Having spent the day in the Peak District, we drove across to Wales. Lars was keen to bag a peak, so it had to be Snowdon. We had an easier time finding a campsite in the dark and even chanced upon a pub serving cheap curry, which sounded (and tasted) far better than the noodles [...]
The last ten days Lars Bengtsson has been visiting. We made a whistlestop tour round the south of England and Wales. The first few days were particularly beautiful, if somewhat on the chilly side, but that didn’t stop us. The benefit of having the car was we could go camping, luxury style – duvet included. [...]
The Pingo Trail. Not to be confused with Pingu, the cartoon penguin. There are no penguins in Norfolk. There are lots of pingos though. ‘Pingos were originally low hillocks that formed 20,000 years ago during the last ice age when water beneath the surface froze to form lenses of ice pushing soil upwards. During the [...]
I think you can only truly appreciate where you live when you have gone travelling and returned. Each time I come back home, I realise a little more, what a beautiful place it is and how much it has to offer. I suppose when I always lived here I just took it for granted. Just [...]
It is easy to do something if you want to. The problem is, it is often easier not to. We are all good at making excuses for not doing things. I am not talking procrastination here (which I am an expert at), which implies you will eventually do whatever it is you’re supposed to be [...]
It’s a long time since I just headed out of the house with my bike and a map and cycled any which way the trails and hills and wind take me. I used to go out for hours at a time, losing myself on the network of bridleways that sprawl across the English countryside. Especially [...]
I had no plans for the weekend, but the forecast was for sunny skies. That idyllic English summer day that occurs so rarely! So whatever I chose to do it was going to be outside. I chose to bike the South Downs Way. The South Downs Way is a long distance off-road route of 100 [...]
During my ride through Africa, I also spent two weeks paddling down the upper reaches of the Niger River in Guinea in a wooden pirogue with fellow cyclist Lars Bengtsson. This was definitely one of the highlights of the journey and a truly amazing experience. It opened my eyes to an alternative way to travel [...]
The Polar Museum at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge holds a unique collection of artefacts, journals, paintings, photographs, clothing equipment and maps illustrating polar exploration, history and science. The institute was founded in 1920, in memory of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his four companions who died on their return journey from the [...]
Over the upcoming weekends I shall be indulging in my less active interests, namely books and film. Books – The Hay Festival Well known in the literary world is the Hay Festival, held annually in the pretty Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye. For a small town it has an unusually large proportion of bookshops – about [...]
