• 5 months ago
Meet the man who is on an epic 3,462 mile cycle ride from the UK to Australia.

Sam Murray, 24, set off from his home in Greenhithe, Kent last month and has travelled through, France, Brussels, Germany, Switzerland and is now in Venice, Italy.

The aim is to cycle his way through Turkey, Georgia, Russia, and Kazakhstan - ending his trip in Perth in July 2025.

Along the way, Sam has been camping under tunnels and underpasses - being welcomed in by local communities where he has stayed.

Sam is hoping to raise money for the Samaritans - a support charity - after he tried to take his own life in June, 2020.

He has quit his job and left behind his family as he spends a year on the road with a single backpack.

Sam, a former IT support worker, said: "I have always liked travelling and seeing the world.

"The great thing about tourism on a bike is that you get to see the towns and villages that are off the beaten path.

"Back in 2020 I tried to take my own life.

"The main reason I am doing this is to show people that things can get better and you can do something incredibly crazy.

"That you can start living your dreams as long as you give yourself a bit of self love."

Sam set off from his family home in Greenhithe, Kent on May 27, 2024.

He said his highlight so far on the trip was when he stayed in Burkheim, Germany, and joined a family for the first game of the Euros.

Sam said: "I was cycling in the French border. I took a detour to go over the border into Germany.

"I crossed the bridge into Germany when I noticed that a local football club was hosting a viewing for the game.

"I watched the opening game there and was taken in for a couple of days by this family - I was their fourth son for the weekend.

"That was highlight for me - it shows how kind people can really be to strangers."

One of the challenges Sam faced was cycling through the Furka Pass - a 7,969ft mountain pass in the southern Swiss Alps - when he witnessed a cyclist in a serious collision.

He said: "I had just cycled down 500 metres and I had to go up 800 metres.

"I was half way up the hill when I saw a cyclist coming down at speed and a motorbike crashing into the back of him.

"The cyclist had some gruesome injuries and I called an ambulance. I stayed for a few hours to talk to police.

"It was getting dark, I had seen a horrific accident climbing this mountain and I was scared to cycle after what I had just seen."

Sam is currently in Valencia, Italy waiting for his bike to be repaired, he is hoping to stay on one bike the whole journey.

Next he will cycle his way through Turkey, Georgia, Russia, and Kazakhstan - ending his 3462 mile trip in Perth in July 2025.

Sam said: "My route is a little bit what I fancy, I don't have a strict route.

"I do have an idea how I will get through Asia now.

"I might have to get a plane from Kazakhstan to South East Asia as there is a few conflicts going on in the countries in between.

Category

😹
Fun
Transcript
00:00Day 6 of cycling from the UK to Australia.
00:03I woke up in this cool airbnb in Lille.
00:05It is a local dojo which mainly teaches women self-defense.
00:09Can't tell you how nice it was to sleep in a warm bed and have a nice warm shower too.
00:14The host Laurent was also amazing, what a lovely guy.
00:17We had some great conversations.
00:19He also gave me a couple of Zen buyers which are basically a Japanese flattened rice cake
00:24and also a charm one with engravings for good luck.
00:27The rice cakes were delicious by the way.
00:29I made a quick stop to this bike shop where they actually fixed my brakes for free.
00:33Sadly didn't have a derailleur replacement though.
00:35I then dropped by a Lidl's bakery, got myself a pan au chocolat and then I cycled into Lille.
00:40Lille was beautiful as to be expected.
00:43It had that lovely, you know, French old architecture look that everybody loves.
00:48And the majority of Europe tried to copy.
00:50But as much as Lille was lovely, I actually really fancied getting on my bike and cycling.
00:54So that I did.
00:55I cycled myself out of Lille and it wasn't long until we were in Belgium.
00:59The Belgium that I entered was a bit misty and foggy.
01:02Did kind of give it a cool look though.
01:04Kind of eerie.
01:05I then remembered the England game was on though.
01:07So I quickly tented up, put on some pasta and yeah, I watched the football.
01:12We were now just outside a town called Ronces.
01:14Not to be mistaken with Nantes.
01:16This meant that we had about 100km to get to Brussels.
01:19Anyway, that's for the next episode.
01:21Day 8 of cycling from the UK to Australia.
01:24Didn't really get much footage from this morning.
01:26But I took a short ride into Brussels.
01:28I dropped my bike off at the bike mechanic.
01:30Said I needed a new cassette and a new chain.
01:33And I then had to lug my bags over a mile to the hostel.
01:36After my hard work, I treated myself to a pastry.
01:39Look at this croissant.
01:40It had cream inside, chocolate icing.
01:43Yum.
01:44And I then started my walk around the city.
01:46As much as I'd loved cycling the last week.
01:49Being able to walk around without having to worry about my bike was bliss.
01:53Oh, and I tried my first kebab by the way.
01:55Honestly, I can't believe I even made it to Brussels.
02:05This journey has taught me so much already.
02:07And as I walk around the city, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the journey that I was on.
02:12We've had flat tyres, snapped derailleurs, ripped tents, forgotten passports.
02:17And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
02:19Absolute chaos.
02:20And I wouldn't do it any other way.
02:22And as I laid my head to rest on my hostel bed, I thought surely the majority of the craziness is over.
02:28Oh, how naive, little boy.
02:30How naive.
02:32Day 28 of cycling from the UK to Australia.
02:34This day goes from very good to very bad very quickly.
02:37But we started off the day with bad.
02:39It was very rainy outside.
02:40But the weather soon cleared up enough for me to get my stuff together and leave.
02:44We're only 10km from Bern.
02:46Not too far away from the panel shuffler either.
02:48And whatever these are, I'm really going to miss these.
02:51Then, wanked off.
02:52As I told you guys in the Basel episode, somebody was late for their train and ended up coming into the hostel.
02:57We sat up and had a good conversation for a couple of hours.
03:00And he told me he was living in Bern and that I just had to come and see it.
03:03Oh, when he saw that I was near Bern, he pinged me a message on Instagram.
03:07He offered to show me around the city, which I gratefully accepted.
03:10Bern is a really cool city and it's purposely kept its old look.
03:13Personally love the Canton flag of Bern.
03:15In Switzerland, you'll see that there's a lot of flags.
03:18Basically, each Canton, which is their version of a county, has their own flag.
03:22And they tend to be really cool.
03:24Because they try and preserve Bern's historic architecture.
03:27Their cathedral is actually the biggest building in the city.
03:30And it's not too big, but when you see the overview of the city, you can really see it towering over all the rest of the buildings.
03:36Side note, there was a suicide hotspot in the city and they actually put up this little sign there.
03:41I thought that was awesome.
03:42The colour of the water in the city was beautiful and apparently on good days, people actually float in the water.
03:47I then had possibly the best kebab of the tour yet.
03:50Then, disaster struck.
03:52So, when I went back to my bike, it looked like this and I tried to cycle on it.
03:56I got about five kilometres outside of Bern and then it burst.
03:59So I had to get on a public transport back into Bern and then stay in a hostel for the night.
04:04Yeah, I was pretty bummed and this was a really low moment of the tour.
04:08It meant that we were in Bern for the Switzerland versus Germany game, which was pretty cool.
04:12I managed to find a public viewing and yeah, the Swiss were very happy because they qualified for the round of 16.
04:18But England are about to knock them out in the quarterfinals.

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