The Next Challenge

Category: Tim’s Adventures

  • Life on the road: strip washes and car parks

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    Laura Moss
    in

    A few nights ago, we slept in a disabled toilet. Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice disabled toilet (although alas, no Dyson Airblade), but it was still a toilet. It was pouring down in Korea and it was the driest, warmest place we could find in the grounds of the museum we’d chosen…

  • Choosing what to do with your life

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    Laura Moss
    in ,

    Picture the scene. We are outside the main train station in a Japanese city, all glass and steel and impeccably clean. There are hundreds of commuters streaming past: impossibly skinny women wearing impossibly high heels and immaculate men in immaculate suits. I, meanwhile, am sitting on the pavement in my temporary role as Guardian of…

  • 8 months, 10,000km and Half Way There

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    Tim Moss
    in

    We started cycling last August and aim to be back this Christmas which means that, last month, we reached the half way point of our trip: 8 months in. We also clocked 6,000 miles on our odometers, 10,000km. This means that we have at last qualified for our own database: Long Distance Cycle Journeys (LDCJ). We…

  • Escape from India: The Movie

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    Tim Moss
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    Those of you that have followed this blog in recent weeks will know that we’ve been having a good whinge about our time in India. The rose tinting of hindsight has already made it start to seem like a month of humorous chaos. Hopefully this 60-second film will convey some of the madness. Highlights include…

  • Why are there no water buffalo in South Korea?

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    Tim Moss
    in

    They weren’t on the baggage carousel and Oversized Baggage seemed dormant. I found someone official looking and used gestures to indicate that we were looking for two bicycles. He radioed a friend, turned and waved. At the other end of the baggage haul were two more officials waving back at us holding what looked distinctly like…

  • Your name in lights! (for a donation to our charity)

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    Laura Moss
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      Ever fancied having your name in lights? Well, now you can. Make a donation to our charity – JDRF – in the month of May and we will produce a personalised photograph of your name, as in the image above, as a thank you.  JDRF funds research to find a cure for Type 1…

  • India: land of the magnificent moustache

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    Laura Moss
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    Facial hair has become quite a feature of our bike ride. Not mine, I hasten to add, but Tim’s, with his bushy ginger beard attracting an enormous amount of attention wherever we go. In India, many people greet him by asking ‘Ali Baba?’ and since Turkey, he has been asked countless times if he’s Muslim.…

  • 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…

  • Escape from India

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    Tim Moss
    in

    India has been difficult for us, as anyone following our tweets or the undertones of recent blog posts will know. This is not to say that it is not a wonderful and fascinating country. Even from our brief weeks here, seen through the prism of sickness and stress, it is abundantly clear that this is…

  • You’ve Got to be Careful in India

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    Tim Moss
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    They say you’ve got to be careful in India. Everyone’s out to rip you off. Even the locals get overcharged and they’ll see you coming a mile off. You can’t trust any food and don’t even think about trying the tap water. Even the purified stuff gets tainted by leaky sewage pipes and as little…

  • Four Examples of (the lack of) Personal Space in India

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    Tim Moss
    in

    The thing which I have found hardest about cycling through India is dealing with the entirely different rules of etiquette here. The concept of personal space seems to be alien. As an introvert, this has been very tiring. Here are a few examples from our experiences so far. Please do share any stories of your…

  • 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…