Chris Petermnn has been cycling across the world for four years. When he set out to cross the Sahara on the final leg of his Africa circumnavigation, he was craving one silence. After months of never being alone in West Africa, the desert felt like it might finally offer him some peace. Unfortunately, what he got instead was 1,500 kilometres of relentless headwind.

In this Tuesday snippet, Chris takes us through his ride north from Nouakchott in Mauritania, through Western Sahara and up toward the Atlas Mountains. Fair to say it was a stretch that pushed him to rock bottom more than once. He talks about sandstorms, sleep deprivation and a strange sense of envy from watching other cyclists cruise past with the wind at their backs.

It's a raw and honest account of what long-distance cycling in one of the world's most extreme environments actually feels like and how the headwind becomes a relentless mental battle.

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What does it take to cycle 15,000 kilometres from Scotland to China along the ancient Silk Road? And what happens when the countries you just rode through are plunged into war the moment you get home?

In 2009, Helen Watson and her husband Ed clipped in at Glasgow and pointed east. Their route took them through Syria, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and into China, riding one of the most remote, politically charged and culturally rich corridors on earth.

Months after they got home, the Arab Spring broke. And the world they had just ridden through started burning.

We discuss:

• What it really means to cycle tour through the so-called Axis of Evil
• How bike touring gave them access to homes and lives no other travel could
• Riding as a woman through deeply traditional societies across the Middle East and Central Asia
• The moment the Arab Spring broke and the helplessness of watching those places burn
• How the hospitality they received on the road led them to sponsor the first Syrian refugee family into Scotland

Helen's book Tea and Grit: A Bicycle Journey Along the Silk Road is out now and available for purchase here here: https://www.helenwatsonwriting.com/

If you've ever wanted to cycle Central Asia, ride through Iran, or just hear one of the most extraordinary bike adventure stories to land on Seek Travel Ride, this is the episode for you.

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Brian Sampson is cycling through China for the second time, and this update is packed with everything you'd actually want to know before attempting it yourself. He covers the apps that make daily life manageable (WeChat, Alipay, trip.com, and a VPN you'll need from day one), how to find hotels that accept foreign passports, what border crossings look like, and why cycling in northern China is a completely different experience to the mountainous south.

Brian also shares his highlights so far including the Terracotta Warriors, the Great Wall at Yanmen Pass, and a hidden ancient town in Hunan Province he thinks deserves far more attention than it gets.

Be sure to follow Brian via his instagram @brian.sampson4 - to keep up to date with his adventures.

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Leonie Katekar was 56 years old when she set off solo from Guatemala to cycle 12,000 kilometres to the tip of South America and had no prior solo bike travel experience. The whole adventure was driven by one question: what would you do if you weren't afraid?

In this episode:

• The chaotic Day One in Guatemala: lost, dehydrated, and rescued by a stranger before finishing half the ride
• Managing Central American heat by riding from 4:30am and being done before the worst of the day
• Getting blown clean off her bike in the winds of Patagonia
• Two back-to-back 4,000-metre passes in Peru and the moment she knew she could finish this
• Riding through Nicaragua despite every travel warning, and what she actually found there
• Traveling solo as a woman through South America
• The unexpected shift in her relationship with her four kids
• An Antarctic cruise, a book, and what she's planning next

Leonie's book When We're Not Afraid is available at leoniekatekar.com - order direct for a signed copy.

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If you're planning to cycle Southeast Asia, or just want to hear what it's actually like, this one's for you.

Olly Hargreaves is back with an update and this time he's sharing how his girlfriend Ellie has decided to give bikepacking a go.

Olly rode to Thailand from the UK and Ellie's longest ride prior to this, was about 30km! We'll hear how they got on, Ellie's first big day on a loaded bike straight out of Bangkok heading south through Thailand and into Malaysia.

This episode covers what cycling this route is actually like. Riding on the coastal roads, dealing with the intense heat and humidity, the dog chases, the scenery, the thunderstorms, and a border crossing that nobody could confirm was open.

It also covers the wildlife at Khao Sok National Park, getting scuba certified on the way through, and the honest reality of long days on a loaded bike when you've never done it before.

Thailand gets a 10 out of 10. Malaysia is a different story.

Be sure to give both Olly and Ellie a follow on instagram via -@sagas.of_olly.hargreaves and @Ormerod_Fitness

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Javier Carrasco rode from Austria to the other side of the world on a bike rescued from a dumpster. Over 20,000 kilometres and 200,000 metres of climbing travelled on a bicycle that cost him exactly nothing.

Javi is the partner of previous guest Rebecca Gross, and while Rebecca made it back to Austria after a year on the road, Javi wasn't quite ready to stop. I got to catch him in person here in Canberra before he headed north, and we sat in the sunshine at the National Arboretum and talked about all of it.

It's been a huge journey that's taken him through the Balkans, Turkey, Iran, into Iraq, through Tajikistan's remote Bartang Valley, across Mongolia, solo onto the Tibetan Plateau at minus 20 degrees, through China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and all the way to Australia.

Be sure to follow Javi's adventures via instagram on - @hackerbikepacker

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In this solo episode, I'm talking about post-adventure blues. The experience of coming home after a big journey and finding it so much harder than you ever expected. It's a theme that has come up again and again across three years of conversations on this show, and one I've been deliberately exploring with guests for the past year.

The prompt for this episode was a brilliant piece of research by previous guest Alee Denham of cyclingabout.com. Alee fed every transcript from Seek Travel Ride into AI and surfaced the seven biggest lessons bike touring teaches you across 170 podcast guests. The findings are genuinely fascinating and I'd really encourage you to go and read the full article here:

But when I read it, one thing was missing and it was dealing with post adventure blues.

In this episode I dig into why it might not have surfaced in the data, share what I've picked up when interviewing guests and beyond them, and lay out my own three-part hypothesis on why it hits some people harder than others.

Guests referenced in this episode include Steph Devery, Luke Grenfell-Shaw, Alastair Humphreys, Daragh Cronin, Mark Gresser, Claire Wyatt, Paul Edkins, Samer Abouhamad, Tristan Ridley, Madeline Hoffmann and Jesus Estrada.

And if you haven't read Alee's previous article ranking the top cycling destinations by podcast guest, that one is worth your time too and you can check it out here.

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What if the whole point of racing ultras wasn't the race at all? Claire Stevens is a surgeon and ultra cyclist who rides for the experience of pure presence in wild places.

She has lined up for events such as the Indian Pacific Wheel Race, Silk Road Mountain Race, Race to the Rock, Rhino Run and GB Duro.

We get into what happens to your senses when you push into the night, what it actually feels like to cycle in the huge mountain landscapes of Kyrgyzstan, the flooded river crossing at Race to the Rock that nearly went very badly and the experience of rolling into Uluru at sunrise.

There is also a genuinely wonderful amount of time talking about birds.

Be sure to follow Claire's future adventures via her instagram - @surgeonabike

Other guests mentioned in this episode:

Katrina Hase

Seek Travel Ride is a podcast about cycling adventure, ultra endurance cycling and the stories of people who ride to experience the world.

Check out the Manzanita Cradle from Old Man Mountain

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