This true and very funny story involving six colleagues, some retired, proves the saying that we never really grow up - we just learn how to behave in public.

On a sudden whim six men, mostly writers, decided to embark on a 1 000 kilometre cycle ride down the River Danube believing it would be downhill all the way. This was the first of many assumptions that proved to be not terribly correct.None had cycled since childhood nor even owned a bike.

That first hilarious journey on hired bikes was so enjoyable it led to a series of annual rides in Europe involving ten countries including France, Austria, Italy, Ireland and England. The story - reminiscent in parts of Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat - is told by their often dysfunctional leader who, nevertheless, each time managed to return his companions to their loved ones more or less intact.

Four of the six were daily newspaper editors; the author is a syndicated humour columnist and the sixth man claims he follows them only out of curiosity.

All live in Africa and their stated mission is "to explore Darkest Europe and bring back to Africa stories about the strange natives there and their funny customs."