See more by bike with Colleen and Peter

The couple who are 62 and 58 and look like lifelong runners, will spend 4 months touring from Amsterdam - where they will fetch their "Koga Randonneur" purpose-built touring bikes – to Istanbul. Then they’ll head home while it cools down weather wise before they begin their Africa leg.

Bicycle touring isn’t necessarily a glamorous life – depending on how you approach spending days on and in the saddle. The way that Colleen and Peter McNulty plan to tour Europe and Africa won’t be champagne breakfasts and 1 000 thread count sheets, but they will be watching sunsets and sunrises from a dozen different countries, pitching tents in hostel rooms, and even making toast using a collapsible, portable toaster.

Colleen and Peter have been preparing for this trip for the past twelve months.

Colleen will be responsible for writing their blog posts, which are a way to give back to the touring community that she credits with helping them refine their route and equipment. Their blog will be hosted on touring community blog, crazyguyonabike.com but they’ll be keeping up-to-date with touring cyclist community equivalent of Airbnb, Warm Showers as well.

The couple have been training for months by cycling between 40 and 70km four to five times a week. While Peter has done some touring, both of them say they aren’t really cyclists. So for Colleen training is all about the saddle time while Peter tests their equipment and snaps pics along the way. Colleen and Peter’s hard work training for their trip has paid off – with regular gym vists, parkruns, and tracking their training rides on their devices, they have earned enough Vitality points to maintain their Diamond status for the year.

“We are under no illusion that there are going to be some times when we are going to wonder why we’re doing it. There will also be times when we know exactly what we’re doing this for. Many people have done it before us. Some of them older, some of them younger.” says Peter. “We’re now just looking forward to getting on our bikes and going.”

You can follow their journey on crazyguyonabike.com. Their journal is called See more by bike. In addition, visit seemorebybike.com to find out about the McNulty’s preferred charity for the duration of their cycling adventure, Knysna Animal Welfare Society (KAWS).