The Boy Who Biked the World

by Alastair Humphreys

  The roads were steep and winding. Higher and higher he pedalled. He stopped to dunk his head in a refreshing cold stream, hoping that this might give him a bit more energy.

  Then a truck overtook Tom. It was very old and rattled noisily. It was so full of big boxes that it was very heavy. It was really struggling on the steep climb, just like Tom was struggling. As the driver drew level with the bike, Tom called up to him, “Excuse me, am I nearly there yet?”

  “No, no,” he laughed out of the open window. “You have a long way still to ride.”

  The driver beeped his horn, waved, and drove away up the mountain.

  Sometimes things seem too hard. Tom was beginning to think that riding his bike up the highest road in Africa was impossible. The end seemed so far away. He was tired and his legs felt wobbly. His face was bright red, sweaty and shiny. His tummy was rumbling and empty. His lunch of barbecued corn seemed a long time ago now. He was exhausted. He wanted to give up. The mountain had beaten him.

  But just as he was about to give up, Tom had a thought. In his head he saw a picture of himself in the playground back at school when everyone had been laughing at his crazy idea to try to cycle round the world. Back on that day, did he really think he would cycle all the way down Africa? No way! But he had come so far. How had he managed to come so far? By pedalling one mile at a time, then one day at a time, then one country at a time. He definitely had not got this far by giving up when things got tough. And if he could ride all this way down Africa then he certainly could ride up this mountain, couldn’t he?

  Tom said to himself, “I won’t give up yet. I will ride just one more mile.”

  And he did.

  And after that mile he said to himself, “I won’t give up yet. I will ride just one more mile.”

  And he did.

  And then he said to himself, “I won’t give up yet. I will ride just one more mile.”

  And before he finished that mile Tom saw the road flattening out ahead of him. He was at the top! He had done it! He was on top of the highest road in Africa. Mountains rolled away below him into the distance. The air was cool and fresh at this great height. Tom could see for miles. It was the most beautiful sight in all of his journey through Africa. He had done it! It was downhill all the way from here. Nothing could stop Tom now. He was going to make it to the end of Africa. He cheered and zoomed down the other side of the mountain. Faster and faster he flew down from the highest road in Africa. Tom cheered with delight. It was downhill all the way to the end now…. He smelled it before he saw it. The smell was clean and cold and salty. The sea. Then he rounded a corner on the road and it was in front of him. The sea! The end of Africa. At long last!

  Tom freewheeled down the hill onto the beach. He squeezed the brakes and stopped his bike. He lay the bike down and stood staring at the broad expanse of blue ocean. Wowzers! He jumped up and down and shouted happily at the sky. He had actually done it. He had ridden through Africa. He ran down the sand and out into the cold, noisy waves of the Atlantic Ocean. He didn’t even stop to take his shoes and socks off. He had never felt so proud or excited in all his life. He had made it all the way through Africa. This had been the best adventure of his life.

  But Tom’s journey round the world was not yet over. In fact the biggest adventures were only just beginning.

  Here’s a special sneak preview of the next part of Tom’s journey, starting in South America:

  The End of the World

  The Land of Fire. The Land of Big-Footed Giants. The End of the World. This, Tom thought to himself, was going to be a really exciting stage of his journey round the world by bike.

  He was sitting by the sea eating, as usual, a banana sandwich. Big booming waves burst up the pebbly beach. A strong wind blew hard, tugging at his clothes and messing up his already messy hair. An albatross, the bird known as the king of the oceans because of its three metre wingspan, circled effortlessly through the wild wind. Tom stared out to sea. The freezing cold grey-green water seemed to stretch away for ever. There were no cities or trees or flowers across that ocean. Across the ocean lay only Antarctica and the South Pole. Tom could see why this place was described as the End of the World.

  Tom was in a region called Patagonia at the bottom of South America. He was going to cycle from here all the way up to the top of the continent. It was a long, long way. It would take him about a year to pedal all that way and he knew he would face many adventures and difficulties along the way. But Tom was used to adventures by now - he had already ridden right the way through Africa.

  He was on an island off the southern tip of South America whose Spanish name “Tierra del Fuego” meant Land of Fire. It was called the Land of Fire because the first European explorer to see the island saw from his ship the many camp fires of the Yaghan people who lived there and he worried that they would ambush the ship.

  The explorer was the famous Ferdinand Magellan. He imagined that the native people in this wild land at the bottom of the world must be giants, at least twice as big as normal humans. The word ‘Patagonia’ meant Big Foot: this was, he imagined nervously, a land of giants with huge feet.

  Tom finished his sandwich and stood up. It was time to ride. To ride through this land of fire and giants at the end of the world that had so frightened the great explorers of old.

  Tom looked up at the albatross circling overhead. He was the king of long journeys. Albatrosses can fly right the way round the world. The fastest one ever took just 46 days to get right round the planet. It was going to take Tom much longer than that. Tom called up to the albatross whose enormous outstretched wings were much longer than Tom’s whole body.

  “Good morning, Mr Albatross, Mr Albert Ross. Please can I call you Albert?”

  Tom felt a bit silly talking to a bird. Especially a bird in South America where they couldn’t understand English. He looked around to check that no one had seen him. But there wasn’t another person for miles and miles and miles so he kept talking.

  “Albert,” Tom continued, “I’m on a journey round the world, just like you. I’m going to be the boy who biked the world. But I’m at the beginning of a new continent. I need to cycle the whole way up South America and I’m quite nervous.”

  Albert the albatross swooped down a little closer to Tom. “I’ll be OK, won’t I?” asked Tom.

