Journey to the East

Two friends. Two bikes. One audacious challenge.

Fresh out of the University of Cambridge, Nick Codrington and Lobby Gribble set off to cycle unsupported from London to Hong Kong, raising money for Prostate Cancer UK. They’re not elite athletes or professional adventurers, just determined, inexperienced graduates chasing an idea that quickly proves far bigger than either of them could have imagined.

From sodden campsites in rural France to the vast deserts of Central Asia, their journey is shaped as much by human kindness as by hardship. In Turkey, two men with rifles confront them in a dark field, then invite them for tea. In Azerbaijan, a retired welder sings love stories over toasts to the Soviet Union. In Afghanistan, their host keeps watch for intruders while they sleep. As they journey east, illness, political tensions and increasingly urgent warnings begin to shadow every border crossing.

Winter closes in and the real test looms: the Pamir Mountains, where temperatures plummet to -35? and roads are buried under snow. Lobby’s hands seize up. Wolves block their way. Battling exhaustion and fear, they are forced to confront what they’re truly made of and what it means to rely on each other when the wheels are literally falling off.

Raw, gripping and deeply human, Journey to the East is a story of endurance, friendship and the stubborn, half-mad power of not knowing when to quit.