78-year-old man feels 50 after clocking up 520,000km cycling around the world | ABC Australia

Subscribe ✅ and tap the notification bell 🔔 to be delivered Australian stories every day: http://ab.co/ABCAus-subscribe

Read Tilmann’s full story here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-19/78yo-cairns-cyclist-clocks-up-520000-kilometres-travelling-world/12900698

Tilmann Waldthaler is nearly 80 but has the body of a 50-year-old. He has cycled 520,000 kilometres through 143 countries and still rides everyday.

Over his four decades crisscrossing the world he has sat next to Bob Marley on a plane, been hit by a bus in India and held at gunpoint in Iran. He met his wife while cycling in the Sahara Desert.

The couple have settled in Cairns, Far North Queensland, and are waiting for the borders to reopen so they can keep travelling.

Join the ABC Australia community on social media!
http://abc.net.au/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/abc
Twitter: http://twitter.com/abcaustralia
Instagram: http://instagram.com/abcaustralia

This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation YouTube channel.
********
Contributions may be removed if they violate ABC’s Online Conditions of Use http://www.abc.net.au/conditions.htm (Section 3).

I started cycling in 1977.
I have cycled through 143 countries and altogether I have cycled 520,000km.
Tilmann Waldthaler is 78 years old. I don’t look like 80, I don’t 
think like an 80-year-old person, I don’t act like an 80-year-old person, because 
I can jump on my bike and do 160km today. He set off on a touring bike when he was 35.
On my very first big trip from New Zealand to Norway I was on the road for five years. These five years on the bike, it was my 
apprenticeship in life because it changed me – I became a different person.
Over four decades crisscrossing the world he has met celebrities, been 
hit by a bus and held a gunpoint. The adventure is full of stories.
The positive stories are by far more than the negative stories.
I met my wife in the Sahara cycling. She was cycling all by herself 
on a bicycle like I was. I thought this must be a strong woman, must be a fantastic woman going 
all by herself through the Sahara. We have been together ever since.
We don’t have any kids but we had 14 bikes. I’m very privileged and I’m very happy to 
have a wife who accepts me as what I am because she’s half-crazy herself.
The couple settled in Cairns and still cycle everyday.
I have been told I am very fortunate I am almost 80 but I live in the body of a 50-year-old.
I don’t take any tablets, blood thinners or whatever people take.
It doesn’t matter how old you are. If you really want to do something, if you 
really are energetic enough, you can fulfil your dreams and this is my dream – to go cycling.
I’m still going, I’m still going, and I love it. We are just waiting for the borders to open up 
and then we’ll be travelling again.