Category: Big Adventures
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About The Time I Tried To Go Bicycle Touring In Myanmar (Burma)
You know those occasional experiences you have as a traveller which are so unpredictable, so spectacularly and relentlessly off-the-charts random, that you wake up the next morning having difficulty believing what happened, that the story you remember playing out wasn’t just the hallucinogenic outgrowing of a drug someone slipped into your drink, or a particularly […] Continue reading →
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Is Thailand Actually The Best Cycle Touring Destination In The World?
As I write, I’m just over a month into a wonderfully unstructured bike trip in ‘the land of a thousand smiles’, a country idolised by generations of travellers as a paradise on Earth; a destination to where 35 million people journeyed last year, a million from the UK alone. I’m talking, of course, about Thailand. And […] Continue reading →
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Bikepacking Southern Iran: The Journey In Pictures
I very much hope you’ve enjoyed the last couple of weeks of daily blogs from the road! While I wanted to keep the focus on the writing (and on stimulating your imagination!), it’s also nice to look at a few retospective visuals. This selection represents this best of this short but much-needed jaunt across southern […] Continue reading →
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Bikepacking Southern Iran: The Final Day
This is it. The final push to Bandar Abbas. My train leaves tomorrow at noon. In the predawn cool I hit the road east, setting a fast pace for what will be the longest day of this ride. But before long I spot a bakery churning out fresh sheets of lavash onto a cooling rack on the […] Continue reading →
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Bikepacking Southern Iran: Day Nine
I let myself out and am down at the beach before dawn. The town’s name, Bandar‑e Aftab, translates to ‘Sun Port’. It’s obvious why: this little south-facing stretch of coastline is bathed in its rays from sunrise to sunset. Being a mediterranean sea, isolated from the Indian Ocean by the Straits of Hormoz and just […] Continue reading →
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Bikepacking Southern Iran: Day Eight
It’s already bright when I wake, yet everything is coated in a thick layer of dew. I pack more quickly than ever before. Having so few belongings is a luxury in so many ways. I ride the final couple of miles to the pass. A man-made chasm in the final wall of rock gives way to […] Continue reading →
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Bikepacking Southern Iran: Day Seven
The wind is low, the road quiet, the shoulder generous. I pedal through the bottleneck of the valley, over the hump at which the river starts flowing east, rather than west. It could technically be called a ‘pass’, but it’s so insignificant I barely notice it. Roadbuilders have been hard at work here, transforming an […] Continue reading →
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Bikepacking Southern Iran: Day Six
It’s half past two in the afternoon. I thank Amin profusely and ride away with an enormous sense of relief. It’s been a weird kind of fun, but now it’s time to cram in as many miles as I can before sundown, and probably a few after dark to make up for lost time. I […] Continue reading →
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Bikepacking Southern Iran: Day Five
A greasy egg sits on a plate, next to a small basket of flatbread and a single-serve packet of carrot jam. This is clearly not a breakfast designed with a hungry bikepacker in mind. For my £25, I feel like raising the point with the waiter, who I have little doubt would bring more food […] Continue reading →
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Bikepacking Southern Iran: Day Four
Today, I cock it up. I’m woken at 5am by the mo’azzen and his call to prayer, a singular amplified wail filling the quiet valley with high-pitched tremor. I roll over and am snapped awake by the classic 3rd-day-of-riding thigh burn. As I pack my gear, I decide I am going to make today a half-day of […] Continue reading →