A 40,000km, 4 year journey by bicycle around the world, told through tales of adventure & photography.

Words from the author, photographer & cyclist Rob Lutter:

A journey full circle from London to London on two wheels. A photographic adventure and a universal story about the need for change, creativity & happiness…

In 2011 I pedalled out of London on the back of an old commuter bike with my camera, tent and a head full of dreams. It was the beginning of The Lifecycle and, four years, thirty countries and three huge continents later, I’d somehow cycled solo around the world!

Along the way I got lost without food or water and left for dead in the 50’c heats of the Kazakh desert, took a hit from a car and chased by men with crowbars through the streets of Malaysia and downed vodka and horsemeat with Russian truck drivers in the back of a midnight desert convoy. Now I’m sharing all the stories in two beautiful books full of adventure tales and photography & postcard collections from four years spent living on the road…

The Novel: A Thousand Dawns

It was a journey full of vast landscapes, beautiful cultures and hard challenges of both body and mind, cycling alone across Europe, the deserts of Asia, The Himalayas, Australia and America. But, to publish these books I am going to need your support!

Inspired by books such as Wild, A Thousand Dawns chronicles a ride across the earth and a journey into the depths of the mind. Weaving tales of childhood and the struggles of adolescence into the story of over a thousand days lived in the saddle. A book full of wonder, revelations, fears and acceptance: for who we are and what we can achieve.

The adventure raised thousands for charity, but I ran out of money countless times, slept in abandoned buildings, worked on fruit farms and in aboriginal communities to keep going and lost a bike to two car crashes. I battled against snow storms, over mountain passes and through jungle rivers, surviving in the wild, whatever food I could from yak’s cheese to roasted rat or Chinese river snails… all just to keep on keeping on!

Thanks to the kindness of strangers, local families and the support of followers around the world, I managed to keep pedalling, headed always east, until I reached London again. Along the way, told through chapters in the book, tales formed of tents getting knifed open in the night, bribing cops on Croatian highways, battling against alpine snow storms and being chased by packs of dogs in the dark through Greece.

The Photobook: Lifecycle

Alongside the novel is a 100+ page photobook. The journey told through a collection of incredible landscapes and faces, from greek gypsy settlements to central asian burial grounds, the jungles of Old China to the storm strewn heights of the Grand Canyon: a beautiful selection from four years of photography, inspired by photobooks like Foster Huntington’s Cinder Cone.

Among the photos will be short chapters and fun tales telling the stories behind the images and the journey I took in capturing them: a lighter, more wanderlust look at the world cycle.

The selection is a mixture of the cultures I encountered and the lifestyle of cycle touring and adventure travel – from unique camping spots to changes to the bike and other travellers I met along the way.

In London, before this all began, I’d lost my way. A journey that began as way of escape grew into a meaningful, emotional project based around creativity and charity. My dream ever since has been to share the story and the photography with others around the world: those in search of adventure or change or those who just love to dream and wonder, explore and ride free.

All images by Rob Lutter