I have just finished a superb, and inspiring read, ‘You’ve Gone Too Far This Time, Sir!’ by Danny Brent. The book describes the journey he made from London to Chembakolli in India, it was 15000km from A to B and he travelled the whole way by bicycle. I must say I did try and get into the spirit of the book by doing my usual trick of sitting on the exercise bike in the Hangar whilst I read it and it certainly helped me pass the time as I cycled for an hour, which when it is over 40Deg is going some.
To cycle that distance, much of the time with no company and across some quite rough terrain I think is amazing. The book really painted the picture of the different countries and cultures that he passed and I thought he managed to express the emotions felt during the journey really well.
I think what is even more thought provoking is how he got treated on the journey by total strangers. People who have very little compared to those in Europe openly welcomed this chap into their homes throughout his journey, well basically from Eastern Europe onward. You wouldn’t see that happen in the UK, very few people would invite a total stranger into their house, feed them and give them a bed for the night. Most of us would probably just cross the road and ignore the traveller or automatically be suspicious and think the worse of someone. Yet throughout this mans journey people with nothing put a roof over his head and fed him, asking nothing in return. Perhaps this does show that humanity has hope after all and maybe we could all learn something from this.
I know I could never undertake such a journey as I wouldn’t want to be apart from my family for that amount of time, (I know I am away when I am at sea but not for that length of time) it has made me even more determined though to one day cycle from Lands End to John O Groats need to get a little fitter before I even think of doing that though. Anyway it was a great book and would recommend it as well worth a read.
No comments:
Post a Comment