Backpacking around Europe is a rite of passage for many young Australians, but when Sam Wood proposed a trip with his two brothers in 2009, he had something a little more ambitious in mind.
An avid cyclist who studied classical archaeology at the University of Sydney and spent three years working at the British Museum, he suggested retracing the route that the Carthaginian general Hannibal took over the Alps with his war elephants in 218BC.
Beginning in southern Spain, the brothers rode through France and across the Alps into Italy, turning the journey into a BBC documentary. “From there, I thought it would be nice to keep riding around some interesting sites,” Wood recalls. So he set up a bike touring company with a strong historical focus.
Though his background is in Roman archaeology, Wood developed cycling routes inspired by famous journeys throughout history, following the path of Richard the Lionheart’s Third Crusade, the expansion of the Venetian empire and Alexander the Great’s conquests. But when it came to naming his company, there was one route so well-known, it has become a byword for any adventurous undertaking.
“I studied the Odyssey back at university and loved it,” says Wood. “The very word is a theme that resonates with our journeys, so it was always a trip I wanted to do.” In addition to naming his company Bike Odyssey, he based its logo on Argos, the faithful hound who is the only one to recognise Odysseus on his return to Ithaca.
Turning the idea into an itinerary that guests could easily follow presented several challenges. Before the word “epic” was used to market everything from ski resorts to video games, it described some of the most ambitious works of literature ever created. Homer’s original text takes some 15 hours to recite, and Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation will clock in at just under three. But Odysseus’ perilous voyage spans an entire decade as he attempts to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan war.
Condensing that journey into 27 days inevitably meant taking a few liberties. The task was further complicated by the ongoing debate over where Odysseus and his crew actually travelled. “When people have tried to map out Odysseus’ route, it’s a bit of a challenge because he went to all parts of the Mediterranean,” Wood says. “Troy and Ithaca are easy, but everywhere in between is up for grabs.”
The Odyssey blends physical geography and myth, which has led scholars to place locations such as the sorceress Circe’s island of Aeaea everywhere from Sardinia to Georgia. Tourism boards have added to the confusion by amplifying some of the more speculative claims, while mythical locations like the Land of the Dead are conspicuously absent from any regional maps. Nolan reportedly filmed those scenes in Iceland, while Scotland and Western Sahara also stand in for Mediterranean sites in his adaptation.
Wood’s solution was to stick to Turkey and Greece, combining places referenced in the text with other important archaeological sites on the path from Troy to Ithaca. “Fortunately, Troy is a really great site and there’s archaeological evidence of burning in layers that could be relevant to the events of the Odyssey,” he says.
Subsequent stops intersperse Homeric locations like Lesbos and Mount Parnassus with other significant sites of antiquity including Ephesus, Delphi and Mycenae.
Putting together a complex international itinerary involves lots of moving parts, and Wood has had to deal with everything from cancelled flights and closed borders to a mad dash along empty highways trying to get the last flights back to Australia during Covid lockdowns.
But the greatest challenges often come from guests who choose to keep vital information to themselves. “We’ve had multiple people turn up with no bike experience after telling us otherwise,” he says. “One had only ever ridden in a bike trailer and another had no peripheral vision so she went straight off the edge of the road at the first corner! … She was fine and she kept riding, but I had to stay close to her for the rest of the journey.”
Fortunately, most guests are well-prepared for the challenges, and the riding is interspersed with plenty of opportunities to take in the scenery at a more relaxed pace. Parts of the trip follow the Turkish coast in a traditional wooden gulet, which has sufficient space for bikes as well as passengers. “When we’re sailing from island to island in the Dodecanese, we can tell a story about Odysseus travelling home on his boat and it feels very real,” says Wood.
“So much of the Odyssey is about the journey and the wine-dark sea, so being on a boat in the Med is a spectacular way to capture that atmosphere and make you feel like you’re in the same environment that Odysseus would have experienced.”
Most days include rides of between 50km and 70km, and while ebikes make the tours accessible to anyone with a decent level of fitness, those opting for traditional bikes find some days challenging. That was certainly the experience of Penny Clowry, a 52-year-old Canberra resident.
“I had no idea how big the mountains were in Greece before I had to bloody ride up them,” she says.
But even the long, hot climbs fit neatly into the theme, standing in for one-eyed giants, seductive sirens and six-headed sea monsters on an adventure filled with personal challenges.
Clowry got into cycling after injuring her ACL and was initially drawn to the itinerary for the scenic Mediterranean setting. “I barely knew the story of the Odyssey before I booked,” she says. “But when you’re cycling through this incredible landscape and these ruins appear, it adds so much to know how they fit into the history of the place you’re riding through and what they represent.”
“One afternoon, I was riding on my own behind everybody else when I heard a little bell clanging as I passed through a tiny village,” Clowry says. “I looked over and there was a woman in traditional dress walking down a dirt road, herding goats with a stick while the sun was setting in the background. It felt like I had stepped back in time.”
While contemporary visitors have the advantages of paved roads, support vans and regular stops for cold drinks, the Homeric themes of longing, perseverance and the battle between fate and free will still resonate. Wood recalls a 70-year-old guest who hadn’t ridden a bike since she was five. Wanting to see the ancient world up close, she signed up for the Odyssey, and in the decade since has completed three other epic rides. She now runs two ebike groups in the New South Wales Riverina region.
“The Odyssey is the story of a man returning to his family having been away for 20 years, and it’s an enormous emotional journey for Odysseus,” says Wood. “It’s such a rollercoaster for Odysseus, who is saved by the gods then doomed by other gods. But going on a big journey like that always feels relevant to people’s lives and they can tie it to whatever they’re going through on a personal level.”
