Month: November 2013
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Into The Empty Quarter [Film Review]
Last week I was honoured to be present for the world premiere of Into The Empty Quarter at the Royal Geographical Society. Al Humphreys’ and Leon McCarron’s film about their unsupported trek across the Omani desert is one I approached with trepidation. Even though they were friends of mine, how interesting could it be to […] Continue reading →
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Why Tents Suck, And Some Alternative Ways To Camp On A Cycle Tour
The tent is one of the mainstays of adventure bicycle travel. It was the revolutionary idea of taking my own accommodation with me that largely fuelled my decision to travel under my own steam on two wheels. A good tent will provide shelter in a broad variety of climates and weather conditions for many years. But […] Continue reading →
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Some thoughts, as the Beer Can Stove video goes viral
At the time of writing, the video above has been played 1,311,131 times. Needless to say, when Armen and I popped out to buy a couple of cans of Kozel for this film, we were not expecting this to happen. It’s been fun to watch the statistics over the last few days. It’s also been […] Continue reading →
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A Rather Open Update-Rant on the Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Janapar
No, I’m not selling anything. I know almost everyone who reads this blog has seen Janapar now. I’d just like to share a selection of the more interesting, challenging and downright bizarre things that have happened since we released the film one year ago. The first thing that happened, at 9am on November 27th 2012, was […] Continue reading →
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Walking Home From Mongolia by Rob Lilwall [Book Review]
Rob Lilwall’s second book, Walking Home From Mongolia, is a strange yet compelling beast. It is, on the face of it, a linear account of an extremely long and admittedly monotonous walk across the full breadth of mainland China. Rob positions the story deliberately as a sequel to his Cycling Home From Siberia* book of some […] Continue reading →
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We Were Not Born Talented, Brave & Fearless
There’s one important thing to understand about adversity: You can’t prevent it. It is a consequence of life on Earth over which you have no control. You might choose to stave off situations of adversity — bad weather, hunger, lack of shelter, indecision, getting lost, and in general being way out of your comfort zone […] Continue reading →
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Unusual Sources of Travel Money: 50 Ways To Make £50
Dave Cornthwaite seems to have got it made. He’s gone from being a not-very-good graphic designer (his words, not mine) with a mortgage, a Playstation and a permanently furrowed brow to a bloke who will say “yes” to pretty much anything — swimming 1,000 miles down the Mississippi with no training; pedalling an elliptical bicycle round […] Continue reading →
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What the heck am I supposed to do now?
Bulgaria. Autumn. I roll to a halt beside Andy. “Mate,” he says. “We have a problem. A really big problem.” I look down. There’s a six-inch crack along the rim of his rear wheel and the inner tube is bulging horribly from the gaping maw. We are only 3 months into our round-the-world bike ride. What […] Continue reading →
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Biologic ReeCharge: A Dynamo-Powered USB Charger for Smartphones & More
Since the start of this year I’ve been making extensive use of a nifty on-the-road power solution from Taiwanese manufacturer Biologic called the ‘ReeCharge’. It’s billed as an effective — and environmentally respectful — way to put your pedalling efforts to use in keeping your smartphone, GPS or other USB-powered device charged while on the road. […] Continue reading →
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The Road: London to Bangkok in under 4 minutes [VIDEO]
Travel films are ten a penny. So are timelapses. So are beard videos. But it’s not often you find someone with the foresight to plan all three together. Rarer still that they’d already enlisted a professional filmmaker to visualise the result in advance and do all the painstaking legwork of stitching the material together. The result, […] Continue reading →