Category: Tim’s Adventures

  • South through the Mountains

    Our first deadline had been met – the ferry across the fjord – but another loomed large: another ferry departing in two days´time. This one was south across a lake that was difficult to get round without crossing borders and several hundred miles´detour. It also only ran twice a week which meant either marching close…

  • Journey to the Coast

    Journey to the Coast

    We always knew it would take a long time to get there. It was a tiny, remote port wedged between the sea, the Argentinian border and two ice caps. It took us three planes, five buses, four hitch hikes and a few stretches of walking over five days but we made it to Puerto Yungay…

  • Patagonia Plan

    Patagonia Plan

    In a few hours’ time, Laura and I will be boarding a flight to the start of an expedition. The plan is to walk across Patagonia. We will begin our trip in South America by spending New Year’s Eve on the floor of Buenos Aires airport awaiting an early morning flight. I’m not sure if…

  • Writing a Book is Like Revising for Finals

    I need to submit my book to the publishers by Christmas. The majority of the content is down already and has been for some time. Unfortunately, it’s the remaining 10% and the subsequent polishing which seems to be taking the most time. I am working on little else at present and it reminds me of…

  • Patagonia

    In three weeks’ time I will be flying to Buenos Aires to walk across South America. Three weeks! Time has flown by. The broad plan is for Laura and I to travel halfway down Patagonia to the narrow bit of the continent. We only have a month for our traverse so needed to find an…

  • Uninspired

    Ever since I started running The Next Challenge, I have been planning a South Pole expedition to coincide with the London 2012 Olympics. I’ve been pretty sure for some time that it was not going to happen and now that is quite certain. The simple explanation – and the one I usually give when anyone…

  • Matt Baker Rickshaw Challenge (and other celebrity expeditions)

    A couple of months ago I got a call from somebody at the BBC’s The One Show asking about riding a rickshaw long distance. I have to admit that I didn’t know what The One Show was but, after being as helpful as I could, I’ve since been brought up to speed and seen presenter…

  • Cold Water Therapy (This Is The Serpentine)

    Stupid. I should have known that late October was not a good time to go cycling in sandals but I’d come back from holiday the night before and hadn’t adjusted my thermostat. It is cold. To make matters worse, the first three miles are all downhill, littered with traffic lights and choked with commuters so…

  • These Boots Are Made For Walking

    The above image depicts my recently retired running shoes. I had been using them regularly since the summer of 2007. They were kindly donated by Decathlon Surrey Quays for my “real world” triathlon from London to the Isle of Wight and, after almost four years of use and abuse, they finally came to an end…

  • Sakhalin to Hokkaido by kayak

    Hmmm, I wrote the post below yesterday to give you a heads-up about an exciting expedition occurrence you could follow live… But it didn’t get posted for some reason and now you’ve missed it! Anyway, you can get the gist of it below and – SPOILER ALERT – Sarah and Justine landed safely on Japan…

  • 11 Memorable Bivi Spots

    1. Many cliff-edge locations with sea views from nine years walking the South West Coastal Path 2. Dieppe harbour after an early morning ferry arrival and a Poole beach after the same thing on the way home 3. In a “bucket seat” ledge dug into a 45-degree snow slope at 5,000m in Kyrgyzstan   4.…

  • Top 10 Expedition Dramas

    Dramas, also known as “epics”, are an integral part of expedition life. Awful to live through, gold dust in the pub afterwards. Here are some favourites, if that’s the right word: A careless glissade turning into dangerous free fall on the descent to base camp in Kyrgyzstan. I eventually self-arrested after tumbling over a small…