YOU could say Alan Whelan is Lancashire's answer to Ewan McGregor. He may not be a famous actor and he doesn't have hordes of screaming girls chasing him - but he is about to embark on a road trip from Blackburn to Africa, similar to one recently made famous by McGregor and his partner-in-crime Charley Boorman in the BBC's Long Way Down series.

"Ewan McGregor actually took the short way down, not the long way," said Alan, 48, who will spend five months working his way from Copy Nook to Cape Town on his Triumph Tiger motorcycle.

"I'm doing the real long way. I think I'll be covering about 15,000 miles, something like that anyway."

Alan will travel though France, Spain, Morocco, the Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia and the southern Sahara. He'll travel through around 20 countries in total.

And when he arrives at his final destination in February, a Cape Town shanty town called Imizamu Yethu, the locals will throw him a party.

"That's the bit I'm most looking forward to," says Alan.

"That's the blinding light, the thought that will keep me going."

Another difference between our man and McGregor is that Alan has a rather interesting side-project on the go for his journey - a search for the ultimate cuppa.

He has spent the last five months having what he calls "tea encounters" with strangers across the county, and during his five months on the road he plans to share a pot of tea each day with strangers he meets on his travels. The idea for this unusual trip has been "brewing" for some time.

"I read an interview with Bob Geldof in one of the broadsheets a couple of years ago," he explained. "He said if you really want to help Africa, go there on your next holiday' so we did.

"Me and my wife went to Ethiopia in September 2005 and loved it. Ethiopia has had a very bad press with the famine and all, but it's got fantastic culture and marvellous people. While we were there I took part in a coffee ceremony, which was amazing. It takes about an hour and they perform songs and dances. It started me thinking about how tea is just as important in our culture as coffee was to them. It's not as formal but when you share a pot of tea with someone you're no longer a stranger by the end of it. I decided to explore the importance of the ritual of having and sharing tea while riding through Africa."

And so Alan, a self-employed public releations consultant, began telling his friends and colleagues about his idea. Everybody seemed to have someone they wanted to introduce him to at the start of the Lancashire leg of his tea journey.

"I've had tea with so many interesting people," he said. "Some of my favourites have been football legend Sir Tom Finney, ex England rugby captain Bill Beaumont and Ribchester artist Margaret Francis - she had eight different types of tea and a selection of eclairs and cream cakes laid out on this huge table. Our one-hour tea encounter turned into two hours - now that's the way to do it. The great thing is that everybody has their tea differently, so I had it how they did."

Alan already has a handful of people to share tea with on his African adventure.

"Lots of people have said You must see this chap in Senegal' or I'll arrange for you to meet my friend in Tanzania'. Somebody wants to introduce me to Archbishop Tutu and the owner of Kaizer Chiefs, Africa's most famous football club, so that should be interesting."

Alan doesn't envisage getting fed up of tea by the end of the trip.

"Oh no, I love tea," he said. "There's something about bikers and tea, isn't there? We go together like strawberries and cream. It must be because when you ride a bike like mine it's hard enough to stay upright as it is, never mind after you'd had a drink of alcohol, so you go for the tea."

Alan will leave for his epic adventure on October 1 from the Philip Youles' motorbike dealership in Copy Nook, Blackburn, where the staff have helped him, providing specialist off-road equipment and advice for the gruelling journey.

He has chosen to stay until after his wife Olive's birthday on September 29 and will also take a week off at Christmas when she will fly out to meet him. The trip won't be an easy ride but he's under no illusions.

"I know it's going to be a big challenge but I'm not 19. I'm 48 years old and I'm not going to take unnecessary risks," he said.

"What I'm trying to keep in mind is a piece of advice someone gave me during one of my tea encounters. That is that there are more nice people than bad people in the world. If someone from Ethiopia came riding into my town on a motorbike, would I invite them into my house to have a pot of tea and a meal? Of course I would."

The riding itself will be a big physical challenge, said Alan, with Angola and Congo being the places where danger is most likely.

"These places are littered with landmines," he said.

"In the rain they start to drift into the road, which is a danger. But am I honestly scared? No."

With space incredibly tight, Alan will take just two sets of clothes and one luxury - a short wave radio.

"Five months is a long time and I think being able to listen to the World Service on the BBC is important. I think it would be quite useful to know if another civil war has started in Angola before I get there."

Alan plans to ride his bike through the countries and stop to rest at the borders, not least because he knows the guards at the check points can be a law unto themselves and may very well wander off with his passport for a couple of days.

He has a cunning plan, though.

"Sometimes the only way of getting through is to bribe your way," he said. "If the situation becomes sticky I will offer to give them my watch. I've bought a handful of cheap watches from Lidl that look as though they cost a lot so hopefully that'll work."

Alan, from Lytham, is also supporting a project set up by the people of the shanty town Imizamu Yethu, in which he will end his journey. It's called Original Teabag Designs and is all about recycling used tea bags to make ornamental products such as coasters, stationery, jewellery, picture frames and more.

During his journey he will update his followers on his blog whenever he reaches an internet cafe.

"I'll write about the people I meet," he said. "That will be the most interesting part. I want to show that there's more to Africa than the Aids crisis and famine. There's so much more than that."

l Visit Alan Whelan's website to read his blog. See link below.