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Chasing waterfalls and such
It's only falling water..."Don't go chasing waterfalls. Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to."It was poor judgement - opening with a TLC song lyric, and you're probably...
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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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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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La Sierra: Gifts, Guns and God
Closing in on the 4890 metres summit of Punta Olimpica, The Cordillera Blanca Range, PeruI wake to a harsh light spilling into my tent. As I peer out into the night there's a glare of torchlight and...
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The Land of the Misty Sunglasses
A Rainbow Lorikeet munching on an Illawarra Flame Tree, QueenslandSummer days in Queensland are whacked by a hail of meteoric commotions that arrive without warning and linger for as long as traveling...
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The art of Island Bopping
What is that? Long, thin, oblique; the island was a lone speech mark amid the wordless Pacific Ocean. I zoomed in until Googlemaps gave up it's identity - 'New Caledonia'. The name didn't ring any...
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The death-defying meesters
A windshield was just a slant of glass until East Timor.I sat rigid and began to regret adding myself to the human-stuffing inside this microlet - the local bus - whipping through the clamorous streets...
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Rising up, back on the street
A three part story this time: Komodo, Lombok and Bali.Komodo castaways‘Um, excuse me, how many tourists have been attacked by the dragons? You know, badly’Confident that everyone was itching to ask our...
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Swings and dives
Photo courtesy of Zoe Danielski, a future professional.High Times in JakartaSitting next to one of Jakarta’s most eminent food critics, at one of the city’s finest restaurants, I dredge up a memory...
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Dear Iron Rider
The first clue that the Tree In Lodge Hostel in Singapore is a kind of sanctuary for roving cycle tourers is the front door, which has been fitted with a bicycle crank arm for a handle. Inside a...
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Dogs in fridges
Dengue fever doesn't feature in the advertising campaigns of Thailand’s ministry of tourism. They don’t produce brochures scattered with photos of pallid, sweaty westerners with handlebar-ribs and...
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Bike lanes and bacon doughnuts: God Bless America
I get sentimental when I leave places behind. Some smarting reminder of all that I have grown to relish suddenly stirs and every memory becomes tainted by a sense of loss and nostalgia.January the 7th...
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Fugitive faces
Cambodia and The Lake Clinic‘Ladies and Gentlemen, can I have your attention please? We have reached the office where we will all get our VISAs to Cambodia’ ‘Scam!’ crooned someone from the front seats...
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And then there's California...
"There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there's California" - Edward AbbeyStreet Life - Mooching around Los AngelesLA was my office and playground for about...
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A land of hope and stories
Yangon retreated, streets bled slowly of traffic and people, as I pedaled north with my friend Al, a TV camera crew and a thundering headache from dirt cheap red wine I’d knocked back the night before,...
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Life in the wrong lane
Mmm. maybe I'll get the train.‘Can ask what is your good name Sir?’ asked the immigration official in the border town of Moreh.I told him my good name.‘And can I ask what is your religion?’My answer...
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Bullet in my kneecap
A Nepali marketIt was love at first sight. There were mushrooms, beans, asparagus. There were eggs, sitting now in a small lake of my own drool. There was something vaguely sexual in the lay of the...
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