Since the early 2000’s I’ve explored the best cycling routes from London. I often found the city a little overwhelming. I just wanted to ride my bike through the clean air of green spaces.
There are a couple of simple rules that we follow when planning a cycle route from London for a fun and enjoyable bike ride.
A ten-day bicycle tour of Morocco This blog post about cycle touring in Morocco shares the story of our ten-day bike adventure from Marrakech, across the Atlas mountains to Agadir, along the coast to Essaouira then back to Marrakech. We travelled in the autumn of 2012, as far as I can remember. It was the … Read more
In this article on yoga stretches for cyclists I’m going to share my favourite daily yoga sequence that help support flexibility, strength and performance on the bike.
The Dunwich Dynamo, the dun run, the French might call it ‘the beautiful madness’. Whatever you call it, the dun-run is a whole lot of adventure packed in to a single night.
I’ve taken part in this iconic event three times; 2011, 2013 and 2014. In this article I’m sharing the account of each ride. My hope is that these short stories will inspire you to take part in the next Dun Run in 2021.
A motorcycle tour of India is one of those iconic journeys that you read about in glossy travel magazines: a hulk of a man with chiselled features and a thousand-yard stare straddling a shiny metal rocket in the high mountains of Ladakh. You know the one, the guy in the Belstaff jacket casually stroking his chin to flash the Submariner.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: there’s no finer way to see the world than on two wheels.
Well, here’s the bonus: you can do it too. With a little planning, a bit of common sense and a couple of grand in the bank, you, too, can take on an all-India motorcycle trip and live to tell the tale.
Way back in 2011, Adrian and I cycled 20 countries in 100 days for Re-Cycle, the bikes to Africa charity. Our bicycle journey helped raise funds to send a container of bikes to Africa and highlighted the great work that this wonderful bike charity does to empower lives in Africa.
In late 2012, Adrian had the pleasure of visiting the inspirational tea-fuelled powerhouse that is Re-Cycle HQ over in Colchester, UK. He spent the day learning how to donate a bike to charity and how you can too. What a day it was.
Read all about our Charity Bike Ride for armchair inspiration!
‘Don’t forget to look up!’ cheered Marina as I cycled away from her ancient tumbledown family home nestled among majestic maple trees on a hill above the medieval city of Telavi. I’d arrived in the principal town of Kakheti with the intention of visiting Tusheti and the Caucasus Mountains for a spot of hiking. Meeting Marina on a hot Friday afternoon had changed my mind.
We approached the Uzbek border, full of trepidation, in the knowledge that a full and detailed search would be made of our entire luggage. An ‘illegal’ item, such as codiene, or a topless snap of a girlfriend, would result in a ‘fine’, or more plainly, baksheesh, a bribe. I was in company with Jonas and Emma, having left Dushanbe together, early on Tuesday morning. We were already nervous, since an earlier mishap at the Tajik border post; I’d forgotten to get my GBAO permit extended, consequently, the guard threatened, several times, to send me back to Dushanbe to get the necessary stamp; a 160 kilometre round trip I was loathe to entertain. I repeatedly shouted and pointed at the dates in my passport until, some 20 minutes later, the guard relented, allowing me to join Jonas and Emma on the short cycle to the Uzbekistan border crossing.
”Well this is all about my problems to get out of drugs,
cause I had enough of that,
I’ve had the college,
I’ve had the earning the money,
and the material trip,
I just decided I was going to find a new way of life
And so I took off on my bicycle…”
MYLO, Sunworshipper
I was alone, one week out of Khorog, on the edge of madness through exertion and hunger, when this song came on my little portable sound system. It reminded me of university. The lyrics, the sentiment and the cheerful riff – the memory – made me smile at my immediate situation. I had indeed taken off on my bicycle; I was certainly finding a new way of life; eat, sleep, cycle, repeat. It was one of those moments that I’ll always remember. If you can, put that track on now, as you read all about the Pamir Highway Social Club.
Before I crossed the bustling, semi forested no mans land from Banbasa to the Nepalese border patrol office in Bhimdatta, I joined the masses of locals taking a dip in the Sharda Mahakali river. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was nearly summertime. The fast flowing river felt deeply cleansing as it powered it’s way downstream. A fitting end to my four months in India. Nepali/Indian borders are porous which means both nationalities come and go, seemingly, as they please. This made the remote far western crossing a busy trade hub for the locals on both sides.