This is the diary of our trip around the world by bicycle.

Our legs pedalled for over 48,000km, taking us through 30 countries along the way. The entries on this page are organized so you can read the journals by country, in (mostly) chronological order.

Sometimes you’ll find that we visited a country twice but all the journals are on one page.

Looking for practical information on a country we cycled? Check out our Resources For Bike Touring.

Britain

We dreamed up our world trip while we were living in Britain. These journal entries are very short (at that time, we didn’t think anyone was interested in what we were doing!) but they do show a few of the day trips we did as we slowly worked our way towards the idea of a […] Read More »

Canada

After a few trial runs in the UK, our trip started in earnest in Canada. The beginning was in Montreal, the departure point for a journey to our home in New Brunswick. Three years later, we returned to our home country to end our journey by cycling across the U.S. border, into the western province […] Read More »

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Germany

After finishing our trial run in Canada, we took a flight back to London, a ferry across the Channel and started our trip in earnest in Germany. By now it was November and some days were very cold. We had to buy new gloves and spent many a chilly night in the tent. All of […] Read More »

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France

From chilly Germany, we headed south into France – a cyclist’s paradise with delicious bread around every corner and some fine wine as well. We traced our way through Strasbourg, Lyon, the Ardeche region and down to the Spanish border on the Mediterranean coastline. In the spring, we returned to France for a second time, […] Read More »

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Spain

Spain was both wonderful and infuriating on a bicycle. We loved the little bars, where we discovered great coffee, smoked ham, cheap glasses of sherry and massive loaves of bread. The interior, with its unspoiled cobblestone-street villages and open landscape was equally impressive. What we were less happy about was the traffic on the Mediterranean […] Read More »

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Morocco

Morocco has long been one of our favourite countries to visit. It’s close to Europe, yet exotic and we are completely in love with the amazing landscapes of the Sahara desert. We’d already been to Morocco twice before our world bike trip, and there was still more to explore, so we decided to spend the […] Read More »

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Portugal

Of all the countries in Europe, we liked Portugal the best. It was cheap, with beautiful and quiet roads and fantastic local food. Think hearty sausages, fresh fish, fantastic red wine and plenty of cheese to sample. The clean and affordable municipal campgrounds only added to our happiness. We’d go back to Portugal again in […] Read More »

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Italy

Ah, Italy! Fantastic coffee, even better gelato, stunning mountains… what more could a cyclist ask for? Well, how about plenty of fields to relax in (see the picture), ancient history around every corner and a joie de vivre in every day life. Italy was a very enjoyable camping experience and we were there twice – […] Read More »

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Slovenia

When we entered Slovenia from Italy, we didn’t know anything about this relatively small European nation. We were surprised to discover stunning landscapes, including emerald-green rivers, and many friendly locals, who almost all spoke perfect English. Add in a fine selection of beer and plenty of nature to discover and we were very happy cyclists […] Read More »

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Hungary

We entered Hungary in the midst of a heat wave. Temperatures rose above 40°C but because we didn’t understand the language, we were completely oblivious to just how hot it was. We also weren’t very clever cyclists yet, and insisted on cycling through the day, instead of in the cooler morning and evening hours. The […] Read More »

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Slovakia

We spent very little time in Slovakia, just a couple of days on our way between Hungary and Austria. We’d certainly like to go back though, if nothing else for the great beer and of course a little more exploration of eastern Europe. What we do remember about Slovakia was a nice bike path along […] Read More »

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Austria

We crossed through Austria twice in the summer of 2007, west along the Danube River and also from north to south. Along the numerous cycle paths, we stopped often for picnics, drank a glass of Austrian wine and then slipped behind tall rows of corn to pitch our tent for the night. Away from the […] Read More »

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Turkey

After about a year of rolling around Europe, we were so excited to get to Turkey, our first foray into unknown territory. Everything was new and exciting. We had a big adventure getting into Istanbul, agonized over our first bus ride (and later concluded that we didn’t have to cycle every single mile) and revelled […] Read More »

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Greece

We cut across northern Greece, on our way to Turkey. Our route took us over some high mountains, including the Katara Pass, and we encountered some fierce sheep dogs but what we’ll always remember Greece for is our first flat tire of the trip!. The food compensated for our disappointment at finally getting a flat. […] Read More »

