Erika Bird and Robin Searle
Banchory to the Bosphorous by Bike
Erika Bird and Robin Searle
We are Erika and Robin from Scotland and in April 2005 we quit our jobs and set off to cycle from Scotland to İstanbul.
We reached İstanbul in October 2005 having discovered that cycling truly is the best way to travel and so decided to keep going beyond the Bosphorous......
We had never cycled any long distance before but had been wanting to travel for a long time and had finally saved enough and realised ıf we didn't set off now we never would. We decided cycling would be the best form of transport as we wanted to learn more about the countries and people we passed through at a slow pace.
Also we are useless at making decisions so settıng off from our home on bikes at least solved the problem of where to go first!
The plan was to cycle across Europe to İstanbul. We also wanted to travel overland through Asia and then somehow get to South America too, but having never cycled more than a few miles a day before we did not want to commit to cycling all the way. By the time we reached İstanbul we had already decided to keep on riding, and even being run off the road on the way into the city - requiring hospital treatment - did not put us off this idea.