A Shropshire man taking part in an epic 15,500-mile charity cycle ride from Shrewsbury to Australia has reached the former war-torn city of Sarajevo in Bosnia.

Henry Brydon, 25, left Kingsland, Shrewsbury, on April 28 before he meeting friend Jamie King in London and setting off.

The trip to Sydney will see them journey through 25 countries taking up to 18 months. Henry is hoping to raise £25,000 for Brain Tumour Research after his brother Jack was diagnosed at the age of 17 in 2003. He has since made a full recovery.

• To visit the friends’ website  click here.

In the latest update on their blog the pair say they have now spent 53 days on the road and have travelled 2,508 miles (4,036km).

Jamie King at the famous Stari Most bridge in Mostar, Bosnia

Blog:

Current Location: Sarajevo, Bosnia

Days on Road: 53

Distance covered: 4036km

Longest period without a bath or shower: 17 days and counting

Life on a fiver a day requires some innovative lifestyle choices to get by. Some call it living like a tramp but we err towards the more trendy eco concept of Freeganism.

We have been embracing every opportunity to reduce our costs by foraging away like a couple kids digging into their prezzies on Christmas morning.

Our recent successes have been wild mushrooms, which contributed towards a spag bol that Ramsey would have been proud of, and miniature wild strawberries which made our otherwise bland cornflakes into a mouthwatering morning feast that could quite easily have featured in an M&S advert (these are not just strawberries, these are roadside harvested, carbon monoxide coated M&S strawberries).

Our creative living doesn’t stop with food. Oh no. Our need for a dish cloth was answered by a discarded roadside Jack Daniels shirt which was also tailored into a headband to keep the ever expanding mop from my eyes and a wrist band.

Our time on the Croatian beach yielded a fantastic Spider-Man ball which was used for the odd lunchtime kick around before being donated to a Bosnian street child, creating much excitement and completing the full circle of freeganism.

Where do we go from here? We’ve got our eyes on some snake skin handlebar grips (current ones are quickly disintegrating) and possibly moving up the ranks to a three-bedroom villa on the beach if we see one lying around.

Our Bear Grylls lifestyle has given us a new appreciation of nature. We open our tent each morning to a new landscape and see animals/insects we never knew existed.

As with all things in life it also has its dark side. We had heard stories of wild dog attacks and the boar which seems to be stalking us across the continent is yawned at as a mere annoyance, but nothing in life can prepare you for waking up to find a tic sucking the claret out of the one part of your anatomy that you wish to protect at all costs. Horror, disbelief and disgust simultaneously filled my head as I stared down at the wee beast that was freeloading on my life source, trying to compute what lay in front of my recently woken eyes.

The adrenalin kicked in and it became clear that the only option was to operate then and there. I toyed and tugged gently, trying to coax him from his burrow but he had the strength of an Ox and my attempts were futile against his sharp gnashes. Eventually frustration got the better of me and an almighty tug produced the worst outcome.

I looked down to see only half a tic.

The expletives used at this moment are not fit for public reading, needless to say the mood was dark. With my pocket knife in one hand, needle in the other and an antiseptic wipe to sterilise my tools the battle commenced. I’d like to say it was an easy win but I’d be lying.

We grappled for over an hour before he surrendered and left my sacred space. On the up side I’m now out of the incubation period for limes disease (common to tics), the old fella has healed well and from my darkest experience of the trip a song was born. The lyrics are of an adult nature due to the severity of the situation (not blog material) but if you would like a sneak preview before our tour then drop us an email.

Since our last post we have stumbled across two hidden gems of countries, Croatia and Bosnia. Our route from Budapest has taken us southwest towards the Croation coast, passing one of Europe’s largest lakes, Lake Balaton, in Hungary, for some much-needed freshwater bathing, despite meeting an unwelcome guest mid-paddle in the shape of a four-foot anaconda who promptly cleared the water.

After taking a couple of German lasses, Yohana and Anne, ‘wild camping’ for the first time (I don’t think they’ll be going again in a hurry), we continued on to the first of many border controls on the journey.

Croatia has been utterly mind-blowing, particularly the lesser explored inland region with Plitvica national park at the epicentre.

Following much needed R&R sessions along the Adriatic sea, including a stint on the island of Brac, we have headed into Bosnia to what feels like the first of the truly ‘random’ countries we’ll be visiting.

The tough riding has certainly been outweighed by the overwhelming friendliness of everyone we stumble across, and having arrived in Sarajevo this afternoon, we’re looking forward to being shown how the Bosnians P.A.R.T.Y.