Bluedome - Round the World by Bike

Round the World by Bike - a long distance journey around our planet.
Al Humphreys

Preparation Diary (13 August 2001) 1998
Café in Mexico with Dave (as we cycled from Mexico to Panama). The owner stacks up the table with steak, chips and many cans of cold beer, leaves us and goes to bed. That night was my first memory of the 'Round - the - World' concept. We spent the night establishing the 'rules' for the challenge.

Sept - Nov 2000
A gradual firming of resolve to do a big journey next year. A large map goes up on my wall and plans change almost by the day!

Nov 2000
The annual Royal Geographical Society expedition planning seminar in London. By now I am settled on doing the trip for charity and to try and break into the travel/adventure 'business'. The hallowed surroundings evidently go to my head a bit as I spend the afternoon discussing a possible trip to the South Pole!!

Dec 2000
Spend the Xmas holidays in libraries trying to unravel the mysteries of international bureaucracy, monsoon seasons etc.

Jan 2001
Round the World is settled on but there are endless permutations. Want to ride as near to the Bering Straights as possible. e - mails fly around the globe and hours are spent on the Internet everyday. Everything requires a giant feasibility study.

Jan - April
Spend all my free lessons at school poring over atlases and trying to establish a route.
Reverse my route to do Africa last - I want to visit West Africa but it's all a bit prohibitively crazy at the moment. I'll come there in a couple of years and hope it's improved. Bering Straight prohibitively expensive. Also realise time is too short to contemplate the bureaucracy of all the 'Stans.
By elimination a route is starting to take shape...
Oz incorporated into route for first time. Burma or not Burma? Appreciate I will ignore many 'tourist sites' and will find my own wonders. The route is becoming more direct.
These months involve countless spider - diagrams etc concerning route, aims, cost, pros and cons as I try to focus on exactly what I want to do and why etc.

February
Apply for various travel/expedition grants but they don't really cater for three year plans: the box for country(s) visited don't really accommodate 50 lines!

March
The route is vaguely settled. Write to high - profile figures in the travel world asking for letters of support.
Turn down an offer of a job at Henry Box School - a genuinely hard decision, but now my bridges are well and truly burnt!

April
Target sponsor companies. Trawl Internet for direct names to contact but still turns out to be very unsuccessful - a combination of slightly cold - calling, foot and mouth, me not having a proven track record etc etc. It's a fast learning curve!
David O'Leary sends me a shirt signed by all the Leeds team!

April
Website retailer (David Lynch) from Bluedome.co.uk talks enthusiastically about project and promises to try and sort out the camping side of things for me. Yes!
Amongst the encouraging letters of support Clare Short (on behalf of Blair) writes me an obnoxiously arrogant letter about how good her department is and Bettina Selby (cycling author) gets the wrong end of the stick about my project.
Take a leaf from Richard Branson and start carrying an exercise book around with me. Lists and lists of jobs develop, but at least they're all together now.
Tom Fremantle (who cycled to Oz and wrote a very good book about it) offers to meet up for a drink, nostalgia about being on the road and lots of useful advice. He's about to walk with a mule from Mexico to New York.

April - May
Letters of support and one or two small sponsorship offers trickle in.
Internet - Internet - Internet - Internet - asking questions, trying to network, thinking of climate, seasons, kit, bureaucracy, health etc
Tell Hope and Homes I'm going to raise money for them. They're delighted but can't do much to help as they are so small. It's a bit of a blow to my initial imaginary sum of money, but I've been careful never to declare a target sum of money: although the charity stuff is very important to me, it has to come second to the trip itself so I'm not able to dedicate much time to it.

May
Firm up a definite kit list. I have most of it already but my old stuff won't really stand up to 3 years of beasting. Choice of camera is big - digital or SLR. Who will give it to me?

May - June
Set up my own web page, but it's very shabby and I realise it won't impress potential sponsors etc. Send out plea for someone to make me a decent web page. Produce an 8 page 'booklet' about the trip. I'm really pleased with it and think it may belatedly help to bring in sponsorship. HHC say don't worry about professional printing: don't want to look like I'm flush with cash (hah!). Fortunately I have free printing at Uni so I abuse the privilege massively by running 1000 sheets of paper through. Realise I've typed my web address wrong - 500 more sheets!

