I came to India, partly on a promise to a stranger, partly out of curiosity. It wasn’t actually on ‘the plan’ until I met a guy in Thailand, Al, who made me promise … and some promises can’t be broken. I’d only met this guy twice while in Phuket, but his fascination and enthusiasm for [...]
READ MORE »Posts in category Stage 2
Happiness is.
The first night in Bhutan was spent among tall broad pines. A small grassed area on the edge of the road provided the setting for a picturesque forest and place to rest. I rode into the late evening and managed to find this beautiful spot at about the time my body was willing to pull [...]
READ MORE »The seed of chance
Where tectonic plates collide, the kingdom of Bhutan soars. Rising up above the Indian plains, the land of the thunder dragon begins as dramatically as it stands. A land shrouded in mystery, closed to the world for years, only recently has Bhutan started opening its wide wooden doors to the world. There have been many people aid [...]
READ MORE »Breathe deeply, be immersed, surrender
Never in my life have I seen such amazing beauty and diversity as I did in Nepal. At the foothills of the Himalayas, the country is wedged between India and Tibet, rising from low sweeping plains in the south to the highest mountain in the world in the north. ‘Incredible’ doesn’t come close; ‘rich’ falls [...]
READ MORE »Life, hope and a new change
Sometimes the garbage in Kathmandu gets picked up; sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes power is available throughout the day; sometimes it’s not. Sometimes life plays out the way you want; perhaps more often than not, it doesn’t. In recent years the small Himalayan country of Nepal has experienced turbulent times. Only six years ago, a decade-long [...]
READ MORE »From the clouds …
We rode into the chaos of Kathmandu a little tired, hungry and in need of a few days rest. Christophe, Yoji (my cycling companions through Tibet) and myself had spent the past two days enjoying a dream downhill run from the Himalayas. From 5300 meters above sea level to just 600! The 140 kilometers of road [...]
READ MORE »Newspaper Mamma
I was recently asked to write a small 500-word feature for a small newspaper in Bhutan based on ‘seven’. It could be anything, as long as it had something to do with the number 7. After some careful thought and reflection on the expedition thus far, I decided to share a more personal account of [...]
READ MORE »The glorious…
Everest is a word that captures the imagination. At 8843.4 metres, it is the highest point on Earth and one of the most inhospitable of mountains. Sir Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand mountaineer and Tenzing Norgay, a Tibetan sherpa, were the first to climb the peak in 1953. Since then, thousands of people have climbed [...]
READ MORE »In the foothills of Everest
The week in Lhasa went by very quickly. Soon I was back on the road, but now we’d picked up two additional Chinese cyclists which made a group of twelve. We followed the Lhasa River downhill to the meeting point with the Brahmaputra River. From here it was all uphill towards Shigatse where we’d slowly climb back [...]
READ MORE »On the Roof of the World
It was a joyful event to reach the Geermu – Lhasa highway. I could have kissed the smooth asphalt. We’d spent the last week cycling alone in a vast plateau that appeared to never end. The day before reaching the highway we managed to set up camp moments before a thunderstorm front rolled through. During [...]
READ MORE »