Cycling Alone from the UK to China: 10,000 km in 90 days

Okay. Hi, I'm here in my flat in South

Wales. It is the 1st of June, 2024.

Um, I'm recording a quick video. I'm

about to set off on a cycle trip.

Hopefully, I'm going to make it from

here in South Wales to China.

Okay, and we're off. And you can see I'm

a little bit unsteady. The bicycle is

fairly heavy. It's actually not so hard

to balance at all. It just takes a

little bit of getting used to,

especially at slow speeds. So I'm just

setting off here from Pontipri and on

the first day I cycled across to Bristol

to stay with my friend. The fastest way

to get there is over the road bridge

which crosses the river 7 and there's a

separate path for bicycles and mopeds.

So this is quite a fun experience.

Okay, so this is not particularly

exciting footage, but I think if you're

going to attempt a long cycle trip

starting from your front door is a

pretty good idea because you can get

your confidence up a bit and just focus

on your fitness. you won't be struggling

with any of the other problems like

currency, language, food, or other

culture shocks. And parts of the UK are

really nice for cycling. I would say we

have some of the worst road cycling that

I've experienced in Europe because our

roads can be quite narrow and busy with

some good cycle paths, but often there

aren't many good options.

In Dova, I was lucky enough to stay with

a really lovely couple from the Warmer

Showers website or app, which is for

connecting cycle tourists. So, you can

stay with like-minded people for free.

And the next day, it was down to the

ferry port. Of course, I had to say hi

to the locals.

Hello.

Taking the ferry with your bicycle is

pretty straightforward. Queuing up and

boarding can be a little bit stressful,

but they do often take cyclists, and

it's usually pretty cheap, actually.

>> You can cycle straight down to the end.

Just follow my advice. Okay, great.

>> I prefer this a lot to flying with your

bicycle.

>> In the distance,

I see a shining light

in the sky. I met the maker.

When we survive

this lovely life,

what will begin

to make it in

when we survive this lovely life.

In the distance,

I see my mother's face.

In the rear view, I see it ageing.

It hurts my heart,

tears me apart.

But in the end,

we get together again.

Can we survive this lovely life?

I for

in the sunshine. I am my daughter.

She fills my voice. She wears my smile.

Carries on

now that I'm gone.

But in the end,

we'll get together again.

When we survive. We survive. Heat. Heat.

Heat.

Power.

We got to go.

[Music]

Heat. Heat.

[Music]

[Music]

I just stopped here for a break in a

place called Roseber. Um, Rust Un

Lindon. I guess it means rest under the

trees. Um I'm just about to go down uh

hopefully and join the Rine and then

I'll head south towards Frankfurt today.

So in Europe a lot of the time I was

following the signposted and mapped

Eurovailer routes which are sometimes on

dedicated cycle paths and other times

they're on sensible roads and I often

tend to follow the rivers too which is

usually a good idea because they're

flat. Although at times this area was

flooded meaning I had to take some

diversions. At one point, this nice

German man helped lead me through a

particularly tricky diversion. He seemed

sort of furious for some reason, but he

was actually really helpful. So, I

carried on mostly following the Ryan to

meet my friend Leonard from For Better

Science near Frankfurt.

Along the river, there are these little

fairies that will take bicycles and

maybe one or two cars across the water.

This is quite helpful because sometimes

the best cycle paths on like one side or

the other.

Okay, today my Achilles tendon on my

right foot started hurting a lot. I have

to take it easy and maybe take a rest

day tomorrow. little bit stressful

because I tend not to like taking too

many days rest, but I'm not sure I'll

have much of a choice if it keeps

playing up like this. I tried a couple

of ibuprofen.

Feels a little bit better, but yeah,

doesn't feel good. Okay, so I did take

it a little bit easier the next day. I

just did 65 km. Here I'm cycling with

Leonard. He took me down to the river.

And I'll save you the scuffed audio

here. I'm just explaining that there's

something a bit weird with the chain and

I couldn't quite put my finger on what

that was.

Okay. So, yeah, we're still just south

of um Frankfurt and I'm in the tent here

on a campsite aqua camping and it's

raining. This is the first test of my

camping endurance really.

Um, camping is fun, but it can be pretty

stressful and annoying when it's wet.

I've had a shower already and I've had

my food

and I'm just enjoying uh beer from the

campsite. I discovered the halfbroken

chain link and tomorrow there's a bike

shop 12 km from here. So, if I can cycle

on that knackered chain link, hopefully

I can get there, get the bike fixed and

carry on. Well, the chain has come off

my bike. It's just fully snapped

and I got about 6 km to the bike shop.

So, this was a little bit of a stressful

day. Uh, I eventually made it to the

bike shop. Had to kind of push and roll

my bike there. U, but I couldn't get my

chain fitted there. They weren't very

helpful. And eventually I managed to get

to another bike shop where the guy very

kindly fitted it properly.

This area of Germany is quite

industrial, I guess. There's lots of

trains and canals and barges. And I have

to say, I really enjoyed all of that.

Probably film too much uh other forms of

transport apart from cycling.

Oh, it's cold and it's wet this morning.

