Seek Travel Ride

Back in 1986, two Englishmen in their early twenties flew to Delhi with brand new mountain bikes and a paper map, and set off to ride through the Himalaya. James Baile takes us back nearly 40 years to a trip that saw him carrying his bike over three high mountain passes, reaching Kalapattar at 5,545 metres as one of the first cyclists ever to do it, and crossing into India solo after his riding pa...

Ever wondered what it's like to cycle across a mountain range? Well in 2023 I loaded up my bike with gear and set off from the edge of the Atlantic Ocean at St Jean de Luz, to cross the Pyrenees mountains all the way to Argeles-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean Sea.  The route we took was a mix of the Classic Raid Pyrenees road bike and touring routes and we took nine days to complete the crossing...

Ever wanted to go bikepacking in South America? This episode is for you. After being laid off from her job in Barcelona, guest Marta Ballús decided to take back control of her life by loading up her bike and taking an adventure in South America. I spoke to her while she was nine months and over 9,000 kilometres into her solo South American journey. A trip taken to help her reclaim her confidence a...

Planning a bike adventure through South East Asia? Olly and Ellie just rode Thailand into Malaysia, dealt with Ramadan closures, ferry logistics, and hit some gnarly climbs. Tune into this episode for intel on what it's like to go bikepacking in South East Asia plus a masterclass in pivoting when ferries only run once a month. Follow Olly's adventures on Instagram - @sagas.of_olly.hargre...

This week we're re-releasing one of our favourite episodes. 1,500 kilometres through Arctic Norway on a fully loaded bike. Our guest Slauka had never done a bikepacking trip before this but she didn't let her lack of experience get in the way of a good adventure.  Slauka's journey took her from the Lofoten Islands all the way to the North Cape In this episode we Cover : Why May coul...

We are going to hear what it's like to spend a month cycling in Ireland thanks to the latest update from Brian Sampson who just completed a 1500km loop around Dublin and Belfast that proved tougher, more beautiful, and far more rewarding than expected.  After cycling through England and Wales, Brian discovered Ireland's slower pace, where he enjoyed cycling on empty farm roads. The stand...

Katy and Alan spent five years dreaming about this adventure and then went ahead, put their careers on pause and spent a full year cycling 20,000km around the world. Halfway through the adventure, a monotonous desert section through Central Asia nearly broke them, so they threw out their initial planned route and let the trip become something even better. These are the key lessons from their journ...

When we last heard from Milica, she was in Northern France and just a few days into her ride from London to Croatia. In this update, she reflects on what the bike adventure has actually looked and felt like across the weeks in between. Milica shares about: What her worst day on the road looked like Why keeping yourself fed is actually one of the most important things you can do out there When a ba...

Dreaming  about taking a huge bike adventure? Then this episode is for you. Ellie Mitchell-Heggs shares her insights from her solo journey where she cycled 10,000 kilometres  across Africa from Rwanda to Cape Town. All up her trip was nine months long and took her across ten countries. It was also a ride that was layered with both a personal family connection to Africa and loaded up with a huge se...

Daragh Cronin is back with a wild update from his Cork to Everest Base Camp ride. This time he shares with us the extraordinary hospitality of Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan.  Then every bike travellers nightmare, a flat refusal at the Federal Iraq border crossing derailing his plans for his route.  This led Daragh to have to re-route through Dubai and Kuwait City where the intensity of the trip got t...

This is a live show, recorded on stage at the Antique Bar in Melbourne. Joining me on stage were three guests who between them have cycled through some of the most remote, challenging and eye-opening places on earth, Fergal Guihen, Em Hulbert and David McCourt. Fergal cycled from Roscommon, Ireland to Sydney via Mauritania, Iran, Afghanistan, the Tibetan Plateau and beyond. Em Hulbert is mid-journ...

James Baile, along with two complete strangers (one of which hadn't ridden a bike since he was 13!) packed their Bromptons into IKEA bags and flew to Dakar. What followed was two weeks riding through Senegal and The Gambia: navigating Dakar rush hour, camping on school playgrounds by invitation of village chiefs, pushing loaded folding bikes through sand that felt like treacle, and sparking c...