Late May
Postbox empty for 3 days now. No e-mails either. Hit a serious low thinking "why isn't anyone helping me, etc, etc".
Soon realise though - why should anyone help me? Spirits really pick up - I develop new plans of actions, different strategies and get stuck in again with renewed vigour.
The Telegraph has an article about a bike ride to Cape Town (cyquest.org, I think) yet weren't interested in my own trip. Shows me clearly that a known name, contacts and good luck are all important. Resolve to keep persevering: I'll get in The Telegraph one day.

June
Change of sponsorship strategy - start targeting people for small, individual requests. Wheelie Serious in London offer to sort out all my bike stuff. Tremendous!
Amusing e-mail from another bike shop saying "do you think I've just got off the banana boat". Thought my trip was too improbable and that I was just trying to scam him out of some kit! Cheered me up.
Send brochure out to everyone I've ever met. Send introductory e-mail out to everyone I have ever met plus a lot of people I haven't. About 1500 in total. Tiresome hassle of deleting invalid addresses plus those who reply saying they aren't interested.
Things start moving - offers of contacts, potential sponsors etc. Someone phones another TV company for me. Tell them I'm not interested.
Make 'business cards'. Good fun but realise I should be doing something slightly more constructive! Focus on petty bureaucracy - visas, bank details, insurance etc. All the boring stuff. Amanda from Travcour.com offers to sort my Iranian visa out for me - what a star! I don't really have enough time on my own (and hate that sort of stuff) so was delighted she offered.
Get all my injections - God I'm organised!
Spend a lot of time playing with my new Leatherman, chopping up my desk and fingers.
E-mail Paul Deegan - mountaineer and writer - for some advice on getting publicity. He writes me a long reply but it's not what I expected, nor is it pretty: he gives it to me with both barrels! But I was delighted: it opened my eyes to lots of things and increased my search for a quality web site.
Get an e-mail from a school friend who (inexplicably) thinks cycling across the Iranian desert in mid - winter sounds fun. He may come and join me. Great - the more the merrier.

End of June
A manic week - my course finishes at Oxford so I have all this sorting to do AND also some serious celebrations too!
During a picnic I chat with a friends father (Mike Wooldridge of the BBC): he knows so many people and it really sinks in to me just how important useful contacts are in this business. Give him a few of my leaflets and hope for the best...
Speak to Victoria from the Daily Mail on the phone. Says she'll try and help out with publicity but also tells me what I have already found out: it's bloody difficult and a combination of good contacts and good luck are needed.

July 3
About to go off on a very ill-timed holiday. send visa forms to Amanda, pose for a portrait from old St. John's guy - Diccon Swan. Definitely my most unusual offer yet of sponsorship!
Final desperate phone call to David Lynch - I haven't heard from him in months. The prospect of cycling round the world in Dad's woolly jumpers looms large.

mid - July
Check e-mail in Marseille. Still nothing from David Lynch. Wheelie Serious still on the case. More offers of places to stay. Reuters want to feature me (yeehah! - rich city guys with cash and contacts!)
And this acquaintance of a friend of a friend of a friend has gone and made me a beautiful, professional web page all off his own back! Leah - you're a star!
Gave myself lurid pink rabies injection!
Coleman send me a huge box of sponsorship kit - feel like a kid at Xmas opening the parcel.

August
Contact made with David Lynch - huge relief! Hopefully he'll sort me out soon. Unfortunately he's off work sick so I won't get to meet him - shame as he's done a lot for me.
Wheelie Serious drop out - the lady in charge has personal problems. Naturally feel sorry for her, but I leave in 3 weeks and my bike is a heap of junk: I don't need that sort of luck at this stage! Edinburgh Bicycle offer to send me some panniers.
Just hundreds of mini-jobs to go now. Oh yes, a couple of big ones too (like mending my bike!)