On yer bike! Pedaling to U.K. from Korea

Four wheels, 13 countries and 13,620 km for two Brits who took the scenic route home


For most expats, a year teaching English in Korea yields a satisfactory store of travelers’ tales with which to impress the folks back home.

But Brits Tom McConville and Peter Hoyle merely whet their appetites for a much bigger adventure during their ESL stint in South Jeolla Province.

Their year teaching at a hagwon in Suncheon, near Yeosu, became the launch pad for a 13,620 kilometer) cycle through 13 countries from China to the U.K. upon finishing their contracts.

Twenty-six-year-old McConville explained how he convinced Hoyle, 23, to forsake his flight home to England for a ferry from Incheon to Lianyungang and then start pedaling, without even owning a map of China.

“I remember telling a few people my idea and they all thought I was joking or crazy but Pete thought it was a good idea,” said McConville, who plans to write a book about the journey now that he is back in his native Scotland.

“He was going to backpack around Southeast Asia, but I managed to convince him to join me for this instead.”

The pair did nothing but cycle on the 37-week trip bar such emergencies as a train needed when McConville broke his collarbone while cycling near the Yangtze River, and a flight needed to quit China quickly because of expiring visas.

The pair spent their last months in Korea getting up at 5 a.m. twice a week to go on 70 kilometer training cycles before their afternoon shifts at work. After initial problems sourcing specialist bikes in Korea that were up to the challenge and big enough to fit Englishman Hoyle’s 1.9-meter frame, they took to the road on Jan. 19. 

The journey saw them struggle with injury, fatigue, foreign languages and visa issues, but ever-present was their battle with the elements.

Enduring temperatures dropping to minus 25 degrees Centigrade in the Gobi Desert at night and reaching 60 degrees Centigrade in Turkmenistan was enough to make them want to jump on the next plane home at times.

“In the Gobi Desert, it was very cold at night,” McConville said. “I got frostbite in my little finger. I had to stop every 10 kilometers and hack the ice off my bike as it would become frozen solid from the spray from the road.

“Turkey was between 45 and 50 degrees Centigrade with humidity as well, so we experienced some real extremes in weather.”

They also had mountain snowdrifts, Iranian sandstorms and downpours to contend with when facing extreme environments across the Asian and European continents.

Another trial for McConville was missing his family and girlfriend, and he admitted: “There were a few times where I thought about just buying a plane ticket home.

“That is the part where you have to push on, and when it is good to have another person there. We used each other for support.”

But McConville, who caught the biking bug during his daily 20-kilometer cycles to school while growing up in the Scottish Highlands insisted they’d taken the best way to get around.

“I find the best way to travel is to take it at a slow pace,” he said. “Cycling is a great way to do it because you meet everyone on the way. There is always someone to chat to on the side of the road, to offer you a drink and share your story.”

This cycle route took in the Great Wall of China and scaled some of the highest, most remote mountains of the world in Central Asia’s Pamir mountain range.

McConville said what he called “the biggest challenge of my life” was well worth the effort on returning to the U.K. on Sept. 23, and to Scotland two weeks later: “I was so excited to be getting back home and to have reached that level of achievement.”

And, what’s more, he says: “My legs are in the best shape they have ever been in.“

He now plans to spend Christmas writing his book and approaching publishers, but he hasn’t ruled out a return to Korea in 2012.

A blog detailing the trip can be found at www.crazyguyonabike.com.

By Kirsty Taylor (kirstyt@heraldcorp.com)