Touring - 35322 Miles What a tour!!!

Just wanted to share this story that was in our National papers.

Cyclist Richard Greg quit his job, waved goodbye to his pals and pedalled off to see the world and has just returned 14 years later.

Richard planned a 2 year sight seeing break when he set off on his £500 mountain bike in 1990.but he just kept going and even got married. Richard, 41yrs finally returned to Sheffield because he FELL OFF and broke his leg. He had cycled 35,322 miles across 6 continents during his marathon, West and East Germany were unified, the USSR split up and there were 2 Gulf wars. Richard married a Japanese girl on the way but still carried on cycling. His trip which wore out his first bicycle ended when he skidded on oil. He was flown home for treatment to his leg. Mechanical Engineer Richard said " I thought I would be back in 2 or 3 yrs but I just kept getting sidetracked." ( I love that bit!) " There was just so much to see and I would have been away for a few more years if I hadnt had the accident." Richard started his trip with £14,000 savings. He crossed Europe Africa India and China and ran out of cash in Japan in 1994, taught English there for 2yrs, met a Japanese girl and they cycled through Vietnam Singapore Indonesia and Australia.
His wife flew back to Japan the following year but Richard continued to Fiji then the US Canada and South America. He said " What a trip! I saw the Himalayas Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyons, was chased by a rhino and watched baseball in a San Quentin jail." He may now settle in Japan with his wife.

Somehow I doubt he'll settle. He seems like a wanderer that wants to explore every nook and crany.

But credit to him. It's an impressive journey anyways. :)

Check out Ian Hibell at bikebrothers.co.uk he has 250000 touring miles all over the world and he is still going strong in his 70's.

Well if I will do the half of Ian Hibell at 70 plus I would be very pleased with myself. Great link, good reading.

Don't mean to be negative but,

35322 miles over 14 years isn't touring most of the time. That breaks out to only to 7 miles per day riding. He spent most of his time not touring but in a settled place.

14 years?!? That's kinda crazy.

There's a line between being adventurous and completely losing your grip on reality. Or avoiding reality. Methinks he crossed this line.

Don't mean to be negative but, 35322 miles over 14 years isn't touring most of the time. That breaks out to only to 7 miles per day riding. He spent most of his time not touring but in a settled place.

Nah, the article says he spent too years settled in Japan. The rest of the time he was moving, and even if it is only 7 km per day, that is still touring to me. As you long as you end up in a different place that you started the day in, it's touring. =)

Yeah I agree with that, each to their own speed, if it was me I would do more than 7 km per day, but like him I would be staying in different places and meeting different people and all I would have would be on my bike, I guess he would be a laid back tourer.

If we assume twelve years of actually travelling, and two resting days per week, plus two weeks a year off for special events such as holidays and other things, the distance per day comes to around 21 km, or 13 miles.
Still not much, but to do that almost every day... Wow!