So here it is, the long-awaited Ride Earth F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions; Fondly Answered Queries; Fromage Attributed Quotations; Fotons Atoms Quarks…etc)
Written by Mark Maultby, who now has time to write things like this, having returned to the U.K. for the time being…
Q. What does Ride Earth mean?
Tom: We – Andy and I – will be cycling around the world on bikes. All the way back to where we started.
Andy: Well that’s the plan
Tom: That is the plan; we hope to Ride Earth.
Q. But there are three of you?
Mark: I’m only doing bits of it. To Eastern Europe this year. I’ll go home from there, and rejoin later.
Q. Why not the whole world, Mark?
Mark: I have a Laura at home. Plus, I’ll need to save more money to rejoin. Sigh.
Andy: Basically we’re looking to recruit a third member…
Tom: I still don’t know who’s washing my feet when he leaves…
Q. So you two are off round the whole world. Why?
Tom: To experience it as thoroughly as we can.
Andy: I think it’s a more complete experience than flying to exotic locations.
Mark: Did I mention I’m only doing bits of it…?
Q. How long do you think it will take?
Tom: Well we don’t really know.
Andy: As long as it takes.
Tom: But, we reckon 3 to 5 years.
Q. Don’t you worry about saddle-sore?
Andy: Well, we’ve got these saddles…
Tom: …traditional Brooks leather saddles designed to
gradually becomes sculpted to an individual’s buttocks. If you look at
mine you can see proof that my left buttock is slightly larger…
Andy: And that my whole butt is larger…
Mark: We’ve also got padded lycra shorts.
Q. Which route will you be taking?
Tom: …
Andy: ….
Mark: ….
Tom: …Well, we’re going south to Geneva from Amsterdam and then through Eastern Europe to the Middle-east for a warm winter…
Andy: …we think that’s a good plan…
Tom: … and then Asia to Japan for 2008…
Andy: …the plan is to meet with our ninjutsu instructor in Japan in the summer.
Tom: That’s the plan. Then we’ll head through
Indonesia, go to Australia, New Zealand, across the Pacific to the
Americas, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, England again.
Andy: As we’ve said already, it’s open to change. Keep it flexible.
Mark: I’ll be deciding when to rejoin based on
circumstances at home and personal interest in the countries. At the
moment I’m thinking Mongolia, China, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil
all sound good. I’ll have to whittle it down…
Andy: We’re trying to get Mark to find a trailer to carry Laura in…
Mark: yeah, yeah.
Q. What will you do about the sea crossings? Say, from New Zealand to South America…
Tom: Try and get free passage on cargo ships and
the like. The lady we met in Montreux who cycled round the world for 8
years managed to travel by yacht for 4 months in the South Pacific.
Anything similar to that would be great.
Andy: I’ve always said I’d like to do bits of the trip
by other means of transport if I can. Cycling will be by far the
predominate mode, but if I can use a canoe for a bit…
Mark: …the Pacific…
Andy: Exactly.
Q. You won’t be flying any sections then?
Tom: Not if we can help it.
Andy: We don’t really like planes very much.
Mark: I think planes make things too easy by taking the adventure out of travelling.
Andy: Or the travelling out of the adventure.
Mark: Indeed.
Tom: We’re trying to be as carbon neutral as possible. So, human powered transport if possible.
Q. What are you doing about money?
Tom: We’ve all been working since graduating to save-up.
Q. Where were you working? What did you graduate in?
Tom: I was working as a freelance website developer after graduating in Computer Science.
Andy: I was also working on websites in marketing, after having graduated in Environment, Ecology and Economics.
Mark: I was an Asst Manager at a Country Park Farm
Attraction, and then a Mortgage slave for a bit, after having graduated
in English Literature.
Q. And you’re not going back to these jobs?
Tom: We quit our jobs to do this. There is no going back!
Q. And you’re trying to spend as little money as possible whilst on the move?
Andy: We are trying to stick to a 5 euro a day budget. Difficult in Switzerland, easy in India.
Tom: The idea is that we’ll spend as little as
possible everywhere. I’m looking forward to getting to a country where
I can buy big, juicy, spicy chunks of meat for less than 50p.
Andy: Tom has this dream…
Mark: Here we go again…
Tom: …spicy chunks of meat… (dribbles)
Q. How do you know each other?
Tom: Well, Andy and I played together as children.
Andy: We’ll leave it at that.
Mark: And I lived with Tom for two years at Exeter University. Taught him how to ride a bike…
Tom: Yeah, of course you did.
Q. You must have some special equipment for this sort of thing?
Tom: We’ve been very lucky to have been sponsored by companies for a lot of the equipment we need.
Andy: The bikes from Kona…
Tom: The trailers from Extrawheel…
Andy: Most of the rest of it too, really. Just what we need. Check out what we’re using on http://www.ride-earth.com/.
Q. And it’s specialist equipment to deal with 3 years of use? What do you take for something like that?
Tom: Well, it’s all expedition standard stuff, built to last…
Andy: The Kona bike frames are steel so they can be welded easily should they break in remote places…
Tom: The MSR stove can use a wide variety of fuels, like diesel, petrol, white gas etc. All should be attainable wherever we are.
Andy: We’ve got solar chargers, bike repair equipment, storm-proof tents…
Q. Ah tents. So you sleep in those most nights?
Tom: Probably more than half the time.
Andy: I think we expected to sleep in them more than we have.
Mark: We’ve been very lucky, having been invited into
so many people’s homes. In fact, that’s become one of the most exciting
and interesting aspects of the trip. Just amazing really.
Andy: Better than the cycling in some ways. Not having any idea where we’ll end up, and then being amazed by where we do end up.
Tom: Certainly it has been an unexpected treat to have received as much hospitality as we have.
Q. Invited into people’s homes? How has that happened?
Andy: Well, to begin with we just got lucky.
Sometimes asking people for water led to conversations that in turn led
to us either sleeping in gardens, in barns…
Mark: On a boat…
Tom: …in a boatyard…
Andy: …in orchards…
Mark: …up trees…
Tom: What?
Mark: …kidding.
Andy: As we got more confident we would just ask farmers or whoever for a place to stay.
Tom: And we haven’t just been given sleeping areas;
we’ve been given delicious meals, met an unbelievable range of
characters…In Gstaad, in the Swiss Alps, we were taken into the
cocktail bar of a famous 5 Star Hotel for drinks…
Mark: We were bought whiskeys costing 18 Swiss francs! That’s about £7. And they were the cheapest.
Andy: Unbelievable.
Tom: The trip has thrown a lot of preconceptions out the window.
Andy: May it continue.
Q. Why do you think you’ve been shown such hospitality?
Andy: Our charming smiles.
Tom: Yeah.
Andy: We’ve found that a lot of people are just really
moved by seeing what we’re doing, and they want to help. Sometimes we
are approached out of the blue by people wanting to give us a place to
sleep, give us water, anything they can…
Mark: It’s not just one way though: we really like
hearing about their lives, and they love telling us what they do. In a
sense, both parties are learning about the world…
Tom: And everyone says the further east we go the more hospitable people become…
Q. That’s good to know! Well, that’s all the questions I have. Thank you guys for your time…
Tom: Just quickly…If anyone has any other questions, or would like details on specifics they can email us on info@ride-earth.org.uk and we’ll gladly answer as best we can.
Q. Ok. Thanks again. And best of luck to you all.
