Category: News
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Exped DownMat 7 Pump Camping Mattress Review For Cycle Touring
Full disclosure: Lyon Equipment, Exped’s UK distributor, provided my original DownMat 7 under their Expedition Award scheme. As with all such arrangements, I’m not obliged to write favourably about products — just honestly. I’ve long used the DownMat 7 mattress by Swiss company Exped. DownMats are a serious alternative to the established Therm-a-Rest, and are designed with extreme comfort and all-weather use in mind: the name comes from the fact that the mats have a down filling in addition to the air padding. I’ve used two DownMats since 2007, most recently the DownMat 7 Pump during my Arctic bike trip. My… 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 →
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The DIY Beer Can Stove Is The Best Camping Stove You’ll Never Buy
Jetboil? Trangia? Primus? I laugh in your faces! The lightest, cleverest and most practical camping stove I’ve ever seen can be made by hand from a single empty drinks can. Continue reading →
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Help And Get Helped With Expedition Planning This Week
If you’re lucky enough to be in or near London on Thursday April 7th, and you’re planning or have been on an adventure or two, you can’t miss this event at the Royal Geographical Society with IBG headquarters. From the organiser Alastair Humphreys: When I was planning to cycle round the world there was so much that I did not know. I was really thankful when a veteran long-distance cyclist agreed to meet me in a pub one evening and answer my questions. Last year I thought that it could be helpful, now that I have done a few trips,… Continue reading →
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Catching Up With Dan Martin
When Dan says the water’s cold, you don’t argue with him. Nor when he tells you to wear two swimming caps on top of each other. I’d never done any wild swimming worth mentioning, so when I turned up at Dan’s regular river swimming haunt one December lunchtime and discovered that the water temperature was two degrees above freezing, I began to wonder if it had been such a good idea to accept his invitation after all. Continue reading →
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Helping You Get Your Bike Trip Off The Ground
I took part in the Royal Geographical Society’s ‘Explore’ convention last weekend, for the second time in the last four years. The first time I did so, I was a wide-eyed newcomer to the world of expeditions, and I remember quite powerfully the realisation that, relative to the assembled speakers and delegates, mine ranked fairly low in the list of nutty expedition plans. Continue reading →
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Want To Plan An Expedition?
For the budding adventurers out there — two wheeled or otherwise — you’d do a lot worse than to come along to the Explore seminar at the Royal Geographical Society in London. It lasts the whole weekend, beginning with an opening lecture on the Friday night, with lectures and workshops throughout Saturday and Sunday. Of particular interest to cyclists will be the bicycle expedition logistics seminar. Both Andy and myself will be on the panel this year. It’ll be a great opportunity for us to put our combined experience to good use by imparting to newcomers whatever advice we’re able… Continue reading →