Katie and I pose for our last photo in our worn out clothes after completing 14,000 km

While we had completed our goal of making it to the UK, Katie and I both agreed that a sense of closure was missing from our trip and reuniting our teamie Tom who had left us in Istanbul for a faster route through Europe was needed. He was greatly missed and often talked about as we traversed mountains in Kosovo and played in the Swiss Alps It seemed only right that we meet up one last time before the 3 of us departed for different lives and countries.

So off to Ireland we went. Katie by car with her parents who had come over to the UK to meet her at the end of the trip and me on a £10.99 return flight to Belfast that I had managed to book a few weeks in advance.

It wasn’t until we were all sitting around at Tom’s house in Maghera, Northern Ireland watching videos of the adventure and recalling stories for Katie and Tom’s parents that it really felt like our time as “Team BB” had come to an end, and what a better way to do it.

Together again in Maghera Ireland getting our photos taken for an Irish newspaper

Now that goodbyes have been said you may wondering what is next for the three slightly insane cyclists that left South Korea six months ago on a mission to have an adventure of a lifetime.

Tom is heading back to South Korea this week with plans to live in Bucheon, but I think the only real thing on his mind right now is Ruth his lovely and very patient girlfriend.

Katie, after traveling around the UK is heading back to the U.S where I am sure she will dream up yet another adventure.

As for myself. It has been a week since I last rode a fully loaded bike and serious withdrawals are setting in. The lifestyle of living from day to day, not knowing what adventure lies around the corner is a life I am not quite willing to let go of yet, so planning new adventures is high on my list of things to do. For now however I too am returning to South Korea for a couple of weeks to see friends before taking some time out to visit my family in New Zealand and have a much needed summer Xmas and New Years.

As for Braking Boundaries the website, life goes on. There are still a lot of adventures and stories still to be written about, as well as photos and videos that have yet to be posted, so if you have been a fan of following our adventure stay tuned, more stories from the road are still on the way.

Also with the thousands of photos, hundreds of videos and my own personal audio diary I plan to start a complete day-by-day write-up of the adventure that took us through 21 countries, over mountain passes as high as 3000 meters and desert heats that could fry an egg.

Until then, stay tuned……

Jared

Jared and Katie seem to have had the lion’s share of adventure. Since leaving Turkey they have, amongst other things, survived being swept out to sea by floods, discussed communism a caravan in Kosovo, had tea in an Albanian bunker, conquered the mighty Alps (three 2,000-metre passes in two days), and edured miserable weather across France before arriving in London on the 15th.

I feel a bit boring by comparison. Following my solo sprint across Europe and England, I got home on the 4th and have been readjusting to life indoors over the last fortnight. After so many nights in fields and forests, sleeping in an actual bed seems almost too comfortable. Home cooking, on the other hand, is being eaten with great joy and requests for seconds.

Expect lots of stories over the coming weeks, filling in the blanks and keeping you enthralled. For those who lack patience, photos are already available on our Facebook pages.

The guys are flying/driving over to Northern Ireland next week for a catch-up session (I’ve been instructed by Ruth not to say “debriefing” as it sounds too formal and technical. In fact, I was only using it to avoid saying “piss-up”.).

In response to (semi)popular demand, here’s a tenative itinerary for the week:

Mon: ride from Dover-London
Tue: day off
Wed &Thur: ride up to Liverpool
Fri: ferry from Liverpool-Belfast

I plan to catch the Norfolklines Friday daytime ferry from Liverpool-Belfast
It arrives at 6pm in the evening (will have to check that). Beers and grub to follow.

Any of you who are in the Belfast vicinity are welcome to join. If you’re not in the area, no probs. I’ll be at home until the 26th and will try to catch up with everyone during that time.

I’ll pick up a phone SIM card tomorrow and will publish the number so I can be contacted easily.

Continued best wishes to my fellow teamies who are going to conquer the mighty Alps this week.

A full update of what I’ve been up to over the last 3 weeks will follow soon; as soon as I sit down with a nice Internet conection and a laptop, that is. Eat, ride, sleep and repeat. That’s the gist of it, but there was plenty of madness and mayhem too.