World Tour
On the final day of March 2019 we set off from Telford, Shropshire to circumnavigate the World on our bicycles. We planned to cycle 24,000 miles and cross more than 30 different countries.
5 Years and 1 global pandemic later we returned to the Arc de Triomphe, Paris on the 26th May 2024 to complete our circumnivation of the world by bicycle.
The stories below document our journey around the world. You can also find our route and stats here.
We put our sleeping mats away wet and now they’re a bit mouldy 😲 I don’t even know how they got damp/wet, but I sure am kicking myself now. It’s not too bad and hopefully it won’t get worse.
We sat down, on the side of a road, dunkin HobNobs into a black cup of tea that we’d brewed up on the side of the road, roughly 35 miles in both directions from two towns.
After five years we finally got to meet Paul and Tracy. We left West Perth and cycled along perfect cycle paths for a full fifty miles. We enjoyed the cool air and blue skies…
From Liam’s home, we made tracks to West Perth to stay with another friend. The first day of cycling was a real treat, though I could feel the two bottles of red wine in my legs lol
This Garmin watch is my pride and joy. I bought it about five years ago with a bonus from work and it was something I wanted for years before but was waiting until I could afford it.
We visited with Liam. Exploring the park was a lovely introduction to Australian wildlife. Though, I could’ve done without meeting the Common Death Adder, who inhabits the entire South Coast of Aus…which is exactly where we’re cycling 🐍🙃
Back when we were in Vietnam on the first phase of the trip (pre-covid), Liam got in touch. He said he was in Australia and his dad was in Perth. If we wanted somewhere to stay when we arrived, Liam was happy to host us.
After 14,2000 miles of CYCLING, we made it to Australia from the UK. Wild. To be honest, arriving in Aus just feels surreal. As I write this, we’ve been here for a little more than three weeks, and it still doesn’t feel real.
On our flight from Singapore to Aus, I got lucky! Stew picked 4 seats in the middle, an aisle for him and the seat next for me.
It’s right next to a mall so you can show up and just stroll around the mall as you wait for your flight. You can even sign up and take a cooking class!
Singapore is quite famous for its light shows. Each year it holds an annual festival and every night there’s a light show called Garden Rhapsody held at Supertree Grove.
Singapore has a reputation for being immaculately clean, and to be fair, it is. It also has a reputation for having quite strict rules. And, to be fair, it does.
We booked three nights in Singapore mostly because we were worried about getting hold of a bike box. We don’t like to run things too close to the wire, especially with a spenny flight booked.
After a heavy day in the rain, we took an obligatory photo in front of Marina Bay Sands famous hotel. It has a ship on the top of it! I did look at the price to stay incase it was worth it, just for one night, but at £500/night we decided, hell no 😂
We stayed here a few nights as we wanted to sort as much as possible in Malaysia. Singapore is very expensive so we bought everything we needed to pack the bikes in Malaysia.
From the border (with thanks to Google maps) we took a fairly quite route through the city, the first part was mostly on roads and the final 8 miles were mostly on cycle paths. The closer you get to the “city center”, around the Marina Bay area the more cycle paths you will find.
Everyone should use a VPN, but it is especially important for people who are travelling. You'll use Wi-Fi hot spots and might even travel to countries where you cannot access your favourite websites.
The upside to all this rain is the scenery, it is beautiful in Malaysia. The land is much more sculpted here too and residents often look after the land around their houses much like you would expect to find in Europe.
We’ve been enjoying some of Malaysia’s west coast and figuring out what to do with our trip. We contemplated riding the east coast and even the option to ride Indonesia. In the end we decided we’d head to Aus as planned.
We got acquainted on Instagram just as Stew and I explored south Thailand and geared up for our 24th country by bike, Malaysia, which of course, is where our new friends live.
We got to the train station in the nick of time, bought a ticket and run to catch the train that was departing in 3 minutes! A bit stressful at a station you don’t know.
Cameron Highlands delivered the *best* downhill, better than I expected. The not-too-steep grade meant that you got to really enjoy that 30 mile descent. I absolutely loved it.
And we did it! We rode up to The Cameron Highlands, 6500 feet (2000 metres) of elevation in about 45 miles (72km). The grade of the hill was actually not too bad at all, but it is fairly consistent so it’s a proper grind.
Honestly, I love it when I see them in the parks or up in the trees. Naturally, until I’d travelled I’d never seen a monkey that wasn’t on the television or caged somehow. Well, I did see monkeys at the safari park as a kid as they pulled at the wind screen wipers 😂