The Road Ahead

We are now at the far eastern edge of Turkey, looking towards the vast landmass of Asia and wondering what lies ahead. We have cycled here from England and it has been a wonderful journey so far. 

If anything, it’s all felt rather easy - the weather has been kind, the terrain manageable, the food plentiful and the bikes have worked perfectly. Over the last few weeks, the weather has changed and we've had to deal with snow and colder temperatures, but we've been lucky enough to spend most nights indoors, invited in by local people.

By far the most precious memories of the last three months involve the people we’ve met, as we have hopefully demonstrated on this blog. Through our '100 Sporks' project, we gave a Light my Fire spork to everyone who helped us on our travels, and subsequently wrote about them here.

When we read back over the entries, we remember with fondness the Greek Orthodox priest who fed us soup while explaining his religion, the Croatian shepherd who called himself ‘Uncle Niko’ and who flagged us down at the side of the road to give us some figs and the Serbian road cycling champion who serviced our bikes for us. This is the greatest souvenir of our trip so far, and we would like to thank Light My Fire for giving us the Sporks in the first place.

One of the seven finalists in this competition will be given €3000 to fund their next adventure, and we would use this to continue cycling across Asia to Australia. The money would ensure we have enough funds to cover the whole distance.

We are looking forward with trepidation to the road ahead and preparing ourselves as much as possible for the adventures it will bring.

We will be continuing to blog about our trip at www.thenextchallenge.org so please take a look and sign up to our monthly newsletter. Thank you for reading and following our adventure this far.

Tim & Laura