I waited for 2 weeks in Dushanbe for the remaining visa’s that I needed to get to Europe. In this part of the world all it takes is money and patience. Surprisingly the Iranian visa only took one day since I went through an agent to get my application pre-approved. There was a short interview [...]
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The Mighty Pamirs
There are a few special places in this world that really excite my imagination, places that are so far off the geo-politcal world radar that they seem to resonate with adventure. These are the places where, when I look at a map, I let my imagination loose and feel that sense of wonder and excitement. [...]
READ MORE »“Who am I on the other side?”
“Every joke,” according to my wife, “has an element of joke in it.” The first time I heard it, I figured she’d confused the idea. Her take on English can be quite original sometimes. “You mean, an element of truth,” I said, correcting her gently. “No, an element of joke,” she replied, enduring me patiently. I’ve [...]
READ MORE »Where East meets West
It is hard to distinguish where the influences of culture, terrain and history come together to demarcate such a distinction between east and west. But where the harsh wind, sordid heat and the vast expanse of Taklamakan Desert meet the snow capped peaks of the Tian Shan mountain range, I felt such a place. After [...]
READ MORE »Greetings
Happy 2012 to all those following the blog. I hope that you’ve been enjoying the adventure thus far. Currently I find myself in Bucharest, Romania after taking some time off the expedition to rest the mind and body. It was a tough year but it feels good to be writing again and sharing in the [...]
READ MORE »Emergency Room
They came during the night. We were two, but they were many – possibly eight or nine. They couldn’t have been older than eighteen or younger than fourteen. It was a Sunday night and, by the smell on their breath, they were drunk. At the time, I was cycling with a Swiss friend, Sven, [...]
READ MORE »Rapture and Relief
I was loving the sounds of flowing water, the smell of vegetation and the shade of trees. Two weeks battling the desert is enough for anyone to see things in a new light. I had made it to Urumqi – a place that claims to be both at the geographic centre of the Asian Continent [...]
READ MORE »A day of extremes
It started waking up under the road and ended camping in a far flung desert in a remote part of far Western China. As with the journey, it was what happened in between that defined it. The previous afternoon, I had rolled my sleeping mat out in the confines of a concrete culvert. It was [...]
READ MORE »Familiarity
My return to China was flooded with a kind of reverse culture shock. The dirty, run down city of Kathmandu had cows shitting in the street; the rivers ran full of rubbish; chaotic traffic spilled in all directions around every corner and intersection. The tangled cars often sang in a symphony of horns. In contrast, [...]
READ MORE »24th September 2011
Friends of the Cycle Strongman: Remember this date. A few days from now people all over the world will come together to say enough is enough. We want action on Climate Change and need to make our voices heard. This expedition is about helping foster the inspiration needed to make this change. And that change [...]
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