Welcome to the Shadow English Podcast, where you can improve your listening and speaking through shadowing. First listen to the episode, then you can shadow each line of what I say in the episode.

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Intro and Outro music - by Lundstroem - "Great podcast intro" (Short version and Long version)

Hi everyone. So I wanted to talk briefly today about a person who I read about. His name is Gregg Bleakney… and I don’t think that he is really that well known. But he was a cyclist who was known for riding from the top of North America to the bottom of South America. He didn’t do it alone…for at least part of the trip. His friend Brook Allen also tagged along. The plan was to begin from the most northern most part of Alaska, which is called Prudehoe Bay and ride all the way down to a small town called Ushuaia, which is the southern most tip of Argentina that you can travel to without a boat. Gregg Bleakney apparently got the idea for this crazy trip after he had finished a 1,600 km bike ride, which in of itself is an amazing feat. But the trip to cycle north to south across two continents is on a whole other level. It is approximately 30,500 kilometers. The two friends, Grregg and Book saved money and planned their trip for four years and once they set off, they were able to stay at hostels as well as camp outside..and sometimes local people would house them. They traversed through all types of terrain, such as deserts, rain forests, and mountains. They also spent time visiting famous sites like the ancient ruins called Tikal in Guatemala. They also ran into many cyclists as they travelled, which I suspect were not taking on such a monumental task like cycling the length of two continents. Unfortunately Gregg’s friend Brooks Allen had to turn back half way. The article I read did not explain why he had to go back. But in any case, Gregg managed the trip on his own and made it to the southern most tip of Argentia, Ushuaia. Why did they undertake such a difficult endeavor? Well, apparently, according to their website that they run called Ribbon of Road, they did it for two reasons. One, their own sense of adventure. Two, they did it to raise money for an AIDS charity. I like this story because they were able to do something amazing for their own self-interest, but also made it about helping other people. On their blog, they also left some tips about traveling, which are: travel light, be flexible, and be polite. I think these tips can be useful even for those of us who are less ambitious but like to travel.

That’s all for today. Catch you next time.