» What it’s about

About me

My name is John Mitchell, I am a master’s graduate in oceanography from the University of Southampton, although that has little to do with much. I was traveling with Tom Bishop for the first 18 months of this trip but he has since returned to England.

Why I’m doing this

There are many many reasons for doing this. One is that traveling is cool. Slow traveling is even cooler and cycling is definitely classified as slow traveling. I love experiencing new things and am not too prejudiced about what they are. I also love meeting people and so far the people have definitely been the most enjoyable aspect of my travels.

About the trip

In total this trip will take me through 4 continents and 18 countries. So far it has included a 3,000-mile bike ride through Scandinavia; an 8,000-mile train journey across Russia, Mongolia and China; a 7,000-mile passage across the Pacific Ocean aboard a cargo ship; and 3,000 miles cycling from Alaska into Washington state. From here I have another 7,000 miles cycling to get to Venezuela and then hope to sail across the Atlantic.

Sustainability

We chose to stick to sustainable transport because we wanted to have as little impact as possible while we traveled. We also hope that our trip will help promote the message that wherever you’re going, there is nearly always an alternative to carbon-expensive transport.

Charities

We (Tom and I) are using the trip as a charity fund raiser; we chose to support Medecins sans Frontieres and Friends of the Earth. Both these charities perform fantastic work, which is vitally important in today’s world, we hope to raise around £10,000 on their behalf.