Edinburgh Fringe 2025
The World at 15mph… ish
Naomi Johnson / PBH's Free Fringe
Genre: Spoken Word
Venue: The Garage at PBH's Free Fringe @ BrewDog Lothian Rd
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Burnt out and questioning life, Naomi Johnson decided to cycle around the world. With a man she’d only met three times before. Crazy? Perhaps. Exhilarating? Definitely. Life changing? Certainly.
Review
Burnt out and questioning life, Naomi Johnson decided cycle around the world. Crazy? Perhaps. Exhilarating? Definitely. Life changing? Certainly.
So runs the introduction to Johnson’s amusing, exciting and ultimately inspiring story of how acting on a whim changed her life for ever. Johnson, who as her accent will tell you, hails from the Midlands, was living and working in Edinburgh as the CEO of a charity, where she admitted to burning the candle at both ends. And probably a bit in the middle too, if truth be told.
Spotting that she was looking more than a little frazzled, a close friend suggested she slow down, maybe try something a little different, or take a short relaxing break somewhere perhaps. It’s doubtful that this friend had in mind the sort of activity Johnson eventually settled on, an escorted cycle trip……..around the world.
With her heart set on this life changing opportunity and buoyed by the exited chatter on the ubiquitous WhatsApp group set up amongst those on this expedition, she confessed to being heartbroken when the trip was cancelled shortly before lift off, presumably due to an absence of suitable idiots wanting to experience extreme saddle soreness.
But the beauty of a WhatsApp group is that, once you’re in it, you’re in it. And there was a suitable idiot who was keen to turn a scripted, organised and escorted world tour into, erm, an unscripted, disorganised, unescorted world tour. Cue Johnson, the self-confessed antithesis of sporting endeavour, quitting her job to set off on a pretty major physical (and mental) challenge – cycling the world. And with a bloke she’d met just three times.
This show at PBH’s Brewdog venue is an amusingly engaging narration of her experiences on the road. The initial idea back in 2012 to spend a year on the road morphed into something far more extensive, to the point that she and her companion pedalled 32,000km across 26 countries in 2 years, with the odd break thrown in to restore the bodies. And the coffers.
We hear the challenges of navigating in countries where you can’t read the signposts, where there aren’t any maps, where you don’t speak the language and what you do when you run out of brake pads in a remote part of the famous Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, listed as one of the top ten cycling challenges in the world.
Johnson’s delivery is engaging, gently amusing and worryingly persuasive as she extols the virtues of grabbing life’s opportunities as they present themselves – you just don’t know what’s around the corner. She’s not afraid to share some of those challenges either – and not just trying to dodge tigers and elephants as she and her companion pedalled through a reserve in the middle of Africa, wondering if they were on that night’s menu.
But it’s also encouraging to hear how they were accepted and embraced by those they met on their travels and of the random acts of kindness from complete strangers that helped them out of many a jam.
As a keen cyclist – albeit one who seeks a comfortable bed and shower each night, stuff this sticking up a tent and digging a latrine malarky – I can readily identify with the exhilaration that comes from being out on the road, gawping in wonder at the ever changing vistas unfolding before your eyes. And, when the inevitable tiredness creeps in, it just takes a bit of grit, determination and mind set to reach your destination.
For, as Johnson reminds us at the end of this enchanting hour, it’s “one life, one opportunity.” So, get on your bike and seek out this talk that has a lot to recommend it.
