Category Archives: Uncategorized

This is a beautiful country I have only been here a day, only scratched the surface of what it is, but if this is the taster then I’m in. Endless views, desert landscapes, occasional hills made from tumbled up rocks like sweepings from a giant’s spring clean. The heat is a constant companion and ourContinue reading “Namibia”

It’s now a little over two weeks till I board the plan to Istanbul as the first stage of my trip to Tajikistan. The usual response when I say that is first “Where?”, closely followed by “Why?” . The first part is easy. Tajikistan shares borders with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and China. It isContinue reading “Tajikistan”

Dust, and the smell of dust, is everywhere. It defines every crease and seam of my riding gear like a monochrome relief map of the mountains we are riding, my boots and gloves are white rimed with it and my face a grimy mask of the stuff.  I am knackered, 9pm bed tired, but firstContinue reading “Dust”

I looked at my book shelves the other day and realised I hadn’t followed the advice in one of them to get rid of books – they’re stuff, and stuff is BAD….but that’s not the point of this piece. What I noticed was that most described other people’s lives. Now, I am alright about that,Continue reading “Other people’s stories”

A visit to a traditional Turkish Bath has been on my bucket list for a long time. I have no idea why. It just looked like a major experience. Which is why I found myself one sunny Saturday at the doorway of Cagaloglu Hamami, a three hundred year old Turkish Bath in Istanbul. I shouldContinue reading “Up close and personal”

It has been the hardest of days, in many ways. We started at a cabin on the side of the lake. Three of us sharing wonderful views and much banter the night before over beers. The first part of the journey was on dirt, riding along the side of the lake up and down theContinue reading “Hard Days”

We ride along in a could of white dust at times so thick it can hide an on-coming car or the rider creating it. It permeates everything, our clothes, the mechanisms of our helmets and plasters itself to the sweat we create riding these roads. We have been travelling south, through Patagonia, traversing the nationalContinue reading “White Roads”

Some days just work. You get up in the morning not knowing what is coming and go to bed marking them down as a ‘Great Day’. Today was one of those. Our group spit into two, one to take a shorter route and seven of us on a longer run. Most of that turned outContinue reading “Sometimes there are great days”

My day dawned with sunrise over the Brazilian jungle. At 36,000 feet the ground was as dark as the ocean we had just crossed, no light to mark settlements or the existence of people at all. Between the twin voids of the ground and the night sky was a border of red and gold markingContinue reading “Some days..”

   Not a bad view to wake up to.. And all you can hear are birds again, not one engine note in the lot. Breakfast is in an hour, which means I have time to write this, get my gear sorted and maybe read a little before setting off back to the Ferry. It leavesContinue reading “Heading Home”