Proving there isn’t much to it, in essence. We’d recommend watching their adventure from the start. It’s a cliché but people always say that setting off (and all that entails) is the hard bit. We’d certainly agree even if sometimes we need a reminder to relax into that a bit more. Arev & Mathias are great at reminding us to do just that. Such a pleasure to watch how they navigate through the world, overcoming challenges, meeting loads of people and enjoying the ride.

We are lucky to count Kirsty and Marcus of She’s Not Pedalling At The Back as friends. Their blog has been a great source of inspiration and knowledge but we’ve also seen them talk at events and had the pleasure of riding alongside them at Critical Mass rides, and even going out for dinner with them in Worcester. [side note: Many members of Bike Worcester are huge inspirations to us and we are honoured to call you friends!]. Kirsty and Marcus are really into packrafting at present and it does look like wicked fun. We remember meeting them at the Cycle Touring Festival in the Lake District but unlike most people attending, they had come across, not around, the various waters en route. They’d even camped on an island the night before arriving. So cool!

Speaking of the Cycle Touring Festival, that was full of inspirational people. Loads of tourers with stories to tell and many really adventurous (often solo female) tourers, who offered endless inspiration and helped us (Beck in particular) to relax more about what we were about to embark on. Oh and even the overheard conversations were amazing, like the lady saying to a less experienced wild camper how she just camps anywhere and has never been bothered by anyone. More lessons we need to refer back to…

We also really enjoy Josh & Sarah’s adventures, as documented on their YouTube channel. They set off a short while before us and endured European winter riding as a result (!) but in some ways we feel like we are on a joint trip. Though they arguably started out with more purpose than us, their adventure seems to have been pretty fluid so far. Not unlike ours but they’ve definitely pushed themselves harder than we have, thus far. It’s great checking in on where they are up to periodically.

As we head towards Morocco, another inspirational individual comes to mind. The wonderful Tim McKenna who I used to follow on Twitter. He would document his travels and his mental health struggles. The last trip he took was to Morocco before his untimely death [Trigger warning: suicide] on the return journey. RIP Tim. Thanks for the inspiration!

Then there are a few people that are almost a given as inspirations. They are long-established in the scene and offer something really deep in terms of ‘permission’ to do what we are doing, as well as an array of practical advice and knowledge.

Let’s start with Tom. I think Tom was one of the first world cycle tourers I became aware of, through his website and generous sharing of his adventures and knowledge. His writing is a great way to gain inspiration and information on how to hit the road. This snippet from his homepage is pretty damn inspirational in itself:

Travelling by bicycle is a revolutionary act, the closest thing you'll find to pure freedom, and the cleanest (and cheapest) way to get it!

Alee Denham (AKA CyclingAbout) is another great inspiration. Again, he’s super knowledgable and generous with his insights. His guides on bicycles and types of riding have definitely shaped our approach, and our steeds.

Another, more recent inspiration (and source of routes, videos, tips & tricks etc) is the wonderful Bikepacking.com. We visit this site regularly and are fully paid up members of the Bikepacking Collective. In fact, when we can we like to buy content (or somehow support) many of the people listed here.

Our pal Spence (a wonderful chap and inspirational cyclist in his own right) lent us a copy of Stephen Lord’s and Neil & Harriet Pike‘s book Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook. It’s crammed full of useful tips and tricks, as well as just reinforcing the ‘just get on and do it’ ethos.

Beck‘s sister lent her a copy of Dervla Murphy’s book Full Tilt. I only picked up some of the anecdotes second hand, or through Beck reading passages to me, but it was pretty mind-blowing. For me, the revelations mostly fell into the category of “well, if she can survive all that, we’ll be fine…”

On that note, let’s move on to some of the people we met on our tour in 2019, that are part of our ‘world tour foundation story’. In a similar way, they opened our eyes to what is possible. On a previous tour to St Jean De Luz, where we have spent the last two weeks (we leave soon!), riding down the Vélodyssée, we first encountered a couple from Australia who were cycle touring for a year, as thier honeymoon. Only, it turned out that was the plan but they’d actually been on the road for over TEN years, having never stopped their honeymoon. Arguably even more remarkable were the couple we met that had ridden from Gibraltar (on their way to Nordkapp) with their two (really young) children. They were cycling around 15km per day and for the most part their children were cycling independently. When we asked them how it was going they said, “Honestly, our kids didn’t much like cycling over the Pyrenees.”. What absolutely troopers. And for us, all excuses were now off the table. We resolved to sort our lives out on our return, with a view to leaving on our own tour as soon as possible. Given the global pandemic—and Beck’s associated ill health (plus I decided to do a PhD)—in the interim, I think we made a good fist of this overall.

