Category: Other People's Adventures
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Microadventure: Swim to an island. Sleep on it.
I’m on a train, speeding north from London for an event tonight in Kendal. It’s the fourth in a run of film screenings I’m doing over the next two weeks. I’m knackered. My body-clock is trashed. And I’m wearing the same clothes I was wearing in my sleeping bag last week on an island in the English Lakes that I swam to with two friends, Al and Ferg. It was a foolhardy plan, concocted by three blokes desperate to justify why they weren’t spending Valentine’s Eve with their other halves. At least the plan was a simple one: swim to… Continue reading →
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The Man Who Lived On His Bike [Video]
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/35927275[/vimeo] This isn’t exactly a cycle-touring video, but I love it nonetheless. It’s just a masterful demonstration of the creative breadth of short film. As a filmmaker still very much learning the craft, I’m awed by the passion for the concept and the skill of the execution in this 3‑minute piece. No fancy visual bollocks, just jaw-droppingly clever storytelling. Practice, I suppose, makes perfect. Chapeau! (There’s a making-of video for it too.) Feel free to post links to your favourite short films here, even if they’re not exactly cycle-touring related… Continue reading →
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3 Journeys In Progress You Should Be Following
I dip in and out of a multitude of blogs these days, in between finishing up my book, writing my own blog and getting ready for Janapar’s release. But there are few which exude the sheer quality and craftsmanship to hold my attention long-term. Here are the best examples I know of in three traditional storytelling media: film, written word, and still image. Film: Brazil 9000 Aaron and Gareth are barely out of the starting blocks on their latest journey, but they’ve set the bar incredibly high with this professional-quality video intro. It alone beats most of the trash on Nat… Continue reading →
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(More) Evidence For The Value Of Crafted Adventure Media
While defending my views on the use of social media on expeditions or journeys, I thought I’d share a reminder I recently received of why I bother raising such points and investing so much energy in all of this. Hi Tom, It’s been great following your adventures thus far, and I look forward to the book with anticipation. I also want to say a massive thank you for giving me the necessary push, along with Andy last year, to embark on my own adventure! Continue reading →
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30,000 Miles Around The World In (Not Just) A Wheelchair
I’m really excited to have put together this new website for extreme athlete Andy Campbell, who’s planning a 30,000-mile round-the world expedition beginning next year. The difference? Andy’s been paralysed from the waist down since a climbing accident in 2004. Continue reading →
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5 Of The Best World Cycling Videos, And An Interview With The Curator
Blanche, the Dutch founder of the World Cycle Videos group on the video sharing website Vimeo, contacted me to see if I’d showcase some of the group’s videos. I was skeptical. Cycle touring videos tend to appeal to the enthusiast, and vary wildly in quality. Most are quite boring (including plenty of my own), unless you already know the riders, or are researching that particular region. But there’s a huge breadth of material in Blanche’s group. More than a thousand videos have been posted to date, from practically every nation on Earth. [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/1396719[/vimeo] This is a fantastic, classic video from Tibet. You… Continue reading →
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Who Is Jumber Lezhava? (And Why Should You Care?)
He’s sitting behind a paper-strewn desk in a unlit office with faded pastel-green walls, surrounded on all sides by boxes and files which obscure the room’s sparse furnishings. A woman in full-length furs is comfortably installed behind a flickering computer screen, clicking noisily away while talking on the ‘phone. The stocky, white-haired lecturer rises to greet us and smiles calmly, an unassuming dignity and openness about him. This diminuitive, friendly-faced Georgian in a woolly jumper carries a glint in his eyes which speaks of experience beyond the limits of communication. Jumber Lezhava looks nothing like the bristling superhuman I’d assumed… Continue reading →
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This Is What Travel Filmmaking Is Supposed To Look Like
My brother, who emigrated to Canada a few years back, has just introduced me to a Canadian TV series called Departures. Three old university friends, three round-the-world tickets and a video camera. If only anything I’d filmed on the road resembled the visual beauty of this. (The episodes themselves are even more stunning!) [youtube width=“720” height=“405”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkIdtzXmpYk[/youtube] Check out the show’s website. It’s such a shame that the series hasn’t yet made it to the UK. Continue reading →
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How This Bizarre Video Came First At An Adventure Film Festival
A few weeks back there was a light-hearted event in London called The Adventurists Film Festival — in their own words, “fighting to make the world less boring”. The overall winner of the open competition came from a bunch of misfits known as the Vagabondz, who drove a clapped-out old van from England to Georgia. I challenge you to watch this 20-minute film in full: [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/20368014[/vimeo] Why did this film win? Continue reading →
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An Excellent New Resource For Cycling The U.S. West Coast And Central America
If you’re planning a ride from Alaska to Panama, or anywhere in between, you could do a lot worse than to check out John Benson’s website, johnbensontravels.com. John has just wrapped up a ten-month odyssey from Prudhoe Bay to the Panama Canal, passing through Canada, the western States, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica on the way. I’ve just put the finishing touches to this redesign of his travel blog. John has approached the documenting of his trip in a completely different way to how I’ve always approached it. While I was banging on endlessly about my… Continue reading →