It all suddenly feels very real!

bike

Oh maaaan! My mad, crazy dream to cycle to Australia suddenly feels very real! Don’t get me wrong, it is still a mad and crazy dream, but whereas for the past couple of years it has been a wild notion, confined merely to my head, it is now a living, breathing ambition, with substance, and finally feels like it will happen: I bought the bike, my ticket to faraway places and an incredible adventure!

I had had my eye on the bike on Gumtree for a while; it met all the criteria my limited bike knowledge realised might be useful on such a trip, two wheels, a saddle, and so on 😉 Okay, I knew a bit more about what I was looking for than that! While visiting a friend in Glasgow, we made an excursion to Edingburgh, which seemed like a good opportunity to give the bike ago. I didn’t know that I’d be leaving Edinburgh with a crying bank balance, a much lighter wallet, but also a bike!

As I was heading to the bike shop, I was anxious as I really wanted to make sure I was spending my money as wisely as possible, but more than that, I, for pretty obvious reasons, didn’t want to look like an absolute tool! And believe me, there were plenty of opportunities to do that. My biggest concern was that, having mentioned my plans to cycle to Australia, I would give the bike a trial ride, and make a a mistake with the clipped in pedals, and fall square on my face. Alternatively, I had visions of seasoned cyclists at the shop probing me with questions, and laughing at the amateur and his naive plans. Thankfully, neither of those scenarios happened. In fact, when I returned from getting cash out, the original chap I had spoken to must have let word out, and I came back to a small gathering in the shop, interested in the trip, all who were very supportive and encouraging (and most importantly of all, only asked questions I could answer :p).

So yeah, that’s just an update on the bike tour – Next week when I get back, there’ll be a bit of a techy post looking closely at the bike and the different parts.

To keep up to date with the bike tour, don’t forget to subscribe to the blog and follow on twitter: @JosiahSkeats

2 Replies to “It all suddenly feels very real!”

  1. Well done and, good luck.

    1. Thank you so much!
      It’s all very exciting!

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