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The City of Seven Hills and Le Pays de Mille Collines
Next week I pass a milestone... its been one year on the road, one year riding my bike and one year away from my friends, my family and my home. My bike has scrappy ribbons of electrical tape holding...
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The warm heart of Africa
Tanzania“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” - Winston ChurchillI no longer run for cover when the sky blackens, when the thunder booms or when electricity lights up...
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Let's go clubbing
I asked a local guy what we could do on or around Lake Malawi, he assured me it offered tourist activities galore...'Well you can snorkel and scuba dive, windsurf, feed a fish eagle, cliff jump, go on...
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Where the wild things are
Recently it’s been more about the people than the wildlife, but the next thousand kilometres would flip the script, if I was going to have close encounters with roadside beasts, Botswana, I was...
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Deserts and desserts
Something didn't feel right. We were in Swakopmund, a small Namibian town on the Atlantic coast, it has a one way system and a bicycle lane. I noticed that people walked small dogs, there were lots of...
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Day 265 - Guardian of the South
The Northern Cape province of South Africa was a series of striking and tranquil tableaus with robust mountains and winding valleys and bright wild flowers beginning to bloom. As we moved south, homing...
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Statistics
I recorded various bits of useful and useless information as I traveled, mostly out of boredom but also because I thought that someone planning a similar trip to mine could benefit from some numbers. I...
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Musings on... Africa
"All I know is that every time I go to Africa, I am shaken to my core" - Stephen Lewis Inadvertently I had picked a very good time to visit the African landmass. The first black American president,...
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Cycling The 6 Equipment Reviews 2011
I've been honest, I promise. Yes, some of my gear is sponsored and yes, of course I have a vested interest in promoting the freebies, but on this trip I only approached sponsors who are at the top of...
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The end of the world and beyond
Cape Town shimmered and blushed like dying embers of a camp fire as I said my silent goodbye to her in the pre-dawn glow. It had felt good to have had a brief stomping ground and a familiar place to...
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A motley peloton and the Carretera Austral
Backpackers heaved off their weighty packs, exchanged tales of testing bus rides, skimmed through Lonely Planets and made plans. I sat and watched them gloomily, still waiting and still glum because I...
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Shadows and dust
I'm the dot, riding across a volcano in Central ChileIt looked like a cloud clinging to the horizon, some lonely, benign clump of cumulus at the edge of the vast blue expanse of...
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The Snail-way to Serendipity
One more day on the roadMy alarm clock makes no sound, she breaches distant hills and warm filaments of rubicund light filter into my tent, gently spurring me to wake. I rise and prepare for one more...
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The silence of the llamas
Paso Pircas Negras, 4200 m above sea level"We can do this the easy way or the hard way Belinda. What's it to be?" It was a subdued response, I didn't really expect an inanimate object like my bicycle...
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Waiting for flying idiots
I'm a complete idiot. Only idiots make mistakes like this. The thought repeated itself as I moodily shuffled through Salta's empty streets, cleats clipping the cobblestones, carrying two bike tyres....
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DH Hell
Some decisions have unwelcome consequences when cycling around the world. The road divides unexpectedly, I opt for the left hand turn, I'm wrong. I spend an hour backtracking. It's a bummer, I'll get...
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Star gazing in the Atacama
So I'm in Cusco, about to set off to Machu Picchu and spend far too much of my precious travel money.Here's a description of an astronomy tour in the Atacama Desert whilst I was in San Pedro about one...
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Fear and loathing on the Altiplano
Pedalling across the Salar de Uyuni, BoliviaMy breath was a fog, wafting through the roseate light of morning. The temperature on my thermometer had slumped to minus 15° C (5° F)in the early hours and...
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Sun and death in the lands of the Inca
Dodging The Drop Riding the World's Most Dangerous Road in BoliviaA waft of frigid mist drifts across the splintered wooden crosses, cloaking their detail, and a shiver ripples through my arms and down...
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Canyons, climbs and coastlines
Taking a break towards the top of a 5100 metre (16,700 feet) high pass in the central Peruvian highlandsSan Pedro & The Valley Of The Moon - tickUyuni & The Salar - tickLa Paz & The Death...
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