‘Walking Home From Mongolia’ — Halfway There
Northern Ireland’s Leon McCarron was first mentioned in these pages almost two years ago as he took off from Bushwick, his home of many months, for a round-the-world bike tour. The daring 10,000-mile journey was multi-purpose; he was riding to raise awareness and funds for UNICEF, while also shooting footage and interviews for a documentary on the social justice theme.
He successfully reached his goal of Hong Kong within a year (taking no public transportation except during ocean crossings), but was far from done with travel. He decided to continue, flying to Paris and then biking to London, logging a total of 14,000 miles. He was 24 years old.
And then McCarron was picked up for a new journey, this time with a pal, called “Walking Home From Mongolia.” Rob Lilwall and McCarron together set out to tackle a 3,100-mile winter expedition through the heart of China. The journey is also a sequel to Lilwall’s acclaimed, televised three-year “Cycling Home From Siberia” expedition, from which National Geographic made a six-part television series using his self-filmed video footage.