A Tasmanian family who spent 696 days cycling through seven countries will share their extraordinary journey as part of Tasmanian Bike Week next month.
Andrew and Nicola Hughes, along with their three children, travelled through Vietnam, China, England, Bolivia, Peru, New Zealand and Tajikistan on their epic tour by bicycle.
Each day for nearly 700 days, the family from Flowerpot, near Woodbridge, loaded their camping equipment onto four push bikes and moved onto the next part of the country they were in to see as much as they could see.
“We realised that every country we went to was neither as scary or as dangerous as people told us it was,” Andrew Hughes told Pulse.
“There’s a really nice confirmation that the world’s got its troubles but it’s also pretty okay.”
The couple, both teachers in Hobart, left when their youngest daughter Jeannie was just 18 months old.
Their other children, Hope and Wilfred, were eight and 10 when the journey began.
“She (Jeannie) was still in nappies and still breastfeeding when we left,” Hughes said.
“We got her toilet trained and off the boob by the time we got to the UK and Europe.”
The first year saw the children riding on a triplet bike through, while in the second year they graduated to their own bikes.
Hughes said cycling allowed the family to travel slowly and connect with local communities.
“It’s putting you at ground level with everybody else,” he said.
“Given the time and space, getting around by bike is just a much more social and much healthier way to travel.”
The presentation will feature five to seven stories from their journey, complete with videos for what Hughes called “an armchair ride”.
Their presentation, as part of Bike Week is on Sunday, March 1, 4.30pm–6pm at Stanley Burbury Theatre, University of Tasmania.
Tickets are available through Eventbrite.
Tasmanian Bike Week runs from March 1-8, with events listed at tasbicyclecouncil.org.au/bike-week/.
