Tag: Bicycle Touring

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Joy Ride: A Bicycle Odyssey From Alaska to Argentina

Explorers Kristen and Ville Jokinen met and fell in love while scuba diving in Vietnam. Ville then left his native Finland to join Kristen in Oregon and together they embarked on a life-changing two-year cycling adventure covering 18,000 miles from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina. Despite never having cycled further than around the block, they persevered unrelenting, punishing rain and wind, altitude sickness, dog attacks, bike accidents, and countless flat tires to cycle between the ends of the earth.

Kristen and Ville believe that kindness connects us to our shared humanity. They held babies, attended quinceañeras, drank pulque, played soccer, and visited schools. People in Mexico, Central America, and South America invited them into their hearts and homes, allowed them to camp in their fields and farms, and acted as personal tour guides. Kristen and Ville are love on wheels, and who doesn’t need a little more love in their lives?

You can find their book on their website here: www.welostthemap.com

Follow them on social media here: @welostthemap

Enjoy the conversation. Be bold. Be intrepid.

To support the podcast please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

To find out more about host George Balarezo’s adventures, you can find the book Unhinged in Ethiopia: Two Thousand Kilometers of Hell and Heaven on a Bicycle at the following link- https://intrepidglobalcitizen.com/

Contact me at george@intrepidglobalcitizen.com and let me know your thoughts and feelings about the podcast or if you have a story you’d like to share. 

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Cycling the World on a Tandem Bicycle- A Conversation With the Proper Paupers

YJ & Gracia are currently on a mission to cycle across the world to get back home to Singapore on a tandem bicycle. Before their adventure, they did van life for a year in the United States driving around 48 states.

In this episode, they talk about their romance, which all started in an abandoned house during COVID lockdowns before getting “caught with their pants down” by the owner while on a date, their social experiment in the most racist town in the United States, as well as the challenges of touring on a tandem bicycle.

Follow them on social media @the proper paupers or at https://www.theproperpaupers.com/

Enjoy the conversation. Be bold. Be intrepid.

To support the podcast please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

To find out more about host George Balarezo’s adventures, you can find the book Unhinged in Ethiopia: Two Thousand Kilometers of Hell and Heaven on a Bicycle at the following link- https://intrepidglobalcitizen.com/

Contact me at george@intrepidglobalcitizen.com and let me know your thoughts and feelings about the podcast or if you have a story you’d like to share. 

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10Adventures Podcast: Unhinged in Ethiopia: Two Thousand Kilometers of Hell and Heaven on a Bicycle

This is an interview I did for the 10 Adventures Podcast. The host Richard Campbell read my book, Unhinged in Ethiopia: Two Thousand Kilometers of Hell and Heaven on a Bicycle in preparation for the episode and we took a deep dive into the journey.

In this episode I detail some of the hardships faced while on the road in Ethiopia and give advice to novice adventurers looking to step outside of their comfort zones.

Enjoy the conversation. Be bold. Be intrepid.

To support the podcast please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

To find out more about host George Balarezo’s adventures, you can find the book Unhinged in Ethiopia: Two Thousand Kilometers of Hell and Heaven on a Bicycle at the following link- https://intrepidglobalcitizen.com/

Contact me at george@intrepidglobalcitizen.com and let me know your thoughts and feelings about the podcast or if you have a story you’d like to share. 

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Nomadic Sportsman- Juan Pablo Toro- 33 Countries, 18,500 Kilometers on a Bicycle

Juan Pablo Toro is a tennis player and adventurer who was born in Santiago de Chile. He had a normal life. Almost too normal. To defeat boredom, in December 2019 he started traveling around the world, but 4 months later the pandemic started and he had to come back to Chile, disappointed. His expectations were high for the trip, but his adventure was cut short.

In August 2021 he started traveling again, this time with a bicycle and a tent, and low expectations in order to avoid more disappointment. He ended up cycling 18,500 kilometers through 33 countries in Middle East, Africa and Europe, completing 5 different multiday hikes, and even visiting the Arctic Polar Circle.

After suffering through surgery in Armenia, he was nearly killed in a head on collision with a car in Iran two times in a sick prank, only to spend the night in the driver’s home in a perverse twist of fate. After cycling through Asia and the Middle East, he continued cycling in Kenya with the goal of meeting one of his heroes, marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, and pedaled to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

You can read his blog (English and Spanish available) and connect with Juan Pablo here- https://deportistanomade.com/

Enjoy the conversation. Be bold. Be intrepid.

