HONG KONG to LONDON, a BIG bicycle adventure. Did my best! Lots went wrong! But it was amazing 

I'd say, it stopped me in my tracks. I can not put into words my feelings, what I can do is acknowledge you for the action you put in at the time and later, R4 seems a worthwhile facility put to good use. When we see the devil, point and tell him he has been seen. 6 years ofter, that made me cry, what a lucky lucky man.

Thank you for watching Sam! and for the comments, both of them!

Aw Richella thank you for such a lovely comment x sometimes I dont know how to put into words what i think, and then someone writes a comment, and I realise oh yes that is what I think..! haha yes a random field in the Midlands in November is a joy!! I'm so thankful that I can go outside and look around. Long or short! All great! Safe and happy and interesting travels and warm welcomes everywhere to you too! x

Aw thank you Miriam. What a lovely comment xxx thanks for writing such nice and thoughtful things. Yeh I had to work the next day. I had to borrow my Mum's clothes and shoes haha

I couldn't have said what I feel any better. Thank you so much for sharing Susanna. And thanks to Peter for penning a such brilliant tribute. 👍

Got a link for that on iplayer?

Thank you for mentioning the Radio 4 clip. I looked it up. It was great to hear - and again, despite the negative bits, I love how Susanna focuses on the positive and enjoys those parts regardless of anything else. What an incredible outlook on life and so thoroughly inspirational.

That Radio 4 clip is the one published on the 4th of February? Cheers.

Aw, you do have the words actually. Thank you for writing Ellie. Yeh it's not easy. But I am focused on the positive, just like you say. The world is ours too isnt it xx

@@susannathornton We can let the negatives eat us up or we can use them as fuel to boost us forward. Its not always as easy as that. I'm a roller skater and one of my big metaphors for life is that you can't learn to skate if you don't fall (and learn how to get back up again), yes sometimes you get bumped and bruised, but you learn each time and become a better skater each time. The same for life I think. If we go through life being so scared of falling that we don't do anything...we're not really living! And yes the world is ours too!

thank you for writing miniguy x

Sounds brilliant, yeah freedom, and mental energy... I recognise what you say! Great you got into the running and everything, now the world's your oyster! thanks for writing!

Aw thank you. I love what you wrote

Hi Gary! aw thank you, for watching and for the lovely comment x

aw thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it! silver lining is sitting here next to me

Aw thank you Trudy. Yeh I had to have a bit of a lie down after doing the radio thing! I only finished the film the night before at 10pm too working like crazy on it. Stressed! anyway, thank you, appreciate your lovely message

thank you for watching! and for the thoughtful kind comment! It was a wonderful experience to do that journey. More than wonderful! hard to put it into words really

Thanks Robert!

Hi Sam! oh that's great to hear that you're planning to go cycle touring in France on your Brompton, woo! sound brilliant! Happy cycling! hope you discover lots of lovely roads and interesting places eat lots of lovely baguettes and crepes and things

Oh that's exciting. Bravo you! I hope you enjoy planning and then doing a long bicycle journey. The decision to actually do it is hard. (tick! you have done that already!) And then set a date when you will set off. That is the hardest part of all, I think. The rest then just flows...

Oh that's very nice of you Rolandomichel. I was lucky to have the chance to that long trip! Glad you enjoyed the film. Thank you for writing!

Aw thank you Colin x it was wonderful. Yeh I was alone, but so many people helped me along the way.. It was such an amazing experience. Atb to you too!

Hi Simon! aw thank you writing such a thoughtful comment. Actually the hardest thing was setting off... Or actually, not setting off itself, but deciding to myself, right I am going to try and do this, and then talking out loud to people about it... That was the hardest thing. After initial shock and asking me why and then how and isnt it crazy etc etc etc, everything after that just kind of unfolded. Tons and tons of people helped me set everything up, without me asking, they just helped on things they thought might be good, and that was amazing, more than I ever dreamed. And once I was on the way I just felt so lucky to be doing it. It never crossed my mind to give up, I was just having such a interesting time sort of living in intense colours and doing something I really wanted to do

@@susannathornton hello Susanna...I am a bicycle tourist and I have looked at some of your other videos with the Brompton, I myself owned a tern verge touring folding bike but I broke it because I am rough on equipment and now I have a Velo Orange Mini Velo Neutrino that I recently took to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota to see wild life. Your videos are inspiring and before seeing this amazing journey you documented with this video I was already at awe of your traveling set up...your horrible experience in Georgia wrench me with anger and frustration but your attitude and desire to continue and see your adventure through is inspiring. Thank you for sharing, for inspiring for keeping faith in humanity and for also bringing to light the good , the bad and the ugly of willing to go out and see the world in your own terms. May all your journeys have beyond the things that makes you feel alive and happy. Cheers and perhaps , we can say hello one day out on the road. Alex.

