{"id":454963,"date":"2025-09-27T08:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T08:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/454963\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T08:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T08:53:13","slug":"ive-had-this-idea-for-ages-so-i-quit-my-job-and-now-i-wont-be-home-for-3-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/454963\/","title":{"rendered":"I’ve had this idea for ages so I quit my job and now I won’t be home for 3 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Read has set off on his journey, saying ‘I\u2019m living my dream, inspiring people and making people smile’Dan Haygarth<\/strong><\/a> Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration Reporter<\/p>\n

05:00, 27 Sep 2025Updated 07:39, 27 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Read, 35, from Old Swan(Image: THECYCLINGSCOUSER \/ Instagram)<\/p>\n

A man from Old Swan quit his job and set out on a mission to travel the world by bike over the next three years. Josh Read, 35, was working as a tree surgeon in Liverpool but always wanted to see more of the world, which led him to hatching a plan – cycling 40,000km (approximately 25,000 miles) around<\/a> the planet.<\/p>\n

Josh decided to take on the challenge, which will see him cycle the equivalent of the earth’s circumference, despite not being an adept cyclist. He set off around eight weeks ago<\/a>, starting by getting a ferry to the Netherlands, from where he began the three-month cycle to Istanbul.<\/p>\n

He is chronicling his journey on Instagram and TikTok<\/a>, with close to 15,000 followers on the former. In a video introducing his quest, posted on Instagram at the end of July, Josh said: “I’m not a cyclist – far from it. My f***ing bike’s brand new.<\/p>\n

“But I’ve always had an adventurous background to be honest. I was in the military for ten years, couple of tours of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

“Since then I’ve been busy, I’ve been up to all kinds, which has led me to this stupid idea, good idea, whatever you want to call it.<\/p>\n

“Fitness wise, not really a***d about that. We’ll just get fit on the road – we’ve got loads of time, three years to do that.<\/p>\n

“It’ll be the mental side when I’m in Saudi (Arabia) for weeks on end on my own, cycling through the desert. But follow along, I’m sure we’ll be up to all kinds.”<\/p>\n

The ECHO<\/a> spoke to Josh this week as he took a break from making his way across Europe. About the idea behind the trip, he said: “I\u2019ve always travelled, I\u2019m not new to travelling. But I\u2019m new to cycling and I thought it would be a great way to see the world at a slow pace.<\/p>\n

“I was working full time. I was a tree surgeon but I’ve been getting ready for this trip for the last year, with lots of research.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve done a lot of camping. I am used to it. The majority of it is camping and finding cheap accommodation.<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Read in Switzerland(Image: THECYCLINGSCOUSER \/ Instagram)<\/p>\n

“At first my family were surprised, as you could imagine. They were surprised about the countries I\u2019d be travelling through. When I broke it all down, they were really supportive.<\/p>\n

“I plan on cycling for about three years. Aiming to do 40,000km the circumference of the earth. But each day I don\u2019t have any distance in mind, my aim is to see the world and take as much of it in as possible. I\u2019m seeing the world by bike.”<\/p>\n

Once Josh makes it to Istanbul, he will travel from Turkey to Jordan and cycle across the Middle East to Oman. He will then fly from Oman to Sri Lanka, to then cycle through India to Nepal.<\/p>\n

Later on in his journey, he will cycle through South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, before heading to California and then to South America.<\/p>\n

So far, he has travelled through a number of countries on his journey from the Netherlands, including Germany, France, Italy and Croatia. One has stood out rather unexpectedly, however.<\/p>\n

Josh explained: “There’s been no real surprises so far. I\u2019ve looked into this for years. There probably isn’t a YouTube video about cycling I\u2019ve not watched.<\/p>\n

“But Slovenia is probably the biggest surprise so far. I was blown away by it – it was amazing. The country as a whole was really amazing.<\/p>\n

“On average I’m cycling between 70-100kms a day. I cycled over the Alps, which was challenging. I take rest days when I need them.<\/p>\n

“I’m trying not to be daft, I don\u2019t want any injuries early on, enjoying each day. It\u2019s a personal challenge, it\u2019s not a challenge where I need to be in a certain place every day.”<\/p>\n

Josh’s updates from his travels have been met with floods of comments wishing him well, as well as people saying they’ve been inspired by his journey.<\/p>\n

About that, he said: “I\u2019m not fussed about the number of followers. What has been nice is the amount of supportive messages I get on social media, I don\u2019t come from a cycling background.<\/p>\n

“So maybe I’m giving people that bit of courage to do whatever they want. Seeing me do it and realise they can do it themselves.<\/p>\n

“People are saying words to me like inspirational, which is mad. I\u2019m just a lad from Liverpool riding around on a bike. I\u2019m living my dream, inspiring people and making people smile.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Read has set off on his journey, saying ‘I\u2019m living my dream, inspiring people and making people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,38296,456,79,183,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-454963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-old-swan","10":"tag-real-lives","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-travel","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115275419460008337","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}