A KEEN cyclist is currently pedalling his way from Dorset across three continents to New Zealand in a quest to raise thousands for charity.
In September last year, 25-year-old Daniel Needham left his home village of Stratton with the goal of cycling across the globe to raise money for UNICEF.
After months of pouring over maps and devising routes, the former Thomas Hardye student left his London finance job and set off from Stratton at 4am to catch the ferry from Poole to Cherbourg.
Since crossing the channel, Dan has cycled more than 13,000km to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan all on two wheels.
Discussing his inspiration, Dan said: “My dad has always been a cycling fanatic and passed it on to me. After uni we did a cheap cycle tour from Spain to the Netherlands with our bicycles and tents.
“I fell in love with cycling as a way of travelling, it’s more than just a way to get from A to B. It makes the journey itself more important than the destination, exposes you to some surreal situations and leaves you completely at the mercy of nature and reliant on your own abilities.”
Dan, whose first job was delivering the Dorset Echo, initially planned an 18-month trip, but having only recently reached Asia is anticipating another year on the road.
So far, he has journeyed through the Alps, the Balkan states and the Greek coastline and spent a month travelling across Turkey.
He said: “I’m now at the point where things get difficult. The central Asian countries are a bureaucratic nightmare in terms of visas and Iran is unfortunately impossible to enter with a UK passport unless you are part of an approved tour group.”
Sticking to an average budget of less than £10 a day, Dan camps wild in forest or beaches and is completely self-sufficient.
“I am frequently invited to stay by a complete stranger who will take pity on a wet and cold looking cyclist, even if we have no common language.
“These spontaneous acts of trust, openness and generosity are some of the richest moments of the trip for me.”
Over the coming months Dan will cross 1000km of mostly uninhabited desert between Kazhkstan and Uzbekistan in the soaring heat and battle altitude sickness in the Pamir mountains.
His journey will take him through China and South East Asia before flying to Perth to cycle South Australia and on to the south island of New Zealand to realise his boyhood dream of seeing the Lord of the Rings filming location of Mount Doom.
While Dan says he sometimes pines for family and Dorset cider, and has had a few close calls with vicious wild dogs, he has not regretted his decision for minute.
To date he has raised £2,889 out of a £5000 goal for UNICEF, a charity he chose to “reflect the international nature of the trip” and support vulnerable children worldwide.
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