This year Leo Harris, Tom Whittle and Chris Baird cycled the length of the South America for charity. Fuelled by TRIBE they covered 13,0000km over the course of 9 months. Their journey began and ended in Cusco, Peru. Here is a round up up of their trip:
Peru: The Final Chapter
Achieving our goal to cycle the length of South America has been a life changing experience. Many people laughed at us when we said we were quitting our jobs to cycle the length of a continent. However, we thought we could do it and ultimately that’s all that mattered. Now it’s clear to us the only person that truly sets the limit is yourself. If you go out into the world to pursue something you love, it is never a crazy idea.
We got to experience some of the best natural beauty our world has to offer. We cycled through the Atacama desert, the Bolivian lagoons and the Colombian coffee hills, over snow-peaked mountains in Patagonia, empty beaches in Northern Peru and the famous Ecuadorian Andes, down from the awe-inspiring condors of the mountains to pods of dolphins on the coast, past Chilean glaciers, Argentinian canyons and 5,000 metre high lakes.
We learnt a lot about our physical and mental limits. There were so many days where we wanted to just give up after an hour or two of pushing through sand or slowly climbing up the steepest slopes the Andes had to offer, but when we were forced to keep going we were surprised with how much we could achieve. Once you push out of your comfort zone, you reach a new level, it becomes comfy, and then you push again. In one year, we turned from complete amateurs who were daunted by a two hour ride to experienced cyclists who finished 12 hour days on the bike and could honestly say their legs felt good.
And what was the best reason for putting up with all the pain? That one feeling crossing the finishing line at Plaza de Armas in the centre of Cusco, back where we started 268 days before.
We’re now extremely proud to say that together, raising tens of thousands of pounds for charity in the process, we’ve cycled the length of South America - six countries, 268 days, 111,371 metres climbed and 12,463 kilometres covered. It has changed our lives forever.