In this film, Morgan Monchaud and friends Brian Mathe and Siphay Vera embark on a three-year cycling journey across the globe. Bertrand Dolci, the only team member with significant cycling experience, occasionally joins them. With no budget for accommodation, they sleep on couches, in barns, and by roadsides, across deserts, jungles, mountains, and cities.
Cycling across the salt flats of Patagonia. Photo: Screenshot
Antarctic to Amazon
We find our cyclists in Patagonia, already eight months out of France. Proceeding northwards at a frenetic pace, they enter the Amazon. With so much ground to cover, the film doesn’t linger on any one location or incident. A dreamlike procession through shifting landscapes is interrupted by personal or practical asides, such as bike repairs and local TV appearances.
In the Amazon, they struggle to push their bikes along muddy roads in stifling heat, following a hand-drawn map. After 40 days in the so-called Green Inferno, a very Biblical number of days to struggle in such an environment, they emerge.
While the trio rents a boat to Panama, the film flashes back to their earlier detour. Following in the footprints of Monchaud’s father, who sailed to Antarctica with friends in 1980, they sail into the Drake Passage. Their storm-tossed boat survives the challenge, gliding swan-like among the white masses of the Antarctic coast.
Monchaud’s father tags along for this leg. Photo: Screenshot
Side adventures and brief encounters
Back in Colombia, they join the crew of a retired Frenchman headed to Panama. Monchaud feels these brief encounters are the beauty of travel, and why they conducted the trip on a shoestring budget.
Montage-ing up through Central America and Mexico, they cross the border into Arizona. They head to Phoenix instead of my hometown of Tucson, which is a huge mistake in my opinion, though it does allow them to pick up Etienne Houles, their missing fourth Musketeer. Tales of their adventures have finally inspired him to quit his job and, wisely, leave Phoenix.
Then it’s up the West Coast and into Canada. Recalling the stories of Jack London, they hit on a new side-quest: build a raft and paddle down the Yukon River.
A bad fall sends Houles back to France, saddened but undaunted. The remaining three build their raft. Photo: Screenshot
Joined by Dolci, their DIY, GPS-less raft floats down the river, looking for all the world like a Canadian remake of Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Nevertheless, they survive the journey to Alaska.
Oceans being generally unbikeable, they hop a flight to the Oceania stage and reunite with a recovered Houles.
“Seeking adventure is only a pretext to meet people,” Monchaud explains, as they help clear fallen trees for their hosts, an elderly New Zealand couple. Monchaud is always happy to talk to a friendly local, but is rarely moved by their safety advice. When an Australian cop advises them not to bike into the outback, where the next water station is 250km away, they do so anyway.
Photo: Screenshot
Their final leg takes them through Southeast Asia from Bangkok to Laos, where Vera’s family is from. They navigate blindly through the tropical forest, then up into the mountains to a family reunion.
Despite visa issues in China, they make it to Kazakhstan. After a final side-quest to learn foraging skills with a shepherd family, the trio re-enters Europe via Istanbul. Their return to France marks three years and 54,000km.
