Katy and Alan spent five years dreaming about this adventure and then went ahead, put their careers on pause and spent a full year cycling 20,000km around the world. Halfway through the adventure, a monotonous desert section through Central Asia nearly broke them, so they threw out their initial planned route and let the trip become something even better.

These are the key lessons from their journey:

• You don't need to wait for retirement to take a big adventure
• A plan is a starting point but it's ok to change and adapt them
• The less you know about a place, the more it can surprise you
• People will help you, almost everywhere, almost every time.
• Asking for help is a strength, not a weakness.
• Fear of the unknown is usually worse than the unknown itself.
• Shared goals matter more than shared stats.
• Hard days don't last, but you will have hard days on big adventures
• You don't need a year to have an adventure.

Be sure to give Katy and Alan a follow via their account @CycleTheLongWayHome

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When we last heard from Milica, she was in Northern France and just a few days into her ride from London to Croatia. In this update, she reflects on what the bike adventure has actually looked and felt like across the weeks in between. Milica shares about:

• What her worst day on the road looked like
• Why keeping yourself fed is actually one of the most important things you can do out there
• When a bad day turned into a genuinely good one
• Why she loves Austria
• Insights from riding solo across Europe
• Cycling into Croatia knowing her family had to flee the same villages she's now riding through freely

Follow Milica's adventures via her instagram page - @2Wheels1Milikov

Check out Old Man Mountain's new Manzanita Handlebar Cradle

Support the show

Buy me a coffee!

I’m an affiliate for a few brands I genuinely use and recommend including:

👉 CycPlus– ePumps (enter code STR for 5% off!)

👉 Zorali

👉 Helinox

👉 Ombraz

Follow us on Social Media!

• Instagram - @SeekTravelRide
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Dreaming about taking a huge bike adventure? Then this episode is for you.

Ellie Mitchell-Heggs shares her insights from her solo journey where she cycled 10,000 kilometres across Africa from Rwanda to Cape Town. All up her trip was nine months long and took her across ten countries. It was also a ride that was layered with both a personal family connection to Africa and loaded up with a huge sense of purpose as well.

Alongside the cycling, Ellie spent time in every capital city meeting with over 100 local NGOs, social enterprises and community organisations working in education, youth empowerment and gender equality. Ellie shares how those conversations, got her through the toughest stretches on the road.

In this episode we cover:

• How Ellie got into bikepacking starting with the Vélodyssée down the west coast of France
• Why she chose to start in Rwanda and ride south
• The communities and landscapes that shaped each country, from Uganda's warmth to the brutal isolation of Botswana's flat roads
• 70 kilometres being swarmed by tsetse flies in a Tanzanian national park
• Canoeing four days down the Zambezi river as a mid-trip reset
• Grieving her father on the road
• Cycling through Namibia with two fellow bikepackers.
• Food poisoning two days from Cape Town, and the unicycle escort into the city
• What made those NGO conversations so energising

Find Ellie on Instagram: @ProjectCycleAfrica

Check out Old Man Mountain's new Manzanita Handlebar Cradle

Support the show

Buy me a coffee!

I’m an affiliate for a few brands I genuinely use and recommend including:

👉 CycPlus– ePumps (enter code STR for 5% off!)

👉 Zorali

👉 Helinox

👉 Ombraz

Follow us on Social Media!

• Instagram - @SeekTravelRide
• Facebook - Seek Travel Ride
• YouTube - @SeekTravelRide

Seek Travel Ride Newsletter

Leave me a voicemail message

Seek Travel Ride Music Playlist available now on both Spotify or Apple Music