Entering North Korea is logistically challenging, but entering the communist state with a unicycle takes some negotiation, and somehow, Canberran Kelli Jackson got to cycle North Korea’s 14 car parks.

It’s an odd feat but still, it officially makes Kelli the only Westerner to have unicycled in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (under the watchful eye of the dictatorship).

How Kelli came to be on one wheel in a one-party state is a rollicking ride.

After 20 years in the public service, Kelli decided to quit her desk job and unicycle around the world – a fanciful dream with one catch, she didn’t know how to ride a unicycle.

“I went on this kind of [best-selling book] ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ thing to Bali, which was all about finding what you want to do with your life,” Kelli said. “It was then that I realised I loved riding my bike and I loved travel, but riding a two-wheel bike around the world wasn’t hard enough.”

Kelli settled on a unicycle because “nobody had ever done it” and besides, Kelli already had one (a gift that had sat in the back of her car for 10 years). She needed motivation and it came in the form of ink.

“I said to a friend of mine, what’s going to make me really commit to this trip? And he said, why don’t you get a tattoo with your leave date? So, I went and got my first ever tattoo, which is this massive half-leg tattoo of a unicycle and a date. As soon as I got that tattoo, it drove me to hurry up and learn.”

It took Kelli a year to master riding on one wheel and she did a trial run along the length of Taiwan to test her fitness (she’d never ridden on the road before and had never cycled more than 40km a day). In Taiwan, Kelli rode solo for 10 days covering about 450 kilometres.

It was a hard slog and afterwards, Kelli wondered how she’d ever cycle around the world for three-and-a-half years. She received some sound advice from her mentor, Australian adventurer Lucy Barnard, who had walked 30,000km from the southernmost point of South America to the northern tip of Alaska.

“She said, it’s your adventure, you can change it however you want,” Kelli said.

After a quick Google of flat places with no wind, South Korea popped up. One thing led to another and North Korea was added to the itinerary.

But four days before Kelli flew into North Korea, the travel agency told her that her permit for a unicycle had been revoked. After Kelli pleaded her case (it’s too expensive to leave behind in Beijing) they compromised – she was only allowed to ride in car parks.

And that, dear reader, is how Kelli came to ride all 14 car parks of North Korea – and into the history books.

Despite Kelli’s disciplined experience in the Department of Defence – including a deployment to Afghanistan with bullet-proof vest and kidnap/weapons training – Kelli wasn’t prepared for the strict communist regime.

When she walked out of a toilet cubicle at Pyongyang International Airport, a police officer and customs officer were standing at the door.

“At that moment I thought, oh my god, I think I have made a really bad mistake coming here. What’s going on? I was terrified but I just smiled and they let me go out and wash my hands … They raced into the cubicle because in North Korea, you’re not allowed to bring in religious material and apparently an Australian priest had tried to bring a Bible in once and got in trouble.”

Apparently other contraband in North Korea includes travel books (about North Korea) and porn.

Kelli’s passport was taken off her (for safe keeping) and she was escorted in her own private van with two tour guides and a driver to see the sights (and car parks). She was never allowed to be on her own.

“We went to weird places like a library and a water park, then we’d come out and they’d look at me and go, ‘Do you want to ride your bike?’ And I’d go, ‘Yep.’ So I’d do a couple of laps of that car park and then off we’d go to the supermarket. It was a hilarious trip.”

While Kelli managed to enter North Korea in 2019, current travel advice from the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade advises not to travel to North Korea. Smartraveller.com states: North Korea’s borders remain effectively closed for Australians and most other nationalities. Tours to North Korea are suspended until further notice.