A Different Way to See the World

Mark Beaumont is widely regarded as one of the most remarkable long-distance cyclists of his generation. Over the years he has completed a series of extraordinary journeys on two wheels, each of which has tested both his physical endurance and his mental strength. 4In 2008, for instance, he cycled 18,296 miles around the world. Two years later, he set out on a 613,080-mile journey through the Americas, and in 2015 he rode 6,762 miles from Cairo to Cape Town. Taken together, these trips represent a distance that few people will ever travel by any means of transport, let alone by bicycle.

On the last of these journeys, Mark broke the world record for cycling the length of Africa, and he did so by a considerable margin of 17 days. To achieve this, 7he had to cover 160 miles a day, a pace that would exhaust most riders within a week. He admits that maintaining such a speed was far from easy. 3Long delays at border crossings and queues of traffic frequently prevented him from travelling fast. 8Broken roads created further difficulties, and the weather also had an influence on how quickly he could go. In other words, the record was achieved not only through fitness but also through patience and careful planning.

Throughout his travels, Mark has been fascinated by the landscapes he has passed through. According to him, these often turn out to be quite different from what he had expected. He points out that when people think of Patagonia, for example, they picture the spectacular mountains and lakes that appear in holiday brochures. When he crossed the region by bicycle, however, he discovered that 5large parts of it consist of endless miles of grassland. In his view, scenery that seems romantic and exciting to holidaymakers can become extremely monotonous when a cyclist sees nothing else for several days in a row.

Of all the landscapes he has encountered, Mark has particularly enjoyed some of the wilder areas of Texas and the Deep South of the USA. He recalls waking up before daylight and having to remove the ice from his tent while it was still dark. He would then set off on roads where there was no one else at all. Surrounded by an enormous desert, he could hear nothing except the sound of animals calling. Looking back, he describes this as one of his favourite periods of the journey, 1because he was totally alone in that environment.

His journeys have also shown Mark how differently people around the world view cycling. 2In Europe, North America and Australia, cycling is mainly a sport that people take up to keep fit and have fun. In many of the places Mark visited, though, a bicycle is regarded in an entirely different way. It is a form of transport that many people dream of owning one day. People who are used to walking everywhere often wish they had enough money to buy a bike so that they could travel from one place to another more quickly and easily. As a result, many of the people who saw Mark 9found it hard to understand why he had chosen to cycle such long distances for no obvious reason. This contrast reminded him that the same object can carry very different meanings depending on where a person lives.

For Mark, however, cycling is by far the best way to see the world. He insists that it is never boring when you are on a bicycle, because you notice everything, 10especially when riding alone. A cyclist enjoys a wonderful view of the world and can observe gradually how people and cultures change from one place to the next, something that is easily missed from the window of a car or a plane. 11What impressed him most was the kindness of the people he met. Even in the poorest countries, he says, he 12never had to ask twice for a place to stay.

So how does Mark feel when one of his great adventures comes to an end? He explains that because each project demands enormous effort, time and money, 13his main emotion is relief that he has finished the trip successfully. It is only later, once he has had time to reflect, that he begins to think about what the journey really meant: the landscapes he saw and the people he met. And then, almost inevitably, he starts thinking about where he might go next.