The Mountain Kingdom – A Bike Tour through Lesotho

Jeep on bumpy road in the mountains travelling up Sani Pass

If you love cycling in the mountains, keep reading; a bike tour through ‘The Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho’ could be for you. Lesotho earns its nickname because the entire country is in the mountains. The lowest point is at 1,400 metres, which makes it the country with the highest low. Predictably, it’s a tough place […]

Cycling up Sani Pass

Jeep on bumpy road in the mountains travelling up Sani Pass

Sani Pass connects the pleasant, rolling hills of South Africa’s ‘midlands’, with the remote, inhospitable mountains of Lesotho. This results in one of the most spectacular and iconic mountains passes in Africa. When planning my bike tour through Africa, I was urged to ride up Sani Pass; with plans to pave it, there is only […]

Sailing into Durban – Indian Ocean Complete

Man stands beside South Africa Flag and a catamaran in a marina.

It is 4am and my final night-watch. There are all the usual creaks and groans of the boat, the same star-studded Southern Sky, but tonight a beautiful halo of light is crowning the horizon. It’s beautiful, because it is the lights of Africa. I can’t see land yet, but it’s there, and oh man – […]

The Joy of Reaching Land – Sailing the Indian Ocean

Sailing Crew sits on Sailing Yacht roof and watches for land. Flat, calm water of Indian Ocean all around.

We stopped at five islands as we sailed across the Indian Ocean – Ashmore Reef, Christmas Island, Cocos Keeling, Mauritius and Reunion – and after weeks of bobbing in the Indian Ocean, the excitement to be approaching land was always anticipated long before we arrived. Birds were always the first sign we were nearing land. […]

Paradise Found but Not Lost: Sailing into Cocos Keeling

Tropical Direction Island in Cocos Keeling at sunset with tropical water, sandy beach and palm trees.

I guess I had always been sceptical whether those tropical island paradises you see on the cover of postcards really existed. I have travelled enough to know that for every photo of the ‘perfect beach’, there are a dozen tacky resorts and hotels hidden just outside the frame. And if you visit, you’ll invariably find […]

Land Ahoy – Sailing into Christmas Island

Hammocks set between palm trees on a sandy beach at sunset.

After 15 days at sea I was desperate to see land, however the view as we sailed into ‘Flying Fish Cove’ on Christmas Island was stunningly disappointing. In the 400 years since Captain William Mynors, a fellow Brit, had first arrived on Christmas Day 1643, 2,000 people have moved to this isolated speck of land […]

Why travelling by bike is the best way to see the world!

Cyclist sitting in the middle of the road on the Pamir Highway with no cars.

If you are genuinely interested in seeing the world (not just being drip-fed the tourist highlights), having an adventure, learning about yourself and about other people who live lives wildly different from your own, then there is no better way to travel than by bicycle. It doesn’t even matter if you’re a cyclist or not! […]

Letter from the Past – You made it!

Climbing up a mountain in Turkey while bike touring.

I recently returned home after 2.5 years cycling around the world. On my desk I found a letter I had written to myself before I left, back when there was no guarantee of my success – in fact, failure seemed more likely. It is the ramblings of a young idealist, but something about it forces […]

Cycling Across Australia 8 – The Oodnadatta Track

The sandy unsealed desert road of Oodnadatta Track in Outback Australia

Jaimi and I arrived in William Creek, a ‘town’ with more planes than local residents (9 planes vs. 6 locals), which made it something of an anti-climax after 3 days of cycling through desert on the Oodnadatta Track. The pub – the centre of every Aussie outback town (the centre of the universe for the […]

Cycling Across Australia 7 – The Oodnadatta Track

A loaded touring bike on the centre of an unsealed road in Australian Outback on Oodnadatta Track

The desert demands so much, and provides so little.When I was cycling the Oodnadatta Track, I decided in a melodramatic fit of frustration that this was surely the most godforsaken place in the world.It is now a few weeks since I reached Marree and finished the Oodnadatta Track, which has given me some time to […]