Category: Earth
Remember Julian Sayarer? We blogged about his one man mission to cycle across the world back in 2009. It was called This Is Not For Charity. Here's my interview with him before he set off.
He set a world record and now he's having an exhibition – featuring the words and photos that he took during his trip and which have now been published in a beautiful coffee table book called Eleven Stories.
The exhibition is being held at cafe bar Look Mum No Hands! which aside from having the best name ever is a place for people who like bikes and cafes. The photos can be seen for a few weeks from Thursday 6th January, so why not get along and enjoy some artwork with your coffee if you're in the area.
“I grew up in a town that used to be a village. It used to be a village, and then it got a supermarket, and then it got more housing estates, and then it got a large road bypassing the whole place, and by the time that was completed it had lost pretty much everything else.
I always rode a bicycle, and I always loved that bicycle…it's only as cliché as it is true. I rode it near to my house, then I rode it away from my house, into the countryside, and once I had hit the countryside it was only ever my ambition to go further. I rode my bicycle to the disused quarry where I played with my brother, to my grandparent's house 10 miles away, to school, and to the restaurants in which I worked as a teenager. Eventually I was riding into neighbouring counties, into rides of 40, 50, 60 and 100 miles, chasing after average speeds of 20 mph. Occasionally I went too far, a couple of times my mother had to drive out and collect me, exhausted, from roadsides some distance away. I always loved it, even then; I loved the independence, the adventure, the challenge. I loved it long before I thought about putting it into words.”
And don't forget to reread my interview to find out more about what makes Julian tick. Facebook event for launch party here.