The Surprising Truth About Cycling Across A Continent

Yesterday, Tim & Laura Moss went for a bike ride.

They set off from Tim’s place near London and pedalled across the Surrey Hills for a few pleasant hours beneath glorious sunshine.

In the evening, they stopped riding and pitched camp.

Treated to a barbecue, camp fire, rainbows and glow worms this evening. An excellent first night.

— Tim Moss ???????? (@NextChallenge) August 18, 2013

This morning, they got up, had breakfast, and packed away their tent. (Or so I assume. They might well be having a lie-in.)

Imagine they’re now cycling back to Tim’s place. Some would call what they’ve done a #microadventure. Others, an S24O. Most of us wouldn’t bother with silly buzzwords and would just call it a bike ride with a some camping thrown in.

And most of us wouldn’t feel too concerned about the prospect of doing something similar — right?

Tim & Laura aren’t cycling back to Tim’s place. 

They’re going to continue in the same direction as yesterday. They’re going to pitch camp again tonight. And they’re going to keep on doing this. Until they get to Australia.

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The only difference between going away for a night and going halfway round the planet is repetition.

For how long could you repeat a pleasant day’s ride followed by an interesting evening under the stars?

Quite a while, I’ll bet, if every day were different to the last. And I’m betting that the prospect sounds a lot less arduous than ‘cycling to Australia’. (Unless you’re reading this in Australia. Substitute for ‘England’.)

It is critical to understand this, the present-moment on-the-ground reality of cycling across continents, if we dream of doing so ourselves. We cannot allow the epic scale of the idea to overwhelm us. When we reduce our thinking to the scale of the constituent parts involved — a simple bike ride and a night in the great outdoors — the idea suddenly feels eminently manageable.

(So manageable, ironically, that those for whom the ‘insurmountable challenge’ is the driving force are often disappointed by the truth.)

I‘m about to cycle across Europe and Asia. Do you know anyone that I might pedal past on my way? http://t.co/bpu6C7wTAJ

— Tim Moss ???????? (@NextChallenge) August 14, 2013

Tim’s been blogging for years and I have no doubt that his and Laura’s unfolding journey will be an inspiration to many. You can follow it at thenextchallenge.org. I’ll revisit his story in a few months’ time to see just how far all those day-rides and overnight camps have taken them…