In Search of the Aral Sea – From Khiva to Moynaq, Uzbekistan
Rather than retrace the direct route to the main road via Urgench, cycled along the smaller roads for a short cut towards Nukus. Riding through small towns and farmland. Uninspiring.…
Elliq Qala – A tour of the 50 Fortresses (well, 6 to be exact)
Because it had taken three hours for the taxi driver to find 3 other passengers, it was well after dark when I arrived in Tortkul. So rather than cycling out…
Video of Cycling Nevada and Utah – Road to Las Vegas
This latest short video is from our ride along the back roads (and virtually non-existent roads) of Nevada and Utah. We did eventually make it to town though. A rather…
Baja Ho-Ho-Ho
Revived after a couple of days of rest. Ready to reap the rewards of Baja’s best. From Guerrero Negro on the Pacific Coast, we traversed the Baja peninsula again. The…
Southern California – Misnomers Galore
She didn’t call us crazy! I could barely remember another time in the US when, having seen our bikes or telling people what we’re doing (which is riding bikes…just quite…
Photos of Baja California North, Mexico
We crossed the border from California to Mexico at Mexicali. Without lingering, we pedalled south to San Felipe and on through Puertecitos to the horrendous dirt roads. Eventually we rejoined…
Red Rocking Utah and Crazy Las Vegas
Southwest Utah is stunning. Wonders of nature abound. Wind and water have worked together over millennia to carve a country of deep canyons, creeks and citadel-style rock formations that compel…
Photos of Mohave Desert and Joshua Tree
Glad to be leaving Las Vegas, it was a dull day down the interstate to the California border. From there, we cycled through the Mohave desert, crossed old Route 66…
Desert Roads and Snow
It was hard to leave Ely. One hell of a headwind. And with bad weather, in the way of snow, forecast it would have been easy to stay. But we…
Video of cycling across the Sahara
Before I left England, I had envisaged being one of the toughest sections of my Take On Africa bike ride would be crossing the Sahara. I expected extreme heat and…
Video of Cycling across the Sahara
I’ve just created a short video of the cycle from Morocco through the Western Sahara and Mauritania. You can check it out on my new website: Helen’s Take On… video…
Namibia (part 2) – The Dry
Not much mentioning of the bike recently? Apart from one puncture (the first since Ghana, 8,000km ago) it’s been a smooth ride. Good tarmac roads since I left Lubumbashi –…
Photos of yet more hills and desert in southern Namibia
From Sesriem I took a short trip to Sossuvlei to see the dunes there. Pretty stunning but dunes nonetheless. And I’ve seen a lot of dunes now! But with all…
Photos of the Namibian desert – To the coast
The latest photos are from the ride from Uis to Henties Bay on the Namibian skeleton coast. Apart from sand, sky and my bike, there wasn’t really much else to…
Photos of Damaraland, Namibia
Well after a week of wet marking my entry into Namibia, things started to brighten up. Not only did the sun come out, but I got off the tarmac roads…
Bamako to Ouagadougou (part 3) – Escape from Timbuktu
I had heard that leaving Timbuktu can be a time-consuming challenge. So when I was in Kourioume, still 10km prior to arriving, I was searching out ways to leave. The…
Bamako to Ouagadougou (part 2) – A Detour to Timbuktu
Djenne Djenne is a sleepy place. Except for Mondays. Monday is market day. Market day means hundreds of people arrive in town, congregate, congest the streets. They usher in goats…
In Search Of Beer – from the Sahara to Senegal
Since my last update in Nouakchott, where I signed off at the point of disembarkation of the iron-ore train with decision to take a bush-taxi to Atar in the depths…
Photos from Mauritania and into Senegal
In search of a beer – Photos from Nouadhibou, Mauritania to St. Louis in Senegal…
…The Great Mauritanian Train Ride
This is Africa After spending the best part of a week travelling through the desolate desert, arriving in Nouadhibou was an assault on the senses…. it felt like we had…