Watch the video of this couple below.
[rumble video_id=v5dvjd domain_id=u7nb2]
Mike Langridge’s Tinder profile had a picture of him in Yosemite and wrote that cycling the world was his life goal. So when his profile got matched with Helen Clarkson’s on January 2016, her first message to him was: “When are we leaving?”
That message started off an 18-month 19,000-mile journey through four continents that even saw them tie the knot mid-way while in Yosemite National Park in California.
Helen, 30, said: “We just thought: ‘What’s stopping us? We could do it, couldn’t we?'”
“Neither of us were happy in our jobs.
“There was literally nothing stopping us and all we needed was bikes, money and the determination to do it.”
She said: “My first message before I even introduced myself, was, ‘When are we leaving?'”
Mike replied: “How about Tuesday?” And that’s how they went on their first date.
Mike, 32, said: “We jokingly chatted about our cycle journey and the route we would take. It was a good way to flirt.”
However, even by the second date they already realized how serious they were about the adventure. Helen had already cycled solo throughout the UK the year before and Mike had extensively biked in Canada and North America. Helen said: “It felt like we had known each other for a long time. We just clicked.”
They figured that they would need to budget for everything and to cut down costs, they planned to camp whenever possible, booking a hotel only if camping sites were unavailable. And so they cut down on all luxuries and started to save up.
“We spent no money at all,” Mike said. “We sold all our valuables, we moved in together after five months to save rent, we didn’t go out for drinks. We would maybe buy a bottle of wine once a week. Then I got an evening job working in a restaurant and Helen transcribed legal and medical documents at night to earn more money.”
But finally, they reached their target budget after 14 months and left on April 4, 2017 – a Tuesday. “We wanted to go on a Tuesday because that’s what Mike suggested in our first Tinder exchange,” Helen explained. “We left Glasgow and cycled to Newcastle to catch the ferry to Amsterdam. Once we were in mainland Europe, we felt like we had really begun.”
They flew to Beijing after finishing with Europe then went through Southeast Asia before flying again to Perth, Australia.point 104 | After three months exploring the continent, they then flew from Brisbane to California.point 179 | Once in Yosemite in April 2018, they got married.point 220 |
Their parents and two friends from the UK were in attendance.point 51 | Helen said: “We were together for 10 months when we got engaged in November 2016.point 126 | “We always wanted to get married in Yosemite and we started planning the wedding when we were in China.point 217 |
” Mike added: “It is one of the most beautiful places in the world.point 66 | It was my profile picture on Tinder so it felt right that we got married there.point 130 | ”point 137 | 1
The couple also pointed to the Australian Outback as their most intense bonding experience.point 215 |
“Our biggest bonding challenge was cycling across the Outback,” said Mike.point 78 | “There’s a section that joins Eastern and Western Australia.point 144 | It’s a road that is 1,000 miles long and there are just about nine gas stations, that’s it, there’s not even a bench.point 257 |
There’s a 90-mile stretch where the road doesn’t bend or go up or down a hill – it’s a straight line into the wind.point 116 | It took us a day and a half and it was the hardest mental challenge of the trip.point 179 | The wind never stopped blowing into our faces.point 218 |
It was like cycling into a hairdryer.point 31 | The smell of dead kangaroos was unbearable.point 68 | It took us a day and a half to ride it and Helen broke down in tears at the end of it.point 135 | ”point 142 | 1
Helen also recounted the five months they were in countries where the majority of the population didn’t speak English. She said: “Because of the language barrier, the only company we had was each other. That was a big test. We knew we could get married at that point.”
There was a minor scare after they got married when Mike suffered hypothermia as they were leaving Salt Lake City, Utah.point 100 | During a storm, Helen saw Mike weaving along the hard shoulder of the interstate.point 170 | She said: “His features were contorted into a screaming cry, his eyes were shut and his mouth was wide open.point 265 |
” The driver of a car that Helen flagged down called an ambulance.point 60 | Mike was discharged after paramedics treated him with heated packs and his temperature went back to normal.point 151 | 1
To be safe, the couple drove on to Denver, Colorado. By the time they got there, Mike felt strong enough to bike again. After going through Canada, they flew to France and made it home on August 2018 passing through Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Belgium on the way. Their only regret was not being able to visit New Zealand. “The Brexit vote reduced our spending power so we had to cut our trip short,” said Helen. “We missed out on New Zealand.”
Once home, they had difficulty adjusting back to “normal” life. “It was really hard,” Helen said.
“Part of me was glad to have a rest from cycling, it wasn’t like I still wanted to do it every day. We missed that freedom, though. When we were on the bike all we had to worry about was what we were going to eat, where we were going to sleep and where we were headed.” This is why they’re planning to go to New Zealand part of the “filling in the gaps” of their epic adventure.
While they don’t regret doing what they did and would even do it again in a heartbeat, they cautioned that cycling around the world is not for everyone.
Mike said: “Only do it if you like each other and you like riding a bike even more.”
Helen said: “It’s a really tough ask on a relationship. You have to be open to a lot of compromise and understanding. But if someone was to give me unlimited money, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
They are now writing a book about their adventure.