EXCLUSIVE | 2mororider – Week 1: Into Asia

Young globe-trotting adventure motorcyclist Rhys Lawrey has completed the first week of his year-long quest to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe. The 22-year old left London on Saturday 3rd May 2014 and a week later rode into Istanbul, having crossed the Bosporus strait that separates Europe from Asia.

“It feels like I’ve been on the road for a month” says Rhys. “We’ve been caning it, riding 350 miles every day”.

Rhys has already covered 2600 miles on his Triumph Tiger 800XC, riding through 11 different countries. “The bike is going brilliant, coping with everything, including some really tricky road surfaces.” Thus far, Albania has proved the most challenging;

“When you cross the border from Montenegro into Albania you feel like you’ve left Europe. There are no rules, massive potholes, everything from dogs to donkeys running around on the roads and sat nav goes horrifically wrong, trying to send you down farm tracks instead of main roads.”

It was in Albania that Rhys experienced his longest day to date, spending 14 hours in the saddle; “I was approaching the capital city, Tirana, heading for the Greek border, when I was forced to turn back at some roadworks on the main highway. Just as I was about to make a U-turn a car on the opposite carriageway blew up, closing the road in that direction too. I ended up making a 70 mile detour and didn’t arrive in Greece until 8.30pm, having set off at seven in the morning!”

Having crossed Greece, Rhys faced a two hour delay at the border with Turkey, where he needed to buy an insurance ‘green card’ and search for the man with the stamp who could process his passport. Then it was over the Bosporus Bridge and into the mayhem of Istanbul, the fifth largest city in the world, with a population of 14 million.

“The driving is crazily aggressive” comments Rhys. “It’s bumper to bumper, with no room for error, and cars will try to nudge bikes out of the way to occupy the space you’re using. They’re all leaning on the horn all the time and just to make life really interesting we were caught in a torrential downpour!”

From Istanbul Rhys will head East, travelling across the length of Turkey and into Georgia, from where he will head into Central Asia. “The trip really starts now.”

Follow Rhys’s progress and watch his regular video diary updates at www.2mororider.com.

[button link=”https://www.justgiving.com/2moroRider” type=”big” color=”red”] SPONSOR RHYS[/button]

The current record for the most capital cities consecutively visited is 5… Rhys is aiming to visit 52! 2moroRider is partnered with The Prince’s Trust Charity – the UK’s leading youth charity. Their goal – To Inspire Young Lives!

While doing the double record world ride, Rhys will also be raising funds to support The Princes Trust through the JustGiving website and JustTextGiving by Vodafone.