Category: Tim’s Adventures
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The 100 Club
What is The 100 Club? A collection of cheap and simple expeditions for people who are low on money, short on time and lacking in expertise. Why? It is my firm belief that adventures are available to everyone and specifically that money is not a prerequisite for having one, nor time, nor expertise. I set…
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Walking Across the Wahiba Desert – Part III
Morning broke with a heavy dew. The moon was behind us and illuminating the thick mist in the valleys below. We each had a litre and a half of water left and, we reckoned, some three hours to the edge of the dunes and another 10km to the road from there. Since last night’s hike…
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Swimming the Thames
Following on from Running the Tube last year and as the second event in our Greater London Triathlon, Laura and I will be swimming the length of the Thames this summer. The source is somewhere near Cirencester and we’ll follow the river for as far as we can until the Harbour Master in London says…
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Walking Across the Wahiba Desert – Part II
It is a rare treat to watch both the moon set and the sun rise in a single sitting but that is how we started our second day. Twelve hours later we would catch each celestial body in the reverse role but there were many more dunes to cross before we reached that point. So…
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Leaving Oman
In three weeks’ time I will be back in the UK after five glorious months in Oman. I will be very sad to leave. It is a truly beautiful country with some of the most stunning scenery I have seen anywhere on my travels so far. I would recommend it highly to anyone with an…
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Expedition Report: Quimsa-Cruz Bolivia (2004)
Abstract A team of six people completed a climbing expedition in the Quimsa Cruz range of Bolivia – the smallest, lowest and least explored cordillera in Bolivia offering good potential for new alpine-style ascents. We spent three weeks in the mountains during the summer of 2004, establishing a base camp and embarking on a number of…
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Walking Across the Wahiba Desert – Part I
I was amazed that we found it at all. I’d zoomed in as close as possible on Google Earth to trace the fine lines of what looked like a dirt track ending at the western edge of the sand dunes. I jotted down the coordinates, punched them into the GPS we’d borrowed and was trying…
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Tour of Oman Bike Race
Yesterday afternoon I scrambled to the top of a rocky ridge above the corniche at Mutrah to sit in the sunshine and watch the final stage of the Tour of Oman. A cycling stage race like the Tour de France, the event is organised in part by cycling legend Eddy Merckx. From my limited experience…
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Running the Wadi Bih Relay
Last weekend I competed in the 19th annual Wadi Bih relay here in Oman. It was probably the best event I have ever entered. I was in a team of five with Laura and three people from the local Muscat Road Runners club. We had 72km to cover between us and a jeep for support. Arriving the night…
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Crossing a Desert this Weekend
What are you up to this weekend? I will be crossing a desert. Since arriving in Oman I’ve been a little transfixed by the idea of desert travel. It’s not something with which I have any experience but it’s easily romanticised: a rolling sea of deep orange dunes beneath a brilliant blue sky and luminous…
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Wadi Bih Relay
This weekend I am off to the Musandam Peninsula of Oman. Separated from the rest of the country, it’s a small stretch of land with steep mountains dropping straight to the coast. I’ll also be entering the Wadi Bih Relay Run, a 75km race through the Hajar Mountains around the UAE-Oman border. The race is entered…
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London Loves
By the time we’ve wrestled our bikes from the carriage and re-mounted our baggage, the platform has deserted and begun to refill with passengers boarding the next departure. Wheeling our vessels against the flow of the crowd feels like the perfect metaphor for a return to the city. Clothes still a little grubby, eyes still…