Year: 2007

It seems far longer than 6 months — but at the same time it feels like we left yesterday! It’s an odd feeling, but I think I can pin it down to the fact that we have removed almost all trace of routine from our lives. I begin each day with little real idea of what will happen. Usually (but not always) I’m pretty sure it’ll involve some cycling. Today was no exception, but we were using our bikes to get around Trabzon, rather than having a long day’s slog on the road. In the previous 4 day’s cyling, we’ve… Continue reading →

We’ve spent three weeks since leaving Istanbul following the Black Sea coastline. Yesterday we completed the very hilly northern stretch, arriving in the peninsular town of Sinop. It’s a charming place with some of the friendliest people we’ve met in Turkey so far. Already we’ve been fed lunch, dinner, breakfast and lunch again, taken clubbing, given baklava to take away with us, and lent a fishing boat to sleep on. To round things off, today’s weather has been gorgeously sunny and even warm enough to spend the day exploring in only a T‑shirt. Continue reading →

Ten days have elapsed since we made our way hesitatingly out of Istanbul after nearly a month off the bikes. We were expecting hardship; cycling and camping in the cold, wet, and mountainous climes of northern Turkey. Continue reading →

I know you like reading about our misfortune. It’s dramatic stuff. I like writing about it, too, trying to commit the experience to words and take you to that place and time. I hope that the results are entertaining, but also resemble the reality of what happened, too — exaggeration and artistic license are not for the non-fiction of a travel blog. But to put things into a wider context, it’s sometimes good to write about the times when things do go our way! Continue reading →

Andy and I have been soaking up Istanbul for a fair while now. We’re both itching to get on the road again, and I’m excited and a little apprehensive at the prospect of seeing through the winter in Central Asia. But we’ve had more than our fair share of hiccups, and they are still preventing us from leaving. So here’s a run-down of how fate, or the process, or luck, has treated us in recent weeks. Continue reading →

We arrived in Istanbul a couple of days ago, cycling into this sprawling monolith of a city along one of the two main routes against about 9 manic lanes of rush-hour traffic, minibuses and not-so-mini-buses. That experience recovered from, we have again been enjoying the hospitality of a variety of city-dwellers courtesy of the Couchsurfing Project website, which has again demonstrated its increasingly invaluable efficiency in finding local people in urban areas with the desire to help and host travellers — all over the world. Continue reading →

We pedalled slowly down the dusty track out of the last Hungarian village. An unsettled evening was in store — clouds brooded above, hanging menacingly as the air gusted and whipped around us, and the silence of the plains was interrupted only by the distant sound of cowbells on the wind. I had cycled a hundred kilometers, and was ready to pitch my tent and sleep, but the lure of the unknown drew the three of us onwards for just a little longer. The map showed a road across the border into Romania, and it would be a satisfying achievement… Continue reading →

We attempted to leave Budapest on Sunday. We made about 30km and then it happened. My left knee, which had been giving me pain over the 3 days between Vienna and Budapest, started to hurt again. Continue reading →

The Ride Earth Fellowship was broken yesterday as Andy and I said our goodbyes to Mark, who now returns home to the UK. It seems odd that the journey that took him two months to make by bicycle will be undone in less than 24 hours. The adventures and experiences that we have had within those two months give a real insight into the value of taking the idea of travelling a little slower, and experiencing the journey itself rather than the destination. Continue reading →

If you had asked me one year ago about my thoughts on vegetarianism, I would have replied that there was no argument that would convince me to give up eating meat. It constitutes a necessary part of our diet, we are all born omnivorous, and I would happily go out and hunt my meal if I had to earn my moral right to eat animal flesh. Well, it’s amazing how travelling, reading and a bit of curious, open-minded inquiry can transform even the most previously-stalwart carnivore. Continue reading →