While waiting in Lima with my bicycle for the 17-hour overnight bus journey south to Arequipa (where I was to begin another exploration of the high Andes) I mentioned to a backpacker that I really wasn't looking forward to the next few hours. "Oh, I love bus journeys," he replied. "You get to see stuff." He then asked me, "Isn't it difficult and dangerous travelling by bicycle? Why would you want to do that?".
Travelling slowly through all the inaccessible places in between, not isolated behind a pane of glass, as a participant rather than observer, I’m more accessible to the folk I meet along the way, and I can truly come to know a people and a land. My bicycle connects me to these places, and although I travel alone I am never lonely.
You can read more about the bicycle travel on my personal blog at https://www.seasurfdirt.com.
- Mike Hayes
Image © Bruno Lorenzatti
Instagram: @brunolorenzatti