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On Saturday, 24th April, Michael Qiong, Steve Coackley, Adam Dalziel, Steve Gentle and Mick Bennette will set off on a once in a life-time adventure that will see them cycle 9000 miles from London to Beijing.
For seven months we will ride through Scandenavia, Russia and Kazakhastan before reaching our final destination in China.
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The tour will be self-sufficient so our bicycles will be fully laiden with all the equipment we need for the expedition: tents, sleeping bags, clothes, tools, bike spares and basic medical kit.
We hope to cycle anything from 60 to 100 miles per day with the odd rest day thrown in for good measure.
Our route takes us through many major cities, including Brussels, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Moscow and, of course, Beijing.
We will take these opportunities to do some site-seeing and drink some well-deserved beer!
It will be interesting to see the change in architecture and culture as we venture further and further east.
We will mostly be camping for the entire trip, sometimes on official camp-sites where we will have toilet & shower facilities and sometimes we will rough it in fields (sneakily avoiding the local farmer).
If we are particularly cold & wet, feel that we need a good nights kip and generally start to smell a bit (as is very likely the case), we will turn to a good, old youth hostel.
Michael has been living in the UK for the past 2 years but his resident country is China.
He has planned to ride back to his home country not only for the adventure and character-building experience, but also to raise money for a Chinese based charity: Project Dengke.
Steve Coackley has planned to ride the entire northern-hemisphere so will be cycling across the USA and Ireland after reaching Beijing.
He said he likes the idea of setting off in one direction and returning down the very same street, 12 months later, but from the other direction!
His original cycling companion dropped out and Steve was having second thoughts about doing the trip alone, so he turned to the magic of the internet where he learned of Michael’s plans.
Steve is also supporting the Children with AIDS Charity.
While in the transition between jobs and before becoming too committed, Adam thought he would take the opportunity to go on a truly memorable adventure that is sure to better equip one for life’s future challenges.
He hooked up with the group after reading a post that Michael had sent in a cycling forum on the internet.
Mick also teamed up with Michael through the internet and when his friend, Steve Gentle, learned what he was up to, Steve just couldn't resist!
We have set up this website so that we can share our travel experiences with our friends, family, press and anyone else who is interested.
We will be keeping a travelogue whilst on tour, so you will be able to keep track of our progress and check out our latest photos.
If you would like to contact the group, we have a message board where you can leave questions, comments or have a general discussion.
We hope to visit internet cafes once every couple of weeks so we will try to respond to any messages then.
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| We will be travelling self-sufficient |
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| We will pass through the Ural Mountains which divide the continents of Europe and Asia |
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| Michael attracts the local media |
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