“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” — Helen Keller As a kid in the mid 1980s I read dozens […]
A strange realisation came to me a couple of years ago. There are very few people on this planet from whom I actively seek advice about personal decisions. I can count those people on the fingers of one hand, and still have a thumb spare. It’s not for lack of friends or confidants, or for […]
First a riddle: What is easy to get into, but hard to get out of? Give up? … Trouble! Now, how about the reverse: What is hard to get into, but easy to get out of? A good answer to that question might be ‘the mental state of flow’. Flow is usually thought of as […]
1st January 2019 found me in a flophouse motel in a border town in northern Mexico. I rested my weary bones after the mad dash across the canyonlands of south west USA in winter. Between naps and tacos, I reflected on my last four years on the road and thought about the goals I have […]
Hi! posting this again, as it seems most subscribers didn’t receive the email. A MILESTONE (a boast really) 🙂 In June this year, somewhere between Chiba and Narita, Japan, I tripped the magic 24,901 mile (40,075 km) mark – the circumference of the Earth at the equator. With three more continents for me to explore, […]
1. When in doubt, stop and eat something. 2. If it can leak, it will leak. Always eat the whole chocolate bar. Keep your toothbrush away from your sunscreen. 3. You’ll never regret carrying more teabags than you think you need. Ditto puncture patches. 4. Everybody has their own style of cycle touring, to each their […]
This is it then, the night before the off. My panniers are finally packed, everything else (almost) is boxed up and ready to drop round tomorrow for storing in my pal’s loft (how can I still have so much stuff?!). While everyone else in the house is kicking out zeds, I’m on here to record […]
As with many other moments in my recent day to day life, my imminent departure lends tonight a curious ‘significance’, in that it would otherwise be the night before I would be going back to work after the Christmas holiday. Many of my friends and family are at this moment getting an early night, perhaps […]
It’s been a busy few months since I decided to start the ball (bike?!) rolling towards leaving on a long bicycle adventure in early 2015. I won’t bore you with the gory details, but suffice to say I have now survived laser eye surgery, getting up to date at the dentist and two rounds of immunisation injections […]
