London To The Ashes Without Flying: The Remarkable Story Of Oddball Ed Miller

The average England cricket fan travelling to Brisbane for the first Ashes Test would have endured a cramped flight featuring crying babies and a battle for the arm rest with an Australian who spent the entire 23 hours in the air telling all and sundry what a "sh*t bloke" Stuart Broad is.

Ed Miller isn't your average cricket fan though as he travelled the entire distance from London to 'The Gabba' without flying, all in aid of raising money for The Oddballs Foundation, the  charity who help raise awareness of testicular cancer.

Since setting off on his adventure on the second day of England's Test match against South Africa at The Oval in July, the 34-year-old's journey took him through 23 different countries and the best part of four months to complete.

It has been an eye opening experience for Torquay-born Ed, who had a health scare back in 2009 when he had to have a testicle removed after what turned out to be a benign lump was discovered. "Luckily it wasn’t cancerous but obviously it was still a big enough issue to give me an affinity to men’s health charities," Ed told The Sportsman. "Oddballs do great work in promoting men’s health and trying to get guys to talk about these issues. Obviously my trip was quite a big challenge so any spare pounds to a worthy cause would be amazing." 

A 'big challenge' would be an understatement as Ed spent eight months preparing his route and he admits that there were doubts, not least from his worried family members. "I think my family were a little sceptical at first as they saw it as a big challenge and obviously wanted me to be safe," revealed Ed. "But as I took the idea more and more seriously people were getting behind the idea and thinking it would be an impressive feat should I make it. I think there were definitely some people who thought I’d give up at some stage though!"

Ed has enjoyed an array of weird and wonderful experiences in his quest to make it to Australia without the aid of flight.  "I stayed in a homestay in Vietnam with some other travellers which was fine, if a little basic," said Ed. " But we were then locked in during the morning as the guide tried to bribe us for extra money! It was a bizarre situation, but when another guy and myself went to get a bench to knock through a bamboo side door they let us out!"

Ed inadvertently endured his own version of I'm A Celebrity's 'bushtucker trial' before he even got to Australia. "I was ‘tricked’ by some locals in China into eating a pig’s penis which wasn’t particularly nice, very tough and chewy, but it wasn’t until I'd finished that they then told me what it actually was!"

Ed's extraordinary feat in reaching Brisbane wasn't always easy - "persistence pays off!" - and it was actually the final leg of the journey which proved to be the most challenging. "I had times where it looked like I had hit a dead end, but if you keep asking around and trying other avenues it's amazing where it gets you," said Ed. "I was being quoted $2000 AUS to hire a car from Darwin to Brisbane to complete the trip and I had to leave the next day. After spending so much on the cruise [a last minute cruise ship from Bali to Australia set Ed back $1000]  it was news I didn’t want to hear and I felt the last few weeks of the trip would bankrupt me! But I asked around and eventually found a relocation car that needed to get to Brisbane so I drove that for $10 a day!"

This has not been a journey that Karl Pilkington would have enjoyed as Ed often enjoyed the company of cockroaches and bugs during the course of his many boat, bus and train rides since July. However, having been robbed in Frankfurt, scammed in Beijing, and held for ransom in Vietnam, will the flight-less journey from London to Brisbane have been worth it if England are 15/4 after the first ten overs on Thursday?

"Absolutely... having followed English cricket for so long I’m fully expecting the odd England collapse anyway!" joked Ed. "As long as it doesn’t happen too often. Plus with four wickets down we will have Jonny Bairstow, who I think will be our star of the series, so he can dig us out of the hole!"

You can sponsor Ed, who predicts a 3-2 Ashes Series win for England, at www.justgiving.com/theedventures.

Follow Ed's adventures via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (@theedventures) and visit his website (www.theedventures.com).