CURRENT LOCATION
(as of December 2024):
USA
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ABOUT
Hey, I'm Tristan. Welcome to my site. I'm an expedition bikepacker, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, on a mission to cycle 100,000 kilometres around the world, through 100 countries, on 6 continents.
Back in 2015 I started a 3 month bike tour of New Zealand, got carried away and spent the next year cycling home from Papua New Guinea to England. Now, nine years later, I've cycled around 83,000 kilometres (51,500 miles) through 71 countries, having crossed 6 continents. I still have a long way to go, but I'm in no hurry. For me, it's never really been about the milage; having a goal is useful, but it's the journey that's important, so I'm happy to take my time.
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This page will give you an idea of where I've been and where I'm going. You can also check out my videos HERE.
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Email: tristan@tristanridley.com
Instagram: @tristanrid
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If you like what I'm doing and want to help me out, you can support my ride with a small monthly donation on Patreon.
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Alternatively if you'd just like to buy me a drink you can make a one-off donation either using 'Buy me a coffee' or by using PayPal. Thank you!
MAPS
ROUTE CYCLED SO FAR (AS OF JUNE 2024):
ORIGINAL ROUTE PLAN FROM ENGLAND, CREATED IN 2017:
COUNTRY PLAN (DATES ARE APPROXIMATE)
Late 2024: USA, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California
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2025: Mexico, Central America
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2026: South America
STATISTICS
COUNTRIES CYCLED
Distance: 83,000 kilometres
Countries: 71
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Biggest daily distance: 330km, China
Biggest daily climb: ~4000m, Spain
Top speed: 89 km/hour, Austria
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Highest: 4900m, Tibet
Hottest: 45C, Indonesia, Sudan
Coldest: -12C, Serbia
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Food poisonings: 4 (China, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Ethiopia)
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Longest without a day off: 1 month, 4700km, China
Longest without a shower/wash: 1 month, China
Times hit by traffic: 2, both China
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Favourite countries: Kyrgzstan, Georgia, Turkey, Norway, the Balkans (especially Montenegro, Albania, and Greece), Kenya, Argentina
Most cycle friendly: Netherlands
Least cycle friendly: Ethiopia
Nicest people: Papua New Guinea & Sudan
Best food: Indonesia
Worst food: Papua New Guinea
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Last updated: December 2024
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Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea,
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Asia: Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Palestine
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Europe: Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, England, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, San Marino, Spain, Cyprus, Portugal
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Africa: Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Morocco
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South America: Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile
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North America: USA, Canada
THE JOURNEY SO FAR
DECEMBER 2013 - DECEMBER 2015: AUSTRALIA
After finishing university and spending the summer backpacking around Europe, I flew out to Australia and spent two years working and hitchhiking around. Towards the end of my time in Australia I became interested in bike touring so I bought a bike in Brisbane and then flew out with it to Christchurch.
DECEMBER 2015 - MARCH 2016: NEW ZEALAND
One of the most beautiful countries in the world. Having not really cycled for more than a decade, the hills of New Zealand were a trial by fire for my legs and a great warm up for the bigger mountains to come.
MARCH - APRIL 2016: PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Having decided to try to cycle home to England without flying, I quickly realised that without flying, I was stuck in New Zealand. I decided to cheat as little as possible, choosing Port Moresby as an unlikely start point. My crossing of the country via the East Cape was not without incident; I came down with Dengue Fever, was chased by men with machettes, had a boat sink and was almost stranded by the monsoon. Eventually I made it over the border to the Indonesian side of the island, mainly due to the incredible kindess of the people I met along the way. Papua New Guinea has some of the nicest people in the world.
APRIL - JULY 2016: INDONESIA, MALAYSIA, THAILAND, LAOS
From Jayapura, West Papua, I took a week long PELNI ship to Surabaya, Java, then cycled through to Jakarta from where I took another ship onwards to Singapore. From Singapore I rode north into Malaysia, through Thailand to Bangkok and then up into Laos towards the Chinese border.
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JULY - SEPTEMBER 2016: CHINA
I rode through Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Xingjiang provinces, over the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau then straight through the Taklamakan Desert, barely making it over the border with less than 5 minutes left on my visa, having cycled almost 4300km against the wind in just 27 days. I was also nearly arrested and was twice hit by traffic.
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OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2016: CENTRAL ASIA
I followed the Silk Road west through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, then on 25th October I spent my birthday in Bukhara and made the decision to try to cycle the remaining 7000km home to England in just two months to surprise my family for Christmas. I started the attempt with a 1000 mile sprint through the desert to Aktau on the Caspian Sea, lost a week and a half waiting for visas, then took a ferry over to Baku, Azerbaijan.
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NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2016: AZERBAIJAN TO ENGLAND
With winter taking hold, I rode hard through to Georgia and Turkey, arriving in Istanbul on November 25th, leaving me just under one month to make it home. I raced through Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and France, and took the ferry to Dover on December 24th. Having averaged almost a hundred miles a day for two months, and armed with a pannier full of presents from the Silk Road, I made it home on Christmas Day 2016 to triumphantly surprise my family and claim my share of the Christmas roast.
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JANUARY 2017 - APRIL 2018: ENGLAND
Worked in England for a little over a year, saving up for the rest of the trip. I set out again on the 9th April 2018.
APRIL 2018 - AUGUST 2018: NORTHERN EUROPE AND SCANDINAVIA
Followed the North Sea coast through France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. I then spent a month exploring the spectacular montains and fjords of southern Norway before returning to Sweden, crossing to Finland and then south through the Baltics.
