Warwick University student cycled from London to Istanbul in aid of New Zealand earthquake victims

Mr Parry, 19, who lives in Shrubland Street, cycled from London to Istanbul and across 13 different countries in the space of five weeks – returning to England in time for the Royal wedding.

The engineering undergraduate took more than 2,000 photographs during the solo ride, which he undertook to raise money for the New Zealand Earthquake Appeal.

To mark the support shown for his efforts by Saint Bar, Mr Parry showed a selection of the images during a ‘welcome home’ party at the Warwick Street establishment of Tuesday night.

Mr Parry said: “When I meet people at uni everybody is busy rushing by and when they ask me how I got on it is very hard to summarise it and there’s only so much I can tell them.

“It helps to have the pictures because it’s the only way I can show people what it was like unless they read the blog.

“Saint Bar helped me out a lot before I set off, supplying me with a T-shirt and helping me with flyers.

“I’ve been really surprised at how generous people have been and now I’m back hopefully I can raise some more money.”

Mr Parry has relatives in Christchurch, where the earthquake took place in February, and he was keen to help those who bore the brunt of the devastation.

He has raised more than £1,000 for the appeal.

Challenges during the journey included having to repair broken wheel spokes six times and also having to negotiate The Balkans between Albania and Macedonia in strong headwinds.

But for the most part Mr Parry took in some beautiful scenery and enjoyed people’s hospitality.

He said: “I fared a lot better than the bike itself, I was a bit tired on some mornings and on the last three days the wind really started picking up as I got towards Turkey.

“I wore the T-shirt and people would come up and ask me about what I was doing – in Verona a man offered to buy me two beers.”

“The Croatian coast was also very spectacular, I enjoyed having the opportunity to cycle along there.”

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