Roisin Gallagher has cycled over 17,000 kilometres across two continents. Her adventure started by riding the Baja Divide with her partner before continuing through Mexico and Central America. After seven months on the road together, their relationship ended and instead of flying home, Roisin bought a one-way ticket to Japan and kept riding. Roisin has now arrived in Istanbul to share the story so...

Brian Sampson is cycle touring the world to tick off every destination from the book 'The Thousand Places to See Before You Die'  This month's update covers the end of his time in China and his first stretch riding through England and Wales. Brian shares his experiences of: Sleeping in temples and stealth camping in multiple continents Visiting Tiananmen Square and  the Forbidden Ci...

A few weeks ago Robbie was 500 kilometres into the Monaro Cloudride, a thousand-kilometre ultra race through the Australian high country, when a night-time Snowy River crossing went very wrong.  They ended up stranded on a tiny island in the middle of the river with their bike, waiting for a rescue helicopter to winch them out. Robbie shares their experiences of this event including he decision to...

You're four days out of London, somewhere in northern France, and every evening you check in with your body to decide how far you'll ride tomorrow. Nobody is telling you where to be. This is your life now. Milica Kovačević was commuting through London on her bike, listening to this podcast for inspiration to take her own bike adventure. Then she decided it was time to leave the city, and...

Eleanor Hulm left Bangkok on a loaded bike she'd just assembled in a hotel room at 6am, sleep-deprived, slightly terrified, and laughing her way through the traffic. Four months later she's ridden solo through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan and she's just getting started. In this episode you'll hear about: The 20km of peanut butter mud in Laos that nearly broke her P...

Daragh Cronin has been on the road for 68 days. He left Blackrock, Cork, on a loaded bike with Everest Base Camp as his final destination, and this week he is checking in from Istanbul. This is a midweek update episode, and it covers a lot of ground. Daragh has already cycled the length of Africa, Morocco to Cape Town, so crossing Europe was his second continent.  In this episode we discuss: Arriv...

Megan Young is a UK-based ultra cyclist and bike packer from Dorset. She's raced the Atlas Mountain Race in Morocco as a pairs entry with her husband Angus, taken fastest female honours on the Dorset Divide, spent six months cycling through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile on sabbatical, and then finished that stretch with the Tour Te Waipounamu, a 1330km ultra race down the South I...

Chris Petermnn has been cycling across the world for four years. When he set out to cross the Sahara on the final leg of his Africa circumnavigation, he was craving one silence. After months of never being alone in West Africa, the desert felt like it might finally offer him some peace. Unfortunately, what he got instead was 1,500 kilometres of relentless headwind. In this Tuesday snippet, Chris t...

What does it take to cycle 15,000 kilometres from Scotland to China along the ancient Silk Road? And what happens when the countries you just rode through are plunged into war the moment you get home? In 2009, Helen Watson and her husband Ed clipped in at Glasgow and pointed east. Their route took them through Syria, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and into China, riding one of...

Brian Sampson is  cycling through China for the second time, and this update is packed with everything you'd actually want to know before attempting it yourself. He covers the apps that make daily life manageable (WeChat, Alipay, trip.com, and a VPN you'll need from day one), how to find hotels that accept foreign passports, what border crossings look like, and why cycling in northern Ch...

Leonie Katekar was 56 years old when she set off solo from Guatemala to cycle 12,000 kilometres to the tip of South America and had no prior solo bike travel experience. The whole adventure was driven by one question: what would you do if you weren't afraid? In this episode: The chaotic Day One in Guatemala: lost, dehydrated, and rescued by a stranger before finishing half the ride Managing C...

If you're planning to cycle Southeast Asia, or just want to hear what it's actually like, this one's for you. Olly Hargreaves is back with an update and this time he's sharing how his girlfriend Ellie has decided to give bikepacking a go. Olly rode to Thailand from the UK and Ellie's longest ride prior to this, was about 30km!  We'll hear how they got on, Ellie's...

Javier Carrasco rode from Austria to the other side of the world on a bike rescued from a dumpster. Over 20,000 kilometres and 200,000 metres of climbing travelled on a bicycle that cost him exactly nothing. Javi is the partner of previous guest Rebecca Gross, and while Rebecca made it back to Austria after a year on the road, Javi wasn't quite ready to stop. I got to catch him in person here...