Pedalling to Hawaii

Stevie Smith, published by Summersdale

In these accelerated times, even mid-life crises, it seems, come early. For Smith, reaching the ripe-old age of 25 was the trigger.

So, in 1994 he and friend, Jason Lewis, set off from London on bicycles to pedal to Hawaii. Keen geographers will have noted one or two obstacles to this challenge, namely the Atlantic and the Pacific. Stevie and Jason get around this by having a glorified pedalo built.

The fact that neither had ever spent one night at sea, had no obvious survival skills and no sponsorship, only spurs them on.

Pedalling to Hawaii has all the ingredients of great adventure travel literature: there's hopeless amateurism, Panglossian spirit, near-death experiences and bitter rows - on arrival in the US, a spat between the boys sees Jason ditching the bike and crossing the continent alone by rollerskates. Ultimately, there is some sense of resolution in the search for a different kind of life.

'I believe it is important in our era of cars and aeroplanes that we are reminded what human beings can achieve using their own strength and resources,' writes The Dalai Lama in the foreword.

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