Category: Janapar
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Maybe I’ll look back at this and think, ‘What an idiot I was back then’
Leaving Hadishahr with our hosts’ well-wishes ringing in our ears, Tenny and I trundled back towards the main road for Tabriz, where we found several lanes of traffic encased by metal barriers. Mountains rose again in our path, solemn and unflinching. Three or four days of this was hardly a pleasant prospect, and the climbs […] Continue reading →
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Dragons’ teeth of golden stone rose from the Iranian side of the River Arax
Lake Sevan vanished behind us as we began to climb up into hilly land, the valley sides green but bare, carved with patterns like tree roots where rivulets of water had for centuries delved. The air grew dry, the sun ever more fierce as we gained altitude. We were far from any major route through […] Continue reading →
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I couldn’t just quit this life on the road for good, because I’d invested too much in it
Tenny had to dig deep in order to continue that day. But continue she did. ‘It was the hardest day of my life,’ she told me later. ‘I was so angry at myself for wanting to quit on the first day of cycling. And at the same time, I was so angry at you! You kept […] Continue reading →
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I would always be alone in this desire to wander in pursuit of something I still didn’t understand
I opened my eyes. The pale orange of a streetlamp filtered through the thin curtains of the flat, but the sky was still dark. Then I remembered what I had to do, and the worry flooded in, drowning any hope that I would be able to go back to sleep. I lay nervously on my […] Continue reading →
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I haven’t told anyone the truth about what I’m about to do
I see more teams of road-builders; Ethiopians laying foundations, Chinese engineers watching through the windows of Land Cruisers and earthmovers. China is paving not just Ethiopia but whole swathes of Africa. By keeping its own currency undervalued, China can offer expertise and infrastructure at the lowest cost on the planet, and assemble a raft of […] Continue reading →
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I’m Tom Allen, and I throw rocks at children
I roll to a halt in an explosion of dust as a convoy of vehicles barges past at breakneck speed. I make out the dim initials of the United Nations, angular navy-blue lettering stencilled across the brilliant white paintwork, tinted windows and sunglasses streaking past at sixty miles an hour. This has become a familiar […] Continue reading →
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I realised what an enormous privilege it was to be able to travel with the freedom I’d taken for granted
Andy had already built and tested it by the time I arrived at his little apartment in Tbilisi with its high ceilings and vine-strangled veranda and grand wooden doors so typical of the city’s vintage townhouses. With a blue and white paint job, the sturdy little machine sitting in the basement looked absolutely perfect for […] Continue reading →
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We love the idea of being in control of our own personal universe
Mount Ararat’s outline floated in the west, lopsided crater atop its shallow-sided volcanic body, motionless and bold against an orange late-afternoon sun, the smaller twin cone of Little Ararat to its side like a child clutching the hand of a parent. I lapped up the descent, cackling and singing at the absurd distance I’d climbed […] Continue reading →
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‘YOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOUYOU!!!!!!’
I look around at the unfolding landscape; low undulations divided carefully into a patchwork of fields; deep blue overhead with a few wisps of white, the air pleasantly warm against my skin; well-kept tarmac beneath my wheels. Trees sprout between fields, and small streams make their way amongst the lulls and rises of the earth. […] Continue reading →
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All the plans I’d laid from the comfort of my bedroom seemed so ridiculously irrelevant
I stood by the road. It was cold. Old, crunchy snow lingered here, at the crux of the pass that went down into one of the series of yawning valleys along the mountain road that led to Iran. I leaned my bike against the concrete barrier at the edge of the mountain-top lay-by. Beyond the barrier, […] Continue reading →