To support the podcast please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

To find out more about host George Balarezo’s adventures, you can find the book Unhinged in Ethiopia: Two Thousand Kilometers of Hell and Heaven on a Bicycle at the following link- https://intrepidglobalcitizen.com/

Contact me at george@intrepidglobalcitizen.com and let me know your thoughts and feelings about the podcast or if you have a story you’d like to share. 

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Adam Swanson Cycles the World at Age 19

Adam Swanson is  19 years old and is 1.5 years into a world cycling tour as a gap year between high school and college. He is traveling to educate himself on the world before going to university, to grow as a person, and to grow his love for cycle touring.

He’s toured with his family all his life, ever since his dad and pregnant mom pulled him in a Burley trailer across Mexico as a baby. Since then he’s toured the US from coast to coast, Cuba, Eastern Europe and gone on some weekend trips with family and friends. Now he is doing it on his own, free and happy to continue this lifestyle.

He’s been on the road now for over a year and has cycled across 19 countries between Thailand and The Netherlands. Now he is continuing his trip Patagonia.

Enjoy the conversation. Be bold. Be intrepid.

To support the podcast please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Find the book Unhinged in Ethiopia: Two Thousand Kilometers of Hell and Heaven on a Bicycle at the following link- https://intrepidglobalcitizen.com/

Contact me at george@intrepidglobalcitizen.com and let me know your thoughts and feelings about the podcast or if you have a story you’d like to share. 

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Cape Town to Cairo by Bicycle- “Unhinged in Ethiopia” Star Tetsuya Mizoguchi

I am happy to introduce you to Tetsuya Mizoguchi, a veteran adventurer and character in my book Unhinged in Ethiopia: Two Thousand Kilometers of Hell and Heaven on a Bicycle via a podcast conversation.

Tetsuya Mizoguchi has been bicycle touring since high school and has pedaled solo across South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. We met in Ethiopia while he was on his journey from Cape Town to Cairo and rode together for several days.

About 15 years my junior, he displayed unrivaled poise and confidence when dealing with stone-hurling children and showed me how to deal with tough times on the road.  They say when the student is ready the teacher will appear and I met him at exactly the right time as he gave me invaluable tips on surviving in Ethiopia on a bicycle.

He was mugged in South Africa but still managed to snap a picture of his assailants running away, patched 60 tire punctures in Zimbabwe, got kicked out of a home after refusing to use drugs with his hosts in Egypt, and was mistaken for a dead body while sleeping under a bridge in the winter in his home country of Japan.

Enjoy the conversation. Be bold. Be intrepid.

To support the podcast please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Find the book Unhinged in Ethiopia: Two Thousand Kilometers of Hell and Heaven on a Bicycle at the following link- https://intrepidglobalcitizen.com/

Contact me at george@intrepidglobalcitizen.com and let me know your thoughts and feelings about the podcast or if you have a story you’d like to share. 

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The Peace Corps- Mongolia; Bicycle Touring, and Stilt Walking With Beth Godshall

Beth Godshall was in the Peace Corps as an Environmental Volunteer for one year in Mongolia. She lived in a ger, or yurt without running water, so she had to walk to the river whenever she wanted to bath or cook. She witnessed the magic of horse whisperers, or people who tame wild horses by whispering in their ears, started a museum in her town, and participated in a snow leopard survey. 

Beth and her husband’s fourth date was a bicycle tour from Indiana to New Orleans and then over to Austin, Texas in the United States, where they ended up making a living through bicycle delivery and pedicabbing for several months. Beth has been working as a stilt walker since 2005 and puts smiles on plenty of faces with her home-made outfits and tall stature. 

I hope you enjoy the conversation and don’t forget to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. If you like the episode, please leave a short review so we can focus on bringing you more content instead of episode promotion. 


You can find out more about her or contact her by visiting her website- 

http://www.skysthelimitstiltwalking.com/

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Bristol to Beijing By Bicycle With Josh Day (Part 2)

I’d like to introduce you to my good friend Josh Day via a podcast conversation. Josh and I met while I was riding my bike in the Altai Mountains in Russia along a roadway that leads to the Mongolian border. We ended up hitting it off and cycled together for over one week as Josh taught me Russian, (originally from England, he learned the language by studying in his tent at night, taking classes in Kazakhstan, and listening to language learning audio while pedaling in Central Asia and Russia), provided insight into the world’s largest country through his language skills, and cooked me Russian buckwheat every evening for dinner.

