Taking up cycling to get healthy is all very well but riding a bike from London to Christchurch seems a bit excessive.
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All the same, that’s what Jeremy Scott did, and on Friday night he told an audience in the library in Glen Innes all about it.
His journey took him across Europe, Turkey, Iran and then up through central Asia (so avoiding Afghanistan, Pakistan and India). From China, he went to South Korea and Japan and back to China and then down through Vietnam and south-east Asia to Bali and then Darwin.
In Australia, he toured for 8,000 kilometres, raising money for the Australian Heart Foundation, before going home to New Zealand – a mere 51,916 global kilometres on the saddle.
How was his bottom? “It was terrible for the first half of Europe”, he said.
The journey took him two-and-a-half years (from October, 2011 to May, 2014) and he went through 29 countries. He aged from 38 to 41.
He had frightening experiences with criminals in Iran and the Philippines but his overwhelming impression is of kind and interesting people.
Fortunately, he’s a very good photographer and he took some awesome pictures which he has published in a book – “The Long Road from a Broken Heart”.
Why a broken heart? Is this a story of tragic romance?
It is not. When he was a child, Jeremy suffered from a hole in his aorta valve, something he says “cruelly denied him the opportunity to live the life of a normal healthy child”. At four years of age, he had open heart surgery.
The bike ride was part of his process of strengthening his heart.
It seems a bit radical, though. He said he was in a job in an architect’s practice in London and realised he was in danger of not living life to the full – of missing out on big, memorable experiences.
“I felt like I needed a big challenge in my life. I was sick of making excuses, of having ideas and then not carrying them through.
His question to himself was: “Can I think of five days which I will remember when I am an old man?”
The answer was “no” so he decided to create the memories by going on the adventure. He used his savings at a rate of $700 a month total cost (food, accommodation punctures, ferries, the lot).
What next? Alaska to the tip of South America.
Easy. North to South so it’s downhill.
He’ll have a sore bottom, though.