A SOUTHAMPTON family made it home after a thigh-burning bike journey travelling 600km from the Netherlands.

Yuge-Lei Chillery and her husband James Chillery spent two weeks travelling with two sons Albert and Leo, who are 2 and 3 years old, to help launch a new cargo bike designed by Babboe, a company started by parents who wanted to create affordable cargo bikes.

After flying from Southampton to Amsterdam, they headed to their starting point Amersfoot on Saturday 25 May, and the family travelled through Nijmegen, Aachen, Maastricht, Ghent, Bruges, Calais and Dover during their journey.

The cycling adventure was given to the family as a prize for winning the Babboe Slim Cycling holiday, with the new electric bike holding a space for two to be seated while one person pedals, made for families taking long journeys.

Yuge Lei, 34, who is a consultant in international development, said: “A friend of mine told me to apply as we already done a cycling tour of France last year on a non-electric cargo bike that we had loved so much, so I thought why not.

“This time, the journey using the new electric cargo bike was very smooth - I wouldn’t say it was a walk in the park, but we had all the fun of last year but without the challenges of the children becoming impatient.”

According to Yuge Lei, both her and her husband James, a project operations manager, do not usually cycle, so she describes the journey as “quite a big learning experience”.

Both parents swapped between using a regular bike while the other parent pedalled using the electric cargo bike.

Yuge Lei added: “We are grateful to be fit, healthy and able, grateful to be able to just cycle through various countries, grateful to be able to provide our children with such a rich learning environment, which is travel, and grateful to have been given the chance to go on this epic adventure.

“We want to inspire others to do the same as it’s lots of fun.”