Hello World.

I guess the first question would be: why?

Well, my Nanna passed away in the Autumn of  2011 and it is something I still haven't fully come to terms with. That, coupled with the fact I ended up not being able to afford to live in Manchester, meant that I had to move home. So in May I moved back to Holyhead to try and sort myself out.

The money side was relatively easy. Get a job and pay off debts. That I could do. It would be the getting over my Nanna that be difficult.

Skip forward to August and a holiday in Rhodes with my family. The day before my birthday I felt really miserable and avoided my whole family for the best part of the day, spending it on a deserted area of a beach we were near (I found out later that a hastily written letter telling them not to look for me had led a few of them to believe what I'd written was a suicide note).

Anyway, whilst down at the beach I just lay in the salty azure waters of the Mediterranean sea and had a bit of a revelation: I had screwed my life up. I had dropped out of reading Chemistry at Bangor University and had just been drifting from one unskilled and minimum wage job to another. I also was giving up on my relationship with my fiance, Vicky, who had taken the brunt of my depression following my Nanna's death only for me to just pack my bags and leave her in Manchester on her own.

In this moment, I felt like such a disappointment both to myself and to the people who loved me. Nearly all my friends either had successful careers or had started families (the truly lucky ones had both). I needed something to change. I needed something to aspire to. It was there, sobbing to myself trying to keep the salty water out my mouth from both the sea and my tears that something just clicked in my head. My eureaka moment. My spark of (divine?) inspiration. I would travel. And how would I travel without a mass of money. I'd go by the only way I could. I'd cycle!

I've always been fond of cycling. Whether it was through the countryside surrounding my hometown or travelling to work in the busy streets and roads of Manchester, but I got the long distance touring bug after cycling for a charity with a friend of mine from work at the time. We traveled from Manchester to Holyhead in two days, camping overnight, and I can tell you that it was one of the most liberating experiences of my life.

We were very lucky as the rain held off the whole way. Sure, it was exhausting cycling through the hills of the North Wales Coastline, but being free from lifes worries for those two days worrying only about the road ahead was a freedom I had never felt before.

So that's why I want to cycle the world. I've always wanted to travel but felt I'd never have the money to afford flights everywhere. Now I have no worries, I only need to train hard and save up for living costs.

I've started this blog as diary of sorts for myself, but hope someone will draw inspiration from it and do something crazy themselves. I will document the equipment I buy and possibly review them. I will blog about my thoughts about the journey and where I would possibly want to go and see. I will write about the bureaucratic aspect of my tour and hopefully not make any mistakes (but if I do they'll be written down so hopefully others won't make them). Finally I will describe, in a manner I hope is eloquent and poetic, the journey itself: the people I meet; the sights and smells; the local customs and cuisines; my struggles on the road and whatever else comes to my head that I'd forget otherwise. Oh, and I won't forget pictures!

Thank you for taking the time to read this Blog.

Martyn