Doing Stuff Outdoors-85

On the show today a feature interview with Rob Thomson, a young New Zealander who just finished cycling and skateboarding 20,000 km solo around the world. Here is Rob's description of his adventure from his webpage, 14 Degrees Off the Beaten Track.

A JOURNEY OF OPPORTUNITIES - Welcome to my website about my journey around the world by bicycle and skateboard. I am an ex-office worker, and I never intended to travel all the way around the world. I certainly never expected to end up breaking a long distance skateboarding world record!

What started as a 12,000km cycle journey across the Eurasian continent quickly became a very different kind of challenge.

I began in July 2006 by cycling 12,000km from Japan to Switzerland across some of the most remote and hostile environments I had ever experienced. I endured -23 degrees Celsius daytime temperatures, cycled over 4,600m high passes, and put up with some of the most frustrating bureaucracies perhaps in the whole world.

However, on the 25th of June 2007, almost a year since I set out from Japan on my recumbent bicycle, I sent my bicycle home and started out again on a longboard skateboard.

I ended up successfully doing what had never been attempted before; I skateboarded solo and unassisted across Europe, North America, and China. On the 28th of September 2008 I finally arrived in Shanghai after skating just over 12,000km (7,500 miles). The previous world record for distance skateboarding was 5,800km.

I started this journey in 2006 hoping to experience the world at large in it's most raw forms from a bicycle seat. What I got was a humbling, often exhausting, and always challenging journey into my own soul. These two years were physically, mentally, and emotionally the most difficult years of my life.

Also on the show, comments from Mark Coughlin about skiing in The English Lake District. Check out the video.  And music from Blake Morgan.

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