And I can like feel my Achilles tendon,

I don't know, scraping in it sheath or

something

on my right leg or ankle. It's Yeah,

kind of painful. I try some broth. Just

stopped at this. I don't know what this

is. Some kind of water construction in

the forest. I don't know if the camera

can pick it up, but it is just teeming

with fish. There are so many fish in

there.

It's one of those Google Maps moments

where just leads you into the middle of

[ __ ] nowhere.

Everything's a cycle path. This is a

cycle path.

There's probably a cycle path up there

somewhere.

Yeah, I don't [ __ ] know.

Just had my first fall. Kind of stopped

on a hill. Um, my left foot unexpectedly

locked into the clip. Um,

I don't think it's too bad. It's

bleeding a little bit. I think I'd be

less bothered, but it I'm already sort

of a bit sore all over, so

I don't want this to be the the straw

that breaks the camel's back. So yeah,

after a couple days of getting a bit

lost in the forest and falling off and

feeling a bit painful, I was able to

cycle this really nice stretch along the

river Denube, which goes from Germany

into Austria. This is a really lovely

area for cycle touring. I I recommend

this a lot and there's a lot of cycle

tourists along here.

There is a really strong tailwind. Um,

it's making today really easy. This is

day 15, I think.

>> Well, I'll save you the rest of that

audio. Predictably, uh, stopping to

remark on the strength of the wind.

Wasn't a great recording. I made it onto

Kremes after a diversion due to a

rockfall and I met this nice gentleman

there. I've completely forgotten his

name, but he also cycled from the UK.

I'm sure he was over 70 and he made

great pace as well. The next day I

cycled on to Vienna. I didn't actually

record anything, but I did pass

Austria's failed nuclear power station.

This is a sad story. It was constructed

but never opened. From Vienna, I cycled

for one day with Bernard, who I know

from YouTube. This was really great fun.

and cycling in Bernard Slipstream. I

think I managed my fastest average pace

for the whole trip.

Okay, so today I've just entered uh

Slovakia. I cycle this morning with

Bernard, who I know from YouTube,

um from Vienna

uh about maybe halfway to Budapest,

mostly on the river. Um quite a tiring

day cuz it was quite a long way and I

did kind of push myself to keep up with

Bird and his light road bike. Um

staying in a guest house feel a little

bit anxious cuz I spent a bit more money

here

and um food was surprisingly expensive

and just in general you can see a change

in um

well it's not like German anymore. Uh

there's a bit more kind of it feels like

a rougher area. The next day I crossed

over from Slovakia into Hungary and

cycled on to Budapest. Unfortunately,

here you can see that I'm really

struggling even more with camera

settings and this won't be the end of

the struggles. So, I made it to Budapest

in just about 3 weeks. Here's a photo of

my bicycle there by the river. This

isn't actually the first time I've

cycled to Budapest. I did this once

before in 2015. Um, but from this point

on, it's all uncharted territory for me.

Just here in Hungary,

there's a

random cannabis plants growing in the

edge of the field. Um,

definitely smells of weed. It's not

quite ready yet, but I think you'll

probably smoke it.

Okay, it's day 20. Let's take a moment

to shout some of the positives. No

longer need ibuprofen.

Um,

[Music]

whatever's wrong with my Achilles

tendon, my right foot seems, you know,

okay. I've been bitten a lot, but not

feeling too bad. And, um,

Hungary has

longdistance cycle ways. Didn't know

that, but in the south of Hungary, there

are these um nice cycleways to cycle on

where you're off the road. And

Hungarian drivers, for the most part,

are not bad. Um they will pass you wide

if there's plenty of room.

There are grasshoppers just everywhere

here.

Just feel them pinging off my bike.

I don't know if they're crickets or

grasshoppers, but Okay, it's calmed down

a bit now. Just like pinging off my bike

and into my knees. Oh gosh. Yuck. Yuck.

Yeah, there's a lot of them.

Okay, I'm at um the border near Hungary

and Romania. I just fell in the room

which in a way which felt kind of

unnatural. Both of my toes are now numb,

my big toes. So, I think tomorrow will

be a much shorter cycle. It's really hot

out. Kind of taking the energy out of

me. So, here I am crossing into Romania.

>> Now, keep right, then keep right.

>> And I should warn you, some of the speed

on this footage doesn't seem quite

right.

Honestly, the cycling became much harder

here. The roads were more challenging.

There's more hills, more heat. There was

some dogs that might run out in the road

or chase you a bit. Some parts were

really beautiful, but I would certainly

say cycling in this area of Romania

leveled up the difficulty for me.

This is beautiful.

So, there's a some kind of

river patrol going on over there.

Um, and there's a bridge, I believe,

down there across to Serbia, which I

will be crossing because this road is

absolutely insane.

Yeah, this road was awful. And if you

decide to cycle this area around the

border of Romania, Serbia, and Bulgaria,

I would recommend planning ahead very

carefully. Here's the route that I took.

And I have to say, it's simply

unreasonable to try to cycle the

Romanian side of the Denube around

Osava. Here's my reaction after crossing

into Serbia. Oh my god. Not a [ __ ]

lorry in sight.

>> The tour is one point.

>> Beautiful road surface. I'm going to be

honest. I think Romania is a [ __ ]

mess. I don't like it. I'm sorry.

