Travel

Insta­gram phe­nom­e­non @1bike1world Dean Nichol­son reveals the full sto­ry of his life-chang­ing friend­ship with res­cue cat Nala and their inspir­ing adven­tures togeth­er on a bike jour­ney around the world. When 30-year-old Dean Nichol­son set off from Scot­land to cycle around the world, his aim was to learn as much as he could about our trou­bled plan­et. But he had­n’t bar­gained on the lessons he’d learn from his unlike­ly com­pan­ion. Three months after leav­ing home, on a remote road in the moun­tains between Mon­tene­gro and Bosnia, he came across an aban­doned kit­ten. Some­thing about the pierc­ing eyes and plain­tive meow­ing of the bedrag­gled lit­tle cat proved irre­sistible. He could­n’t leave her to her fate, so he put her on his bike and then, with the help of local vets, nursed her back to health. Soon on his trav­els with the cat he named Nala, they forged an unbreak­able bond — both curi­ous, inde­pen­dent, resilient and adven­tur­ous. The video of how they met has had 20 mil­lion views and their Insta­gram has grown to almost 750k fol­low­ers — and still count­ing! Expe­ri­enc­ing the kind­ness of strangers, vis­it­ing refugee camps, res­cu­ing ani­mals through Europe and Asia, Dean and Nala have already learned that the unex­pect­ed can be pret­ty amaz­ing. Togeth­er with Gar­ry Jenk­ins, writer with James Bowen of the best­selling A Street Cat Named Bob, Dean shares the extra­or­di­nary tale of his and Nala’s inspir­ing and heart-warm­ing adven­ture together.