The Ashes: Teenage England cricket fan’s 17,000km journey to watch his team in Australia - without taking a flight

Saturday, 22 November 2025

Most England fans travelling to the Ashes have not slept in caves, played cricket with a mullah in Iran, or sought to hitch a ride on an Indian Ocean cargo ship en route to their destination. But most England supporters are not undertaking an epic, five-month, 10,570-mile (17,000km) journey across the world without catching a single flight.

And most England supporters are not Tommy Lamb, an 18-year-old who set off from Manchester on August 20, a week after receiving his A-level results, and hopes to be in Adelaide in time for the third Test, starting on December 17. Listening to a story his father told him about two people who made the same non-flying trip in the 1970s, and with a gap year before starting university, Lamb was inspired.

“I've always loved the idea of travelling,” he says. “I realised quickly that if I did it during my year out, it would collide with the Ashes.

“All of a sudden, all the ideas came up: I'll go to the Ashes without a plane and that would be a great way to force myself to go to places I otherwise would just never visit.”

His parents drove him for the first leg of the journey, from Manchester to Harwich International Port in Essex, where he took the first of only two boat trips - over to the Hook of Holland. Lamb is too young to remember Michael Palin's BBC series Around the World in 80 Days, though he is probably aware of Race Across the World, a similar adventure where there are no flights or phones. The rules are pretty much the same; he is racing against the clock and relying on public transport and the kindness of strangers to give him lifts.

He sped across Europe using overnight FlixBuses, which are cheaper than trains and often come with more seats available. “I was very quick through Europe. I actually got to Albania in about eight days,” he says.

The route became a Balkan checklist after passing through Munich: Zagreb, Split, down to Budva in Montenegro, and then into Albania, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria. Nothing, other than the first ferry from England was pre-booked. “I hate planning. I think it's awful. I'm very lazy like that,” he says. “So, it's much easier just to wing it and, you know, turn up and see what happens.”

In the Balkans, he sought out local interaction, partly to enliven the YouTube diary he has kept. But his love of cricket underpins the whole trip. He is an avid, though, by his own admission, “average“ player who turns out for Bowdon Cricket Club in Altrincham. He studied at Manchester Grammar School, alma mater of the Times chief cricket correspondent Mike Atherton, where Lamb played in the school first XI alongside Rocky Flintoff [younger son of Andrew] and a couple of games with his older brother, Corey.

“I'm not putting myself on their level. I play for fun,” Lamb says.

The Asian segment of the journey started with an overnight sleeper train to Istanbul. He passed through Cappadocia, a part of Turkey famous for caves, big skies and colourful hot air balloons. Lamb said before getting there, he hadn't even heard of it. After a frosty night camping “under a castle with a random bloke” in eastern Turkey, he appreciated not all spontaneous adventures are fun.

“I quickly learnt that it's far too cold in eastern Turkey to be camping without a tent,” he says.

After meeting his mother in the Georgian capital Tbilisi for a planned break, Lamb hit his first significant logistical wall. His original plan to head east through Azerbaijan was ruined when he learnt the land border was closed. With a flight out of the question, there was only one viable alternative - Iran. But obtaining a visa and a guide was a nightmare.

“I was told it would take three months to get the paperwork and find a guide - I messaged every single travel agency in Iran,” he says. “One of them said, ‘Yeah, we can do it in three days.’” The cost, he says, was “extortionate”, but he paid from his savings, believing the experience was “priceless“. He spent 10 days travelling across Iran with a guide, and had his preconceptions challenged.

“Iran was my favourite country. It was eye-opening in the sense that it's just sort of like, when you hear about a place all the time in the news, you build up an impression, and then you turn up and it is a bit different to what you'd expect,” he says.

It was in Iran that his cricket ritual produced a true highlight. “I played cricket with a mullah in Iran, a religious leader. That was very cool. He nearly took my head off, bowling me a beamer.”

Another incredible memory was made during a night of local hospitality. “I spent one night camping in a cave in Iran, which was great fun. I got invited to have dinner with a lovely family, which was so much fun, and then I finished the night off with camping in a cave surrounded by a load of wild dogs howling. That night as a whole, and that day, was probably the highlight of my trip so far.”

From Iran, the journey took him to the volatile region of Balochistan in Pakistan, where he required a police and military escort. “You're not allowed to wander around by yourself. So I spent three days travelling through Balochistan to get out,” he says. Upon reaching safer territory further into Pakistan, he was able to indulge his passion, watching cricket in Lahore, where he secured tickets for a South Africa versus Pakistan match.

The route then necessitated a huge detour through China. Because of restrictions on foreign nationals entering Tibet, he had to travel north, then east, then south, performing a colossal loop through the country.

It was in Vietnam, a short time after completing a motorbike trail, that the journey met a serious obstacle. While riding a motorbike on an island, he had an accident.

“I fell off a motorbike. I fractured my skull a bit and broke my nose and had a few other scratches… I don't remember anything about the actual incident,” he says. The injury put him first in hospital and then in a hotel in Haiphong, near Hanoi, where he was forced to rest under the watchful medical guidance of his mother.

“Her research on ChatGPT and talking to the Hanoi doctor, she told me I shouldn't travel for two weeks because of the concussion, but I am ignoring that and getting on my way again in a few days,” Lamb says.

Once cleared to travel, the final stage begins: the crossing of Southeast Asia and over the Pacific. He plans a rapid journey via bus through Ho Chi Minh City, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, aiming to reach Bali by the beginning of December. From Bali, things get much trickier. There are few passenger ships these days so his only option is to look for a cargo ship to take him the final enormous leg to Darwin, Australia.

“I will start sort of heading to port and asking people where they think is best to be looking for a boat,” he says. “I'm thinking that a cargo ship is the most likely option. That will probably be the most tricky part of the journey logistically. It's just pure luck.”

If successful, he will arrive in Darwin and face one final, long land journey. “I want to go straight through the middle of Australia because I don't know what's there,” he says.

Lamb estimates the journey from Darwin to the south coast is doable in four to five days - he is aiming to arrive in Adelaide by about December 10. This is crucial because his family is going to meet him there.

“We've got tickets for the first, second and fourth day of Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney,” he says.

What has he learnt from his trip? “I always knew that I'm a very privileged person and I thought this was to test myself out a bit and the world, and everything that I've thought about the world, about how good people are, how helpful they are - it's been an absolute privilege and joy.”

– The Times, London