Mark Beaumont's Diary
Despite adding about 2kg to his overall kit weight, Mark carried a laptop, GPS tracker, three cameras and a voice recorder to help him document his journey.
He sent us text messages and phoned from the road and whenever he passed through civilisation, he popped into internet caf茅s to email pictures and videos.
Leg 1 - DONE!
Mark Beaumont, Tuesday, 28 August 2007.
Made it!
2277 miles in 22 days from Paris to Istanbul. Leg 1 has been tougher than expected and a whole adventure by itself... but is only the very start! I am so tired right now I am struggling to type so will save the detail for tomorrow.
In brief, I finished today with a very hilly 130 miles in the 40 degree heat. Entering Istanbul took over 2 hours and was without comparison is the scariest cycling I have ever done. Entering a city of over 15 million people is tricky! Met the Beeb and got some good footage to prove I ain't exagerating!
Great sense of relief that despite the challenges with bike, weather etc, the legs are in great shape and I am on target. More chat to follow as I've got plenty of stories from the road. For now I gotta sleep.
Oh yes, a note on the next bit...the plan is a day off every 14 and in light of having just done 22 non stop and about to head into one of the toughest stretches I have decided to rest up for two days instead of one here as I have a lot of bike maintainance, sorting and prep to do - but don't worry, loads of photos and audio clips online soon of leg one and the race will resume on Wednesday when I cycle into Asia!
Hmmm, all very exciting but for now I must sleep...
Comments
Well done mate, think i would have given up on the outskirts of Paris, never was very good at negotiating innercity traffic! hope your well but most importantly the bike is! Keep it up!posted by Ross from Glasgow
Well done, and best wishes for the next chunk. I'm in between hip operations so need to get my thrills by proxy, and they can't come any mire thrilling than this!posted by BOB WATT from GLASGOW
elo Mark! Sounds like things have been tough sir for leg 1! We are keeping up to date via the website and wish you all the hairy chest for leg 2! J & Lposted by James & Laura from Edinburgh
fantastic progress good luck for the rest of the wee cycle!posted by stewart wyllie from crieff
and I thought i was doing well biking it in from the suburbs every day, keep up great progresposted by scott mason from glasgow
Well done mate, superb achievement, keep it up.posted by Ross from Edinburgh RC
Your gran and I sit in church and talk about your crazy trip. Great stuff, amazing!!!posted by David from Kilmacolm
hooked on the programme spot on that.posted by ged from liverpool
