(see also www.cyclingfullcircle.com)
There are just some things in life that have to be done. The first is to have dreams; dreams are meant to be fulfilled. Therefore, the next is to make those dreams happen.
My dream came from reading a book, picked up in an Oxfam shop a couple of years ago, written by an unlikely 54-year old woman who cycled round the world. As a result, I am now about to depart on my own 2-year, 2-wheeled global circumnavigation.
I shall set off from my home on Tuesday 6 May 2008, 10am. I expect to arrive back home the beginning of May 2010. Anything in between is subject to a certain flexibility; but, roughly, my route will be Poole, Cherbourg, Mediterranean Europe (including the Santiago de Compostela route), Cyprus (2 weeks’ holiday with my father and stepmother), Middle East, Northern Asia, Alaska, Canada, West Coast USA, turn left at Los Angeles (to Graceland, Memphis – you know, the King: Elvis! J), Miami, Santa Domingo, Europe, home.
Whilst I am not actively fund-raising for charity, I am definitely supporting a couple of specific organisations about which I am passionate. One is the Deaf Studies Trust, for whom, previously, I worked. The main interest I have in DST is their work in supporting elderly deaf people through the provision of videophones in their homes. Elderly people, generally, can find themselves extremely isolated in their homes in these days of migrant family life and busy neighbours. However, most of them would at least have access to a telephone to keep in some kind of touch with the outside world. Unfortunately, elderly deaf people experience this isolation to a much greater degree: limited contact and communication with their hearing neighbours; impersonal tele-communication with family and friends via minicom, email or text message-ing. Videophones, on the other hand, open up this isolated world; they offer deaf people the opportunity to communicate with each other and with other signing people through their natural, visual medium of sign language. Videophones afford them the facility to talk directly to, and to keep in constant touch with, their families and friends; just like hearing people via the telephone. What an innovation! What a blessing! This is why I wish to promote the work of Deaf Studies Trust.
Astrid Domingo Molyneux
www.cyclingfullcircle.com
