Cycling Home From Siberia

The other day I ran across the writings of a former Geography teacher named Rob Lilwall who is in the midst of a multi-year journey from Siberia to England via Australia by boat and bicycle. His homepage contains a link to his blog, which is part of the bootsnall travel blog network.

My dream is to embark on an adventure like Rob's in the near future, though perhaps minus the thousands of kilometers he logged through an icy Siberian winter. In the meantime, reading his reports from the road keeps me stoked for the journey to come. Rob is a talented writer and includes plenty of tips for anyone planning such a journey - his cold weather cycling guide is a classic.

A copy of Rob's mission statement, taken from his website:

"After 2 years of waging unruly battle with delightful kids and stroppy adolescents as a geography teacher at a school in England, I realised that cycling 40,000 KM from Far Eastern Siberia to London sounded like an equally exhilarating challenge and would also be a great way to raise money for children at risk… Estimated to take over 30 months, I aim to travel 20,000 km from Northern Russia to Southern Australia, and then 20,000 km back to England, using only bicycle, and where necessary, boat. I began at the start of winter 2004 from the Gulag town of Magadan (Stalin’s “gateway to hell”), cycled through 5000KM of tundra (camping in temperatures as low as minus 40) and then pedaled my way through Japan, across South Korea and on to China… after that it will be island hopping south through the Philippines and Indonesia and into the deserts and rainforests of Australia… before finally turning homeward bound via the most exciting route I can find through mainland Asia."