Woman trades corporate job and city life to travel the world by bike

A Belgian woman has traded her corporate job and city life to travel 20,000kms across three continents by bicycle.

Yasmijn Soete, 31, was working as a project manager at an advertising company and living in the city centre of Antwerp before she become “tired of the hustle and bustle” and decided to try a new lifestyle.

“We chose this way of travelling as it is eco-friendly, cheap and it lets you move at a slower pace than how you usually travel. It requires you to think about your possessions, what you really need and how to travel as light as possible,” she said.

Soete left Antwerp on March 31 to embark on the global adventure with her partner Yannick Leroy.

She hopes the trip will give her time to “discover different opinions and lifestyles” than the ones she has become used to every day.

“Too often, we are crammed in one place, one routine, one group, and it’s not stimulating variety and creativity,” she said.

Soete and her partner have always been interested in living as debt free as possible, and she said this trip would be “a good exercise to see what you really need, miss, prioritise and appreciate in life”.

“Living closer to nature, you are far less distracted by all things a city offers. We don’t know just yet how we will tackle this [aspect] after our trip, as you cannot escape the system completely, of course, nor do we plan to. But for now, we know to prioritise sunshine, good food and family.

“We hope to encounter many interesting people and projects from which we can learn.”