Over on our Walking Home From Mongolia site, Rob has blogged about our preparation, make a helpful (and frighteningly extensive) list of what we need to do. Below is his blog:
There are many, many things to do to get ready for an expedition of this scale. Here is my shortlist of things we are having to pour time into over the next 2.5 months before we leave (I will blog individually about many of these as time goes on). Leon and I will share these tasks, and my wife Christine is also being amazingly helpful (it was her who built this cool website). Add Comment Dear friends, readers and casual passers-by,
I am delighted to be able to announce the launch of my new expedition (and undoubtedly the hardest thing I'll have ever attempted!) - Walking Home From Mongolia The new website is http://walkinghomefrommongolia.com Setting off in November, it will be an epic 2,500 mile journey from Mongolia to Hong Kong by foot and portable kayak (packraft), and is being supported by National Geographic who will broadcast a TV show of the journey. I will travel in winter, from the wastelands of the Gobi Desert to the glittering skyline of Hong Kong, via the Great Wall of China, the Yellow River, the ancient city of Xi An and the limestone peaks of Gulin. What lies Beyond 07/13/2011
Red dirt swirled outside, coating with a fine layer the garden chairs now strewn across the yard. Just seconds earlier I’d managed with some difficulty to wheel my bicycle into the garage and lock the door. This wasn’t exactly cycling weather.
Growing up in Northern Ireland had not prepared me for mid-west American storms. Where I come from a windy day means you hold onto your hat and leave the umbrella at home; a worst-case scenario is perhaps the exposure of a badly secured comb-over. In an Iowa storm you fasten everything you can to solid ground, locate the nearest basement and pray for those with a hairpiece. Silence 06/30/2011
Apologies everyone, there's been radio silence from my site for a couple of weeks now. Fear not though, all will (hopefully!) become clear soon. I've been working hard on details of a new expedition, and with any luck it'll all start to come together pretty soon. This ones gonna be big, that's all I can say for now! Except maybe also that Lola might have to stay at home this time round.... Stay tuned! Coming up in the next couple of days as well, my top 5 favourite things about travelling in Cambodia. It's a really magical country, and one which I'd love to visit again. So check out my Top 5 soon! Here's a piece I wrote recently for Tourism New Zealand. NZ is a country that really caught my imagination before I went, and absolutely lived up to everything I expected from it. Undoubtedly my favourite country during my cycle from New York to Hong Kong, check out my top 10 experiences below. Agree, disagree? Happy to hear your thoughts!
Big Wheel of Kent 06/08/2011
 This Saturday (11th June) will see the arrival of the Big Wheel of Kent - a cycle event held in Canterbury by SPOKES East Kent Cycle Campaign, in association with the upcoming National Bike week. Basically, it's a must-go-to event for anyone in the South East who is remotely interested in cycling. There will be a number of opportunities to ride into Canterbury from the surrounding towns, as well as shorter circular rides within the city. The Festival part will take place in the Dane John Gardens of Canterbury, and will include live music, food and drink, stalls for local cycling organisations and shops, as well as a 'Dr Bike' stand to help out with bike repairs. I'll also be there with my own little stand. Lola (for new readers, Lola is my trusty bicycle!) and I will be there offering advice on cycle touring, and I'll be giving out information on the motivations lectures I give for schools and societies. So if you're interested in booking me for a talk, would just like to ask some logistical questions about planning a trip, or just want to say hi, then come down to the Dane John Gardens this Saturday! Look forward to seeing plenty of you Kentish folks out and about during the day, and don't forget to check out the Big Wheel website here Bike Week 05/26/2011
 Photo courtesy of the Team Green Britain Bike Week website It's now only a few weeks until the annual nationwide 'Bike Week.' Essentially this is a celebration of cycling, and an opportunity to promote and highlight the associated social, health and environmental benefits. It aims go get us all onto a bicycle for even just a short while during the week, and encourages people to consider incorporating cycling into their lives for general transport, commuting, shopping or just for fun - anything goes! There will be fun events, rides, competitions and workshops happening all over the U.K so make sure you check out the Bike Week website and see what's happening near you. I'll be heading back to Northern Ireland and working with Sustrans (the U.K's sustainable transport organisation) to give my "Cycling Reporter' lecture in a number of schools during the week. Keep an eye on my site for further updates on that and possibly a few other things. So if you've been meaning to get that bicycle out for ages but haven't got round to it, or even if you're already a bike fanatic then there's plenty for you to get involved with during Bike Week - no excuses! Writing a book 05/23/2011
Who would have thought that typing things into a computer could be a bigger challenge than riding a bicycle half way around the world? Nevertheless it seems so, at least in the early stages. After a couple of months of planning and procrastinating (in unequal measure) I've finally started the task of effectively gathering and ordering the stories, adventures, lessons and philosophies that 'The Cycling Reporter' brought into my life. Right now the thought of authoring an entire book with any sort of coherence terrifies me more than slightly, but if I learn one thing from cycling it was that by chipping away at something day by day and ignoring setbacks then just about anything is achievable. Practice what you preach they say, and 'they' are rarely wrong. In other news - it's a bank holiday next week in the U.K. I'll be having myself another lovely little mini-adventure - I encourage you to make the most of that extra weekend day as well! Vicarious Living 05/12/2011
[To view the full post, click here]  Riding through Big Sur, California One of the really rewarding aspects of my recent New York to Hong Kong cycle has been the supportive emails, messages and general feedback I've received. A recurring theme was that readers of my blog were enjoying being able to live vicariously though my travels; that is, to take pleasure in the experiences I was having from their own location hundreds or even thousands of miles away. I felt (and still feel) incredibly lucky to be able to spend a year of my life doing what I love - riding a bicycle, playing with video cameras and travelling through exciting new places. To be able to share it online with the world was a wonderful bonus, and now I'm finished I find a similar sense of fulfillment following the travels of others. Walking to Canterbury 05/05/2011
[To view the full post, click here]  Arriving back on U.K soil after 14,000 miles It’s now been 2 months since I finished cycling, and inevitably I have itchy feet. I’m being kept more than busy but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t regularly wake up disappointed to not be out under the stars. So what better time to find the adventures waiting on my doorstep?
Following in the footsteps of some real bona fide adventure bloggers who champion the ‘micro-adventure’ idea such as Al Humphreys and Tim Moss, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s plenty of scope for something exciting to be done over the course of a few days or a weekend. The much-anticipated Royal Wedding came along last weekend and I can honestly say I was absolutely thrilled. Not about watching the wedding of course, I’d rather eat off my own leg, but rather the fact that it provided a 4 day holiday for most of the nation. The perfect chance for a micro-adventure, but what to do? |      ArchivesMay 2015 CategoriesAll |
