Cambridge University student completes 18,000-mile bicycle ride
- Published
Peter Dudfield visited Berthoud Pass in Colorado's Rocky Mountains
A Cambridge University student has returned home after completing an 18,640-mile (30,000 km) charity bike ride around the world.
The journey took Peter Dudfield, 25, from Essex, 380 days to complete across five continents and raised more than £14,000 for the British Red Cross International Disaster Fund.
Mr Dudfield said the toughest section was crossing the desert in Australia.
He now plans to take two weeks off "to sleep" before completing his studies.
Crossing the desert in Australia was one of the toughest environments, Mr Dudfield said
As well as hauling 66lbs (30kg) of luggage on his bike, Mr Dudfield said one of the most testing challenges was communicating with people in the many countries he travelled through.
'Cockerel head soup'
"My range of hand signals is now extensive," the PhD student from Saffron Walden said.
Stage one of the route began on 1 September 2013 and the final stage was through France
Regional food also presented challenges.
"I learnt to steer clear of ordering chicken heads, a mistake I made in China when I was presented with a soup with cockerel heads floating about," he said.
Peter Dudfield pictured in Nanning in China
The most difficult part of the journey was cycling across the Australian desert.
"There's just nothing out there, it was 12 days of nothing except eating tuna and pasta," Mr Dudfield said.
"There wasn't even water. You had to flag down cars to get that."
Mr Dudfield was in buoyant mood in Nevada, which marked "about 75% of the journey completed"
He completed the final leg of the journey on Sunday evening, arriving back in Cambridge to be welcomed by friends and family.
"There have been a few hairy moments along the way with snakes and poisonous spiders, not to mention bears and wild dogs. Wild dogs are really scary," he said.
"It's good to be back home though. I'm taking two weeks off just to sleep and eat proper food, then it's back to my PhD."
Peter Dudfield arrived in Cambridge on Sunday evening