So here it is, the end of the trip. Time is incredible; how slow it can seem at times and how suddenly it disappears.

This video below is just to cover the last two weeks on the bike and not an overall recap. My plan is to do a video to summarise the trip, although I think normal life will mean that it will take quite a while for me to get round to creating it!

Florida was a mixed bag! The weather could not make up its mind and although I was negative at points about the people! It was really a matter of a couple of days and I certainly have left with an overall good impression of the state.

Cycle touring is possible to anyone that can ride a bike. The main challenge with a trip on this scale is the repetitiveness. I am someone who likes routine and has learnt that the key is to forget about the following weeks and months and just focus on the next 3-4 days. I did enough planning for the next phrases just to know it was possible and that was that.

I know that I am the fortunate one just for having the opportunity to head off on a trip like this. Not being married or having children and also having a job that allowed me to take 9 months off and know that there was still a career waiting for me. I know there are many adventurous people that would love to take on a challenge and their obstacles are far greater.

I want to thank everyone for the support I’ve received throughout this trip. In particular my family, whose interest and support sometimes verged on the side of obsessive! Vying against each other to see who could guess where I was heading next but always offering sound advice when needed. Also two of my closest friends, Susie and Kirsty. Where the distribution of support has most definitely swayed in my favour, I hope in 2020 I can try and rebalance that.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a lovely holiday wherever you may be.

The weeks are rolling by now and I have just over two weeks left before my flight home!

In these past two weeks a lot has changed; notably the weather/climate. The desert of western Texas is long gone and replaced by Louisiana’s humidity and water. The Gulf of Mexico, swamplands and rivers, including the Mississippi! This inevitably brings more animals into the area. The return of Mosquitos was a sudden annoyance, especially as I haven’t really had to deal with them since I was in Tajikistan! But also some much bigger animals that took me by surprise too!

I’ve spent the last three days in New Orleans and it’s been really great. Music and food everywhere. I would highly recommend it as a holiday destination. I did a walking tour round the city, a couple of museums which included one about the Mardi Gras festival and also a large section on Hurricane Katrina. I saw a gospel Christmas concert and also an amazing jazz performance in one of its birthplaces. And finally, I ate lots of fantastic food.

The video is longer than my normal videos (sorry!) – enjoy.

A day off in San Antonio, Texas is coming to the end and it’s been much more interesting than I had thought. I have to be honest, I had never heard of San Antonio before this trip but there has been plenty of things to keep me entertained for the day.

I have just crossed my halfway point across America and it’s gone quickly. I haven’t had too many breaks as I’m saving my free days for certain places coming in the second half of the country.

The weather is keeping me on my toes! From below 5degC in the previous blog to 25degC in this blog, and from windy days to rainy days!

On a side note, I managed to fix my dynamo cable on my second attempt at electrics! I feel silly for not giving it another go earlier but at least my solar panel got used a bit more.

A week of changing weather! Maybe I shouldn’t have commented about how hot the weather was at the start of the video; the incredible contrast to the end!

I haven’t been particularly good at capturing the last week on camera and feel that I’ve missed a lot out. A few keys things to mention: I can cycle on the Interstate roads, which are effectively their motorways. The rule is that you have to be outside of the city limits and you obviously have to stay on the hard shoulder. This makes sense when you start crossing some of the vast open deserts. I met a French cyclist who told me this, I saw two other cyclists on the interstate and I past a immigration checkpoint – yet I still felt weird and wrong cycling up the slip road! Unfortunately I wrongly judged this while cycling out of Tucson and accidentally got onto the Interstate before the end of the city limit and got pulled over by the police – first time for everything! They were very friendly and I got off the road for two junctions before legally being allowed back on.

Battery power has been an issue as the clouds started coming in, the solar panel was less reliable. Also, I camped for 6 days straight, so it is understandable that the power bank was coming to the end of its charge!