I have a slow puncture

on my back tire.

So, I need to get that changed and find

a bike shop, I guess, and try and buy a

new tire. Um, no, new inner tube. I

fixed the um rear tire, but I found a

another problem is a pan

uh rivet is broken.

So, I really need to go to the bike shop

now to get in a tube. I need to get

spare chain link and I need to get

probably a bolt and a washer is enough

to fix that. So, I only spent part of

the day in Serbia before crossing into

Bulgaria. Along the way, I did spot a

beautiful Balkans Riverside scene.

Hey

Last couple of days I've been genuinely

trying to plan some easier days,

but these climbs along the um Neurovo 6

in Bulgaria really taken out me. Um and

it's hot. It's like 33° right now.

Uh yesterday the sun went behind a cloud

for the first time and felt like a

couple of weeks or something stupid and

uh felt like an eclipse.

Um, I only plan to go 75 km today, but

it is just um, unbelievably hot and hard

work climbing up these steep hills

and I've still got to basically cross

Bulgaria, which I think has a mountain

range in the middle. So, yeah,

tough going these last few days.

On day 26, I stayed in this old

schoolhouse in Bulgaria. I texted the

guy from his number on Google Maps and

he sent me the location of the key. It

was such a beautiful old building and I

had the whole place to myself.

Unfortunately, I did get a bit spooked.

Something went bump in the night and it

was really hard for me to calm down.

Next go straight.

So, I'm up here in the um I guess this

is mountain maybe uh in Bulgaria. It's

kind of mountain range which crosses

most of Bulgaria and I knew I was going

to have to get over it. I've gone for a

commute to recommended

um cycle way. I mean, it's a path. I've

given up cycling. Now I'm just pushing.

This is pretty steep. Um, and it's, you

know, not great for grip anyway. So, I'm

just pushing up here. And it's quite a

lot shorter than the alternative road

route I could have taken. Um, so far I'm

happy. This is an area where there are

bears. So, I've got a podcast on on the

loudspeaker on my phone. Uh, weather's

pretty good, actually. It was rained a

little bit this morning,

but now it's not too bad. And yeah, this

area is really nice. It was very

beautiful. So yeah, you can tell I was

in a good mood here. I think I recorded,

this might be the only bit of footage of

me actually cycling. And at the very top

of the hill, there was a monument to the

partisans. Quite a sad story. Some

resistance fighters died in a shootout.

I think one of them was 14 or 15. I just

took my second tumble of the trip there.

Um,

luckily I'm wearing these leggings

today, which is just a cuz it was

raining because it's it's steep. my

front brakes squealing so much and I've

been trying not to use the front brakes

as much and I picked up a bit too much

speed and then I hit

this this dirt sort of bank that was

very unexpectedly soft and went over the

handlebars. I feel okay was bit of a

shock but I wasn't actually going that

fast.

Just on the way to the border with

Turkey today.

Last full day of cycling in Bulgaria.

So, here I am cycling up to the border

with Bulgaria and Turkey. I didn't film

a lot at border areas, especially not

interactions with passport officers or

anything like that. There are always big

signs telling you not to film.

Immediately after crossing into Turkey,

I noticed an improvement in the quality

of the road surface and the width of the

roads felt much safer. Turkey definitely

comes with its own challenges for

cycling, but after the last few days in

Bulgaria and Romania, to be honest, this

was a big improvement for me and I was

really enjoying these first few hours of

cycling.

truck driver just stopped here in in

Turkey. It's my second day in Turkey.

Just gave me cold bottle of water. No no

no particular reason. Just uh beeped his

horn, stopped, and gave me a cold water.

That's really kind. I'm having a much

better time in Turkey. And look, there's

a stalk up there, I think.

So I crossed the border into Turkey

around this area here. There are a

couple of options for crossing Turkey.

Uh one idea would be to go through

Istanbul and maybe follow this coastal

road and area. I think their advantage

of doing this might be decent amount of

hotels and kind of tourist

infrastructure and it's probably a bit

flatter near the coast. the option that

I went for. I read that the traffic in

Istanbul was pretty bad. Um, and that

these areas might be a bit more

expensive. So, I went to the coast down

here, a small town or or maybe a small

city called Techadag. And then I got a

ferry which crosses the water here. And

then I essentially just cycled through

the kind of center of Turkey. Probably a

little bit less expensive to do. And I

think you can make a bit faster progress

to Georgia this direction. So today I'm

having a rest day. I haven't cycled

anywhere today. I'm in Taco Dag in

Turkey. Um I'm doing a big sort out of

my stuff.

Trying to see if there's anything to get

rid of. Um I went to the port today. So

tomorrow I'm going to get the ferry from

Teedag to the other side of I believe

it's called the Bos Bosphorus. Um I've

been doing some hand washing of clothes

in here. It doesn't really get your

clothes completely clean. Um, but it's

basically better than nothing. So, yeah,

first rest day in in 30-ish days of

cycling.

And tomorrow I'll get the ferry and then

carry on into the center of Turkey.

Nice country.

Just had a big climb up here.

