It started as a silly joke really – When general adulting just felt exhausting; the frustrations of work were getting to us; or we were tired of debating which type of skirting board we needed (!) the flippant side comments just seemed to come so easily – ‘Doesn’t matter when we are cycling around the world’

It grew so slowly. Creeping into our psyche, bolstered by the tales told by our amazing friends Pete and Alice, who’s honeymoon was a bike ride to New Zealand.

It wiggled its way into our thoughts as our bikepacking holidays at home and abroad became peppered with thoughts of ‘imagine if we did this everyday’. My routine daily run, yoga and workout became ironically known as my ‘training for life’ with Ted, but I knew in a quiet corner of my mind that somehow it would all become useful later down the line.

It was stoked by the desire to escape and adventure throughout lockdown, when those things were taken from us. The idea that the simple action of jumping on your bike and heading off to explore could be taken from us was like fuel to the flame. We needed to do this. This was no longer a joke. We couldn’t let our lives pass us by and wonder what we would have seen and experienced had we done it. We agreed that as soon as it looked like we could, we would do it – we would cycle around the world. We just needed the COVID hullabaloo to blow-over, build an outhouse and workshop in the back garden, to finish landscaping the patio and front garden, take the kitchen wall down and then fit a whole new kitchen (major scope creep) and finally finish renovating our Classic Mini, which has only taken 6 years – then we promised ourselves and each other we would set off (or at least think about it seriously!)……..Oh, and convert the attic to store all our stuff!

Jump forward three years and it looks like we have run out of excuses! It is crazy how time flies. I know everyone has grand-plans, hare-brained schemes and sometimes even a 5-year-life-plan-including-a-spreadsheet (hello Sian!) but the hardest thing is actually doing these things. There is never a ‘right’ time. Finding the mental (and physical) energy to dedicate to changing things is hard.

It’s easy and comfortable to stay where we are – we love living in the Peak District in a house we’ve just finished renovating, with great friends on our doorstep and jobs that allow us to enjoy the combination of intellectual challenge and the balance of life. We have nothing to run away from. So the decision to go, and to go now, has not been an easy one. But we know we will regret it if we don’t and, for us, that’s a good enough reason to at least give this thing a go. We can’t do this when we get older and the sad reality is that our generation (and those after us) will not enjoy the concept of retirement as our parents have, not to mention that (rather depressingly!) the world won’t be in a fit state for it either!

Ted and I have always made a point of making active choices in life, especially where that means experiencing life beyond what is expected of us. So at a time when many of our peers are shifting their focus to children, we will be cycling the world experiencing the highs and lows that a life travelling on two wheels brings – trying not to drive each other mad in the process! I mean, what’s the worst that can happen…….