Bill Dodds, 70, has covered around 21,000 miles across 27 countries on his bike
Bill Dodds, who has cycled more than 21,000 miles in 27 countries(Image: Bill Dodds)
Metro’s original Class 599 trains have clocked up half a billion kilometres in their 46 years of service to the North East. Bill Dodds was 24 when he started driving the Tyne and Wear Metro in 1980, with the original trains having their last official services last week.
However, even more impressive are the 21,000 miles the retired driver has clocked up on his cycling adventures around the globe. Bill’s trips have taken him from the Coast to Coast ending at Tynemouth, to crossing the United States; tackling the length of Japan, and traversing the Stans – the former Soviet states in Central Asia.
The 70-year-old now covers 40 – 45 miles a day, rather than the 70-mile daily average he covered around 20 years ago. Between 2002 – 2013, he would save up his holidays and take three to four weeks off at once; with a tent and a sleeping bag on his back.
His journeys have taken him from camping under the stars in China’s Taklamakan Desert, the world’s second largest; to hearing the sounds of coyotes howling as he bedded down in copses of trees in the States; to battling typhoons in the Japanese Alps.
Bill told ChronicleLive: “I’d fly back to the same place and start the next section. It was never something I set out to do. I did the coast to coast from Whitehaven to Tynemouth then thought, what’s next?
“Then I did Land’s End to John O’Groats and continued step by step. Then it was cycling across the United States and it just went from there.”
Bill Dodds, who has cycled more than 21,000 miles in 27 countries(Image: Bill Dodds)
Bill said it was impossible to choose a favourite destination, though the United States hold a special place in his heart; due to the spectacular scenery Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone National Park. Though it was about more than the landscapes.
He said: “Everybody warned me about America, how violent it was, but in small towns in the Midwest people were incredibly kind. If I was in a diner, someone I’d spoken to in passing would pay for my meal without me even knowing about it.”
Bill says that when riding from Turkey to China via Azerbaijan and stopping in the Silk Road cities of Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan, the scenery was totally different but he still felt people’s kindness and warmth. He continued: “I’m a fairly nosey person anyway so I’ll stop and talk to people who are cutting hedges in the Cotswolds or picking cotton in the fields in Central Asia.
“Even though I can’t speak their language and they can’t speak mine, we made ourselves understood. Wherever I went people were kind.”
Bill Dodds on his travels(Image: Bill Dodds)
Language is not the only thing that Bill has had to adapt to, with unfamiliar food on the menu too – when there was a menu! He continued: “Sometimes you don’t have a clue especially in Central Asia and China, there’s no menu and I’m probably one of the first westerners they have seen, so I’m pointing and asking for something even though I don’t have a clue what it is.
“I was sitting in a restaurant in one village in Western China sitting at a plate glass using chopsticks, and there ended up being about 20 people watching me through the window. In another, I stopped for a Coke and ended up nursing two 18-month-old children, one on each knee!”
Though the majority of his bike rides have been solo, Bill enjoys riding with his son, Paul, 47. The pair have cycled the length of the Danube, starting in Toulouse and ending in Istanbul.
He said: “Paul is bigger and stronger than me now, he takes the bulk of the weight when we travel. I’ve got to cut back on the amount of gear I take and I’m travelling lighter each time.”
And despite having to slow down a little, Bill is showing no signs of stopping. He recently completed a two-week 500-mile ride along Ireland’s west coast and is planning his adventure for next year; though hasn’t settled on a destination yet.
Bill Dodds, who has cycled more than 21,000 miles in 27 countries(Image: Bill Dodds)
He finished: “It’s a great way to get around, you can dump the bike and just go and have a look at things that catch your interest. “It’s amazing how you end up doing things you wouldn’t usually do.”
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