GLOBAL CYCLE RIDE - THE FINAL STAGE

Below is an extract from Flann O'Brien's book 'The Third Policeman'

'People who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who nearly are half people and half bicycle.'
I let out a gasp of astonishment that made a sound in the air like a bad puncture.
'And you would be flabbergasted at the number of bicycles that are half human almost half-man, half partaking of humanity.'

Although there is a part of me that wants to continue pedalling down that road forever, life contains much better options than that. I'm going home. The initial plan was to "cycle around the world as long as my health allows and the challenge remains exciting". That global circuit is now almost complete. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, this makes Global Cycle Ride the first cycle around the world by any Irish person.
If you keep travelling east eventually you will arrive from the west. I'm 500KM from Cancun and Mexico's roads don't go further east than that. I have a flight next week that takes me back to Ireland. I'm so excited the last stage of the trip is finally here. I've been pedalling Global Cycle Ride for 17 months. I, and all my bicycle atoms are certainly going to miss this adventure that has been my day to day life for so long.