That's the kind of

I went to the bulk of the climbing, but

there was a big

uh push up a large hill. Maybe I'll show

you the elevation profile. So, this was

one of the first days I really thought

seriously about quitting. It started

quite nicely with some lovely scenery

and a big climb, and I really started to

enjoy going uphills more as the trip

went on. But later on, I got caught in a

thunderstorm, and I really wasn't sure

what to do. I'd left my coat in a hotel

in Romania, and hadn't thought to buy a

new one, and I dillydallyed around

before finally deciding I better set up

my tent to try and keep dry.

>> It's currently a a thunderstorm.

Going to panic pitch my tent.

But I was already really wet anyway. Um,

but at least I'm not

cold anymore.

The tent isn't very well set up. I'm

hoping I'll just sit in here until it

the sun comes out again. This is not

fun. Um,

I should really have a coat, but I left

it somewhere. I didn't buy a new one

yet. And

yeah. been better prepared for this.

>> After the thunderstorm stopped, I went

to a local town and a guy in the shop

got to chatting with me and he was

absolutely insistent that they would

help me. And there weren't any guest

houses in the in the town or village so

they let me into a local government

building which seemed to be a kind of

dormatory and I was able to stay there

for a nominal fee that night and I

really appreciate the locals in Turkey.

I have to say that people there were all

extremely generous. I didn't film any of

this. It didn't feel right to shove a

camera in someone's face when they're in

the middle of doing me a favor. Although

I think they probably would have liked

to have been in the video. Anyway, back

on the road the next day and as you can

see, it's really nice cycling. But

there's one more problem to contend with

in Turkey and that is the dogs. And

while this group are not so bad, I

certainly had some some more scary

encounters than this.

You know,

[Music]

Well, there's the fog on the pond and a

whistle in the wind.

My grandpa was a fishing man.

He got an education bought a plot of

land

with the fog on the pond and a whistle

in the wind.

And every dog he had was his best damn

friend.

They'd be up in the hills with a gun in

a grand.

Beat the sun out of bed every morning

with the fog on the pond and a whistle

in the wind.

Yeah. The night he died, my dad had a

dream.

He saw his dad at the pond walking with

an Indian.

He said, "Hey, Dad." But they kept

walking.

And there's a fog on the pond and a

whistle

in the wind.

There's a fog on the pond and a whistle.

I don't really know what to say about

this part of Turkey, central Turkey.

It's uh it's pretty monotonous.

Nothing really wrong with that. Um,

I don't feel inspired to film much of

it, though. So, these public tabs are

everywhere in Turkey. It's a really good

place to fill water. I mean,

assume they're safe. Nothing drinking

from them all the time. Um the

microbiome enrichment

Heat.

Heat.

[Applause]

So this part of Turkey was uh really

great cycling. There were lots of steep

hills and mountain passes. Now this may

not look uh so steep, but trust me,

Turkish trucks do not drive this slowly

unless they really have to. U this kind

of terrain made the trucks look like

toys and a lot of them were coming from

Iran. So I certainly felt very far from

home.

I think I could cope with the the steep

hill and um busy road. The headwind as

well is making this pretty tough.

[Applause]

[Music]

rarest of moments here. Flat ground and

basically no headwind.

Oh, it's like easy to forget how

easy cycling is. There's three dogs in

the road up ahead. See, these are nice

or nasty.

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

Hey, hey, excuse me.

[Applause]

[Music]

I don't like the way you're getting in

the way of me.

Hey. Hey. Come on. Move. Move. Move.

just on the way up to the border between

um Turkey and Georgia.

There's a fairly quick change here

um from what felt pretty close to desert

to me uh to a very green space here.

Oh, look, there's a lake here. Um,

wow.

Yeah, another flat tire. Um, fortunately

I do have two spare inner tubes and it's

the front one which is a bit easier.

I've had a couple on the back recently.

Uh, this is the Turkish tire I put on

which has taken a flat. I'll have a look

and see if I can find what punctured it.

Very picturesque, but I wish there was a

proper road.

Okay, there's a tunnel and I don't think

we're going around this one. As far as I

can tell, it's about 2,000 m long.

There's one car coming behind me, but

this road is very quiet. Um, so I'm just

going to yolo it. I'll put the rear

light on.

I mean, the majorly upsetting thing

about tunnels is just the sound. I think

it's very hard to tell where cars are

and yeah, how fast they're coming.

So, here's the border between Georgia.

Best not to film too close to these. I

think we're into Georgia.

Instantly though, the road looks a

little bit more

um narrow and poorly defined. But

h not quite sure. I've been getting up

more than I can chew here. Uh but it's a

lot. Again, I'll I'll save you the um

horrible audio of the wind, but

immediately after crossing into joining

on the same day, I tried to cycle a

decent distance into the um country. Um

I chosen a route which went over, I

don't know, a mountain or a hill. Turned

out the road was was more of a path. It

was very steep and I got caught in

really heavy rain. Of course, it's not

raining now. As soon as it starts

raining, I I hide my camera away. But

after getting stuck in this, I kind of

had to take shelter in one of these tiny

little chapels on the hill. It's um very

windy and rainy outside and I cled up

this mountain and yeah, it's a bit too

much for me.

Coming to a tiny little church here.

Um I probably just have to go back down

and go to a hotel.