  Tom was probably imagining it but he was sure that the great bird winked at him and waggled his wings as if to say, “You’ll be just fine, young Tom. Go now and find yourself some fabulous adventures!”

  And with that Tom climbed onto his bike and began riding north. The sea was on his left hand side, green and cold and stormy. He was riding along a gravel track through a wood. The next stage of his adventure had begun. Tom could not know it on that windy first morning, but before he reached the end of South America he would have to cross deserts and ride over mountains higher than any he had ever seen before. He would have to push his bike through deep rivers and muddy forests. He would even visit a country that enjoyed eating barbecued guinea pigs. This was going to be the most difficult, most exciting part so far of Tom’s journey to become the boy who biked the world.

  Email us at info@eye-books.co.uk if you want us to let you know when the next book is published!

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to Helen, Toby and Dan at Eye Books for all their hard work on this book. Thanks to Tom (Inky Mess) for his lovely illustrations.

  Alastair has supported Hope and Homes for Children through his expeditions for over a decade. He has visited their projects in Europe and in Africa. He believes that their pragmatic, caring, efficient practices make a real difference in the lives of the young people they work with. Alastair became a patron of Hope and Homes for Children in 2010.

  Hope and Homes for Children is a charity whose mission is to give hope to the poorest children in the world - those who are orphaned, abandoned or vulnerable - by enabling them to grow up within the love of a family and the security of a home, so
that they can fulfil their potential.

  Their vision is a world where every child feels loved.

  To learn more or find out what you can do to help, visit their website: www.hopeandhomes.org

  Alastair Humphreys is an adventurer, blogger, author, motivational speaker and photographer.

  Alastair’s quest for adventure began young. Aged eight, he completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge and at 13 he did the National Three Peaks in 24 hours! At 14 he cycled off-road across England. After leaving school, Alastair taught for a year in South Africa.

  Whilst at university at Edinburgh and Oxford, Alastair cycled from Pakistan to China, Land’s End to John O’Groats, Turkey to Italy, Mexico to Panama and across South America. He even ran the London marathon dressed as a rhino!

  Since graduating Alastair has cycled round the world, raced a yacht across the Atlantic Ocean, canoed 500 miles down the Yukon River and walked the length of the holy Kaveri river in India. He has also run the Marathon des Sables, (finishing as one of the ten fastest Brits despite breaking his foot during the race) and rowed to France with Major Phil Packer, a soldier paralysed in Iraq. In 2010 he completed an unsupported crossing of Iceland by foot and packraft.

  He is currently training for an unsupported return journey to the South Pole.

  Alastair is always blogging and tweeting about his adventures, big and small. Visit his website www.alastairhumphreys.com to see what he is up to.

  www.alastairhumphreys.com

  The Boy Who Biked the World is based on the author’s own experiences as he biked round the world.

  Alastair cycled 46,000 miles on a four-year adventure that took him across five continents. He succeeded due to his trust in strangers, at a time when the global community was more confused and troubled than ever. The account of his travels, experiences and life-changing moments are told in two books – Moods of Future Joys and Thunder & Sunshine.

  In his third book, Ten Lessons from the Road, Alastair shares what he learnt from his journey to help you pursue your dreams and confront the fears and doubts we all face in adversity. Big achievements start with big dreams.

  Visit this link to read more about Alastair’s Round the World Bike adventure and to see some videos of him on route: www.alastairhumphreys.com/adventures/roundtheworldbybike

  Alastair also visits and speaks in schools. If you would like to see him speak at your school ask your teacher to get in touch through Alastair’s website.

  www.alastairhumphreys.com

  About the Illustrator

  The wonderful drawings in this book are by Tom Morgan-Jones. You can check out some more examples of his work and get in touch by going to www.inkymess.com.

  Tom is an award-winning illustrator based in Cambridge, UK. He illustrates lots of things from children’s books and magazines to satirical boardgames.

  Tom has lectured, tutored and been an artist in residence at UK Universities, colleges and schools including the Cambridge University Cartoon and Illustration Society, Cambridge School of Art and London College of Printing.

  He has been awarded a D&AD (British Design and Art Direction) Yellow Pencil and a medal from the AOI (Association of Illustrators).

  This is not Tom’s first project with us. Tom is the illustrator behind the award-winning Mission:Explore series and has created his unique inky mess for three Mission:Explore titles, the iPhone App and website.

  It’s time to explore!

  Do the mission opposite, scan it and email it to us and we shall send you a special free Mission:Explore eBook, plus if you order any of the books listed on the last page you qualify for special discounts!

  Assign an action to each number on a set of dice. Go on a journey and follow the dice commands.

  Where do you end up?

  About the Publisher

  The Boy Who Biked the World is published by Eye Books, part of a wriggling writhing collective of book publishers run by Can of Worms Enterprises Ltd.

  In addition to this book, we recommend these other books from Can of Worms.

  Monkey Magic: The Curse of Mukada

  by Grant S Clark

  ‘A beautifully written tale of good vs evil that will inspire its readers to join the fight to save the Orangutan and help save the Earth, too!” National Geographic Kids

  “I read Monkey Magic to my son Robert. He loved this book and is even more inspired to become a Wildlife Warrior!” Terri Irwin, naturalist & owner of Australia Zoo

  Monkey Magic: The Great Wall Mystery

  by Grant S Clark

  We also do wonderful comic versions of Shakespeare’s plays illustrated by more fantastic people. www.graphicshakespeare.com

  And for those kids who have grown up or aspiring to, we have stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things: climbing mountains, finding cannibals, cycling around the world and other amazing adventures, all published by Eye Books.

  You can find out about all of our books and get special offers at www.canofwormsenterprises.co.uk