Where did the inspiration come from to ride horses from Mongolia to Hungary?
In 2000 during the latter stages of a cycling epic from Moscow to Beijing with his mate Chris, Tim found himself in the Gobi desert pushing his bike through sand and increasingly frustrated with being limited to tracks in such an open landscape. Every now and then horsemen would suddenly appear from over the horizon, rush towards them, and then gallop off in an equally random direction. Tim was struck not only by these people who seemed to live in a forgotten world of mounted warriors but by the incredible freedom that these horsemen traveled with. Although Mongolia today is considered unique as a land where the nomad lifestyle has survived intact, it fascinated Tim to think that these horsemen with their collapsible felt tents once lived a nomadic existence right across the breadth of the Eurasian steppe from Mongolia to Hungary. Further intriguing was that it was from this largely empty landscape that came one of the greatest world leaders of all time: Ghengis Khan. Although on the b
