What is all this about?
In 2014 I left all behind for a grand cycling adventure. I wanted to live a life of simplicity outdoors, take the smallest possible roads into the horizon and camp and fly fish in untouched nature. Additionally, I wanted to see the high mountain ranges of the world, possibly for the last time in my life. It started as a plan to ride the Silk Road and then sail back home, but it soon turned into an around the world cycling adventure.
From fall 2014 to summer of 2016, I cycled 32,000km in nineteen months, from Finland to Indonesia across thirty-two countries. I pedaled through the European winter, crossed the deserts of Iran and Central Asia in mid summer, crossed the Pamir Mountains, cycled across the Tibetan plateau in winter and sweated my way across the Equator to the Southern Hemisphere. I was planning to continue to Australia and New Zealand in 2016, but well, this and then that happened.
Kyzyl Khum Desert (Kazakhstan), Jungles of Cameron Highlands (Males), Pamir Mountains (Tajikistan), Armenian Highlands and the Taklamakan desert (China).
I will resume my trip in April 2017. Starting from the southern-most city in the world, Ushuaia, Argentina, for the two years I will cycle to Alaska, in search of the perfect dirt track across the Americas . What about after that? Home across the Siperia.
Red: Actual route from Finland to Bali (2014-2016), planned route marked on green. Blue: Route plan from Patagonia to Alaska (2017-2018). Yellow: Route plan back to Finland across Siberia (2018-2019)
What does the ‘gonebikefishing’ mean?
There is a saying ‘gone fishing’, meaning ‘out of office’. I spent three and a half years in an office job before this trip. I am also a keen fly fisherman, and carry a rod and fly kit on my travels. So I am now literally… ‘gone bike fishing’. What an awesome name, isn’t it?
Why to start a website after being already years on the road?
What started as a personal trip for myself has turned into something worth sharing more widely. Using only Instagram I was able to share only glimpses, more like highlights, of what I was going through on the road. The essence, the soul of travelling on a bicycle through cultures and landscapes, is though something much more. The experience of cycling across continents, living outdoors and living a life of utmost simplicity is humbling, exhausting, educating and rewarding. Gonebikefishing.com exists to share more of my experience of long distance bike touring and give a flavour of my life on the dirt roads of the world.