A note from Sean Keener, BootsnAll Co-founder: Alastair Humphreys is an old friend of BootsnAll. He sent us these dispatches as he cycled around the world. In 2004 he came through Portland, stayed with us for a few days, and we hosted an event at our office to help him raise money along the way. He kept going, and he has done so much more since.
"Lovely Rita..."
- The Beatles
Rita and I first met five years ago. Things have never been the same since. It has certainly not been true love all the way but we have seen many amazing things together and struggled through and over many obstacles. She has been a loyal bicycle!
Rita is a 1997 model Specialized Rockhopper and has reliably carried me 20,000 miles across more than 30 nations and four continents.
Unfortunately, after all that, the hellish rock fields of Northern Sudan finally took their toll - hardly surprising with 50kg of equipment loaded onto the bike. But the team at Specialized UK have been faultless at sorting me out quickly and efficiently with a new bicycle so that I am still pedalling south on a Specialized Rockhopper.
I would not choose to cycle around the World on any other bicycle. The Rockhopper is a classic, equally at home on dirt trails, commuting to the office or on the mountain passes of Ethiopia. It really is a bike for all purposes and I am very happy to be continuing my journey through Africa on a Specialized Rockhopper.
The only dilemma is that now Rita is no longer in my life my new bike needs a name... Any ideas?!
In an attempt to appear intelligent I have decided to add some poetry to my website occasionally. Here are the first offerings...
In Gondar, Ethiopia is the Debra Berhan Selassie church, famous for its roof-paintings of Ethiopian-looking cherubs. I visited the church with James Love, in Ethiopia for a Gap Year. He has written this poem about the church:
In the silent beauty of the wilderness church,
Amidst the trees and birds and rocks,
Moved by an unknown breeze,
I prayed, I did.
I asked God for a sign.
But nothing came.
And it seemed the beauty was cast out of that place,
Or was it I?
Perhaps God was there all along,
Resting in the patient, secret beauty
Of those eternal walls.
Where to find Alastair now
Start at alastairhumphreys.com. His books, newsletter and podcast are all there.
Alastair turned this ride into two books: Moods of Future Joys, from England to Cape Town, and Thunder and Sunshine, the long way home from Patagonia. There is a version for younger readers too, The Boy Who Biked the World.
He has written many more since, including Microadventures, Grand Adventures, My Midsummer Morning, The Doorstep Mile and Local.