There are people for whom traveling means reading a guidebook on the couch in their home, or lounging by a swimming pool in a posh sea resort. Then there are those who, like Sarah Outen, can't wait to go out there and see the world, challenging themselves in the process.

The English adventurer, 26, is in the midst of her "London2London" loop of the planet. Her only companions during this worldwide journey are Hercules, Nelson and Gulliver — respectively her bicycle, kayak and rowboat.

She has recently reached Tokyo after leaving London on April 1 and covering 18,700 km in 226 days. She plans to spend the winter in Japan before tackling the hardest part of her project: a 4,300-nautical-mile (about 8,000 km) solo row across the North Pacific Ocean from Choshi, Chiba Prefecture, to Vancouver, British Columbia, spending up to 200 days alone at sea — a feat that only two men have accomplished so far.