Josh and I split up in Mongolia that August, as I had to go back to work in Korea, but he continued cycling through Mongolia and into Siberia during winter (while sleeping outside every evening) before taking a boat from Vladivostok (a city in the southeast part of Russia) to South Korea. After cycling for a few days in the Gangwon province of Korea, he and his bicycle appeared outside of my apartment building in Seoul in December, where he rested and refueled with kimchi stew from my neighborhood restaurant and ramen noodles from the local convenience store.
Josh has many stories to tell and our conversation lasted nearly four hours. In order to break things up a bit, our talk was split into two episodes- this is part two.
Great Wall of China
In Pyeongyang, North Korea
On a Mongolian "Highway"
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Bristol to Beijing With Josh Day- 2 Years and 25,000 Kilometers on a Bicycle-Part 1

In 2017, Josh left his front door in England on a journey of a lifetime to cycle the length of Eurasia and travel from Bristol to Beijing. 2 years and 25,000km later he arrived, having crossed the Kyzl-Kum desert, the Mongolian Steppe and the frozen wastes of Siberia. During his trip he dodged gun-toting border guards, fished out scorpions from his tent and endured nights of -27 degrees Celsius (-17 Fahrenheit), but came out the other side with a new appreciation of humankind’s generosity and a hatful of stories for the pub.

He now lives in the north of England, getting out into the hills to cycle, run and camp as often as he can, while taking a few months off a year to get out there on longer adventures. 

Josh writes at cyclingfordays.bike and is on social media @cyclingfordays.

You can support the podcast by subscribing and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. 

Email me at intrepidglobalcitizen@gmail.com if you have an inspirational adventure story you’d like to record or reach out to share your thoughts and feelings about any of the episodes. 

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England to India by Bicycle in 1978- William Sp

In 1978, William Spencer, author of the book “Far Sweeter Than Honey, Searching For Meaning on a Bicycle” cycled from England to India. Along the way, he was thrown from his bicycle while trying to avoid negligent drivers, chewed shirt buttons for water in Afghanistan, and was infected with hepatitis in Pakistan. 

Despite all his setbacks he still managed to fast and write letters to friends and family every Sunday while maintaining a vegetarian diet. 

Strap on your headphones tightly and listen as William shares the wisdom only a seasoned adventurer with several decades of meditation experience can accrue. 

Find William’s book, “Far Sweeter Than Honey, Searching For Meaning on a Bicycle” at the links below.

Available as an eBook, paperback or audiobook. Find it on Amazon, iTunes, Google, and at any independent bookseller globally.

 Amazon: https://amzn.to/3377f0v

Google Play: http://bit.ly/CF_FarSweeterThanHoney



Blurb from the book-

“This is the true story of a young man’s epic 8,000 mile bicycle journey from England to India. He encounters all manner of adventure and arrives finally in mystical India, with an understanding of what it means to be free.”

Follow William at the links below.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/870373953763578

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/england_to_india_by_bicycle/

You can support the podcast by subscribing and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. 

Email me at intrepidglobalcitizen@gmail.com if you have an inspirational adventure story you’d like to record or reach out to share your thoughts and feelings about any of the episodes. 

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Cycling in Bangladesh-The World’s Friendliest Country- with Fahadul Islam

Home to Guinness World records- the longest single line of moving bicycles at 1,186; and the fastest four-person, twenty four-hour, 1,670 kilometer (1,037 mile) relay, the cycling and adventure travel community in Bangladesh is thriving. In this episode, Fahadul Islam tells us about BD Cyclists, a non-profit social community that aims to promote healthy living and reduce traffic congestion and pollution by encouraging locals to get on a bike and pedal. I had the honor to stay with Fahadul and his family during my five week cycling trip in Bangladesh in 2017. It was there I learned the true meaning of friendship and hospitality. Be sure to visit Bangladesh for the adventure of a lifetime. 

To find out more about the cycling community in Bangladesh, visit BD Cyclist’s Facebook Group or contact Fahadul Islam on Facebook. 

You can support the podcast by subscribing and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. 

Email me at intrepidglobalcitizen@gmail.com if you have an inspirational adventure story you’d like to record or reach out to share your thoughts and feelings about any of the episodes.