After five weeks of cycling in the three largest deserts in North America, Jelle Veyt arrived in Los Angeles.

There, he took time to catch up with friends and recover before heading back to Belgium. Los Angeles was the end point for this stage of the journey, an 11,800-mile (19,000km) trip from Belgium that involved cycling and sailing.

The journey took nine months and took a toll. “To be honest, in the end I got really tired and felt I need some time off, both physically and mentally,” he wrote in a recent update. Now, Veyt will spend a few months preparing for the next stage, more cycling and then Denali, the highest peak in North America.

While back in Belgium, Veyt passed a massive milestone: 10 years of his human-powered seven summits project. During that time he has completed four of the seven summits and covered 43,495 miles (70,000km). With three more mountains and another 25,000 miles (40,000km) still to go, it will be interesting to see how long this mammoth task eventually takes.