This classic, once hard-to-find travelogue recalls one of the very
first around-the-world bicycle treks. Filled with rarely matched
feats of endurance and determination, Around the World on a Bicycle
tells of a young cyclist's ever-changing and maturing worldview as
he ventures through forty countries on the eve of World War II. It
is an exuberant, youthful account, harking back to a time when the
exploits of Richard Byrd, Amelia Earhart, and other adventurers
stirred the popular imagination. In 1935 Fred A. Birchmore left the
small American town of Athens, Georgia, to continue his college
studies in Europe. In his spare time, Birchmore toured the
continent on a one-speed bike he called Bucephalus (after the name
of Alexander the Great's horse). A born wanderer, Birchmore
broadened his travels to include the British Isles and even the
Mediterranean. After a lengthy, unplanned detour in Egypt,
Birchmore put his studies on hold, pointed Bucephalus eastward, and
just kept going. From desert valleys to frozen peaks, from palace
promenades to muddy jungle trails, Birchmore saw it all on his
eighteen-month, twenty-five-thousand-mile odyssey. Some of the
people he encountered had never seen a bike - or, for that matter,
an Anglo-European. As a good travel experience should, Birchmore's
trip changed his outlook on strangers. Always daring, outgoing, and
energetic, he now saw an innate goodness in people. In between
bone-breaking spills, wild animal attacks, and privation of all
kinds, Birchmore learned that he had little to fear from human
encounters. That he traveled through a world on the brink of global
war makes this lesson even more remarkable - and timeless.
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