BOMBAY TO BEIJING BY BICYCLE

Public Speaker/ Writer/ Performer ‘Congratulation,’ grinned Dr Chawla. ‘You are having the malaria.’ And so begins Russell McGilton’s as he attempts to cycle from Bombay to Beijing by bicycle in the hope of writing a book about his cycling odyssey. Inspired by a life changing event and the taste for good ol’ adventure, Russell would not only battle the reoccurring malarial fevers but would unwittingly cycle near a nuclear test site, be chased by packs of wild dogs in the dead of night, run up trees to escape charging rhinos, get caught a little too near to Afghanistan during September 11 and lastly, have a stack with a yak. Overcoming these adversities, Russell managed to complete the trip in 10 months and to successfully have his dream of having the book published (Yakety Yak: Bombay to Beijing by Bicycle Penguin Group) while a one man show of the trip Bombay to Beijing by Bicycle won the George Fairfax Playwright Competition 2003. Russell was also featured in the Melbourne Writers’ Festival 2004 and has appeared on Red Symons’s 774 radio program, 2UE Sydney and with Russell Gilbert on Radio SEN 1116 and has recently returned from the Edinburgh Festival 2008 performing a one man show of the trip. Apart from this great adventure, Russell has travelled and worked in over 30 countries from sitting with mountain gorillas in the African Congo, motorcycling through typhoons in Taiwan, picking grapefruit a kibbutz and climbing Mount Kenya. Other professions include, performer and writer for children’s theatre, television producer, writer and director for commercials for TV Media Consultancy and as a director of his own advertising company, Big Mouth Promotions. A natural speaker, Russell has tread the boards as an actor and comedian here in Australia and overseas, making appearances on Neighbours, the London comedy circuit and in a cover band as an Austin Powers/Dr Evil impersonator. Breathtaking, exhausting and often hilarious, Russell entertaining stories and photos of his adventures will inspire anyone with an ounce of wonder dust in their pants and the courage to say ‘yes’ to the big ‘what if’ that lies out there for all of us.