I have seen so many snakes – admittedly all dead and on the roads – but really big ones too! A couple of huge rattlesnakes and a fair number of tarantulas. Through the deserts in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, I haven’t seen this sort of wildlife. Also the variety of cati has been really interesting.

The landscape has often reminded me of Mongolia with the huge expanse of open land. I’ve come through the land of cowboys and ranches. Cowboy hats seem mandatory, even in cloudy weather and indoors eating a burger! (I was not brave enough to get my camera out!)

Cycling into El Paso and being in a city that is effectively half in a different country. International borders have always interested me and this has been no different. I do look forward to leaving the Mexican border behind me though. As you can imagine, there is a large border force presence and you’re never far from a watchful eye – however, it does bring a feeling of relative safety to the region, although I know it has had its struggles.

California, Arizona, New Mexico and now I’m in Texas. I didn’t realise that I’d crossed a time zone – found out and got excited I’d gain an hour, only to find out a short time later that the clocks had gone back the previous night for daylight saving! I was confused!

My flight home is now booked so I have a set deadline now. There is still some flex I the schedule and there is still sooooo much to see in this huge country.

I’ve been back on the bike now for 4 days and have just crossed the border out of California into Arizona! So, a fair amount has happened in the last week.

I successfully met up with Polly (sister) in San Diego airport who handed me a bag of goodies from my family – thanks fam. We then picked up the hire car and made our way to the booked Air bnb. I only have a limited amount of free time so we crammed all our sightseeing into three days. A trip up the coast, a surf/beach trip, a few historic sights and a particular highlight for both of us, was a whale watching trip into the Pacific. We were incredibly lucky as we saw three hump back whales and a massive pod of dolphins – the guide kept telling us that this was not the norm!

On Wednesday I cycled away. Polly and I met throughout the day. We got a small insight into the American Halloween on Thursday and a few sips of the local wine! On Friday morning Polly left me in the desert to head back to San Diego to meet a friend before she flying home.

Lots more desert for me over the next couple of weeks. I’m already amazed at what scenery America has to offer; and that was just in one state.

Not a whole lot of cycling in this video! I spent a couple more days exploring different sections of the wall and feel really lucky to have the time and flexibility to break out of the main tourist areas. I then cycled the short distance into Beijing city centre. As capital cities go, Beijing was the easiest to cycle in. There was always a cycle route to use.

The week in Beijing flew by and I was looked after so well my the Defence section at the British Embassy. I saw most of the main tourist sights and fully mastered the subway! The first time I visited Tiananmen Square was to watch the raising of the flag at dawn. I just made it in time and although I was warned there would be a lot of Chinese tourists there, I was shocked at the crowds that gathered at 06:30!! Crowd watching was far more interesting than the flag ceremony!! I couldn’t help but laugh at the number of tour groups in matching hats, running to join queues and trying to keep up with each other. It was worth the early start!!

I’m writing this on my second flight of the day. I flew to Vancouver and am now heading for San Diego. Fingers crossed my bike and bags made the transfer too! I am sad to leave China but also excited for this next part of the journey. With the obvious benefits of ditching the sign language that I’ve got so used to and being able to have full conversations with people I meet! Polly, sister no. 2 (I’m no. 4), is flying out to meet me for the next week which will be great, so not straight back onto the bike just yet.

A video that I put together as a short summary of the last 6 months is below. It was tricky to cut down the last 6 months into such a short time but I have enjoyed looking back. I posted this video on Facebook a couple of days ago and have had some really kind feedback. As ever, thanks for all the support.

I made it into China (eventually) without any problems…..success! At the border I bumped into a Spanish cyclist, David, who was cycling from Ulaanbaatar to Beijing. I hadn’t realised that there was a 3km stretch between the Mongolian and Chinese Border that is forbidden to cycle or walk between, so we had to load our bikes and all our bags into the back of a van and hitch a lift. The borders were pretty quick and painless and we were into the Chinese Gobi desert within a couple of hours. After a tough day of 4 punctures (!), David cycled off on a different route to me and I made my way to the city of Datong (I haven’t had a puncture since!!!)

