Llangollen lads cycling to Thailand have interview with BBC news website

The three Llangollen area lads - known as the Westheads - whose progress llanblogger has been following as they cycle to Thailand have hit the Welsh national headlines.

As they head deeper in Eastern Europe an interview with them has appeared on the BBC's Cymru Fyw online news site.

* For the full story, go to: Llangollen boys cycling to Bangkok - BBC Cymru Fyw

Here is a translation of the article from the Welsh in which it appears:

Three boys from the North East are currently on an unforgettable adventure, cycling from Llangollen to Thailand.

Dyfan Hughes and Louis Dennis are from Llangollen, with James Thomas coming from the Wrexham area. The journey to southeast Asia will take over a year, stopping in a number of countries along the way.

The tour began in Llangollen on 2 August, and the boys are now in eastern Bulgaria, not far from the border with Turkey.

Speaking to Cymru Fyw from the city of Sliven in Bulgaria, Dyfan explained why they are making this trip. "We have a friend called Harrison who lives in Thailand, and he recently lost his father, and we cycled to him. Harrison lived in Cefn near Llangollen and we became good friends with him." All three will be raising money for the Heart Foundation by doing this challenge.

Cycling from north Wales to the south-east of England the three camped, making the most of the fine weather.

"We crossed into the Netherlands, and then went through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, and now we are in Bulgaria."

The plan is to cycle to Turkey in the next few days, and travel along the north of the country into Georgia.

"We're going to stay in Georgia for five months, hoping to work there. The reason we stay so long in Georgia is because it's too cold to cycle through Kazakhstan all winter.

"The hope is to work at the ski resorts, but we'll have to choose any job that's available to tell the truth. "We're trying to get a visa to enter China, but if we can't, we'll have to fly down to India." '

Everything is fine' so far. Things are going smoothly on the journey so far, and they're starting to get used to the challenge of the roads.

"So far everything is going fine. Of course, a large number of punctures, but we're able to patch those up very quickly now."

The boys weren't used to cycling before embarking on this challenge, as Dyfan explained: "All three of us were quite fit, but now we're growing!" In fact, the boys only bought their bikes at the beginning of the summer of this year.

As well as being avid supporters of the Wrexham football team, all three also play for Llangollen, so at least they're used to using their legs! The boys have a huge following on social media, with 48,000 following on Instagram (west.heads) and 98,500 following them on TikTok (@westheads).

The layout of all three is quite similar every day, following the map from west to east.

"We start cycling around 10 every morning... We're not very good at picking up to be honest. We had breakfast in the first shop we saw, and had lunch around 2 or 3 in the afternoon.

"We decide every morning where we want to go, with the intention of finding somewhere to sleep for the night by 6 at night."

Are Dyfan's parents, James and Louis, worried about them travelling so far alone?

"They used to worry a lot at first, but now they're a lot happier," says Dyfan. He went on to say that the three are constantly texting back home so that the family can find out how the trip is going.

The boys plan to arrive in Thailand in October 2026, with the hope that they will have raised a significant amount for a worthy cause.