Expats Mark Swain and his son, Sam, have become the first father and son duo to cycle the 15,685 kilometers between Ireland and Tokyo, Japan.

The inspiring story began in west Ireland, went through Europe, Turkey, India, Southeast Asia and China before reaching its destination. All in all, it took them 10 months from beginning to end. And the journey was originally inspired by Sam when he was just 10 years old (now 19).

As Mark, 51, explained: “He knew that his mother and I first met when we worked in Japan and there was a kind of mystique about the country. He didn’t know how far it was and at the time I thought he was crazy.”

In other words, it was his parents’ previous expatriation which planted the seed of curiosity in the young child’s mind about other places. Furthermore, the journey has done much to forge a father and son bond between the adventurous duo.

On the journey, they averaged about 135 km a day, and would normally use local hostels for accommodation.

While being an expat is certainly not a necessary element in beckoning such a journey, we like to think that it’s the traveling, adventure-seeking, risk-taking spirit of expatriation that played a part in inspiring such a heroing escapade.

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