It's a cute place though. At least I can

be dry for a moment while I figure out

what to do. So I only spent two days I

think actually cycling in Georgia from

the border with Turkey to the capital

Tisi. I read a lot of good things about

cycle touring in Georgia online, but my

experience was fairly hard work. It was

windy, it was raining a lot, and I

prefer the roads in Turkey.

We're finally coming down this big hill

in Georgia.

Very tired and fed up. There was such a

strong crosswind earlier.

Yeah, tough couple of days.

Okay, so having made it into this area

here, there's a couple of ideas for

continuing the trip onto China. Uh, one

option might be to go through Iran. For

a British tourist in 2024, this is not

really the right idea. People are being

arbitrarily arrested in Iran. Even quite

recently, a couple of motorcyclists were

detained. But I have heard really good

things about cycling in Iran. So that is

a shame. Uh another idea might have been

to go through uh Russia and up to

Kazakhstan this way. I didn't really

think this was possible in 2024,

although I did meet someone who who did

do this the same year that I went. So

was possible, although I don't think it

was particularly sensible to travel um

in Russia, especially with the war in

Ukraine. And around that time, this area

of Russia suffered a major terrorist

attack. So I think a little bit too

risky for me. If you look on YouTube, a

lot of people have done a route where

they continue from Georgia into Azaba

and then that you can take a boat or a

ferry across to Kazakhstan or maybe Turk

Manistan. This was the route that I had

planned when I left. Unfortunately, in

in 2024, Aabaijan's borders were closed

to all uh tourist or foot traffic or car

traffic. Only trucks um could cross this

area. The only option would be to take a

flight from Tlisi to to Baku and then I

suppose I could have gotten the boat

from there. To be honest, this felt a

little bit pointless given that you can

fly directly from Tlisi to Acttoww and

and that's what I chose to do in the

end. So realistically of course I would

have loved to have completed the whole

thing without flying at the time. It

just wasn't practical for me and I don't

I don't regret the choices I made. I

think these were fairly sensible

decision to to take this short flight.

It's a pretty small distance in the

context of the overall distance

traveled. But maybe one day I can do it

again and um go through Russia or

perhaps even Iran. So the flight was

pretty straightforward, although I did

go through a fairly panicked 48 hours or

so into trying to get my bicycle

repaired. I think at this point I needed

to have the back sprocket replaced

because the teeth were really worn down

so much the gears were slipping. I also

got new brake pads and at least one new

tire. And I had to find a cardboard box

to pack my bike into. This was actually

a real struggle. And I met a guy at the

airport who'd been through the same

scramble. Eventually, I found a bike

shop that was just selling cardboard

boxes. On landing at the airport in

Acttow, I was kind of accosted by taxi

drivers who wanted to drive me to town.

But obviously, I really wanted to cycle,

and this was really the only tricky

experience I had with locals.

Eventually, I managed to assemble my

bike and cycle to town where I was able

to stay with my friend and his cat.

Don't know how the hell this happened.

Jane is just like tied in a knot. Um,

I've just had the the smart idea that

what I need to do is take the pedal off

and I should be able to untangle it from

there. How the hell does this happen?

>> So, cycling in Kazakhstan is where

things became incredibly challenging.

There are some really sparse areas where

you're going to cycle a long distance,

maybe more than 100 km between shops and

anywhere to stay. Sometimes there's just

literally no shade, no trees, no

benches, nothing. The temperature was

going like way above 35, sometimes up to

40° centigrade. And unfortunately, I

have to admit, I really messed up the

camera settings all over the place here.

I can try and rescue some of the footage

so you can kind of see what's going on.

But you'll notice the colors and the

saturation just look awful. In some

ways, this kind of hazed out footage, it

captures my memories quite well. The

brightness and the heat were really

overpowering, and it was quite an

experience for me to see camels just

wandering in the road. This environment

is obviously really alien to me.

I had to stop and have some cola.

Um, and I'm going to put some music on

cuz I'm just sleepy to be honest. It's

just um

yeah, very big and empty out here and

it's was hard to stay awake while

cycling in this. Okay, so this is where

I'm going to try and stay tonight. Um,

it's an old abandoned.

It might have been like a shop of some

sort. It won't be too obvious that I'm

here, but road's pretty close.

I just walk out on the road now. And

that's um what it looks like from the

outside.

Today's been very difficult. It got way

too hot. I kind of panicked and bought

too much cola and not enough water.

And I think I've got about as far as I

wanted to go, but I was hoping to find a

better camping spot. This looks all

right. Yeah. Need to rethink to be

honest cuz it the heat really took it

out of me today and I ran out of money

and nowhere except Well, the shop I went

to didn't accept card. It just turned

into a bit of a palava. I think I have

enough water to get me where I need to

go tomorrow, but

you know, I don't have enough food or

anything and this this will be a hard

few days. Well, tomorrow will be hard

and then hopefully I'll recover and

rejig and rethink a little bit. I'm

going to save you the audio again here.

