The Next Challenge

Author: Laura Moss

  • Better Call Seoul: Escape to South Korea

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    Laura Moss
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    This evening, providing all goes well getting the bikes onto the aeroplane, we should be flying to South Korea. We decided that what we needed in the middle of this extended cycling holiday was, well, a cycling holiday. Our plan is to cycle from Seoul to Busan along the network of dedicated cycle lanes, developed…

  • Cycling in Rajasthan

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    Laura Moss
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    We wake at dawn and move quickly to beat the crowds and the heat. The village is already alive and our friends from the previous night have gathered to see us off. After the obligatory photos, we roll out of town, facing the desert and the day ahead. This is not the wild, desolate landscape…

  • Cycling across Arabia: a photo diary

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    Laura Moss
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    We cycled from Sharjah in the UAE, via Dubai, to Muscat in Oman.  Although cycling is very popular with expats, few cycle tourists make it to this part of the world and it’s a shame.  With wonderfully smooth roads (oil money put to good use), frequent cafes to rest at and plentiful opportunities for wild…

  • On being a female traveller

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    Laura Moss
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    We live in the twenty first century, and yet chauvinism, misogyny and paternalistic attitudes towards women are still alive and kicking. Travelling throws these into sharp relief, as it means stepping outside the bubble we create for ourselves with the familiar attitudes of friends and family, and encountering new people and sometimes challenging opinions. The…

  • Iran: the good, the bad and the downright crazy

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    Laura Moss
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    The Good The people We had already been warned about the extraordinary levels of hospitality we should expect to find in Iran. After a month of cycling across the country, we can confidently confirm that the Persian reputation for generosity and warmth is well-deserved. On our first night in the country, we were cycling around…

  • Come to the Cycle Touring Festival

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    Laura Moss
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    We are very excited to announce that we are planning a Cycle Touring Festival, to take place in Spring 2015. Our first step is to gauge the level of enthusiasm for this kind of event, so please read on and sign up below if you’re interested. The aim would be to bring together those who…

  • Managing knee pain and back pain for cyclists

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    Laura Moss
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    Knee, hip and back pain are common complaints among cyclists. They are certainly my weak points, with a gait that is often more akin to an old woman, rather than a relatively fit thirty-one year old. I am not a physio and have no training in sports massage, personal training or anything similar. Over the…

  • What have we learnt from six months of cycling?

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    Laura Moss
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    We sit here in a cavernous waiting room, waiting for a ferry to take us from Iran to the United Arab Emirates. We have six months’ of cycling behind us, as evidenced by our sun-lined faces, our scuffed panniers and our super-strong thighs. What has the last six months taught us? That we love cycling,…

  • Six months of cycling

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    Laura Moss
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    We have now been on the road for six months. Here is a little snapshot of the journey so far: Distance cycled: 5,000 miles Money spent on the road: £1,625 each Countries visited: 14 Police escorts given: 1 Times stopped by the police/military: 15 (all Iran, all involving the question ‘what football team do you…

  • Into the Empty Quarter – Film Review

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    Laura Moss
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    Over Christmas you may have caught a film about Ben Fogle and James Cracknell crossing the Empty Quarter desert. No doubt their film had the perfect blend of emotion, drama and eventual tear-jerking success – I have no idea, having been holed up in a hostel in a corner of Georgia at the time it…

  • Tips for cycling into Istanbul

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    Laura Moss
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    To be perfectly honest, we were dreading our arrival in Istanbul. We had heard other cyclists go on and on about what an awful city it is to cycle in and out of, with the main roads into the city effectively being four lane motorways.  Traffic from the whole of southern Europe is funnelled into a…

  • Are we wasting our lives?

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    Laura Moss
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    Now, this blog post is not going to be an angst-ridden piece questioning why I crave adventure. There are way too many of those articles out there and frankly, I don’t care about your existential quest for meaning so don’t expect you to care about mine. Nor will I preach about how important it is…