I’m not a real traveller.
February 25th, 2009
I went out for a drink with 47 year-old John Harwood a fellow traveller and ‘couch surfer’ the other night and after hearing his stories I felt like an absolute travel novice. Yes, I have seen a decent whack of the globe, but John got on his bicycle in Oxford, England and cycled to Australia. AND, he’s not finished yet. He’s also riding through New Zealand then across the States coast to coast before heading home to England. He has already been away for almost two years and in that time has riddenthrough France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Oman, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and East Timor. And John doesn’t like cheating either. He hasn’t caught any public transport the entire way and has only caught a couple of planes because it’s a bit hard to cycle across water. I said ‘wow’ quite a few times during his tales of police escorts, riding through deserts, eating dodgy food and visiting dodgy toilets (which often followed the dodgy food). I don’t think I could it. I don’t have the right cycling shorts for a start. And besides I also think you probably have to be a few spokes short of a wheel to ride for days through the Australian desert without a cold beer at the end of the day.