I've decided to copy some introductory stuff from my 2023 blog "Unfinished Business" because I find it frustrating following links all over the place and I suspect other do too. So, these early sections about me, my touring philosophy, the tours I have done and other bits and pieces appear elsewhere.

It was in 2011 that I realised just how lucky I was as I cycled east from the UK with no destination in mind. Eighteen months earlier I had a simple fall from a bicycle, snapped my tibia and fibula in half, got picked up by an ambulance and a little later was in surgery. A few days later I was back home and going 2.5 km each way to work on crutches. It happened days before I was going to have another go at cycling the 250 km from Canberra to Tathra in a day. As I lay in my hospital bed I made a pact with myself that I would have a go at it - no, do it - in 12 months’ time. I recovered well from my surgery and, even though I have no medical insurance, it cost me nothing. That is lucky because for a large proportion of the World's population this would not be true.

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I managed to do my ride to Tathra in a day and a few months later was picking up my new Thorn Nomad bicycle in Bridgewater, Somerset. Cora and I headed east to Istanbul, stopping in Paris, St Gallen, Vienna and Budapest en route. I then headed on alone and met Cora once more in Kunming.  How lucky was I?  I was in my early 50's and cycling wherever I wanted to go. How many people did I pass, especially in poor countries, who would never be in my position? And how many people did I see, especially in developed nations, who would be physically unable to cycle?  But there's another rung to my ladder of luck: every time I withdrew money on this ride, I had more in the bank than I did at the previous withdrawal. How can this be! The answer is Australia's long-service leave through which, after ten years’ service, one gets three months of extra vacation at full pay. In 2011, I took this leave and a month's normal vacation on half-pay. So, here I am cycling along as free as a bird and receiving half my normal salary. This was hard to spend when mainly rough camping and cooking our own food. Talk about lucky!