Some people travel around the world on airplanes, some on horseback and others on bicycle. Mark Beaumont is one of the latter. On Friday February 16, the Scotsman arrived in Paris, completing his round the world bicycle journey of 18,000 miles which took him exactly 195 days and six hours. Mike’s not the only one to attempt to bike around the world, but he certainly is the fastest. The 25 year old vegetarian — he had to eat 6,000 calories a day in order to keep up his energy — beat out the previous record by 81 days.
So what’s on the packing list when whizzing around the world on two wheels? 80 kg of gear, a very expensive bike, and probably a little bit of motivation thanks to trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records; he is expected to enter the famous book once his journey is verified. Add to that a little common sense — he changed his route to avoid the insurgency in southern Thailand when crossing to Malaysia — and you have the ingredients for the finest, and toughest, of world travelers.
What were some of his global lessons? There’s too much fast food in America and Australia, you can cycle across Holland in four hours, you never know when your wallet is going to be stolen by crack addicts, and Istanbul provides for the scariest cycling. Sounds like the beginnings of a great travel book if you ask me, so for his adventurous spirit, I think Mark deserves a nice round of virtual applause.