Edinburgh cyclists who up and left jobs to travel on their bikes reach half way point around the world in just six months

A duo of ‘Clueless Travellers’ who are embarking on a round the world trip on their bicycles have hit the halfway point, exactly six months into their trip.

Before they left, the two had next to no cycling experience

Joe Stachan, 27, from Currie and Mark Kennedy, 26, from Kirkintilloch met when they studied Quantity Surveying at Heriott-Watt university and set off from the Royal Mile on 26 May this year - without any proper cycling experience, or plan other than they had a ferry to catch.

Joe said: “I read Mark Beaumont’s book, who set the world record for cycling around the world and just thought it was a cool way to see the world - that’s how the idea came up.

They have camped for the majority of the trip

“We just wanted to get out and see the world.”

While they are embarking on the once in a lifetime trip, they are also raising funds to donate to CCLASP, a charity which provides specialist and tailored support to families across Scotland affected by childhood cancer or leukaemia and have currently raised an amount over £2000.

This week they hit the six month mark of their travels and have cycled over 9000 miles, which is the half way point around the world, which is a total of 18000 miles.

Within six months they had travelled 9000 miles, half way around the world

He added: We left the Royal Mile on 26 May and our only planning was that we had a ferry to catch from Newcastle to the Netherlands.

“You rack up the countries quickly in Europe, you don’t realise how small it is, Turkey was the biggest stretch and we are planning to make it to Melbourne for Christmas and then fly to New Zealand for New Year.

“After New Zealand we’ll fly to the west coast of America and cycle to New York, fly to Morocco, travel through Europe and then back to Scotland.”

Around three quarters of the time that they have been travelling, the two friends have been wild camping, but have also made use of couch surfing app, Warm Showers.

“We’ve had so many punctures,” Joe added, “When we were travelling through India there was once three punctures in one day, it’s an easy fix now.

“I had a wheel crack in Myanmar and the two of us had to split for three or four days while I got an overnight bus to the nearest city to get a new wheel that would fit.”

The two expect that that they will be home in Scotland within the 12 month mark, but aren’t planning too far ahead just yet.