‘I made the grade’

A Fort William UHI West Highland student has completed a 1,250 km cycle across Turkey – to pass a college course module.

Roman Perales Ruiz, who is also a mechanic at Off Beat Bikes, took on the challenge as part of the Planning International Expedition module in his third year of Adventure Tourism Management.

The course asks its students to plan and realise an expedition from scratch.

Starting on May 20, Roman cycled to Cappadocia with fellow student Alberto Villar del Rincón. From there Alberto returned to Scotland, but Roman continued to the country’s Mediterranean shores at Dalaman, arriving on June 13.

As well as grand sites such as the Tuz Gölü salt flats, intimate villages such as Duman, Polatli and Iznik were also on his itinerary.

Roman, who is originally from Malaga in Spain, says he was motivated not only to pass the module, but to see if sustainable two-wheeled tourism was viable.

He said Turkey provided the perfect setting to learn about a culture whilst pedalling through the course requirement. Roman added: “Its choice as the expedition destination was based on the fact that we wanted a place that would provide us with a great cultural investment, as well as challenging terrain. Turkey certainly didn’t disappoint. The biggest danger during the whole trip were the wild dogs that could, on occasion, become quite aggressive.”

By the end of the journey Roman says he was won over by the Turkish hospitality – adding that he had never drunk so much tea in his life. Both students received A grades for their efforts and Roman now hopes to run cycle expeditions to other parts of the world.

To read more about his journey, visit obantimes.co.uk.