We’d also like to shout out fellow tourers that we meet on our current bimble, for their unending inspiration and camaraderie. Our encounters so far have ranged from raised fists from afar to lengthy exchanges about plans, progress, gear, hills and the weather. It’s always great seeing other touring cyclists. As we get later in the season they are fewer and farther between but we draw on each occasion as we make our way. We’ve decided to highlight a few but this is a decidedly incomprehensive list and doesn’t reflect the depth of these interactions. Plus, we are terrible at taking photographs during these moments, as we get caught up chinwagging.

David & Marlen are a very kind German couple we met in Norway. They were riding an almost identical route to us along the Rallervegen and Mølkevegen but much faster as they were running a more reduced bikepacking set up. We passed on tips including the useful website for finding Danish shelters (thanks Lars!) and they later fed back news about the route ahead of us. We met at a little shop where we were getting ice creams and they gave us a packet of Klenning lefse (flatbread filled with vanilla, cinnamon or chocolate buttercream) which became part of our diet for the rest of our Norwegian trip.

We met Alex & Nora whilst waiting to board the ferry from Oslo to Kiel. After bumping into them time after time on the ferry we got chatting and they shared their experiences of a very wet ride through Germany and Sweden (the opposite of our dry ride through Norway). The running joke of “Oh, hello again!” became our catchphrase and as we left the port in Kiel, we wished them all the best as they reorganised their set up before heading to warmer climes along the Mediterranean coast.

Lonnie (8yrs on the road) We sported a great looking touring bike leaning outside a small grocers on the Outer Hebrides. Needing to stop for supplies and to post some postcards, Beck and I went into the shop, looking for a potential fellow tourer. Here we found Lonnie and spent the next hour and a half chatting beside the till - goodness knows what the shopkeeper was thinking! After discovering that she had been undertaking long-term tours for the last 8 years, we picked her brain for top tips and stories of her travels. Very enlightening and adventurous (when she’s not touring, Lonnie is mountain biking in the western US).

Suzy the pannier angel was an inspiration on many levels. As soon as we got chatting it was clear that she had a great story to tell, having embarked on an inaugural solo tour in a far off land only to face a few struggles that had foreshortened her trip. She decided to take some time out in Durness, which was a win for us, as we got to meet up, share a story or three, go for drinks, and she kindly donated her pannier clip to us, after mine got broken in a little cockle. All round hero!

There were numerous other tourers, many travelling solo and many on their first tours, in some big hills. Impressive. The way in which these people inspired us varied from person to person, be it the fact they’d made their own super cool bikepacking gear by hand (Jan), ridden the tour solo after their friends couldn’t make it (Roberto), or realising at the bottom of The Longest Decent Ever that the guy we spoke to earlier (Tim) must’ve just ridden up it. Or often it’s just some shared information and encouragement like meeting Laura and Laaron shortly after Beck had seen two moose!

As mentioned earlier, these are but a few. We can both think of many other inspirational encounters where we can’t quite remember, or didn’t ask, their names.

We also wanted to briefly mention the people that encourage us day to day. Whether it’s Reg tirelessly giving our rides kudos on Strava, or everyone who sends words of wisdom via our blog comments, we love you all. Thanks!

Lastly, if I may, I wanted to mention my dad, Mick. He was a keen cyclist himself and would always drag me and my brother off on tours during school holidays. In some ways, these experiences left me scarred, unable to envisage putting myself through such stuff longer term…but in the end, it ignited a wanderlust in me that I knew I could only satisfy on two wheels. My dad was also pretty well travelled and believed in ploughing your own furrow, which stuck with me throughout my life. Sadly, my dad is not around anymore to witness our bimbling but I know he would be following with interest, and no doubt he’d have joined us for a leg or three of our journey. I’m not one for ascribing any supernaturality to events but I do sometimes relish the happenstance on the road that reminds me of years of riding alongside my dad. Take for example, the glorious morning we rode into Beitostølen in Norway, when we encountered someone loudly playing Time After Time by Cindy Lauper on their kitchen radio. This was one of dad’s favourite tunes, even if like all the cool cats, he first became aware of it due to Miles Davis covering it. It made me sad and happy in equal measure and I sang it for the rest of the day. Thanks Mick, for all the inspiration.