Youngest solo RTW trip?
 

Hey well this is my first post (woopie!)

I was planning on doing a London to New York trip with my brother, but plans have fallen through.

So I was wondering if anyone knew if there was a record for youngest person to ride around the world (or London to NY if that counts!)

I am 20 and might be leaving in 6 months! I was also wondering if my age might be a problem in any country? From what I can tell it should all be ok (beside the inability to drink legally in the US!)

Thanks :)

Pympster

I know a Guy he was 22 when he startet from England. But he only made it to Australia. He is not going further yet.

I think too that the Age is not that problem.

Enjoy the trip and take enough time.

greetings from nepal

I think you'll find you are not alone at that age. As an example, I first started international travelling when I was 20 and did a fair amount of riding in Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Longest single ride on that journey was NYC -> Guatemala -> LA.

Welcome to HU!

Don't know for sure the youngest recorded, but I believe there is at least one younger if memory serves. Be interesting to find out for sure. Quite a few in your general age range.

Main thing is to just go and do it and have a great trip! :)

Well I suppose that means there shouldn't be any age related problems (hopefully) Though not sure how keen my parents are on me going off by myself guess I'll see if I can find someone else as "invincible" as me :)

A guy called James Heaney One Route | James Heaney | War Child is said to be the youngest Brit to have solo circumnavigated the planet by bike. He got back this summer. Nice guy, drop him a line.

Thanks for that I just popped him an email :)

One thing that might be worth considering is the definition of 'round the world' for record purposes. From what I recall it's a distance of 30,000 miles and you have to pass within 5 degrees of two antipodal points, like the UK and New Zealand.

What bike are you on, I thought getting a license under 21 was a problem these days? Small bikes rock though!

Ah I see thanks for that! Well I've actually got a Triumph Sprint GT 1050, but I don't think that will be very good off road...

Yeh it can be more difficult as you are restricted for two years, but I did my test when I was 17!

I probably will end up getting a 600 not sure which though!!

I was totally green when I first set off (I'd had a license for about three months) and took an Elefant 750 - amazing bike but a pig to push off yourself in the sand. My next desert racing bike is a 125!

What route were you thinking of? Central Asia is a bit more beauraucratic but well worth it, the ride to 'the door to hell' in Turkmenistan is one of my favourite biking memories

Hahah sounds amazing, hmmm not really sure was thinking

UK->France->Belgium-->Germany->Poland--> Czech republic --> Slovakia -->Ukraine -->Russia --> Kazakhstan then back to Russia

Not sure of that Vs the turkey and stan route, any ideas?

That route sounds good and is keeping the visa situation simple. Culturally central asia is very different from Russia, they have a rich Islamic history and all follow the 'Turkish model' - they are an amazingly warm and friendly people. The old silk road cities of Buchara and Samarkand have some fantastic old buildings, the tomb of Tamerlane etc if you like that sort of thing. I went down through the Balkans, Greece > Turkey > Georgia . Azerbaijan > Ferry to Turkmenistan > Uzbekistan > Kazakhstan > Russia then headed back West. I was supposed to do TJK and go over the Pamir highway, having seen Colebatchs photos I REALLY missed out so have to go back next year and rectify that! If I was doing it again I'd take the southern route partly for this and also to see if I could ride the Nagorno-Karabakh trail in Azerbaijan on a bike. Its a walking trail, but it's in Azerbaijan and bears witness to what was by all accounts a very brutal and under-reported war between AZ and Armenia.

A lot depends on what sort of riding you want to do. If you want to do more off-road you need much more detail in the planning as to what is good and ultimately that will decide. The southern route would probably add 400 quid in beauraucratic bull, but may be worth it. If you leave in May/June either route will be fine weather-wise. Russia is amazing but the scenery can be a bit monotonous depending on how much you like pine trees!

Hmm I'll have just over 3 months to do it, so my thinking was if I'm tight on time roads in Russia will be slightly better? The other problem is all the border crossings might keep adding up on time so I'll end up being late back for University at the end of september!

Well the original plan was more off road, but since I'm riding solo I think better to stay more on than off.

I think I'll look into both routes now thanks :)

In three months you should probably stick to the straightforward route if you're flying over to Alaska and doing the 'round' route.

One option might be to do a circular route that goes into Mongolia then doubles back on itself. In 2005 a couple from Rotherham did this in about 3 months. Mongolia is properly wild, would be a very different section from any of the rest. When you are in a hurry you can eat some serious miles through Russia (two days from Moscow to Rotterdam for example)

You get bugger all done in the first term of uni anyway!

I've done bugger all the first year and second year seems to be going the same way...

Yup sadly when I realised it was a solo trip Mongolia became a straight nono :(

Still seems tricky to find out shipping information that is accurate and up to date! That's the scary bit that I'll lose two weeks to just getting it from Russia to America!

What's your leaving date? I was going to be heading south through Iran but the politcal situations gone awol and visas aren't horses for courses so I might end up going through Central Asia and down through Kashgar to get into Pakistan instead, which would place me somewhere in Central Asia this summer.

So where are you headed this time? My leave date is around the 19th of June
Yes Iran isn't quite so good right now!

I'm having a hard enough time convincing my parents not to chain themselves to my bike to stop me going without mentioning Iran and Pakistan haha!

1st stop is attempting a land crossing across the West Papuan and Papua New Guinean jungle, which means I need to get to Indonesia. So I am thinking of going through Russia to Ulan Ude and then dropping south to Ulaan Batuur before heading west, back up into Russia, down into Kazakstan, Kyrgzstan, Tajikistan, China, Pak, India, Thailand etc etc etc

Sounds pretty cool! how long do you have??

It depends how much I get from selling my crapshack of a house, how frugal I can be on the road and how much work I can find while I'm away. I'm aiming for about 4 years but I might be able to make it last a bit longer!

Be warned, I started off just aiming to have a four month trip but this is seriously addictive stuff

You mean from Jayapura to Vanimo or Wewak by road, which I've heard is possible now....or do you mean covering the entire island by road, which seems likely to be way more problematic?

Mark

I would be crossing from Jayapura to Vanimo, boat to Wemak and then loop back inland and west into the highlands proper. The plan is to cross the entire island. This is going to be more than 'problematic' I think but it will be possible using a combination of boats and machetes. Some of the locals with bikes have promised to come and help me hack a path through some of the jungle! The final destination would be Leh - shipping to Aus from there. I wanted to go to Port Moresby because my mum used to teach there at Segari National High - but by all accounts it would be a huge effort for very little.