INTREPID cyclist Pete Mounfield was back in Porlock this week - almost a year after embarking on a 16,000-mile journey from Norway to South Africa.

The 25-year-old former accountant completed the epic trek on a hybrid bike that cost him just £60.

But the machine had to survive an attack by spoke-cutting vandals in Jordan and travel across Africa with patched inner tubes and tyres after Pete discovered that replacements were nowhere to be found almost anywhere on the continent.

And despite surviving several bouts of illness, encountering stone-throwing locals in Ethiopia and having to endure up to eight punctures a day in searing temperatures of 51 degrees centigrade in Mozambique, Pete admitted he was glad he had taken up the challenge.

"I wish I had taken a proper mountain bike because I nearly gave up cycling altogether in Mozambique and considered completing the journey on foot," he said from the safety of his parents' house in Porlock.

"But on the whole I met mostly good people and had some great experiences.

"It was very frustrating having to constantly mend things on the bike but I got there in the end."

Pete managed to cover around 60 miles a day but in Ethiopia he initially travelled 400 miles to reach Addis Ababa by minibus in order to renew his visa after illness forced him to leave his bike in the mountains.

But determined to cycle the whole route, he returned a few days later and completed the bus journey distance on two wheels.

His trip took him from the sub-zero temperatures of Nordkapp to the searing heat of the Sahara and ended in Cape Town, with plenty of highs and lows along the way.

One of his lowest points was spending two days in a run-down hospital in northern Kenya after surviving a bandit rat run but succumbing to a bad attack of dehydration.

"Basically, I ran out of water and none of the convoys of trucks with their armed guards would stop to let me fill up my bottle," said Pete.

"I was seven hours without water in temperatures of around 35 degrees centigrade. I was really quite ill."

Pete's favourite countries were Poland - the friendliness of the people and the vodka - and Sudan, where the locals provided a meal every evening and where he experienced a magical moment.

"It actually rained in the desert. It hadn't rained for so many years that there were young children in the nearest village who had never seen it before. It was pretty special."

But Pete's trip was not just an adventure.

The serious part was trying to raise for MAG, a humanitarian organisation dedicated to clearing the remnants of conflicts for the benefit of communities worldwide.

To date, the fundraising tally stands at £2,700 but Pete is hoping to increase that by staging some slideshow talks.

And he is determined not to return to accountancy.

"I'd like to set up a company offering bicycle tours around the UK and abroad - I think I've probably picked up a few skills on my travels."