The Person Who Started This Tour: Approaching the Half Way Point on the South American Epic

Camille Kirby is the Content Creator on the 2026 South American Epic Cycling Expedition.

Somewhere between Cartagena and Cusco, the unexpected stopped being so… unexpected. When we started the South American Epic in Colombia, the road ahead was shrouded in mystery. We had six countries to cross, multitudes of landscapes to navigate and an incredible distance to cover.

But what does it actually take to cycle from the balmy Caribbean coast, where you’re coated with sticky sweat, to 4,500 metres above sea level, dodging alpacas and fighting off altitude sickness, in a mere few weeks? It takes a lot. Physically, yes, but mentally it’s a whole other game.

The beginning of this tour was marked by massive excitement to get moving, get on the bike day after day and keep moving forward. But it’s not that simple. The South American Epic has arrived in Cusco, a major refuelling point for riders and staff, and is just days away from the halfway point of this 5½-month trip. Our riders are starting to feel the immensity of cycling the length of South America, a gorgeous but relentless landscape of stimulation, beauty and harsh reality.

So what’s changed since we started pedalling from Cartagena?

Rona Lowe and Deb Jenner walk their bikes out of camp along the Peruvian coast

Initially, this trip was a route, a destination and an implicit promise that every day would be new and exciting. Now, several thousand kilometres later, these cyclists have developed a different relationship with the ‘uncertain.’ The unexpected has become routine – every day holds surprises and challenges, and they ride right through them without a second glance.

South America tests you but we’ve learned we can handle it. Minor inconveniences that once felt significant have lost their power. There’s a landslide? We’ll get in the van for the last 5 kilometres. A Sunday saint’s parade has blocked 5 kilometres of the route? We’ll hang at a coke stop while tour leader Michaela finds another route. The hot showers promised at camp turned out to be frigid? Maybe the next camp will have them! Something that might have phased us in the first week out of Cartagena is just life now; nothing seems to get a rise out of us anymore.

Mentally, we’ve come to understand the chaos of riding through South America. Physically, we’re re-learning what it means to pace yourself, slow down and listen to your body. Australian Richard Hughes compares this experience to his first TDA trip, the Tour D’Afrique itself, where he would push himself to the brink before he would take a lift in the support vehicle. In Peru, he’s now learned when it’s the right time to skip a riding day or cycle a half day. One stage was 154 kilometres, most of it along a high Andean plateau at 4,500 meters above sea level. The day was long, descending from the plateau to sleep at a more comfortable 3,400 meters. Twelve of our 16 riders took half or three-quarter days, a definite switch from the every-single-inch mentality that pushed us coming out of Cartagena. An almost-six-month cycle is a feat in itself; our full tour riders are starting to recognize what a toll it can have on their bodies.

Stephen Owen takes a moment to watch the sunset along the Peruvian coast

One of the clearest signs of change is how time itself has seemed to disappear. American Anne Brooks has “stopped counting the days.” She didn’t know we were approaching the halfway mark, nor did it seem to matter. The trip is now becoming a way of life, or even life itself. Riders wake up thinking about what they’re going to see that day, not what they’ll see on the rest day three days from now. They’re not checking off destinations, they’re living them. Wake up. Eat. Ride. Eat. Rest. Repeat.

Cartagena is beginning to feel less like the start of the trip and more like a whole other lifetime. This long bicycle ride is no longer an interruption to normal life; it just is. We are far from the end of the road; there are still thousands of kilometres, challenging roads, changing weather and plenty of unexpected moments ahead. The cyclists don’t know what this ride has taught them or given them yet – and that’s because it’s just life at this point. But they’ve discovered the perfect mentality for tackling South America: adapt often, don’t get rattled, stick to the plan, then let it all go. After all, it’s just a bicycle ride.

Tour leader Michaela Pye with riders Joanne Snow, Richard Hughes and Maddy Holmes at the beach in Peru’s Paracas National Reserve

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