An Aberdeen man, set to cycle the entire circumference of the globe, has set off on his adventure. Stephen Davy-Osborne reports.
While waiting to board the East Coast service that would take him south, Kyle was weighing up the challenge ahead.
“I’m ready to go!” he enthused
“The enormity of what I am doing will probably hit me in a moment of solitary abandonment, and I’ll probably be in the middle of nowhere, but right now I’m raring to go!
“My training has been going well recently. It has mainly been a case of winding it down and eating as much as I can, calorie-wise, although it has been hard trying to find the time to do so!”
The cycle will see Kyle travel 18,000 miles in just 160 days, arriving home in time for the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, bringing the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe back to Scotland.
“I will definitely be home in time for the Games,” he added.
“I’d love to come home within 100 days, but you never know what could happen out on the road, and even just one little thing could slow me down, and end up hampering that.”
Despite not being daunted by the extent of what awaits him on his departure from Greenwich Park, there is one part of his journey which is a cause for concern.
“The big bit that keeps coming up is British Columbia and Alaska,” he confides,
“It’s quite solitary and by the time I get there in around 45 days time it will be time for the bears to wake up! And I imagine they’ll be quite hungry!
“But that’s the real sense of adventure; I can’t wait to get stuck in there!”