Gavin at Dublin Airport with his parents Tracey Kelly (2nd left) and Raymond Quinn, with their partners Dave Whitely and Sharon Spain
Ha Long Bay – from Clondalkin to Vietman
You’d think that, after cycling almost 12,000 kilometres from Dublin to Vietnam, Gavin Quinn would be sick of the bike after coming home. Not so.
“I might go for a spin down to Dun Laoghaire, I’ll stop at my Nanny’s, you can’t keep me away from the bike,” he told The Echo with a laugh.
The 28-year-old left his job in communications (with Cycling Ireland, fittingly) just over a year ago to cycle from his home in Clondalkin to Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, while raising over €7,700 for Purple House Cancer Support in Bray.
Setting off on July 1, 2024, his 374-day cycle took him over 12,000km, taking from Rosslare to Bilbao before crossing southern Europe, through to Turkey and Georgia, where he stayed for the winter months.
He took a flight then to western Kazakhstan due to border closures with Azerbaijan, crossing the desert in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains, and Kygyzstan before one last flight and the last leg of his journey through Thailand, Laos, and finally Vietnam, before a final flight and a cycle home from Dublin Airport on Sunday, July 13.
Illness, and broken spokes, wheels and even broken roads (a landslide on the Pamir Highway between the Afghan-Tajikistan border) were just some of the setbacks Gavin cycled on through.
He even underwent surgery in a roadside clinic in Uzbekistan, to remove shards of fibreglass from his heel; “I walked in thinking somebody would pull something out my foot with the tweezers, and next thing you know, they’re putting local anaesthetic into my foot and just going at it.”
“There comes a point at times where it becomes too hard to give up – that it almost is better just to keep going,” he continued.
“If the road isn’t there, you have to hope they’ll make the road be there tomorrow. And you can’t go back to the nice, cushy hotel, you just camp on the side of the road, take some bread from truck drivers.
“Even if you do decide you’re going home and that your trip is over, you’re still on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in Tajikistan, you don’t get choppered out.”
“Not a day went past where I didn’t think about what that moment would be like,” Gavin said, recalling his final day crossing the finish line he’d set at Ha Long Bay on Wednesday, July 9.
“When I woke up on the day of where that moment is coming, it did feel surreal.”
The final days of his cycle ended up being quite a struggle for Gavin, as he was suffering from stomach issues, exhaustion and the heat as well.
“When I finally saw the actual beach where I planned to land, that I pictured a million times in my head, I was glad that I was alone in a way because you spend 374 days pretty much alone on this mission, it felt almost fitting that it was me, myself, and I for that moment.”
It was a huge moment for someone who had seriously taken up cycling just five years ago during Covid.
“A lot of people do believe ‘I could never do it, I could never try something like this’,” he said.
“But I think if you have the inspiration or the dream to try something adventurous, it is very much possible, if you have an open mind and a general level of fitness.”
“You just have to be open to the world and let it take you along the way.”
