100,000 km Solo World Circumnavigation
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In December 2006, I built a bicycle and cycled out of Melbourne, Australia. I had no itinerary, no timeline, no clue about anything really. I wanted to have an adventure and this was the biggest adventure I could think of: a journey of 100,000 km cycling, paddling, and sailing around the world.
I’m at about the halfway point, having crossed Australia, the Indonesian Archipelago, Southeast Asia, Southern China, Japan, the Russian Far East, Northern China, Mongolia, Siberia, Western Russia, and Scandinavia. Ahead is the Atlantic Ocean, the Americas, and the Pacific Ocean.
Alone, into environments remote and extreme, has left me exposed, and I suppose I’ve gotten what I’d bargained for. I’ve been robbed, almost snuffed it from malaria, ventured through conflict zones in southern Thailand, crossed the Gobi Desert in summer, and endured two bitter Russian winters. Along the way I’ve been invited into the lives of extraordinary people, found love and heartbreak, and had a glimpse of the world that otherwise I could never have known.
I sometimes think about my motives (when I’m asked) but endeavours that test our potential and limitations aren’t easily rationalised. I used to think of the journey as a means of freedom, in the sense of escaping captivity. I wanted to run like a fugitive, cast out into the unknown, do something hard and unforgiving and beautiful. But I realise too this journey is as much to do with seeking space and clarity within myself and informing my perspective on the world–I know little of either. This is my record of the journey: journals, recordings, and pictures.