This stretch between Acttow in Bayu

turned out to be really hard. I

underestimated how difficult this would

be. It's about 500 km and I aim to do it

in 3 days. The first day was okay. The

next day I did struggle and on the last

day into Bayu, well, it started pretty

well. These guys stopped while they saw

me putting on sunblock in the shade of a

road sign and they gave me some water,

some sweets, and quite by surprise, they

insisted I take some local currency,

which was so kind. And to be honest, it

was needed. Unfortunately, as the day

went on, the temperature really

overpowered me. And well, I'll let

myself explain what happened next. Okay.

So, um earlier this afternoon,

uh my water got really hot and I ended

up throwing up um

and just really nearly I don't know.

Yeah, it was really quite unpleasant and

scary.

I think the temperature peaked at about

38°, but for a long time the sun didn't

um go in.

Yeah. Embarrassingly, I flagged down a

lift um about 30 km from here to get to

the hotel and left my bike there. Um

I'm very tempted to stop now and I think

carefully about what to do. Perhaps I

need to just cycle in the morning.

Um now I'm thinking about getting a taxi

out there to recover my bicycle. I think

I should probably do that. I was tempted

just to leave it there and and get out,

but having recovered a bit. Um I'm I'm

thinking about um maybe carrying on.

But yeah, I mean it's not good to rely

on the kindness of strangers. Um and

that was a very scary situation. Maybe

my bike's already gone.

So my bicycle wasn't gone. Yeah. I took

a lift from around here somewhere um to

Bayu. It was maybe 30 kilometers or so

and I recovered in the hotel the rest of

that afternoon. And then just in the

evening when it had cooled down a bit

and I was feeling better, I took a taxi

back to where I'd left my bicycle. I

think I can probably find exactly where

I did leave it. It's somewhere on this

corner here.

Not here. Um maybe a little closer.

Let's try there.

There we go. This is the building where

I I I basically lay in this building.

There's no roof. um throwing up the hot

water that I was drinking. Um but yeah,

I came back in the evening, grabbed my

bicycle and cycled it back to to to Bay.

So even though I did take a lift in this

area, I did complete it by bicycle

eventually after the disaster a few days

ago. I didn't nearly give up, but I set

off again this morning um after a rest

day.

Lots of water. I got the frame bags. The

frame bottles are full. Full 5 L tank. I

got more bottles in each of the bag as

well.

Um,

so a lot of water. I set off really

early.

Okay, let's start with Burkiststan.

Um, so far pretty similar to Kaz

Kazakhstan.

Border guards of Isbekistan seem nice.

There's I guess what you can call a dust

devil off on the left.

Okay, so this is Beckistan. Uh the silk

road is just over on my left. Um it's

not silky smooth. So after Bayu, this is

another sparsely populated area without

much in the way of shade or shops. And

whatever is marked by Google isn't

always that reliable. It's about another

500 km to Nucus, which is the next big

town, but there are some smaller

settlements a bit closer. There's

certainly traffic along this road, but

getting through here on a bicycle is not

easy. I had a couple of nights camping

on the side of the road. Fortunately,

there's a new road which was under

construction. It was mostly closed to

traffic, but the workers were happy for

me to cycle on it. Unfortunately, I

started to struggle with punctures along

this way. Okay, so it's the morning

after camping.

The tire is flat again.

Um, thought about trying to find the

puncture with some water, but I'd rather

not use the water. And I'm going to

change the inner tube, then I'll be down

to my last inner tube. I mean, I'll have

none spare. Well, I haven't even gone 10

km and the uh spare inner tube is just

gone flat. So, situation now is I need

to patch the inner tube. Um, to do that,

I'm going to have to use some water, cut

open a bottle, um, find where the

bubbles come out. It's just started

raining obviously. So unlucky uh this uh

basically yeah still in the Beakistan

desert and I'm now fortunate enough to

be rained on. I'm probably not going to

use the rain coat. I think it'll be

okay. But it's pretty gray. Yeah, I

think this must be the best time to

cycle uh this part of the Silk Road or

whatever it's called. Not only is this

new road under construction um really

nice, it's completely traffic free.

Basically, only one or two cars are on

it. Seems like if you can climb the

obstacles and get on the road, they

don't mind you being here. Um but there

was a gate back there and they just let

me through.

So, it's like a

almost like a cycle path. We have one

car here, but basically empty.

It's raining outside and it's very

windy.

It's early in the morning at the moment.

Hopefully it'll improve. Um, it was

raining a lot heavier earlier. Now it's

light again.

This is pretty exhausting.

And by the way, I don't want to give the

wrong impression about Usbekistsan.

Obviously, I'm showing some of the more

remote parts here, but in the builtup

areas, like around here, I stayed in

some very nice hotels and went out to

eat at lovely restaurants like this one,

too. And of course, there were so many

people who wanted to give me stuff for

free as well. These guys just wouldn't

let me leave without eating some

watermelon with them.

So after this builtup area between Nucus

and OgenCH, there's one more tricky bit

um in Asbekiststan, at least for me, and

that's the distance between OgenCH and

Bukara, which again goes into basically

the desert area. And there really isn't

uh anywhere to stay or stop for about

400 km. Um, I've been gambling on this

patched up inner tube and it didn't work

out well for me.

