What is World Wander you ask?
World Wander is a concept rather than a journey or a phrase. It was coined by the instigator of the World Wander Bicycle tour you will read about here. As I understand it, it started out as a casual conversation between two friends, and the burning desire of one of those two to step beyond the normal, and take up the torch, shine the light, and follow through on a dream. Actually this was quite normal behavior for this individual. Having already having hiked the Appalachian trail, the Pacific Crest trail, bicycled the perimeter of the lower 48 states, the perimeter of Australia, and a route from Alaska to Florida, going beyond the normal was normal. In the following pages you'll meet this fellow and learn much more about him. The other guy was a bit of an adventurer himself. Calling himself a foolish knuckle head he's really far from the words he uses to describe himself. He's been kind of a demolition point man. The guy who sets the dynamite before they blow the side off a mountain. He says any knuckle head can do it, and implies you have to be sort of a knuckle head to do it. I hear he spends lots of time being a ski bum lately, makes his money in the service industry which means doing everything from waiting tables to bell hop to parking cars. What ever pays.
So these two guys are sitting at a table just talking and one brings up the subject of riding a bicycle around the world. Wouldn't that be great! The conversation moves on and yes they decide it would be great. A great journey, a great challenge, and a great time. So Ole, I'll call him the instigator takes this serious, and his "knuckle head" friend Ric goes along for the ride. Ole has been working for the American Youth Hostels as a Hostel Manager in Nantucket on the East Coast. Ric has been bumming cheap lodging at the hostel in exchange for doing work around the premises. Ole and Ric have done some riding together and Ole knows that Ric can ride circles around him. Not that he's a better cyclist, more that he's got the strength, stamina, and energy of a twenty year old, not like the 40 plus years he has accumulated. Ric travels light and fast, and has a great time playing with people, making them feel good about themselves. He's a shinning light for us all. Ole is very conservative, maybe a little weary, he likes risk free adventure travel (which sounds like a contradiction, but I've learned it can be achieved) he wants to carry everything he might ever need, which tends to make him travel slower. After riding with him I can appreciate how tremendously strong he is. The only reason I can stay with him is I bring a few kitchen utensils, but not the sink. I travel a bit lighter.
Ole reasons that if he wants to do this trip with Ric, and not be left in the dust he's got to get some others involved. So he writes up a twenty-some page prospectus. It out lines the trip, where to be at what time of year to stay in decent weather. What he thinks each person should need. How much it will cost in his budget style of traveling. What he envisions on getting out of the trip, a tentative trip itinerary. And a schedule of the first ten days of travel just to have something to get started. He sets down some rules, (he is a rule person.) Anybody who wants to go shows up at the downtown San Diego Hostel March 1st, 1995. Be totally self contained, and ready to ride 50 miles a day.
The first part of the trip is across the southern US. It's essentially a shake down. A time to learn about one another, form groups, find compatible people. Anybody who doesn't feel comfortable, or changes their mind can turn around, drop out, or just go off solo. It's easy to quit, no excuses, and it will be easy to get back to the safety of home. The message is: "We only want you here if you really want to be here, and are willing to help make this work." The prospectus states the trip is not intended to be tightly scheduled, or predictable. It's not a lead tour, everybody will have to contribute. If you want a predictable safe vacation it says, "go to Disney Land".
The itinerary calls for 580 days of travel on four continents. Any where from 15000 miles to 25000 miles. Just depends how straight you go. There will be lots of camping, as much as possible will be "low profile" other wise known as bush camping, or free camping.
An advertisement asking for 5 to 7 partners was placed in several bicycle oriented magazines, some with international distribution. I saw the add in the Adventure Cycling (formerly called BikeCentennial) magazine. Hundreds of interested parties responded. Ole sent out (for a refundable two dollars if you went on the trip) a nicely organized prospectus to each inquirer. Twenty four said yes, they want to do this. Ole accepted all takers except those he considered to be real space cases, or practicing alcoholics which I heard there were only a few. Twenty four is a lot bigger crowd than 5 to 7, Ole's thinking I've been told was that the more who start, the better the chances a workable group will from, or in this case possibly several workable groups.
Of the 24 who said they wanted to go. 19 showed up in San Diego on March 1st 1995. Three more joined in London England after the shakedown part of the journey from San Diego to Washington DC.
A few of the participants knew one or two of the others before the March 1st meeting. Only Ole had actually had a chance to actually meet, speak, or converse by letter to each participant.
Not knowing where we'd really end up, who we would travel with, or what the actual route we'd take to get back to San Diego, our starting point the mass group departed, full of enthusiasm. When people saw our group they'd shout out "Where are you going?" The more enthusiastic would shout back, "around the world". I chose to respond with "to New York", or some closer destination. I'll take this one day at a time I thought, one state at a time, one country at a time. I'm not in a hurry to get back to my starting point. I know it will happen, but I want to experience a few sights, a few cultures, a few new ways of thinking before I return.
Original Itinerary: