All systems are go! Train, Ferry & Plane tickets booked.

The weekends shenanigans have really got me in the mood. So I have taken the plunge and committed myself to some dates this summer to go in search of Thomas Stevens. This morning I booked the necessary tickets to tackle Part One of my round the world bicycle trip. Just like Star Wars I shall be starting half way through the story and intend to complete the European leg of the adventure first. Chapter 5 to Chapter 9. This will mean just like Stevens I will take a train from London up to Liverpool arriving on the 2nd August 2011. From here I will cycle down through England tracing the footsteps and wheeltracks of the "white helmeted one" stopping at home in Apsley a few days later. I will then hopefully ride down to Newhaven via London with my lovely girlfriend and we will sail from Newhaven on the 11th August to Dieppe in France. Once in mainland Europe Maddy will accompany me to Paris before heading back home on the Eurostar. After I have waved her off at the Gare du Nord I will then be on my own onwards to Istanbul. I should arrive in Istanbul by the 29th September and will then fly home.

If this outrageous plan all goes well I can start plotting the next parts of the round the world journey. 

For any seasoned traveller or bicycle tourist this would hardly be an epic. For me on the other hand,well:

The furthest I have ever cycled in a day is 62 miles, the most days I've ever cycled and camped in a row is five. I have never been away from home for longer than five weeks and I've never been away from people I know for longer than 4 weeks. Add to that, it wasn't long ago that I never stepped outside my front door for two months. It's a big world out there and I'm about to cycle around it...........arghhh!

Volume 1 now completed

Stevens wrote an account of his journey entitled Around the World by Bicycle. It is a 1000 page, two volume document of the man's travels.
Volume 1 takes us across America from San Francisco to New York then by boat to England. Here he cycles down from Liverpool to Newhaven on the South coast via Berkhamsted and past my window!
From Newhaven he steams across the English Channel to Dieppe in France and continues through Europe to Turkey and Persia, finishing in Teheran.
Having now read this volume I am going through it again plotting every place he visited on a Google map.
It's quite time consuming but it really helps you get to know the places and his experiences.
If you would like to read the book for yourself you can download it digitally for free or read it online at the links below.
Vol 1. Vol 2.
Both volumes have recently been re-printed as one book, which includes some beautiful sketches of his travels that really take you back to a time of true adventure. Buying it from Amazon using the links below will help to fund my adventure.