A Newport woman who has cycled across eight countries is taking on her biggest challenge yet - travelling nearly 16,000km across Australia.
Claire Wyatt, 26, has already cycled from Hobart, Tasmania to Townsville in Queensland, pedalling more than 4,500km in three months.
Next she will travel to Cairns, Darwin and Alice Springs before finishing her journey in Perth, western Australia.
Claire attended Newport Free Grammar School - where she was head girl - and used to play for Saffron Walden Hockey Club.
Already well travelled, she decided to cycle across Australia after securing a one year working visa.
She said: "I landed a great job for an Australian gift experience company called Gifting Owl and it is remote work - so I realised I could both cycle and work for the year in Australia.
"I wanted to see Australia in a different way and travelling by bike is my passion so it felt right! I shipped my bike out from the UK and haven't looked back since!
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"I wanted to do it because it is so huge and remote. The challenge of all challenges! Water, food and heat all things I have to be very focused on!"
Before the pandemic, Claire ran a cycling company in Siem Reap in Cambodia for two years - which is when she first started touring countries by bike.
After being made redundant due to Covid, Claire asked for a bike and two panniers as part of her redundancy package, and then solo cycled across Cambodia for three weeks.
Since then Claire has cycled across Mallorca, Vietnam, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, across the UK from Land's End to John O'Groats and across Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way.
Claire said the highlight of her trip across Australia so far is "meeting so many incredible locals", as well as cycling from Brisbane across the 600km Great Queensland Rail Trail.
She said: "There was little signal, and it was all dirt roads following old railway lines - very country and remote. I even cycled through long rail tunnels in the dark."
Claire is documenting her journey on her blog at https://wanderingwyatt135121267.wordpress.com/blog-posts.
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