15,000km trek hits right note

Cyclist Emma Ayres has successfully completed a 16-month bike ride across Europe and Asia, raising about $100,000 for a music therapy project for children with special needs.

The former viola player with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra set out on the 15,000km marathon fund-raiser from England to Hong Kong because she wanted to give something to the community before leaving for New York. The money - which Emma has not yet had a chance to count, but hopes may even top $100,000 - will be donated to the charity group Watchdog to resume a music therapy programme for children with disabilities after its work was halted due to lack of funds.

Emma, 33, set off from Shrewsbury, England, on September 13 last year and pedalled through France and Italy, crossed by ferry to Greece, then rode through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan before embarking on the Karakorum Highway to China. Her final leg was along the Silk Road from Xian, from where she arrived in Hong Kong yesterday.

She had her viola strapped to her bike so that she could play en route.

As she reached her finishing point in Shek O, 13.6kg lighter than on the day she started, Emma said: 'It's funny that the first and the last month were the toughest parts of the journey. The first month in England, I wasn't very fit and hadn't got into the cycling rhythm.

'Then when it came to the end in the delta area in Guangdong, there were no proper maps and the roads were complicated. And there was lots and lots of traffic and the population was high.'