Cycling the World
After a couple of days to fully recover from sickness I had to get a wiggle on. My VISA for Myanmar ran out on Christmas Eve which worked out alright as I wanted to spend Christmas in Chiang Mai. This meant that I had some big days to get to the border in time. Due... Continue Reading →
The plan for today was a day off but somehow I ended up on a bicycle. Thankfully it was only half an hour down to road to a natural swimming pool and back where en route was my kind of cafe. The rest of the day was spent playing cards, having a few drinks and... Continue Reading →
After saying goodbye to the people I’d spent my time in Bagan with, I headed off east towards Inle Lake. It was a fairly straightforward ride and shouldn’t have taken too long but was looking forward to seeing more of this stunning country. The first stop off was at Mt Popa. A stand-alone mountain in... Continue Reading →
It was around 200km to Bagan and not knowing what the roads were like, I decided to split it into 2 days. It is hot out here easily reaching 30 degrees in the afternoon which is vastly different to the UK winter. The roads out here aren’t too bad at all, a little bit bumpy... Continue Reading →
With the bike all sorted I ventured outside the hostel to have a look round this awesome city. There are some incredible sights with really interesting history behind them. More than that though the people here are fantastic. There is no pestering of tourists, everyone smiles at you and makes you feel welcome. It had... Continue Reading →
The best way back to Kathmandu was an overnight bus. The last time I did this was from London to Inverness for the JOGLE cycle a few years ago. That wasn’t that comfortable but I was sure this one wouldn’t even come close... 14 hours later I arrived back at the hotel in Kathmandu I... Continue Reading →
I spent a day walking round Kathmandu and it is a great city. The ‘touristy’ area of Thamel has more shops than you could shake a stick at. Some of them have the most incredible paintings that have such minute detail on them with fantastic colours. Lots of the city was still rebuilding after the... Continue Reading →
A few of the other guys in the hostel were heading up to the top of a mountain for the sunrise over the Himalayas. I was absolutely knackered but this seemed like an offer I couldn’t turn down. With an early alarm ringing next to my head in the early hours of the morning I... Continue Reading →
To my amazement, the roads were just as good as India, the terrain was really flat aswell. The only difference was that they were slightly narrower which meant that when busses overtook each other right in front of me I would have to change cycling shorts... The people of Nepal are fantastic and really welcoming.... Continue Reading →
After some time off in Agra, I left early to catch the Taj Mahal from the other side of the river as the sun rose. Sadly the pollution was so bad that you couldn’t see the Taj at all! The traffic getting out of Agra was much ‘better’ than Delhi although having barely left the... Continue Reading →
After some time resting up back at home and getting the bike fixed, it was time to continue the journey (you didn’t think a little crash would stop me did you?). It was difficult to say goodbye to everyone again but pastures new lay ahead of me. Quite a lot of people remarked about how... Continue Reading →
After being discharged from Hospital and greeted by my mum, we left and got a bus the next day to Istanbul. My mum was coming to Istanbul anyway for a few days so everything was already booked. We spent a couple of days seeing the sights whilst redressing my wounds every morning which were healing... Continue Reading →
I woke from the campsite and left at a reasonable time, I don’t remember much from the day besides a few snapshots of some of the scenery. This is because at some point during the afternoon of the 7th of September I had a crash. I have no idea how it happened only that looking... Continue Reading →
Having had a walk around Tirana and seen their massive flag, we settled for an early night with a big day ahead of us. We were heading to Ohrid in Macedonia 146km away and wanted to get there at a reasonable time to have a walk around. The day started with a nice climb up... Continue Reading →
Getting to Podgorica looked to be a big but manageable day. The omelettes went down a treat (not as good as the omelette baguette) and I hopped on the bike following the Wahoo to the border. The border didn’t seem as big as the previous ones I’d encountered, maybe they were quite relaxed about it... Continue Reading →
After a fun evening it was a late start heading south. I was heading along the coast to eventually get to Split and then Dubrovnik. The riding was nice and followed the EuroVelo Route 8 most of the time. It was really hot during the afternoons so often I found somewhere to set up for... Continue Reading →
Getting the ferry back to the mainland was so much easier on a bike than in a car. A queue nearly 2km long of families trying to get off was no issue for me. Doing the classic ‘annoying cyclist’ and riding past everyone and skipping the queue didn’t make me feel the slightest bit guilty.... Continue Reading →
I was about to tick off a new Country, Slovenia. I really didn’t know what to expect. The only things I knew were that the capital was Ljubljana and Lake Bled was there. From the campsite, I had a nice flat morning but as the temperature was rising, so was the elevation, it was going... Continue Reading →
Fuelling up is definitely one of the perks of this trip. The sheer amount of calories I need/want to consume means stuffing my face at every opportunity with pizza, pasta and snacks. Gladly obliging after the return trip over Stelvio I made the short cycle to the campsite. Sadly my body didn’t like the fact... Continue Reading →
The weather cleared up and I packed up my tent and made a good start. The first stop was Locarno where I had an extended break gazing out onto the lake where I was met with some familiar faces... Feeling a bit tired I decided to make it a short day and headed slightly further... Continue Reading →
My Belated Gap Year 