Where is your next bike trip?
Left comfort behind and biked 700km solo across China – before my visa expired. Here's what I learned.
Before this trip, I was home in Australia – comfortable, surrounded by the familiar, and honestly… stuck. Then I found myself in China, unexpectedly grounded by a visa hiccup, and I had a decision to make: wait it out, or move.
So I rode.
With 5 days left before my visa expired, I packed my bike, plotted a route across South China, and began pedaling 700km toward the Vietnamese border. From the busy city streets of Guangzhou to unknown rural villages, every kilometer pulled me deeper out of the known and into myself.
It wasn’t about the destination. It was about becoming the kind of person who takes the leap.
What I want to offer here is this:
If you’re standing at the edge of something – a trip you’ve been postponing, a creative idea you haven’t acted on, a version of yourself you know you’re capable of becoming – don’t wait for it to feel easy. It probably won’t.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not right.
Growth rarely shows up with a clear map.
It often looks like a leap, a risk, a challenge.
But on the other side, something shifts – not always immediately, but permanently.
I shared a video about this ride – to capture the quiet, inner journey that happens when you stop playing small. If you’re curious what that looks like, it’s somewhere out there on YouTube
But even if you never watch it, I hope this post is useful in itself – as a reminder that sometimes, the most important decision you can make… is to go.
The path tends to appear once you move.
by AerieTricky