The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Kerry couple take the long road home... all the way from China!
AN adventurous Kerry couple are currently over 1,400km into their long journey home, as they attempt to cycle all the way from the Kashgar Province in China to their homes in Waterville and Keel.
Mike Curran and his girlfriend Sara O’Shea, who decided on a whim to pack in their “good pensionable jobs”, are currently cycling and blogging their way through the wilds of Uzbekistan as they take the long way round on their journey home to see their friends and family.
A KERRY couple, who one day decided to pack in their “good pensionable jobs” in an effort to see more of the world, are now currently taking part in an epic trans - continental cycle home from China to Kerry.
Michael Curran (Waterville) along with his girlfriend Sara O’Shea (Keel) have been travelling across the world since August 2016 when they set out to travel from Cape Town to Cairo before hoping to travel onwards to India, Nepal, Central Asia and the Middle East.
In their own words however, the journey, which was initially supposed to last about 12 months, hasn’t gone exactly to plan.
“The intitial trip was supposed to last roughly a year but we are now 12 months at the trip and we are still no closer to reaching the end of the journey. I really don’t know where the year has gone!” laughed Sara.
After over a year of exploring, it was in June 2017 that the couple, on a whim, decided to challenge themselves by setting out on their current expedition, of cycling across the world from China and back home to Ireland.
“We were hiking in Yunnan Province to the ‘Tiger Leaping Gorge’ and we were just chatting and suddenly decided that we were going to look into cycling back to Ireland. “
“We wanted to to make our journey more challenging, adventurous and rewarding and so we went off and did all the research, sourced all the gear and off we went,” she continued.
“Neither Mike or myself are majorly into cycling, especially not tour cycling. Mike had probably cycled only 20km in the past ten years,” she joked, “whereas I would be more of a commuter cyclist, who cycles to work every day. I have also done a couple of long distance cycles, but definitly nothing that prepared me for this!”
The route for the cycle home will see the couple travelling from Kashgar in China to countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo, Crotia, Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Germany, France, England and finally home to Ireland.
The couple have currently travelled close 1,400km on their journey home and have so far visited both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, with Uzbekistan the next stop their epic trip.
Anyone interested in keeping up with Mike and Sara on their journey home or can do so by following their travel blog ‘Ar Do Rothar’ on WordPress at https:// ardorothar.wordpress.com.
All the couples’ pictures from their travels in all of the countries they visit, along with a detailed blog post on their experiences, can be found on the site.
Safe travels, guys!