Famous for the Buddhist cave carvings and the huge amount of money being spent on a very impressive walled city; I had plenty to see in Datong over the couple of days I was there.

I now have spare time, which does feel odd. I’ve made my way to the region just north of Beijing to check out the Great Wall. You can tell by the video, I’ve really enjoyed being back amongst the hills and the trees and so far….I have definitely been impressed with the wall, although I have a lot more to see. Not getting into Beijing until the 18th, so a few more days pottering around.

Having now put together this video, I can see it just seems to be a series of unfortunate events! So I apologise if it’s not the most upbeat video!!

I leave Mongolia tomorrow having spent a whole month in this country. I’m most definitely going to miss the freedom, especially when it comes to wild camping. I never had to plan ahead or worry that there wouldn’t be anywhere suitable to sleep. I had to carry a lot more supplies and remember back to how I got through the desert in Uzbekistan. But what I most enjoyed about Mongolia was the space and the endless landscapes. My camera could not capture that, but it is something I will remember. Although, I am happy to leave behind the huge number of empty vodka bottles discarded at the side of the road, and unfortunately the number of drunk people I came across. These are the minority, but something I was very aware of at times.

You’ll see in the video that I made an error getting to the Chinese border by not getting there before it closed for the Chinese holidays! I’ve had to wait three days and I’ve felt a little like being in the wrong house when there is a party happening next door! Oh well! You’ll see that I made good use of my time anyway!

Just over three weeks now before I fly from Beijing to San Diego and I’ve got a lot of exciting things happening in between. Time is flying.

I’m currently having a couple of days off in Ulaanbaatar and I’ve been exploring and also sorting out my kit and my bike.

Although I’ve been in Mongolia now for nearly three weeks, I feel it’s gone really quickly. I’ve said it before, but it’s such a large country and the distance I’ve covered, since crossing over the border, is the equivalent distance between home and Vienna! 1,000miles. I’ll leave here on Tuesday and I’ll be heading Southeast, through the Gobi desert, with my eyes pealed for dinosaur fossils! I think it will take me about 6 days to get to the Chinese border and that will be only 2 days off my visa running out. So I’ve stayed in the country for as long as I could (you can actually extend the visa, but I have a plane to catch from Beijing!).

I’m really excited to go back into China and especially to see a completely different region to Xinjiang.

Still plodding my way through Mongolia and enjoying the freedom of the wide open spaces. Although, as you’ll see from the video, the scale of this country really means I have to be better at planning! Food and water are not as readily available as they had been through China and even going through the desert in Uzbekistan didn’t require as much preplanning! Lessons learnt on many different aspects. Distances between hotel/guesthouse stops have doubled, which I’m happy about, as long as I have water and fuel!

I’m no bird watcher but one thing which is particularly interesting about the country so far is the huge number of large birds I’ve seen. The Birds of Prey that circle so low and rule the land! My phone doesn’t capture them unfortunately but they are very impressive, especially when I haven’t seen one and then a large shadow moves across the road in front of me and I look up to see this vast wing span!

When I was told about the number of empty vodka bottles that lined the roads in Mongolia, I put it down to exaggeration. But it really is impressive. I’ve seen hundreds, even collections of 3-4 in one drop. It was similar in SW Kazakhstan, and my only assumption is that the rural cattle herding communities are so cut off from amenities that alcohol is a past time.

I’ll put some pictures below, but there have been some incredible sunrises and sunsets; they make taking photos very easy!

I’m still behind in the videos and have another video half done. I’ve got 4 more days of cycling before I get to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, where I’ll be stopping for a couple of days.

(lastly, only rewatching the videos have I realised how bad my helmet tan lines have got!! Must work harder on the sun cream!)