Ride Earth

Looking back, we English chaps have a colourful history of exploration - epic journeys into the unknown, breaking new ground, new methods, new records. One of the current generation following in the footsteps of Livingstone, Shackleton, Fiennes et al is a young Yorkshire lad called Alastair Humphreys, who I first heard about when I was preparing for this trip back in 2006. Alastair spent over four years travelling by bicycle, racking up a massive 46,000 total miles, or over 10,000 miles a year, making my current total of 5000 miles in one year look a little puny in comparison. (OK, so I have had nearly six months off!) (more…)

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…)

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…)

It’s spring again (in Armenia, at least - still snowing in England, I’ve heard)! The last of the ice melted away a couple of weeks ago, and all over the country grass and leaves are emerging from flower-beds and trees. Winter is finally behind me. Sitting in my standard-issue former-Soviet-Union flat, complete with regular water failures, no heating or gas, and dodgy wiring, I can relax. (more…)

I’m in Tbilisi and hopefully this blog will fill in what has been happening with me. As you may know I arrived in Yerevan for the first time, by bicycle, on the 24th January. I met up with Tom in the city after we had cycled alone from near the Georgian border. Fanny came out to visit me in Yerevan and we stayed with friends, Max and Irene. We had wonderful times which passed too quickly. Whilst bargaining for sweet and spicy paprika at the market, Fanny and I met a very interesting American Armenian called Manoog.

It turned out he is a very interesting person who is very active in the community in Yerevan. We met and exchanged stories and he took us to see some excellent jazz music in the ‘Stop Club’. He helped organise an event at a local NGO, where Tom and I made a presentation and showed our film footage from Turkey, Georgia and Armenia.

We were still waiting for our sleeping bags to be released from customs so I decided to hitch-hike back to Tbilisi. This was partly an exercise in hitch-hiking and partly to spend more time with friends in charming Tbilisi.

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Believe it or not, I finally left Yerevan on my bicycle on Sunday 2nd March 2008. I pedalled south for 70km, through the Ararat region, and camped in a field after dark opposite the factory of a company called ‘Abit Ltd’, which amused me slightly. At 7am the following morning I was on the road again. I began to climb East, away from the Ararat plateau and up into the mountains. (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…)

I’ve been in Yerevan for about three weeks and the hold-ups continue. My friends here like to joke that by the time I finally get this deep-winter sleeping bag and pedal south towards Iran, it’ll be spring and I won’t need it any more!

That may turn out to be the case, but in the meantime it’s still well below freezing by day and by night, and I’ve heard reports that temperatures in the deserts of not-too-far-away Turkmenistan are still approaching minus thirty - even the nearby Iranian city of Mashhad is currently experiencing nighttime lows of minus twenty-five, according to an Austrian cyclist. I’ll certainly feel much happier with this new sleeping bag whilst cycling towards the Tibetan plateau, where the altitude will have more effect on temperatures than the time of year. (more…)