Aw what a nice thing to say, a credit to cyclists. I have learned so much from the many many lovely people I have met in the cycling world over all the years and had a lot of fun, grateful to all of them

Aw thanks Julie! what a lovely comment x all the best from London! 🥰

aw thanks Richard! oh I think it is alright to cry! Sounded very nice breakfast in bed, hot coffee all cosy haha how lovely

@@susannathornton Thanks for the reply! I was telling friends last night about your journey. We wish you all the best...!!!

I, too, hope Susanna publishes her journals...or at least an account of the journey in book form!

Hi Clive! Thanks for writing and following my channel! Yeh, ups and downs, that's life isn't it, and yes I am sure it is helpful to think, and try to sort of frame things by writing or talking or making a film etc, and then carry on... And yes, about new adventures, two being edited here now actually yay! I was out in Feb and again just now in March... exciting! haha. I am slow at editing, but I really like it actually. They'll be out soon! Best wishes meanwhile!

Aw thank you Steve!

Aw thanks jazzfan, so interesting to read a bit about what you've done, learning the language and then working out in Xinjiang etc back in those (happier) days on feature films and things. What a story! Fab! Yeah I would love to explore Taiwan more by bike... what a brilliant place. I did do a few cycling holidays there back in the 80s and early 90s when I was a student studying Chinese in Taiwan, riding over the cross island highway a couple of times, omg fantastic! I also cycled down Taiwan's west coast, less wild mostly factories etc but interesting. Also went down south, Eluanbi etc, gorgeous but I dont remember the route we rode more than that really. I remember we stayed in all sorts of places eg super simple Japanese style hostel type places, and camped with a very cheap blue tent i bought in Taipei. Did the job! Nice memories! Interesting what you say about the minsu places these days, all that sort of thing sounds great. Ahhh yeh would love to go back to Taiwan one day. Thanks for writing and makin me think about it again!! best wishes!

@@susannathornton Well sounds like you know Taiwan but maybe haven’t tried the southeast. I would look into it. Might be perfect on a Brompton as all the minsus mean you don’t have to carry much. Giant bikes were so big at the time I did it that you could rent a bike in one city and drop it off in another. Very convenient. No idea if that’s still the case.

aw thanks fliewatuut, yeh it was a longer ride that one, was wonderful

Hi brightlightdun, thanks for writing. Yes. So sad. I was just a temporary resident those few years but ever since I was a child and my Dad used to go there and had great HK Chinese (actually mainly ex Shanghai) friends there and then me in my own small way had the chance to live there I came to really f** love HK so many friends incl my fellow students and supervisor and then work colleagues so many inspiring people I met there such a wonderful place xxxx xxxx

Yeh it was the same for me, the last days I felt really emotional. The day that I rode my friend's husband to the Hague was jolly, cos we were chatting and having coffees and cake, and I lost my glasses in a cafe bar cos I put them down and I was not concentrating properly. But the day before, the last day I was alone, I was kind of crying all day. I had loved it so much and it was over. I felt really strange. Thanks for writing. Hope you are doing good too.

@@susannathornton thanks for the reply! I did my first solo when my youngest (Amelia Rose) headed to California to attend university. Boston to Key West. I didn’t tell her I was on my trip until I was almost there! Spent the winter living on a deserted island! My son Anders and her thought I was crazy!

Aw sounds like a good kind of crazy to me haha

Hi Neil! thanks for watching! glad you enjoyed the film! yeh I was going to make loads of little films of the whole journey, like the little films of the first few weeks that you already watched, but I got kind of stuck and stopped... And then out of the blue BBC Radio 4 contacted me about doing an interview, and I thought OK before i do the interview I better kind of TRY and make just one film about that whole journey... It was really hard to pick just a few bits and make 6 months journey into one 30 min film! didnt quite squeeze it into 30 mins but tried. Anyway, glad I did it. Thanks for writing!

