Riders of Venetians covered 16,032km, Allies 24,200km, Custom Othello 30,800km, Othello 33,000 and The Odyssey riders 54,600!
You, our amazing riders have ridden, in total, around the world over 5 times with just over 200,000kms covered on all our Odysseys in 2023!
We believe that whether traveling as an individual or a business we must consider the environment and make decisions that are positive and minimise potential impact. Choosing to ride a bike on holiday, especially on a long distance holiday is an amazing start – who would want to replace the kms covered above for a bus or car?
As a company, as we work hard to improve our Odysseys, we always do so with our world in mind.
Below are some of our 2023 projects and what is coming in 2024.
Thanks to everyone for riding with us this amazing year, we can’t wait for 2024 with the inaugural Vikings storming through Denmark and Norway!
Our final Othello of 2023 was an amazing trip but it was also 6 weeks post Morocco’s devastating earthquake. With the majority of tour companies choosing to stay away we spoke to our local suppliers and asked them what they felt was best. They needed the tourism more than ever, so off we went – full story here
Post tour, with the support of our riders on that tour and Bicycle Network Australia, we are funding directly homes and workers in Ourigane and Aït Benhaddou. We are funding Muhammad (above) to continue delivering food and supplies by bike to remote villages. We are funding the workers at La Rosarie, our hotel in Ourigane, to rebuild their homes. Bike Odyssey is contributing $10,000 AUD to this cause, many of the Othello guests have added on top of this, and we will be making a public appeal in the coming months to supplement the funding for these genuine local causes.
As a company, we contribute to World Bicycle Relief, and many of our guests contribute through us too – Between us, in 2023, we contributed 6 bikes.
As committed members of Adventure Travel Conservation Fund, we’re pleased to fund, nominate and monitor the success of projects designed to protect and preserve environments, communities, cultures and wild landscapes.
We love supporting our guide Max’s excellent Re-Cycle project, getting bikes to underprivileged kids in country NSW. Thanks to so many of you who have donated your old/unused bikes!
In our office we have made 3 major changes in 2023.
- A new solar array. Our office is now fully carbon neutral.
- We have changed banks. We are transitioning to Bank Australia – a genuinely clean bank – no non-ethical investments.
- All our staff superannuation is now with Australian Ethical Super – again just what it says!
- and last but certainly least, we now have another office rescue dog! Meet James (in the middle) above!
…and in 2024 our aims are to complete our membership for 1% for the Planet and become B Corp Certified. These are two hugely respected steps in the right direction!