PRESS REPORT
Delta County Independent, Paonia	October 30, 2002
World cyclist Richard Gregg visits Paonia
By ANNETTE BRAND Statf Writer

Richard Gregg

In December 1999 David Long of Paonia and Richard Gregg, a world cyclist from England, met in a hostel in Darwin, Australia. They exchanged e-mail addresses and Long invited Gregg to visit him in Paonia.

Gregg accepted Long's invitation this month and stopped over in Paonia for a week. Gregg was captivated by the beauty of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and the different kinds of trees in the area.

While in Paonia he gave a slide show at the Paonia Care and Rehabilitation Center of photographs he has taken on his cycling travels across the world. Gregg left England in 1990, cycled across Europe to Venice and took a ship from Venice to Egypt, just as the Persian Gulf war was starting. "I was lucky to get out before the hostilities began," he said.

From Egypt he went to Sudan. One day while he was in Khartoum, he came out of the post office and was caught up in a pro-Palestinian parade. "I was standing on the curb the only white guy in sight with all the protesters looking at me and shouting, 'Down, Down USA,' " Gregg said.

He said the protesters were bussed in to the event. "They were not aggressive toward me, but on television it looked like a dangerous situation. The countrymen will wave banners and shout slogans, but on a person-to-person basis politics are irrelevant."

From Sudan Gregg cycled to Kenya and on to Tanzania, where he took time to climb a mountain and go on safari.

He flew across the Indian Ocean in late 1991 to tour Pakistan and see the Himalayas. He walked across Africa then Richard Gregg remounted his bike and cycled across India, Nepal, Tibet, China.

Gregg took time off in Japan to work for awhile, teaching English. Then he was off again, cycling from China to Singapore, to Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia; He spent a year in Indonesia, a year in Australia and a year in New Zealand.

While Gregg was in Laos he met Haruyo Sugimoto, from Japan. She was backpacking; Gregg was cycling. On June 5, 2001, they were married in New Zealand. Both cycled in New Zealand. She is now in Japan as Gregg continues his goal of cycling the world.

He flew from New Zealand to Fiji in April of this year and took a ship to Oakland, Calif. He considers the two weeks at sea downtime, an opportunity to sort out in his mind the next set of travels.

He cycled from San Francisco to Los Angeles, then flew to Japan for six weeks in June for a second wedding at a Shinto Shrine.

When he returned to Los Angeles in July Gregg began cycling again to Joshua Tree, Parker Dam, Lake Havasu City, a 62-mile stretch of desert, Las Vegas, Williams, Ariz., and onto the Grand Canyon.

He traveled through Hopi and Navajo areas and spent time at an Indian reservation. The reservation is a dry area in regard to alcohol. Gregg said the Native American residents are very poor and he was "astonished" to find them drinking the contents from hair spray cans, mixed with water, as a substitute for alcohol. After he left the reservation he observed that the trash along the road contained many hair spray cans.

Gregg is now on his cycle again. He wants to cycle across Canada, the eastern coast of the United States, and South America to reach his goal of cycling every continent. He will return to England for a short time but will probably live in Japan, where he would like to teach English again.

Gregg, 39, is a mechanical engineer and earned his living with technical writing before he took off to cycle the world.

He says he cycles, first of all, for his own well-being - his health and fitness - and because cycling is a transport that does not emit any foul gases. "If I can cycle to Africa, others can cycle to do their shopping.

"I'm an environmentalist, I suppose, and cycling is peaceful, non-threatening, open. It leaves me kind of vulnerable. What's around me can touch me, affect me.

"In Pakistan I saw a little boy get run over by a car. It was sickening. In that moment I was really glad that I didn't have the potential to do that to someone," Gregg said.

Gregg says of course the most satisfying experience of his cycling journey is having met his wife. "In addition, the memories are incredible the beauty of the world and friends around the world. Being a non-tourist gives you the opportunity to see the countries and their people from a much fresher perspective. The people are more natural."

Gregg expects to finish his journey some time next year. He has cycled 26,751 miles from point to point. He doesn't count the internal miles he travels when he is in one place.

Photos of Gregg in many of the places he has cycled and more information on his journey are available on his website, worldcycle.org .