Hello! ah that's OK. Glad you liked the film! Thank you for the nice comment. Yeh I got kind of stuck with the project totally, then out of the blue R4 contacted me. And I thought OK, I'll just trrryyyyy to make one 30 min film, out of 6 months of stuff.... I completely busted myself trying to make it, finished it 10pm the night before the radio thing. Hope you are well too

Hi Donald! aw thanks for the lovely message. Haha yes it is amazing how much things have changed since then isnt it. Actuall about GPS, I did have a GPS unit with me actually. It was a kind of chunky yellow device, which I had to take outside to an open space and point at the sky and kind of shake and then wait a few minutes until it hopefully latched onto three satellites, and then it gave a digital reading, latitude and longitude. I would write down the reading each day. It was partly a safety thing (I had a "heartbeat" system with two very kind HK friends - I texted my latitude and longitude location to them. The idea was that they didnt hear from me for three days, then they would alert the police and give them my last known GPS location) and it was partly a nice thing to do, seeing that I was moving along bit by bit from HK at 114 degrees longitude towards Greenwich which would be at "zero"... Anyway. Thanks for watching! Greetings to you in HK!

Yeh I sometimes wonder that myself. A huge amount has happened and changed since then. The road network in China has been transformed there from what I can gather and from what I have seen myself when travelling in China for work etc since, smart roads and giant motorways and so on now, and depopulation of the countryside. The region of China where Qiang people live - where the women were wearing incredible traditional clothing etc - was devastated by a gigantic earthquake two years after I passed through. The epicentre was Wenchuan which was a county I went through. About 70,000 people were killed. It is awful to think about it. All those people. The ancient mosque at Dujiangyan was badly damaged in the same disaster. And then of course Xinjiang. The Uighur people. Well. Much has been written by people who know of course far more than me. We have all seen images of huge prison camps and yards full of imprisoned men. I feel very sad when I think about it. That boy, on his pony cart, shyly smiling. Where is he, I wonder. And other things changed and happened. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 two years after I passed through, shelling some of the places I saw. It is awful to think of people I met and places I saw and wonder what happened to them. After I had to tack north through Kazakhstan, I did consider riding through Ukraine as that route - north of the Black Sea - would have been shorter from where I now was, but I didn't have the right visas or any information on how to get through that way... Strange to think of it now. It is sad to think about some of the things happening in the world now. I was very lucky to do the ride, full stop. And very lucky that I did it when I did, in 2006. A lot has happened since then.

Hi Edward! Thanks for watching! Yeh a couple of years ago I made those little films about the very first days of the ride, but then i got busy with other things and it all came to a halt... And then the BBC contacted me out of the blue before Xmas about going on the radio, and I thought Oh OK how should I handle this... So after thinking a lot and worrying about it I kind of splurged out the bad bits that I actually had told almost noone, not even my family to the (lovely and fantastic) BBC producer. We decided I would try and tell the story on the radio but I thought I might completely mess up the live radio, so I decided to make one 30 min film myself, covering the whole ride, so that it would be there on my channel, kind of how I wanted to tell it, best I could do anyway. Telling the story of 6 months in 30 mins film was really hard, cos I had buckets of sprawling material all shaky and kind of ramdom, but anyway I selected bits and did my best. Glad I did it. Good to have a deadline sometimes haha! Long reply but anyway thank you for following my channel and for writing!

@@susannathornton I just listened to your BBC interview, I thought you did incredibly well and you are a very brave person. I look forward to more Brompton adventures! Edward

@@edwardhirst6027 aw thank you Edward, nice of you to say that. Yes me too, looking forward to loads more adventures! happy cycling to us all!

Hi Lynne! aw thank you for the lovely comment! really kind of you x

Oh yes me too, loved Marco Pantani. Those were strange days for cycling weren't they but yes, loved him, love riders with a big character and courage

Hi Colin! oh god haha no I am sure the authorities didn't really have any clue about wild camping. It was really hard to do in China actually not cos of police exactly but cos therewere just so many people living and working and walking and bicycing around doing things in the countryside - massively different from European countryside, where it was so kind of lonely really everyone shut inside their cars zooming along so you never actually see them and the countryside basically totally depopulated

Aw, thanks for writing Hazel. Yeh. It's not easy being a girl!! Keep going. Hope you can get out there too. The world is ours too, to enjoy, and to treasure, isnt it xxx