By Mikayla van Loon
Setting off on a European adventure is something of a right of passage for many young people but Pat Tibballs did this a little differently to the standard country hopping.
Travelling from London to Lilydale by bicycle, Pat took 18 months and 20,000 kilometres to get back to home soil.
But this trip wasn’t always on the bucket list, instead it started 10 years ago when Pat was a paramedic graduate.
“I finished uni in 2014 and London’s ambulance service was actively recruiting Australians, because they and the NHS had a shortage of most staff generally,” he said.
“For me, it was an opportunity to go and explore travel, as a paid holiday. I went across in 2015 and met a variety of people in similar situations, Australians going across, or English students, and graduates new to the job. It was a nice stepping off point to get to know a new place.”
Pat worked as a paramedic and like “all the Australians that were over there, took the opportunity to travel”.
Using his rest days to see places like Iceland, Norway and Italy, the outdoor adventures started.
During his eight year stint, Pat also worked through the chaos of Brexit and the pandemic.
“We worked through Brexit. We worked through the pandemic, crazy times. It was a very intense period. But similarly, it’s the people around you that get you through,” Pat said.
Meeting fellow Australians who also had the travel bug and sense of adventure, Pat became interested in two paramedics’ journeys from Melbourne who had ridden from Melbourne to London over a period of two years.
“So that put it on the radar. They then worked for two years and they were absolutely, genuinely lovely people, and then they cycled back the other way,” he said.
“I was like, well, if these guys can do it, it’s an option.”
Getting his first look at travelling off the beaten path, Pat and some friends decided to do the six week Mongol Rally challenge.
“You get a bomb of a car and the intention is you break down, you raise some money for charity, and you’re pretty much self-sufficient as you drive from London to Mongolia.
“So we did it for six weeks in 2018, we drove through Europe, and we went through Iran and Turkmenistan ending in Mongolia.”
Pat said it was that trip in particular “that sowed the seed” for a longer adventure, really getting to immerse himself in culture and history as he travelled.
“The take home from that was we travelled too quickly through the places. We didn’t really get to see it because we were driving the whole time.
“So my idea was to take a leaf out of the couple who’d cycled’s book and during the pandemic, I started saving up and putting a bike together.
“We’d done some small trips, like we did an overnight trip, then we might have gone for a couple of days with some friends, and we might have stayed at youth hostels or started camping and small bits to build up to.”
Setting off from Cambridge in England in April 2023, Pat said for the most part over the 18 months he was on his own with some friends meeting him along the way to ride sections.
“I took the ferry to the Netherlands, and then more or less followed the Rhine down to Switzerland, and then headed east towards the Danube, then towards Turkey.
“I got to Istanbul, and spent three months travelling around Turkey, which was incredible, and then got to Georgia next, which is on the border with Russia.
“From there, I flew to the south of India, spent a few months going up to Nepal, and then flew to the north of Vietnam, and came down through Laos and Cambodia and Thailand, I then flew to Brisbane and made my way through Oz.”
Creating his route based on places he wanted to see but also where friends might be travelling to, Pat charted his course by connecting the dots.
“If someone recommended a really beautiful place, then I’d add it to the list. I’d be changing my routes the day before, the day of. I might have a rough outline for the week and then I just alter it as I was going.”
Cycling from country to country, Pat said he was surprised to find such a large community of people doing the same.
Connecting with a group of hundreds of people, Pat said there were often suggestions of where to travel, places to stop, things to see and advice.
Reflecting on his experiences, Pat said from an infrastructure perspective, nothing could beat the Netherlands.
“Everything is so built towards cyclists and Europe generally, the mindset of drivers is very tolerant and you’re a road user, you’re not a cyclist,” he said.
“Nature wise, Switzerland has some of the most beautiful mountains you’ll see and the crystal blue lakes and the snow capped peaks, and the people are generally quite friendly and very well educated, and it’s a nice place to travel through, but it’s also very expensive.”
A country he was surprised by was Romania, with its incredible scenery and extremely hospitable countrymen.
“People would put me up in their backyards and offered to share food with me,” he said, something that came as a nice treat after travelling on his own.
But the absolute highlight, Pat said, had to be Turkey.
“Turkey as a whole country is just fantastic. I think touring it generally but as an Australian, going to the Anzac Cove was special because they respect it as much as we do, that’s like, where their nation started, the most recent iteration, otherwise it was the Ottoman Empire.
“The food is cheap. The people are friendly. And it’s almost as big as Australia, and you’ve got all the different climates and scenery.
“I’d cycle along, and I’d find a petrol station, and I don’t speak much Turkish, maybe two or three words, and I pop in, and I’d fill up my water bottles and use the toilets, and I’d be about to roll off, and multiple times the owner of the petrol station would come out and be like, ‘Hey, you What are you doing? Come and tell me what it is that you’re doing while we share breakfast’.”
On the opposite end, Pat said unfortunately India was his least favourite, finding it “quite overwhelming” with all the road noise and constant crowds.
“I found in India just the constancy of it, quite emotionally draining,” he said.
The 30 degree temperatures in winter, Pat said, was also physically depleting. It was also in Mumbai he experienced his first bout of food poisoning.
“So that extra level of just being exhausted, overwhelmed, emotionally drained, there was a point where I was just like, should I just cycle to the nearest airport and try and work out how I don’t not have to do this.”
Instead he made it to Nepal and recharged by its beauty and its people, he found the resilience to continue on.
“It was definitely a mental challenge. It’s a great way to learn how your brain works and you’ll find yourself in very difficult spots.
“When you’re on the bike, unless you’re plugged in with music or podcasts, you’ve got a very direct source to what’s going on in your head. And for me, it was a good lesson in the things that make me upset and unable to cope are lack of sleep, lack of food and just being generally fatigued.”
Arriving home after the 18 months at Lillydale Lake on Sunday 10 November, Pat was greeted by a crowd of family and friends.
He’s now settling back into normal life but hasn’t discarded the bike, planning to keep up the nomadic lifestyle by exploring Australia and New Zealand, but more importantly, staying close to family.