>> Yeah, the back tire's gone flat again

and I've got no spare tube. The only

sensible thing I think is to swap the

the the front tube onto the back cuz

it's never been punctured and then patch

the the back one and put on the front

and hope it holds. Um,

today has gone really badly. Um

I am trying to cycle to

I don't remember the name exactly

back something. Anyway, it's about 400

km through the desert and I thought I

was well prepared but I didn't bring a

spare inner tube. I thought well you

know the patch has lasted very well and

I've got loads of patches left.

Uh I've used all of the patches and it's

still leaking. Um, I've spent a best

part of the afternoon just patching the

inner tube. I've used all of the glue as

well and I'm really in the middle of

nowhere. The only sort of saving grace

and reason that I haven't called it

already is that I have just realized

there are two patches and some more

liquid rubber um in the repair kit for

my

um air bed thing, my my blowup mattress.

So, I can probably use those on the tire

and I'm just going to try and see how

far I can get tomorrow. So, I probably

made it about halfway between Aench and

Bukara and I was around about here where

I filmed that pretty miserable video.

The next morning, I managed to get the

tire kind of patched up and I was able

to go about 5 or 10 km at a time between

pumping it up. But, a guy in a small

truck offered me a lift and I thought it

was sensible to accept it because if the

tire had worn out again, I would have

had to uh accept the lift anyway. was

kind of inevitable, I think. So, I spent

a day or two in Bkara, seeing some of

the tourist sites and um having some

some nice food and I stayed in a really

nice hotel there as well. This is a

lovely um city. I I just really

recommend visiting this area of

Asbbeckistan. Um so, after getting the

bike patched up and and sort of being

ready to get going again, I had a

difficult choice to make. Tomorrow I'm

going to start cycling again. And I

can't quite decide if I'm going to cycle

back to where I was picked up in the

middle of the desert and then turn

around so I can cycle the whole way. Um

or maybe just carry cycling on forward.

It's a bit of a difficult choice. It is

going to be uh 40° again tomorrow. In

the end, I turned back and I cycled 189

km in one day back to the pickup spot,

turned around and then started cycling

back to Bukara. I really wanted to know

that I tried to cycle every section that

I could and actually the cycle out there

wasn't so bad. I camped at the side of

the road, but the next day going back to

Bukara was probably one of the worst

days I had and I still don't really know

if it was worth it.

>> It's basically impossible to cycle.

It's um incredibly hot up on the road

and I've come into a storm drain

underneath the road and it's shady under

here and it's just about bearable. I'll

have to recover here for a bit. Um,

this has gotten just insanely

hot and

um, it's there's so much uh, headwind. I

just can't cycle. I have to walk.

You know, this is crazy. Uh, I'm hoping

there's somewhere to stop for a drink a

little further on, but I'm going to need

to recover down here for a while. So, it

seems like I basically became fed up

with filming after this catastrophe. And

there's not much footage as I cycled

back past Bukara and onto Samakand,

which is another really amazing city on

the Silk Road. It's around here. I took

another day or two to see some of the

tourist sites and get my bike fixed.

Again, this was a repair to the front

rack. It didn't actually last very long.

In the end, I managed to fix it in place

with cable ties, and I put most of the

weight on the back of my bicycle. And by

now, my rear pan was also fixed on with

cable ties. These are really handy

things to carry. So from here a lot of

people choose to cycle on to Tajjikhstan

or Kyrgystan and there's a really famous

road called the Paneer Highway. I chose

a slightly different route. I went back

into Kazakhstan and followed this

relatively flat area up to the border

with China at Zaren. So from Samakand I

had a few more days in Assekiststan to

cycle up to the border.

So here I am cycling up towards a border

crossing that was marked on the map. I

wanted to try and avoid going too near

to Tash Kent because of the traffic.

Unfortunately, this was not a border

crossing for uh international tourists.

Um and I had to turn around and head

towards Tash Kent. Anyway, one thing I

haven't mentioned and and I should say

is that the women in Asbekiststan dress

wonderfully. Um, lots of colorful

clothes. It looks really nice. A lot of

people in Askiststan as well have fully

gold teeth, which is quite unexpected,

but I guess it must be symbol of wealth

or something.

So yeah, I made it back into Kazakhstan

and pretty much the first thing that

happened, I stopped at a petrol station

to grab some snacks and drinks and the

owner just insisted I take it for free

because I'm a tourist. It's really so

kind and unnecessary, but that's what

people are like in Kazakhstan.

Heat up

here.

[Music]

So I'm currently um in Kazakhstan maybe

about 380 kilometers from Al Mate.

Um, I've pitched my tent at the side of

the road and it's been raining all

night. It's worth mentioning that the

tent is very good and I'm completely dry

inside, but I want to wait a minute and

hopefully it will stop raining.

Uh this is last night's camping spot.

Uh it's now a little bit cold.

Everything is is bit damp,

but it's forecast to be nice weather

today. I don't know if I can read the

sign from here on the camera, but it's,

you know, just less than 300 km to Al

Mati. Um I think I'm going to try and do

that in a couple of days. Um, so I think

it's camping again tonight, which should

be three nights camping on the trot. I

can't say I'm looking forward to it.

Um, but I'm up and it's not raining. Uh,

so yeah, let's pack up the tent and get

to it.

