Brian Sampson is cycle touring the world to tick off every destination from the book 'The Thousand Places to See Before You Die' This month's update covers the end of his time in China and his first stretch riding through England and Wales.

Brian shares his experiences of:

• Sleeping in temples and stealth camping in multiple continents
• Visiting Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
• Daily routines and how they change with climate and daylight hours.
• Welcome to My Garden vs Warmshowers
• A crazy experience of encountering a mountain lion on the Pacific Coast Highway
• Reverse culture shock going from China to cycling through England and Wales.

Follow Brian via his instagram page - @Brian.Sampson4

You can also check out his blog for a breakdown of his experiences so far.

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A few weeks ago Robbie was 500 kilometres into the Monaro Cloudride, a thousand-kilometre ultra race through the Australian high country, when a night-time Snowy River crossing went very wrong.

They ended up stranded on a tiny island in the middle of the river with their bike, waiting for a rescue helicopter to winch them out.

Robbie shares their experiences of this event including he decision to cross at night, what happens when fast water takes you down, the hours of calm problem-solving from a very small island, and what every bike adventurer should know about calling for help without shame.

Since recording, I'm glad to say Robbie has been reunited with their bike, and Guinness World Records has officially confirmed their record as the first openly trans person to circumnavigate the globe by bike. What a legend!

Listen to the first episode with Robbie about their world record ride.

Follow Robbie via their instagram - @DirtDropRobbie

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You're four days out of London, somewhere in northern France, and every evening you check in with your body to decide how far you'll ride tomorrow. Nobody is telling you where to be. This is your life now.

Milica Kovačević was commuting through London on her bike, listening to this podcast for inspiration to take her own bike adventure. Then she decided it was time to leave the city, and that's when she started dreaming about cycling from London to Vukovar, Croatia, where her grandmother and mother are waiting for her.

Milica let's us know how she prepared for the trip, including practicing bike mechanics on friends' bikes before she left, and how she plans out her days on the road. She also shares about the nervousness that creeps in the days leading up to going, and how turning the pedals is the best way to rid yourself of them.

This is the first of several check-ins as Milica makes her way across Europe. Follow along as she rides home.

Topics covered:

• Cycle touring from London to Croatia
• How to prepare for a long-distance bike tour
• Solo cycling as a woman in Europe
• Touring with minimal planning
• Bike mechanics for beginners
• What to pack for a long bike tour
• Cycling through France, Belgium, and beyond
• Human connection on the road

Follow Milica's journey: @2Wheels1Milikov

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Eleanor Hulm left Bangkok on a loaded bike she'd just assembled in a hotel room at 6am, sleep-deprived, slightly terrified, and laughing her way through the traffic. Four months later she's ridden solo through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan and she's just getting started.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• The 20km of peanut butter mud in Laos that nearly broke her
• Pushing a loaded bike up a 20% gradient in Thailand until her cycling shoes had to come off
• Pako, a bikepacker from Chengdu who taught her to knock on strangers' doors and trust what comes next
• What Eleanor calls the mind prison, and why the road gave her the mind palace instead
• The moment of awe when she cycled past Mount Fuji
• Signing up for the Transpyrenees ultra race with half the world still left to ride

Eleanor is heading next into China, the Stans, Georgia and Turkey before cycling home to the UK. Be sure to follow her adventures via her instagram - @elbybike

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Daragh Cronin has been on the road for 68 days. He left Blackrock, Cork, on a loaded bike with Everest Base Camp as his final destination, and this week he is checking in from Istanbul.

This is a midweek update episode, and it covers a lot of ground. Daragh has already cycled the length of Africa, Morocco to Cape Town, so crossing Europe was his second continent.

In this episode we discuss:

• Arriving in Istanbul after 68 days cycling from Cork across Europe
• The hardest moments of the journey so far and how he kept going
• What it meant to have a riding companion join him through Croatia and Albania
• The reality of solo cycle touring and what it does to your head over time
• Route planning through the Middle East amid conflict in Iran

About Daragh Cronin: Daragh Cronin is a solo cyclist from Cork, Ireland, currently riding from Ireland to Everest Base Camp via Africa and the Middle East. Before this leg he completed a solo ride from Morocco to Cape Town. You can listen to the episode where we discussed that adventure in full detail here:

Follow Daragh via his instagram - @roaminwithcronin and check out his fundraiser for the Children's Unit at Cork University Hospital.

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Megan Young is a UK-based ultra cyclist and bike packer from Dorset. She's raced the Atlas Mountain Race in Morocco as a pairs entry with her husband Angus, taken fastest female honours on the Dorset Divide, spent six months cycling through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile on sabbatical, and then finished that stretch with the Tour Te Waipounamu, a 1330km ultra race down the South Island of New Zealand. And right now she is lining up for Lostdot 101, a women-only road race across Spain and Portugal where riders plan their own routes.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Megan got into ultra racing and what it was like competing as a pairs team at the Atlas Mountain Race
• Three months in the Andes: kit, food, altitude, wild camping, and choosing when to get a bus
• Max, the stray dog in the mountains who became their guardian for a day and then vanished on the descent
• The Tour Te Waipounamu: 30km of hike-a-bike, river crossings she'd never trained for, and a DNF 100km from the finish line
• Her mindset heading into Lostdot 101, planning her own route, and racing with six friends from Girls That Ride Bikes
• Wild camping confidence, the earplugs trick, and what she learned from getting her food strategy badly wrong on her first ultra
• Women in ultra racing, what's changed, and why communities like Girls That Ride Bikes are helping to get more women to the start line

You can follow Megan via her instagram - @MeganOnTwoWheels

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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.

Support the show

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

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