Revised and Updated Edition (2026)
Carefully corrected and refined by the author.
After recovering from a stroke, Alan Deakins began long-distance cycle touring at age 72, riding his £80 bicycle from St Petersburg back to England — a journey chronicled in his first book, Old Hippie on a Bike: From Russia to England at Seventy-Two After a Stroke.
In 2022, at 76, he embarked on a 4,000 km tour across Europe with a bold purpose: to visit infamous Nazi death camps and raise funds for Ukrainian civilians devastated by Putin’s merciless attack. Beyond raising money, Alan sought to highlight a chilling truth — the same brutal disregard for human life that the Nazis perpetrated over eighty years ago is happening again in Europe.
For a septuagenarian, the tour was ambitious, daunting, and at times life-threatening. Could he complete it? The journey was full of memories, surprises, mysteries, humour, and moments of love.
Long hours on the road encouraged reflection. Many experiences echoed past events that shaped him as a person, making the journey as much inward as outward.
Even in its dangers, the tour was life-enhancing, life-changing, and life-affirming.
And yet, something came home in a box… it could very well have been him.
8ng from a stroke, Alan Deakins began long-distance cycle touring at age 72, riding his £80 bicycle from St Petersburg back to England — a journey chronicled in his first book, Old Hippie on a Bike: From Russia to England at Seventy-Two After a Stroke.
In 2022, at 76, he embarked on a 4,000 km tour across Europe with a bold purpose: to visit infamous Nazi death camps and raise funds for Ukrainian civilians devastated by Putin’s merciless attack. Beyond raising money, Alan sought to highlight a chilling truth — the same brutal disregard for human life that the Nazis perpetrated over eighty years ago is happening again in Europe.
For a septuagenarian, the tour was ambitious, daunting, and at times life-threatening. Could he complete it? The journey was full of memories, surprises, mysteries, humour, and moments of love.
Long hours on the road encouraged reflection. Many experiences echoed past events that shaped him as a person, making the journey as much inward as outward.
Even in its dangers, the tour was life-enhancing, life-changing, and life-affirming.
And yet, what came home in a box… could very well have been him.