Originally an 11 month trip the schedule has now been divided into key sections. (see hitting the brakes as to why). A full breakdown of all distances and stop overs is given in my book ‘The World at 15mph…ish’.

Stage 1: USA, Japan, Tibet, Nepal, India (July to December)

(a)  Seattle to San Francisco (1584 km) – the warm up

(b) Route around Japan – the navigation challenge (we now have a bilingual map to plan our route!) – Trip included Tokyo, pacific coast, up to Kyoto, over to Kobe, Shodoshima, Naoshima, Takamatsu, Tokushima and Osaka.

(c) Lhasa to Kathmandhu via Everest Base Camp. c 946km – the climb? This route changed on arrival… Unable to get Tibet visa so opted to cycle the Annapurna circuit instead! 5416m over Thorong-la mountain pass.

(d) Kathmandhu to India (it’s likely we’ll do some cycling in the North and then train to the south before flying home) – the curry trail? Opted for Rajasthan, Kerala and Goa. Involves a bit of bikes on trains but these are meant to be the best areas for biking. After Thorong la we didn’t fancy manali/leh!

Stage 2: Cairo to Capetown (January 2013-May 2013, 11,693km)

This section of the tour will operate through Tour D’Afrique.

Stage 3: Cycling from Epernay, east of Paris to Lecce in Southern Italy
Heading out to meet John’s father, Paulo. Catching the Tour de France on the way. Back to independent riding.

Stage 4: South East Asia, starting in Singapore and heading through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Finally heading back to Bangkok to fly home

Stage 5: New Zealand, and Australia
We arrive in Auckland on new years eve and will then head north before going on to explore the South island. On March 3rd we land in Brisbane and will then make our way around the coast to Sydney, inland to Melbourne and round the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide.

Following a short ride diversion to a wedding in Denmark we are now riding back to the UK from Trabzon, North East Turkey.