FIVE months, 10,069 kilometres, nights in a police station and days spent modelling for a painter are some of the many ways Ian Wallis spent his solo bike ride from Canberra to Singapore.

In May, the 65-year-old academic and long-distance cyclist took off on his trusty, yellow bike to raise money for the Indigo Foundation.

“The money I have raised is being put towards funding school resources in Afghanistan, helping to confront sexual harassment in public spaces, and funding bursaries to enable girls to attend university,” he says.

So far, Ian has raised more than $22,000, but says he’s expecting more.

“Another group has just reached out to ask how many kilometres I travelled, and they’re putting in another 10 cents for every kilometre,” he says.

When he reached Dili, Ian met with some of the members of the Indigo Foundation.

“They told me of the work they were doing, and who they were supporting, and it was just simply amazing,” he says.

“They cooked up a feed and all this for me, they had come with Juventude ba Dezenvolvimentu (JDN – Youth for National Development) and they explained, in Dili, there’s a real problem with sexual harassment.

“I went on a tour with one of them, and she took me to a hotel and, like a mansion that someone lived in, and she told me what happened to someone there, and it was just horrific.

“Women had been stripped naked and trapped in a swimming pool with crocodiles, and it really hit me – the Indigo Foundation are just doing amazing things helping to support these victims and stop the sexual harassment.”

While there was a lot to take in, Ian says it was a highlight of his trip, as were quite a few other situations.

“I felt a sense of achievement in getting to Singapore, and doing it when I’m 65,” he says.

“I also cycled from home to the equator, and I was painted by famous artist Kartika Affandi.

“I went to an art gallery in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, the Affandi Museum. As I wandered through I came across an elderly but spritely woman in a wheelchair.

“She offered for me to join her for lunch, and that’s when I discovered she was Kartika Affandi.

Ian says Kartika, 87, told him she wanted to paint him, starting the following morning.

“I spent the next three days sitting for her, yakking with her and killing ourselves laughing,” he says.

But, on the downside, Ian summarised his least favourite aspects of his 139-day ride to be the noise, garbage, smoke and finding accommodation.

“I stayed in a police station for three nights, there was nothing else around,” he says.

“Other than accommodation, the noise was just insane. Then there’s garbage piled up on the edges of the road and the beach I visited was covered in it, too.

“I caught a ferry that should have left at 2pm but left at 5pm, and I didn’t go inside because everyone was smoking, even in some food spaces everyone smoked.”

Ian says he found himself to be a bit focused and stressed and that was before he even left Canberra.

“It was the fact that I was raising money for charity, and I suddenly had this weird pressure on me,” he says.

“I’ve just, in the past, slunk off on some bike ride across the country and back and just let people know that I’m home or I’ve done it.

“This one was a bit different. I’m not a phone person, I don’t usually keep blogs, and it just took away my freedom, which is what I love.

“But, I am very pleased to have supported the Indigo Foundation. I feel I helped raise money and gained publicity for an excellent organisation.”