Ride Earth

Tom and I construed the idea to satisfy a desire to see the world. We minimalised our possessions, with most sold on ebay  to fund our trip or given away.

We researched the ideal items of equipment we would need for a life on the road. When we left we realised soon we still had way more than we needed. Since then we’ve been gradually getting rid of things that are not essential. The result is that by now we are getting near to carrying an optimal selection of equipment.

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Peep through the door
It seems as though the grass was much greener before
The dead life has been washed upon the sea shore
Money and greed deluded what is truly pure
And yet our flesh keeps screeching out for more

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I really should write something. It’s been weeks. Yesterday was a complete non-event. I spoke to Andy on the ‘phone and we wished each other a happy one year Ride Earth anniversary, whatever that means. That’s right – at 12:30pm one year ago on the 17th of June 2007, I was riding away from my home and into the unpredictable world, eager to sample all it could offer! (more…)

Remember, if you will (or read if you’ve recently joined us) back to October 2007; a memorable month for all the wrong reasons. The loss of two bank cards and the disintegration of Andy’s rear wheel led to our bicycle voyage being becalmed in Istanbul for one whole month as we waited for replacements to arrive. As we finally departed that great metropolis in mid-November, I found myself wondering if I’d visit the city in the future in a more positive manner, or whether I would eventually find some place to make my home for more than just a few days or weeks. (more…)

If you live in the UK you will have heard and probably know a little about climate change by now. It concerns me how I talk to people about the issue and it is possible to know the scientific evidence of what is happening and yet compartmentalise the problem and switch back to the everyday routine without doing anything.

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Last night I went to teach my English speaking lesson at the ‘Georgian-Scottish-House’ in Tbilisi. Recently I have had another gear-change with regards to my thinking on how I can do my bit to help reduce the now widely accepted human-induced climate change that is happening.

A main aim of Ride Earth is to observe and document the effects of climate change and to promote bicycle use. My time in Tbilisi is allowing me to realign how I approach achieving these things. I have been researching climate change on the internet and did a search for climate change documentaries.

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Last night I revisited the venue in Yerevan where Andy and I gave a presentation back in February. Common Ground is the project of a local NGO to provide an open forum for interested people from all backgrounds to discuss today’s issues and attend presentations in English. The organiser, an Armenian woman who grew up in Manchester, England, introduced the event for this evening - a showing of Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. (more…)

I might be a little way round the globe, but I’ve taken a little time to write to my local Member of Parliament in England. I’m writing from an area of the world where the wishes (and votes) of the citizens are routinely undermined by powerful, corrupt politicians. Living in a democracy where your voice can still make a difference is a luxury you may take for granted. (more…)

When Sylvester, the Polish cyclist we met on Christmas Day in Batumi, was explaining that conditions were difficult here for local people in Georgia, coping with the cold midwinter, I remember thinking, surely it’s not as difficult as cycling round the world? What a weird comparison and abstract concept. People in places with extreme weather conditions, are obviously tough, live and learn to deal with it. Cycling round the world means something different to any person who cares to think of the concept. These 4 words represent, for someone who has already cycled round the world (or travelled a long distance by bike), a body of memories, a once experienced truth of a moment, part of a process. Memories, skewed and evolved over time, the mind puts it’s own spin on things, censoring some things, making it’s own story which makes some kind of sense, or is maybe useful to life.

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After a week of relentless and sometimes masochistic cycling covering almost 500km, we arrived in the snowy Georgian capital of Tbilisi on New Year’s Eve. At 2 a.m.

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