Cycling Stew

I’m Stewart Blake, AKA Cyclingstew,  and since 2015 I’ve been travelling the world on my bicycle either on a part-time basis or full-time basis.

The original aim of this website was to chronicle a 20,000 km 12 month solo world cycle ride that I completed in 2016 but as I got ‘hooked’ on tour cycling I now spend parts of every year cycling my bike around the world and living out of my tent.

I have recorded all of the planning and choice of equipment that it took to get my cycling adventure off the ground.  Perhaps more importantly I have also recorded the GPS routes and Blog posts that I wrote along the way.

Use the tabs at the top of this page or the country links below to read more about my cycling adventures:

Countries I have cycled:

World Cycle Ride 2016

Please take a look at the map below for an overview of the complete route I cycled:

My world cycle ride began with a 3 month cycle through Asia from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to the island of Flores in Indonesia.  En-route, I passed through Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

I then flew to New Zealand for a couple of months, where I spent the majority of this time cycling around the sparsely inhabited South Island.

It was then onto South America where I spent a blissful 3 months cycling over the Andes Mountains in Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.

The next stop was the Middle East as I cycled through the mountains and desert of Oman and into the United Arab Emirates.

At the end of April 2017 I flew to Sofia in Bulgaria where I started the final leg of my world bike ride through Europe.

After a bit of skiing in Borovets I crossed the snowy Balkan Mountains into Romania. Here I was joined by friends from England who enjoyed a weeks cycling with me through Transylvania.

After saying goodbye to them in Budapest, Hungary it was time to meet up with some ex-colleagues from my time working in Vietnam as we cycled towards Bratislava in Slovakia.

Once I left Slovakia and crossed into Austria I was on my own for the final month as I cycled south through Slovenia (an amazingly beautiful country) and crossed the Julian Alps into my final country – Italy.

On the 27th of June 2017 my year on the bike finally came to an end on Italy’s Adriatic coast in the city of Venice. During my time on the bike I covered somewhere in the region of a mind boggling 17,000 km as I cycled my way across 4 continents and through 23 countries,

What I enjoyed the most about this trip was that everyday on the bike brought new unexpected adventures. Each country that I cycled through had its own highlights. In Asia the stars were the amazing people I met along the way, and in New Zealand it was breathtaking scenery which took centre stage.

In South America, the highlight was cycling over the Andes Mountains, while in the Middle East it was the beauty of the desert and the thousands of workers from India/Bangladesh who always had a smile.

Once I reached Europe there were simply too many highlights to mention – the mountains, the food, the hospitality, the history… Each country was an amazingly different experience.

To read about all of my adventures during my year on the bike click the Trip Posts tab from the dropdown menu above.  Alternatively, watch my adventures by clicking on the Trip Videos tab to see where it all started in Vietnam.

Lastly, for those of you who joined me for a couple of days, or offered me a meal, a garden to pitch my tent or even a bed for the night you have my utmost gratitude.  Without you, my year on the bike would not have been the same.

Cycling Adventures 2017 onwards

The end of my 17000 km world bike ride was not the end of my cycling adventures and since 2017 I have cycled through Colombia, England, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and Wales.

Please have a look around this website as I have recorded all of the planning and choice of equipment that it took to get each cycling adventure off the ground.  Perhaps more importantly I have also recorded the GPS routes and Blog posts that I wrote along the way.

Cheers

Stewart