Mission description

This is a blog about travel, adventure, charity, and bikes. It's the story of my trip from San Francisco to wherever the road ends.
My goals are:
(1) Get as far as I can south - cycling, hitching, or whatever - before my time and money run out.
(2) Try to understand social inequality in the areas I travel through, and to do what I can to help.
My tools are my trusty bike, Magnum, my thumb, this blog, and the following websites, for which I am an ambassador:
You can follow the adventure right here, and you can see how it all started, and what it's all about, using the tabs above. If you want to be notified of new posts, you can subscribe using the links down on the right, or by liking the Wheels of Fortune Facebook page.

Beginnings

The idea for this trip was born all the way down in Punta Arenas, Chile, in the Patagonian Autumn of 2012. There, in the Hostel Independencia, I met my first bike tourists. A couple had come down the length of Chile, and the other three had cycled from the US. Being only a relative stone's throw from Ushuaia, the final destination of most bike tourists, these crazy cats were close to the end of their journeys. One, mi gran amigo Matt Gorzlancyk, had been cycling for almost 2 years and done around 29000km. I was blown away by the adventure of what they had done, and I wanted to do something similar. I didn't have 2 (more) years, but maybe a few months I thought, maybe somewhere warmer than here...

Over a few days at the Independencia, and a few drinks with Matt, I also came up with the beginnings of a project I could do while cycling. I had noted a lack of good organised information for people wanting to do volunteering for free, particularly in medicine. So I thought I could make a list, maybe even a website, as I ride, of places that wanted volunteers. Preferably one that anyone could add to.

Fast forward 5 months spent in Colombia, a month in Guatemala, Belize, and Yucatan Mexico, and 10 days in New York City. It was decision time. Either I go back to Australia with a a reasonable amount of cash, or spend the last of my money on a bike trip. Caution once again found itself in the wind. I bought a ticket to San Francisco. I bought a second hand mountain bike from Craigslist. I ordered some racks and bags online. I was ready to start.

All I needed then was a direction, and a whole lotta luck. From San Francisco, I pointed my trusty steed south. I would use the trip from there until San Diego as a test, to see if the whole shebang was realistic, and then it would be onwards into Mexico. So from San Francisco, I put the Pacific on my right, the road in front of me, and I started pedalling.

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