Mark Beaumont, who achieved international fame by circumnavigating the world in record-breaking time, arrived to a hero's welcome in southern Argentina on Thursday after a gruelling nine-month journey from Anchorage in Alaska.

Mark (27), whose family live in Newburgh, has battled extreme temperatures, altitude, isolation and fatigue to achieve his dream of becoming 'The Man Who Cycled the Americas.'

Travelling alone for weeks on end, Mark conquered summits of almost 23,000 feet and for much of the trip he followed the line of the American Cordillera, one of the longest mountain ranges on earth.

With his bike and his camera his only constant companions, he was joined by a BBC cameraman only three times on his trip and even then only for a few days at a time.

He filmed the entire journey for three-part series to be shown on BBC One in March.

As well as being physically tough, the journey has also had a huge emotional impact on Mark.

He was deeply affected by seeing shanty towns in Peru that had been devastated by an earthquake, and was shaken by the tension he encountered in Juarez, Mexico, known as 'the homicide capital of the world.'

As he approached the finishing point in Ushuaia, at the tip of Argentina, earlier this week, Mark said: "Nine months is a very long time to travel like this.

"At times it stopped feeling like an expedition and became simply my lifestyle, cycling all day, living wild, eating where I could find food.
"Time often loses relevance when alone for so long."

For more information, see www.bbc.co.uk/cyclingtheamericas