UAE resident on 11,000km cycle trip from ‘home to home’

A UAE resident who set off from Dubai in April on an 11,000km trip through 12 countries to raise funds for a charity organisation is currently in Turkey, having left Iran.

Briton Mike Callis, who began his adventure in April, will cycle for roughly four months to reach the UK at the end of it all to raise funds for Medicines Sans Frontieres, the humanitarian-aid non-government organization best known for its work in war-torn regions suffering endemic diseases.

“I have no real amount in mind. The more the better. If I raise £5,000 (Dh30,940) I’d be extremely happy. That’s enough to buy measles vaccinations for almost 56,000 children,” said the 27-year-old from Yorkshire in an email interview from Turkey.

Callis plans to round off his road trip in England by August and has set a daily target of cycling 96km. However, there are days he cannot do the average distance. “For example, the road from Yazd to Esfahan in Iran is 322km. It’s pretty boring, so I did it in two days to maximise my time in Esfahan,” said the man who previously worked as a recruitment consultant in DIFC after moving to Dubai in 2011.