How do you define circumnavigating the world on a bicycle?

Map of my bicycle ride around the world

You wouldn’t get very far trying to bicycle around the equator since it is mostly water. However, you could try lugging your bicycle to the North or South Pole; once there, you could finish the trip in minutes. Or, you could join the astronauts as they pedal a stationary bicycle while their ship orbits the Earth every 90 minutes. Maybe a more practical definition would involve bicycling every continent or every country. As it turns out, these aren’t practical options. The definitions between continent, continental plate and island are not clearly defined, while zigzagging between the invisible and often disputed political borders seems silly.

Therefore, I defined bicycling around the world as cycling the equivalent of the Earth’s circumference (40,075 kilometers as measured around the equator; the Earth’s a little fatter around the middle like most people) without treading the same ground twice (otherwise I could have stayed home and cycled circles around the local donut shop) while visiting as many cultures and world wonders as practical.

How did you get across the oceans?

I put extra air in my tires. (Haha. It’s my favorite joke. I only crossed the Ohio River on a bicycle.)

My travel companion, Dennis, re-discovered the bizarre fact that one can travel around the world following a perpetual summer by crisscrossing the equator (the seasons are in opposition). For example, only at the speed of a bicycle can one travel from the tip of Anchorage, Alaska to the tail of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina; a car would be too fast and walking too slow.

As you can see from the map, my route was a compromise between all these considerations, additionally avoiding: prevailing headwinds, rainy seasons, freezing winters (some winters are pleasantly warm like India), War, Famine, Pestilence (I was rather unsuccessful at the last three) and, of course, Death, who peeked in my direction a couple times. All the while, I constantly pushed forward, never counting the same kilometer twice.

Update 2023: Now, a lot of people follow the Guinness World Records rules for circumnavigating the globe on a bicycle. I don’t think they existed when I left. If you want to learn the rules, read: Did you break a world record? One of their rules didn’t make sense to me: The minimum overland distance is 18,000 miles. I thought it should at least be the circumference of the planet, which is 24,901 miles.

Where did you go?

The red line above is where I rode my bicycle. 41,144 KM, not including the United States, which was my warm-up ride. Although I did cycle all of North America in a continuous line, I am not a “purist”. There are too many places that are just too ugly, unfriendly and dangerous for cycling. So, to complete my circumnavigation, I connected the dots and lines with either an airplane, train, bus, truck or boat.

What countries did you visit?

Note: Some countries listed are given the benefit of the doubt, such as Tibet.

1. USA
2. Canada
3. Mexico
4. Guatemala
5. El Salvador
6. Honduras
7. Nicaragua
8. Costa Rica
9. Ecuador
10. Peru
11. Bolivia
12. Uruguay
13. Argentina
14. England
15. Wales
16. Ireland
17. Northern Ireland
18. Scotland
19. Belgium
20. Holland
21. France*
22. Monaco*
23. Spain*
24. San Marino*
25. Switzerland*
26. Germany
27. Czech Republic
28. Austria
29. Slovenia
30. Italy
31. Croatia
32. Bosnia and Herzegovina
33. Greece
34. Turkey
35. Egypt
36. Israel
37. Palestine
38. India
39. Nepal
40. Tibet
41. China
42. Thailand
43. Myanmar
44. Malaysia
45. Laos
46. Vietnam
47. Australia
48. New Zealand
49. Kenya
50. Tanzania
51. Zanzibar
52. Malawi
53. Zambia
54. Zimbabwe
55. Botswana
56. Lesotho
57. South Africa

* Countries visited by train due to time, weather and visa constraints.

In the United States, some Native American lands are still honored as sovereign nations. I visited quite a few, including:

1. Potawatomi Nation
2. Lakota Sioux Nation
3. Navajo Nation
4. Blackfeet Nation
5. And more…

Countries that I visited but didn’t leave the airport. Many people don’t count these, but I spent such a long time in these airports and saw the cities landing and taking off that my experience was culturally significant to me:

1. Chile (I flew through the Chilean Andes. It was awesome!)
2. The United Arab Emirates
3. Singapore
4. Taiwan

Countries that I saw from their neighbors. These countries probably don’t count, but often the culture, flora and fauna on either side of a border are exactly the same. I got a good look at these, often riding alongside the border.

1. Paraguay
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Mozambique

Countries that I saw from the airplane. These countries probably don’t count, but I did see them with my own eyes:

1. Cuba (great view from the airplane)
2. Greenland (from the airplane with amazing ice floes in the ocean)
3. And glimpses of many more, like Brazil

Countries I’ve visited again:

1. The United States (the culture shock was terrible, I crisscrossed my own country and the Americas again just to get used to it)
2. Canada
3. Guatemala
4. Mexico
5. Argentina (this time as an honorary Cultural Ambassador of the United States)
6. Ireland and Northern Ireland

New countries since my big trip (breaking out of my box again)

1. Indonesia
2. The Dominican Republic
3. The Bahamas
4. Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States
5. The Virgin Islands, a territory of the United States
6. Jamaica. Ya mon!
7. Denmark. Copenhagen may be the nicest city I’ve ever seen.
8. Sweden
9. Norway
10. Panamá

And hopefully, many more. In the meantime, I see my own country with new eyes every day, which has been one of the greatest rewards of my travels.