Teenagers complete Silk Road cycle challenge - with a few scary moments!

Charles and Will saw a wide range of sights on their trip

READERS may recall our feature on the teenage lads about to set off on the cycle trip of a lifetime to raise money for good causes — well, they did it!

Charles Stevens and Will Hsu hoped to become the youngest people to cycle the Silk Road, a feat completed by fewer people than the conquering of Everest.

In doing so, Charles and Will would pass through nine countries, most with scary reputations, and endure temperatures ranging from -10 to more than 45 centigrade!

Best of all, they managed to rake in a large sum from donations to assist A Child Unheard, a charity that helps vulnerable kids in Africa.

“There were a few scary moments!” admits Charles, who cycled with Will through China to Iran, via Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

“One was on the border with Afghanistan, where we were 20 metres away from it and close enough to have a chat with a local on the Afghan side.

“It was a very nice experience, and you realise that people are just decent human beings.

“Unfortunately, as we went along that road, a mine went off on the hill!

“A bomb squad was exploding unexploded mines that the Soviets had left to cover their retreat.

“We hadn’t realised how present the danger was, and we also didn’t realise that there are still some tensions between the people on the Tajikistan side and the Afghanistan side.

“The Taliban are intruding in the valley there, so you do realise this is not particularly safe. We also heard that local warlords sometimes appeared and there would be shoot-outs.

“Some of the bigger dangers were the heat, cold and the lack of hydration.

“When you are cycling in 45-degree heat, you need to drink 10 litres of water each day.

“You would still stop at night and be unable to concentrate, because your body wasn’t absorbing the water, making your potassium and sodium levels very low.

“There were times when both of us nearly ended up on IV drips.”

Visiting the A Child Unheard School, Ghana.

Other dangers involved traffic, both the kind that could hit them and their own saddles, which became a tad painful.

“We had an incident in the last four days where a car was coming along and we think the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel,” Charles recalls with a shudder.

“He rolled the car about 25 metres behind us, completely smashing it up. He was OK, but if we had been 20 or 25 metres behind, he’d have gone straight into us at 35mph and we would be dead.

“Being in the saddle all that time wasn’t great, either! Saddlesores are horrible, and when you have raw patches, the only cure is to not get back on the bike, but we had to!

“I much prefer sitting in a large, comfy armchair, and I haven’t been on a bike for days now, and have no desire to do so.

“It feels, though, like I imagine retiring would feel — I have come off the bike and it’s nice, but I still fancy getting back on it at some point.”

The friendliest people the lads met on their whole trip were in a place we’re often told is scary and anti-Westerner — Iran.

“We didn’t get any particular anti-Britishness over the whole trip,” Charles enthuses. “In fact, we saw some of the warmest hospitality and friendliness I’ve ever experienced, especially in Iran!

“I’ve been to more than 50 countries around the world, and Iran is the friendliest I have ever been to. The number of instances of kindness were incredible.

“We had people stop us at the side of the road to give us warm baked bread.

“Probably about 50% of times I went into a shop to buy things, shopkeepers would give me what I needed and say: ‘You don’t owe me anything. It’s a gift.’

“We had good timing, too, in Iran, arriving there on the day the new British Ambassador was appointed. We met him in the Embassy the next day, which was a real pleasure and an honour.”

They did, of course, have to explain to locals and ambassadors alike why these two sunburned young Britons were cycling around some of the harshest parts of the planet.

“We had a lot of explaining to do, and with the linguistic barriers, there was a lot of pointing vaguely towards Beijing and then towards Tehran!” Charles laughs.

“After a minute or two, they’d go: ‘Oh!’ and make a crazy symbol. It was a mixture of disbelief and thinking we were mad!

“It is hard sometimes to appreciate beautiful places when you are cycling so hard. The Gobi Desert, for instance, looks stunning when we see the photos now, but it was brutal, harsh, raw, bare and horrendous when we cycled through it.

“At the same time, the alpine mountains of Russia and lower Siberia are stunning, one of the last great wildernesses in the world, and the Golestan National Park in Iran is amazing.

“You come from this arid steppe into this rainforest within a kilometre!

“That was one of the most-beautiful roads of the whole expedition. The Pamir Mountain range and the Tian Shan Mountains are unexplored, remote, unpopulated and absolutely beautiful.”

With the British Ambassador at the embassy in Tehran

Despite having his mate alongside him, didn’t the many hours of cycling solitude, in the saddle and out, lead to anxiety, loneliness or depression?

“We had days where we would only see two or three cars the whole day,” Charles reveals. “When they go past you at 120 kilometres per hour, it doesn’t really count, anyway!

“And we could go five or six days during which we never spoke to anyone else. I couldn’t have picked a better person to do the trip with than Will, but four months with anyone in those extremes is a long time!

“Thank God we had our own tents, because that was the only time you had your own space. We’re still friends, and had no major fallings out! I do, though, think we might keep our distance for a couple of months now!”

He’s also been surprised at how he feels, now the job is done, the money raised, and he finds himself back in civilisation.

“Coming back, I’ve found, has made me feel very isolated,” he says. “It’s been weird, and for instance, I am finding it very difficult to sleep in a bed again, as I haven’t done so for months.

“It is also hard to go from having such a purpose to being around people who aren’t that single-mindedly focused. It’s almost like a world without purpose, but I think it hasn’t sunk in yet.

“We did it all in 114 days, faster than many people. And we have raised a lot of money for something that means a lot to us, and that is great.”

Once he settles back to his old life, it will sink in just how great!

You can still donate by heading to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/BeijingtoTehran

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