I have never heard about Anne Mustoe until I was told about her untimely passing.
… what she termed her “new career”. When she resolved to cycle round the world, Mustoe was 54, somewhat overweight and unfit, and without any idea of how to mend a puncture. She had not ridden a bike for 30 years, wobbled when she tried again, and she hated camping, picnics and discomfort.
What what (totally speechless)… and reading her obituaries over on Times Online, I’m in total awe of her. She have travel the world and her first 12.000 miles (yes twelve thousand) took her around the world in 15 months in 1987. This resulted in a book, A Bike Ride, which dealt with all the preparations, route-planning, packing and budgeting, as well as the riding.
She has been everywhere in the last 30 or so years. Here are a few countries and routes that the Times Online lists … from Rome, following Roman roads to Lisbon, the Conquistadors across South America, Captain Cook over the Pacific, and the Silk Route from China back to Rome. And then there is the Australian Outback, the Gobi Desert, the Karakoram Highway, the mountains of Nepal, through India to the highlands of Sri Lanka, Heliopolis in Egypt, the Amber route from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, the Santa Fe Trail, the pilgrims’ way from Le Puy to Santiago de Compostela she cycled from Buenos Aires in the wheeltracks of the 500cc Norton as ridden by Che and his friend Alberto Granado in early life, and recalled in the film The Motorcycle Diaries.
Fecking HECK !!!
Well that is it I will never moan again when I do a 50 mile trip, well I will moan if I don’t get one of her books for crimbo, yeah I know I don’t believe in this, but I just gotta read her books.
LINK : Times online, obituaries : Anne Mustoe
Ride in Peace
Desperately sorry to hear of Anne’s death, I have been a fan of her and her inspirational books for many years now. I have been trying to find out more about the circumstances of her death, can anyone provide any more information other than that in the Times obit?
Alison: I only learned about Anne on Times online. But really need to read her books.
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