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SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2018: CENTRAL EUROPE AND THE BALKANS
After switching to a new bike, I rode south through Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania through to Greece, where I caught a flight over the Mediterranean from Athens to Amman.
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DECEMBER 2018 - FEBRUARY 2019: THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
From Amman, I rode south through Jordan down to Aqaba and caught a ferry over to Egypt. I made it through Sinai to Cairo, then cycled down the Nile valley as far as Aswan. I caught another ferry across Lake Nasser into Sudan and cycled the length of the country, crossing the Sahara Desert and riding over the border into Ethiopia.
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Sudan - Revolution in the Sahara
Despite the beauty of its Great Rift Valley, Ethiopia is infamous in bicycle touring circles as one of the most unpleasant and emotionally draining countries in the world to cycle. I spent a month crossing Ethiopia from Humera in the northwest to Moyale in the southeast.
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MARCH 2019: ETHIOPIA
APRIL - JULY 2019: EAST AFRICA
Entering Kenya from the north I rode down to Nairobi, where I took a month off the bike. I then cycled west through the Rift Valley into Uganda, and rode south through to Rwanda. In Kenya and Uganda I also visited a number of schools with which Build Africa have been working and met the local staff, an incredible experience. From Rwanda I crossed into Tanzania and rode south towards Zambia.
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JULY - OCTOBER 2019: SOUTHERN AFRICA
Joining up with a couple of other cyclists, I rode south through Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to reach Cape Town and complete my north-south crossing of the African continent. I stopped in Cape Town for a little under a month before leaving Africa on a flight for São Paulo, Brazil.
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OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2019: BRAZIL & URUGUAY
In an interim from my normal type of travelling I spent two months making my way south from Rio de Janeiro down to Buenos Aires (Argentina) through Brazil and Uruguay, using a combination of cycling and local buses. From Buenos Aires I flew down to Ushuaia at the bottom of South America to begin the long road north towards Alaska.
DECEMBER 2019 - JUNE 2020: PATAGONIA
From Tierra del Fuego at the end of the world I spent four months cycling north through Patagonia, crossing back and forth between Argentina and Chile. When the Covid-19 outbreak hit South America I decided to stay on the continent to see how things developed, spending three months in quarantine in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. I finally decided to return to Europe, flying back to the UK and reluctantly leaving South America behind for the time being.
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JULY - SEPTEMBER 2021: EUROPE, ROUND 3
I spent three months over the summer bikepacking through the Alps, making my way east through southern France, Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Slovenia. I then went south into Croatia, and back across to Italy by ferry. I crossed the Apennines, and finally made my way back up to Milan, from where I flew back to England and worked for a few months.
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JANUARY - APRIL 2021: THE KENYA BIKE ODYSSEY
I spent three months back in Kenya working on a project I'd hand in mind since my first visit in 2019; to put together Kenya's first fully comprehensive, self-supported, long distance bikepacking route. The finished route far exceeded expectations, and is absolutely world class. It wouldn't have been possible without the overwhelming support from many local Kenyans, including the department of tourism in the Rift Valley. The project complete, I returned to England for the summer.
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APRIL - NOVEMBER 2021: DOWNTIME, ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND
Sadly, my father passed away suddenly the day after I returned to England, so much of the rest of the year for me was taken up with looking after my family and dealing with my father's affairs. I did manage to get away on a few shorter trips over the summer, including a fantastic three week break in the Scottish Highlands
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NOVEMBER 2021 - JANUARY 2022: THE CANARY ISLANDS
I spent a few months exploring Gran Canaria and Tenerife, making the most of the winter sun. Gran Canaria in particular blew me away, and I think it's an incredibly underrated place for bikepacking.
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APRIL - MAY 2022: SOUTHERN SPAIN
After working for a couple more months in the UK, I spent a month cycling down through Spain from Valencia to Gibraltar. The trip was unseasonably cold, and I had to push through a lot of snow higher up in the mountains. Andalusia is absolutely spectacular!
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SUMMER + AUTUMN 2022: SCOTLAND, WALES, CYPRUS
Between time spent working, I managed to get away for a few weeks of bikepacking and hiking in Scotland, as well as a three-week trip up through England to north Wales. I also spent the whole of November in Cyprus.
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WINTER 2022/2023: CANARY ISLANDS, MOROCCO, SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
I spent December and January in Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, and Fuerteventura, before flying to Marrakech at the start of March and spending a month bikepacking through the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. I took a ferry from Tangiers back to Spain, then cycled northwest along the coast into Portugal up to Lisbon, from where I flew back to the UK for the start of Spring.
JUNE - OCTOBER 2023: ALASKA AND CANADA
Flying out to Anchorage, I spent two months cycling in Alaska, making it all the way up to Deadhorse, deep inside the Arctic Circle, before turning southeast and making my way over the border into Canada. I spent a further two months in Canada, pedalling down through the Yukon and into British Columbia, finishing in Vancouver and flying back to Europe for the winter.
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WINTER AND SPRING 2023/24: EUROPE
I spent most of the winter working remotely in the UK and the Canary Islands. I also spent two weeks in Madeira at the start of 2024.
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APRIL - AUGUST 2024: CANADA
I returned to Vancouver in April and spent the following few months exploring British Columbia and Alberta, cycling from Squamish over to the Rockies, riding down the Icefields Parkway and spending a month hiking in the area, before starting the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route in Banff and riding south over the border into the US.
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SEPTEMBER 2024 - NOW
I crossed into the US at Glacier National Park and followed the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route south through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado. At Breckenridge, I left the Great Divide, and I'm currently spending the rest of 2024 riding southwest towards Baja, Mexico.
