The 16,000 kilometre photo was taken in the town of Foping, China on 1st September 2011. In an area with 0.4 pandas per square kilometre we were lucky to have three available to pose with us for this monumental photo. To be honest the photo was snapped at 16,012km but we thought the pandas were worth waiting for. Our panda encounters on this day weren’t only with the concrete variety as we unexpectedly had a sighting of a real live panda a few hours earlier. – Posted by Justin

The 18,000 kilometre photo was taken near to Baishuitai, China on 10th October 2011. We were cycling with Kate and Jason who were our art directors and supporters for this photo. Having climbed a lot of passes in bad weather on poor road surfaces in the last 1000 kilometres, we were glad that for this photo the sun was shining, we were at the top of a hill and there was smooth asphalt as far as the eye could see. – Posted by Justin

The 17,000 kilometre photo was taken on the outskirts of Ya’an, China on 16th September 2011. We had just turned off the G108 road that we followed almost the whole way through China and onto the G318 that would lead us westwards. You can’t tell from the photo but the traffic was busy as usual although we had ducked onto a quiet footpath for a few hundred metres. – Posted by Justin

The 14,000 kilometre photo was taken alongside Telmen Nuur (lake) on 18th July 2011. In Mongolia every kilometre we cycle feels like a huge achievement with 700 kilometres of this 1000 being cycled off-road. So unlike the 13,000 kilometre photo we were keeping a close eye on our bike computers as we approached this milestone. We are hoping that we will reach tarmac before the next 1000 kilometre mark is passed (both looking suitably rough in the photo). – Posted by Justin