{"id":376592,"date":"2025-12-28T18:52:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T18:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/376592\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T18:52:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T18:52:13","slug":"llangollen-teens-year-long-cycle-to-thailand-best-months-of-our-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/376592\/","title":{"rendered":"Llangollen teens’ year-long cycle to Thailand ‘best months of our lives’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HandoutHandout<\/p>\n

The trio have raised more than \u00a320,500 for the British Heart Foundation<\/p>\n

Three teenagers who are nearly halfway cycling from Wales to Thailand for charity say the journey so far has been “the best months” of their lives.<\/p>\n

Dyfan Hughes, James Thomas and Louis Dennis, all 18, had never ridden a bike further than the shop near their homes in Llangollen, Denbighshire, before they set off in August to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation.<\/p>\n

They are currently in Batumi, Georgia, and aim to finish in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where they will meet up with a friend who moved there after his dad died of a heart attack earlier this year.<\/p>\n

“People think it’s a lot harder than it is, but we’re three idiots and we’re doing it fine,” Louis said.<\/p>\n

The trio have raised more than \u00a320,500 for the British Heart Foundation, cycling through 19 countries, hoping to end by September 2026.<\/p>\n

Speaking from Georgia on Boxing Day on day 144 of cycling, they said “the best is yet to come”, having celebrated “their own little Christmas” together.<\/p>\n

\"HandoutHandout<\/p>\n

The three did not have much cycling experience before their huge journey<\/p>\n

“We spent \u00a320 each on each other,” Louis said, adding they had been to a Christmas Eve party with expats living there. <\/p>\n

“We gave out presents to locals too. It was great,” he said. <\/p>\n

They previously told the BBC<\/a> they went on a four-week course where Drosi Bikes shop taught them “most stuff that’ll happen to our bike and how to fix it, which helped a lot”.<\/p>\n

Dyfan said: “We’ve had a mixture of things happen from all countries. <\/p>\n

“In Romania we were chased by wild dogs at one point, and in Turkey we had near misses with cars driving close to us.”<\/p>\n

“We wild camped next to the sea in Turkey and felt a mini-earthquake, with the ground shaking,” Louis said.<\/p>\n

\"HandoutHandout<\/p>\n

They are planning to end the trip in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where their friend is living<\/p>\n

The teens have gained 109,000 followers on Instagram and 140,000 followers on TikTok, posting videos showcasing their trip on their account called “westheads”.<\/p>\n

They show themselves playing 11-a-side football with locals, getting involved in catering classes, and celebrating Dyfan’s 18th birthday.<\/p>\n

Dyfan, a Wrexham AFC fan, made a call-out to the club’s co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac – formerly McElhenney – saying: “If you’ve seen or heard us, let us know you’re listening.” <\/p>\n

Their next plan is to fly from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan as border controls are closed, meaning they will skip Russia.<\/p>\n

“The last few months have been the best of my life. Doing it for a good cause,” Louis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Handout The trio have raised more than \u00a320,500 for the British Heart Foundation Three teenagers who are nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-376592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}