If you are to believe Adrian Besly, before May 2015 to him "the far East referred to Shoeburyness", but a gruelling round the world cycle trip later and the Southend nurse can bring to mind plenty of tales of exotic experiences far beyond the Thames Estuary.

He kept a diary during the adventurea and took six months to turn it into Do It!, a hugely entertaining, enlightening and funny memoir of the eight and a half months away from his beloved Southend.

It's a gripping tale – the 57-year-old had to contend with car and truck drivers who seemed intent on running him off the road; Australian magpies which divebombed him as he rode, leaving great dents in his cycling helmet; attacks from packs of wild dogs, it seems these mammals don't like MAMILs; four crashes, one of which left him with a swelling on his hip 'the size of a grapefruit'; and a run-in with two men in mopeds in the Indonesian jungle in which Adrian feared for his life.

When I meet him he's about to take a trip to Tenerife, but this time for a relaxing break with friends and family and he'll let the plane take the strain.

He admits when he was planning the round the world trip he "had to seriously consider that he may not come back" and that he arranged for wife Sharon as well as his son and daughter to fly out to meet him now and then in case these visits were to be their last.

The recent tragic death of British adventurer Emma Kelty, who was killed by a drug gang in Brazil shows how vulnerable lone travellers are.

Adrian, who now works in the medical ward at Southend Hospital, was aware of 'bike-jackers' in Brazil and he was warned before leaving there were certain parts of Argentina he should avoid of "he would certainly be killed."

"South America is quite a lawless continent," he says. "Most people have guns and nobody rides bikes. I was a little nervous there."

For protection more than illumination, Adrian carried a Maglite torch. The closest he came to using it was when two moped riders who had been repeatedly asking him for money followed him through the Indonesian jungle.

Adrian has won medals in National Judo championships and he thought he may have to use his skills until the pair sped off.

Though riding alone may have left him vulnerable at times, it did not, he assures me, ever leave him lonely.

"I never got lonely. There was always things on my mind," he says. "If you travel with a group there is no need to talk to other people along the way. When you're on your own you've got to speak about everything and anything."

In the book Adrian comes across as a friendly, garrulous sort, after 90 miles on the bike happy to end most days in a pub, easing his thirst with a few beers and chatting with the locals.

Such earthy good humour pervades the book. He rarely moans about the 85-90 miles a day, seemingly on a daily diet of chocolate milk and crisps, with barely a rest day, no matter the terrain or weather, even after toppling of his bike from heat exhaustion in Malaysia.

"I treated it like a job – the best job in the world," he tells me. Every day I got on the bike and plodded along and by lunchtime I'd done 40 miles. I cycled eight-and-a-half to 9 hours every day."

With Adrian focusing on his pedometer don't expect much sightseeing and souvenir hunting in the book. It was never that kind of a trip. In fact, Adrian reveals in the book, the only souvenir he brought home after 14,000 miles in the saddle was "the world's sorest arse".

Such earthy revelations about life on the road abound. Michael Palin this isn't, but there's a canny capturing of life in the moment and its simple pleasures. Uruguay, a place Adrian loved, is summed up as "The people are friendly, the hotels are cheap, the steaks are fantastic and the beer is cold. Have I sold it to you yet?"

Adrian also loves trivia. The book is full of quirky facts, like John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married in Gibraltor and there is a lizard in New Zealand called the Tuatara that has three eyes.

There is also something winningly independent about Adrian. Not just that, in the throes of a "mid-life crisis" he had the stuff to 'Do It!' and travel the world, but he seems to be someone who values freedom in thought and action very highly and when he visits places which are more regimented and controlling his observations are very interesting. His experiences in the Far East are fascinating.

He was surprised that he liked China so much. "That place was a closed book to me before I left on this journey," he says. "But the people were nice and the drivers were good. I loved my time there."

Still, for all the charms of the places he visited, there is no place like home. "I love Essex," he says. I love everything about Southend. I've lived in Essex for the past 20 years and nowhere on my travels could rival Southend."

Despite the lure of home, the round the world trip has instilled a wanderlust in him and he says he is already planning another epic journey, this time taking in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Until that happens Do It! Is an inspirational tale for anyone asking themselves "if not now, when?" about making a life-changing journey. Adrian says the book has already inspired his nephew to cycle around America. You could be next.

Do It! By Adrian Besly is available from Amazon.