Humphreys - Moods of Future Joys: Around the World by Bike Part One: From England to South Africa

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, OBE

Alastair Humphreys expedition was out of the ordinary.

In todays world of dashing up Everest in less than a day, sailing round the world in 10 weeks, and best-selling books about three-month motorbike rides, Alastairs journey stands out as amazing. It was probably the first great adventure of the new Millennium.

This journey was an old-fashioned expedition: long, lonely, low-budget and spontaneous. It was a life on the road rather than a whirlwind break from home.

An expedition lasting four years requires tremendous persistence, flexibility and self-discipline. To cycle, mostly alone, so many thousands of miles down the lonely roads of some of the worlds wildest regions demands great strength and toughness mental as well as physical.

When Alastairs carefully prepared plans to ride through Central Asia to Australia collapsed, he would have been forgiven had he shrugged his shoulders at the tough luck, given up and returned home to have a go at something else. But to change his route so drastically, to turn spontaneously and ride instead through the Middle East and Africa showed enormous determination, lateral thinking and a love for life and for adventure.

He aimed high, minimised his risks as best he could, and then leapt in with enthusiasm, trusting to the general good nature of mankind to help him through. The reward was an impressive circumnavigation of the planet crossing five continents that a journey! Alastair certainly did not take easy options on his journey (a winter in Siberia, a summer in the desert of Turkmenistan are examples) and this of course made success all the sweeter.

Alastair set himself a ferocious challenge, an old-fashioned quest, and got on his bike to see how hard he could push himself, what he could endure, how far he could go. He must be proud of pulling it off, against the odds and against the doubts of so many.

I am sure Alastair learned a great deal, about the world, about himself, during the often lonely weeks and months and years of hard work. This expedition demonstrated that all things are possible if you work hard enough to achieve them. I would like to congratulate Alastair on his impressive accomplishment and wish him the very best of luck with his future exploits.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Explorer