Roy (Lloyd) Jones

I recently read a good article about planning, written by Leo Woodland over on crazyguyonabike. I especially like this quote, taken from a conversation the author had with a friend of his:

‘You know what I realised?’ he said with his habit of answering one question with another. ‘Away from civilisation you hardly need any money. And when you’re in civilisation, you think “Well, the roads are crowded, and that everywhere they’re selling cars and that cars get dirty in the rain.” So I go to garages and say I’m cycling round the world and can I have a morning’s work shining their cars? It’s not every day they get a round-the-world cyclist so I get the work and then I ride on until the money runs out and I find another garage. Easy, really.’

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“Plod forever, but never believe you are going to get there.”

Those are the words that Sir Ranulph Fiennes used to motivate himself on his third attempt to climb Everest.

At the age of 65 he shows us all that if we can control ourselves mentally and not allow negative thoughts to creep in, our bodies are capable of much more than we would ever believe.

“I’d love to travel, but I just don’t have the money.”

Have you ever heard anyone saying anything along these lines? Maybe you’ve even said it yourself.

Whenever I hear something like this I am reminded of a common misconception that all travel is expensive. I estimate that two people, on a self supported bicycle tour, camping four or five nights a week, cooking their own food, and abstaining (in the main) from alcohol, could theoretically live on an average budget of $10 a day. I do not expect that we will be able to live quite as frugally on our tour, as the odd splurge here and there keeps us sane and enjoying ourselves.

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