Cycling Home from Siberia: 30,000 Miles, 3 Years, 1 Bicycle - Inspirational Travel Memoir & Adventure Story for Outdoor Enthusiasts | Perfect for Road Trip Lovers, Biking Adventures & Travel Inspiration

As an active touring cyclist myself, and passionate cycle touring reader of many such books, I found Rob Lilwall's "Cycling Home from Siberia" a great read. Having read both of Alastair Humphrey's cycling stories (both excellent books in their own right), I was excited to discover Rob's book as Alastair had written about the time they had spent cycling together in Siberia and Japan and I was curious to see it from another perspective.Cramming dozens of countries and tens of thousands of miles over three years into a book is no easy achivement. Such an undertaking means inevitably some sections of Rob's adventure get skipped over with very little coverage, if at all. This is disappointing, but entirely expected - or the book would be 1000+ pages long. This is no way takes away from the pleasure of reading Rob's book - I am certain all the main highlights of his trip are definitely included with plenty of minor stories along the way. I found myself thinking about the book at work and longing to return to my commute home in order to read more about Rob's account in Siberia, China, Papua New Guinea, Tibet, Afghanistan and Iran amongst the myriad of other places he traveled.Rob provides great stories with real honesty of emotions of the fear and adrenalin from outrunning the rascals of Papua New Guinea, to evading border posts in Tibet and to being suspected as a suicide bomber in Afghanistan. All really entertaining stories in their own right, combined they make for truly enjoyable adventure reading.Whilst always eager to read about life on the bike and camping roadside, the book's real value - and the way it differed from the many other such books came for me in three areas:The first was Rob's transparent account of his Christian faith. All too often we find ourselves shying away from opening up about matters of the heart for fear of judgement from others, however Rob is candid in the way he explores his own faith in light of both his tough experiences on the road, and the religions of other people he meets. Rob is open enough to admit the challenges he has in his own beliefs and is willing to explore these relative to the other faiths he learns about in people along the road. His commitment to Christ throughout however is evident, both in the way he speaks of his faith and the way he acts as he travels.The second was enjoying reading about the slow, mature development of his relationship with Christine who he meets in Hong Kong. The advertsity of a long-distance romance and infrequent contact - whilst Christine endures the corporate world in London and New York whilst Rob endures the long slow grind home through obscure countries of the world - is obvous. Watching a deep romance blossom added real colour to what is already a great read about the cycling and other adventures Rob was encountering along the way.The third was seeing Rob's personal self-development as he traveled. He acknowledges the areas his character grows over the trip, yet at the same time admitting the areas he still has a long way to go even right up to the last days. Meeting so many different people and colourful personalities along the way is always going to stretch a person and Rob's growth along the way is clear. Having traveled in this manner myself for months on end, it was easy to relate to having people come and go from one's life so repetitively, as is Rob's not unreasonable frustration with having to reintroduce and re-explain his trip hundreds of times over. His responding in Uzbekistan to people's queries by reciting poetry in English was most amusing!This great book had me hooked to the very end which seemed to come around way too quickly and was a fitting conclusion to a very significant trip, with a good following epilogue. If you enjoy reading travel books that focus as much on the character developmentof the author as they do on the excitement of the travel itself, you will not be disappointed with "Cycling Home from Siberia". 5-stars!