Okay, I'm not far from Almati Almati.

Um, but I'm not feeling very well. My

tummy is unwell. So, I've stopped a bit

earlier than I normally will. And I'm

going to rest and

um do the rest tomorrow, which isn't too

far. I think about 130 so kilometers.

It's quite a nice area here. Hopefully,

I'm not bothering anyone and no one

bothers me when I pitch my tent. Another

under construction road, which is uh

pretty good.

All the traffic's forced onto the left.

It's on the way into Alati.

Okay, this is the large battery ran out

yesterday.

I've been running the solar panel to

charge the phone and try and keep the

battery topped up. It's not brilliant,

but it does seem to just about have

enough power at the moment to keep the

phone in business. So, just on the way

into Alata here, and even though some of

the footage I've shown with fast cars

and trucks on the highway might seem

quite terrifying, the worst part for me

was always cycling in cities. This is

the most stressful bit. I took a day or

two in Almati to grab some bits for the

bike. This seems like quite a nice city

really. I didn't have much time to

explore. There was some amusing things

here. In the local shopping center, they

had a children's area called Lego Stan,

which included a mockup of Amsterdam

with a toy shop in the red light

district. Also, I bought some Sigma Laga

here with Comic Sands font. And after

this, I was ready for the last big cycle

up to the border crossing of China.

It's a lovely road out of Al Mati

towards the Chinese border.

>> The way I said that, you'd think the

border was an hour or two away, but it's

still 300 km from Al Mati to Zar Kent.

And I was struggling with an upset tummy

still. I made some kind of silly choices

here, skipping past some shops I should

have stopped at and not buying food and

water when I really needed to. At one

point, ended up basically sleeping a big

chunk of the day underneath a road

bridge because I felt really nauseious.

These were my last two nights camping.

And despite the struggle, I think it is

a fond memory now.

So yeah, here's a photo I took uh just

after crossing the border. Again, it's

not sensible to film near border

crossings, especially not in China.

After crossing the border, I was quickly

moved on from the immediate vicinity by

curious policemen. I'm sure you can see

that the quality of the roads was

immediately far better in China, but

there were some familiar obstacles.

Heat.

Heat.

[Applause]

[Applause]

[Music]

So, here I'm in China on the second day

of cycling. And in China, there's a lot

more recent construction. And there are

some nice cycle paths here. I even

visited an ancient city under

construction. And even though I think

most people know that Shinjang is a

sensitive area, should we say, there are

tourist stations with nice toilets,

signs in English, Korean, Japanese. So,

in some ways, tourism seems to be

encouraged. But I ended up having some

tricky interactions with the police

here. And I want to be clear that the

individual policemen were perfectly

nice. Uh, one policeman took me out to

dinner for questioning, but I was sent

back a long way at one point to a

checkpoint where some policemen went

through my camera to delete photos. Here

are some forbidden photos. By the way, I

also took some matching ones on my

phone, and they didn't ask to go through

my phone, which makes me think that they

were more going through the motions,

which are required by the chain of

command. Obviously, they saw my phone,

and they must know that it can take

photos. I've joked a few times that they

probably thought I was a spy or even

worse, a journalist. And in the end, I

only cycled a few hundred kilometers

after crossing the border to China. To

be honest, I think I'd had enough. I

made it my goal to cross into China at

least. And I did make it to China. I

accomplished that. If the conditions

were good, I would have liked to have

cycled all the way to Beijing. But with

the pressure from the police to register

and report and kind of plan where I was

going and this upcoming section where I

spoke to a guy in a hostel who was going

the other way and he said I probably

wouldn't be able to go on the highway

anyway. I decided to leave my bike and

take the long-distance bus and then a

36-hour train onto Shien and then to

Beijing. To be honest, as I crossed this

desolate area in North China on the

train, I just can't say I was desperate

to be out there on two wheels. The food

on the train was really nice and despite

the concerns of the conductor, I was

enjoying a few beers as well. So, my

last uh day of cycling was a tour of

Beijing on a rented bike. And I got to

see some other tourist sites in China

before flying home. All in all, I cycled

about 10,000 km, and I must have spent

something like around £5,000 on the

whole thing, including flights. But it

could have been done for much, much less

because I stayed in hotels whenever I

could really. I've met some cycle

tourists who make it a point of pride to

spend as little money as possible and

camp outside every night. And this can

be a really great budget way to see

parts of the world. I understand that,

especially for young people. But I think

at the end of the day, some of these

areas are still quite poor. And one of

the best things you can do is actually

spend money there. And I want to

conclude the video by just saying thanks

to all the lovely people, especially in

Turkey, Beckistan, and Kazakhstan, who

stopped to chat or help me out. Most of

the time I couldn't understand anything,

but people were incredibly kind. Several

times I was basically bullied into

taking food and drink for free. Cycle

touring is a little bit of a

self-indulgent way to travel. So, I

honestly appreciate everyone who humored

me, especially the two gentlemen who

gave me a lift when I was struggling.

The lady who looked after my box of

money and passport after I left it at

her roadside cafe, even though she did

scold me when I came back for it. And

and also thanks to all the truck drivers

who hooted encouragement and wave like

maniacs. It was always very funny and

motivating.