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Syria

Bolstered by our positive experience in Turkey, we continued on to Syria. Some members of our family were worried that we wouldn’t be welcomed there, but they didn’t need to fret so much. Syria turned out to be nearly the friendliest country on our tour, only slightly overshadowed by the kindness we found later in […] Read More »

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Iran

Iran takes the prize as the country we liked best of the 30 we visited. We’ve never been left so taken with a country. From the incredibly hospitable people to the amazing cultural sites and the wide, open landscapes, we find it hard to think of a better place to ride your bike. Even for […] Read More »

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Turkmenistan

We never intended to cycle through Turkmenistan. Instead, we were going to explore Pakistan and China. But visa hurdles sent us through Central Asia at the last minute and so we found ourselves doing the 1-week dash across the eastern corner of Turkmenistan. The restrictive visa timing doesn’t allow for any more (in fact now […] Read More »

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Uzbekistan

We loved the Uzbek city of Bukhara, beautifully restored and with plenty of character. The rest of the country, well, to be honest we were lukewarm on it. While Samarqand was nice, it didn’t compare to what we’d seen in Iran. And the bureaucracy started to drive us crazy before long. Who wants to register […] Read More »

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Kazakhstan

From the Silk Road cities of Uzbekistan, we entered the steppe or flat, dry grasslands of Kazakhstan. At first it looked desolate, but the cities were a different matter. They were filled with signs of affluence: nice cars, air conditioned shopping malls, chic cafes. Sometimes we wondered if we hadn’t somehow been transported back to […] Read More »

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Kyrgyzstan

From the far east of Kazakhstan, we cycled into Kyrgyzstan: a cyclist’s paradise with alpine meadows, lonely roads leading up to high mountain passes and no shortage of lakes to swim in. We loved it, especially the beautiful scenery around Lake Song Kol and Lake Issyk Kol. We only wished we could have spent longer […] Read More »

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Thailand

After the wide open spaces and high mountains of Central Asia, hot and crowded Thailand couldn’t have been more of a change. It was a good change for us. We adored the cheap and widely available street food. The people were friendly. The scenery was so colourful and different to what we’d experienced before. Mostly […] Read More »

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Cambodia

From the relatively polished streets and towns of Thailand, we moved on to the decidedly less developed country of Cambodia. We weren’t sure what to expect. We’d been told all kinds of stories about landmines and miles of dirt roads that left cyclists covered in a fine layer of bright red mud. We were also […] Read More »

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Laos

We entered Laos from Cambodia, threw our bikes in a small boat and headed straight for the Don Det islands in the Mekong for a few days of relaxing. Once we’d recovered from the challenging roads in Cambodia we carried on north, cycling to waterfalls, coffee plantations and over the high mountains between Vientiane and […] Read More »

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Malaysia

We loved cycling through Malaysia, especially for its cultural diversity. In one day we could eat Chinese food for breakfast, have Indian for lunch and typical Malay food for supper. Of course, as is almost always the case in Southeast Asia, the food was delicious. Almost all the local people spoke excellent English, and were […] Read More »

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Singapore

We didn’t spend long in Singapore. We paused just long enough to get our bikes  ready for the flight to Australia, and of course to marvel at the incredible number of shopping malls in Singapore and the well cleaned, almost gleaming streets. Our short stay was made very enjoyable though by Patrizia and Bro, two […] Read More »

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Australia

G’day Mate! In January 2009 we arrived with our bicycles in Perth, on Australia’s western coast. After being out of the developed world for so long, it came as a bit of a shock at first but we soon adjusted to the wealth of choices on offer in the shops and the novelty of NOT […] Read More »

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New Zealand

We’d heard so many cyclists rave about New Zealand, that we blocked off 3 months to explore it all. It wasn’t nearly enough. We could have easily spent 6 months on the lonely tracks and backroads of the island. They always led to the most magnificent scenery. The highways were less endearing, with heavy traffic […] Read More »

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United States

America was the last country foreign country on our trip, before we returned to Canada for the final stretch towards home. When we arrived, we weren’t sure we wanted to be there at all. We’d heard terrible things about the attitude of drivers towards cyclists in the United States. We were also bracing for a […] Read More »