100,000 Kilometre Solo Circumnavigation of the World by Bicycle and Sail

NEWS

May 15. Crossed into Norway—country #15. This photo was taken at 12:42 AM. It’s too weird camping in daylight. My body doesn’t know when to get tired.

I’ve arrived in Western Europe, crossing the border into Finland at 23:50, April 15 (last day of my visa) after 13,000 km across Russia, China, Mongolia and a little more Russia.

View Earth Odyssey Route in a larger map

On December 10, 2006 I set off from Melbourne, Australia with a scant kit of basic necessities, a world map and an open itinerary, on a solo expedition to cycle and sail around the world. Over the course of the journey I will travel 100,000 Kilometres across six continents, fifty countries, five seas and two oceans.

In February 2008 I arrived in Hokkaido, Japan—completing the first stage of the expedition—where I remained for over three years saving money to continue this journey.

During the fourteen-month journey I cycled 3,500 kilometres up the east coast of Australia before boarding the first of four yachts en route to Asia. I was at sea for two months and sailed 3,400 nautical miles over Cape York Peninsula, across the Gulf of Carpentaria and through the Arafura, Timor, Banda and Flores seas to Indonesia. After docking in Singapore I cycled a further 6,000 kilometres through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China and Japan.

The journey so far has been rewarding but also challenging: dodging bushfire, troubles at sea, contracting Malaria, getting robbed and cycling through troubled south-east Thailand. Challenges are an essential element of the experience and so too are the characters I have befriended along the way, and I’ve been humbled by the generosity and support of many people during the first stage of the expedition and throughout my time in Japan.

I’m now travelling the second stage of the journey from Japan to Europe.

Benji