A Japanese man whose dream is to “travel until he dies” by riding a bike across the world has stopped in Kambalda before continuing his Australian adventure.
Takahiro Usui, 31, told the Kalgoorlie Miner he was a self-described alcoholic and gambling addict in Japan, only working to fuel his vices before deciding to radically change his life.
He said he had always hated learning English, so he naturally bought a plane ticket for Canada to force himself to learn English.
It was in Canada that he met a Frenchman, who told him he was riding his bicycle from Alaska to Argentina.
“He talked to me and I was impressed about the bicycle trip, like how do you do that? It was really wonderful . . . So I decided to go do the same thing,” Mr Usui said.
He said he had never ridden a bike over long distances, only in his daily life, when he embarked on the adventure in October 2018.
Mr Usui said he quickly fell in love with travelling via the inexpensive but physically intensive means, and set himself the goal of travelling every continent on a bike.
“From Argentina, I flew to Spain and from Spain to Turkey, I did a bicycle trip. So I’ve already done the American continent and European continent. So next, I have to do Oceania, which is Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
After Turkey, Mr Usui said he went back to Japan to bunker down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said he did not know how to fix a bike prior to that point, and realised that if he was going to ride across Asia, Africa or Australia, he needed to know how to fix his mode of transportation.
“So that’s why in Japan I worked at a bicycle company to learn how to fix a bicycle and to make money,” Mr Usui said.
He said he landed in Queensland and travelled to Uluru before taking the Great Central Road and reaching Kambalda.
When asked what surprised him most during his time in Australia, he said the distances were longer than expected.
“For example, in America or Central America or South America, they have a shop every 50km or 80km. But in Australia there is nothing in 400km, I was super surprised. How can I get water?,” Mr Usui said.
“I just stop to buy some oats, water, canned tuna, cans of beans for next 400km to get more supplies. So usually I store 50 or 60kg on my bicycle. I have 20 litres of water or 18 litres of water, it depends where I go to the desert or on the highway.”
He said he was enjoying his time in Kambalda, and was planning on working at the Kambalda Hotel until the end of June or beginning of July.
Mr Usui said he would then ride to Esperance and Margaret River, but then did not have much of a plan.
“After that, I don’t know yet the way I should go. Usually, I ask someone who is interested in my trip and who can tell me where it is beautiful,” he said.
You can follow his adventures at