Tag: Stories

  • The Frog Whitton Challenge 

    The Frog Whitton Challenge 

    Cycling and dipping in the 16 biggest water bodies in the Lake District Last summer, Laura cycled around the Lake District, dipping into the 16 largest water bodies, in what she’s christened the Frog Whitton Challenge. She tells us more in this blog post. Many years ago, together with a group of mates, I decided…

  • Cycle Touring on Shetland

    We spent nine days cycling the length of Shetland with our two young children last summer as part of a five week tour of Scotland. This is Laura’s account of our time at top of the UK… Famous for ponies, puffins and knitting, Shetland is a popular destination for bird spotters and wildlife watchers. However,…

  • Crossing Lake Baikal in Winter

    In March, Laura and I travelled to Lake Baikal in Siberia to walk across its frozen surface. This blog post shares our photos. Click here to watch the video.   We started out from Olkhon Island, an area famous for Shamanism…   Before we left home, our main fear was that the ice on the…

  • Walking Across Ibiza

    Walking Across Ibiza

    Ibiza is best known as the clubbing capital of the world. But it’s also a beautiful island in its own right. We reckoned it would be a great place for an adventure so booked some budget flights, packed our bags EasyJet Alpine style (expedition kit that’s hand luggage only) and set off to cross the…

  • Bikepacking Across the Cairngorms (Photo Blog)

    ‘Don’t!’, Laura shouted as the river raged against her waist, ‘it’s dragging me down!’ I let go of the handlebars and waded in deeper. Laura freed the leg which had been pinned by the force of the river turning her front wheel into it and stepped back. She lunged for the bank as I grabbed…

  • What Happened When We Went Walking In Iceland…

    Last summer, Laura and I followed a series of long distance trails in Iceland. Here’s my account… [divide] The bus pulled away leaving us stranded in the middle of nowhere. Concerned passages stared at us from the windows, exchanging looks of bewilderment. ‘Here?’, I’d asked the driver. ‘Yes…’ he’d replied uncertainly, ‘we think’. And that…

  • Cycling around the world is not what would you expect

    Life rarely brings what you expect of it. And cycling around the world is no different. How could it be? From our desks in London, how could we have imagined the places we’d see and the people we’d meet? We could never have predicted entering a stranger’s house and finding it littered with ammunition, gun…

  • I Walked from Exmoor to Patagonia

    I walked out of my front door for the first time, age 14, with 75-litres’ worth of kit on my back and made a bee line for Exmoor carrying a change of jeans, a clutch of Pot Noodle and four spare litres of water (“just in case”). Our mileage as a group was low but…

  • All Human Life

    His huge form loomed over us in the doorway. Shaved head and powerful piercing eyes invisibly forcing us back into the darkened street. Well don’t just stand there, he said, come on in. The muscles of his forearm tensed as he dished out massive dollops of creamy mash potato. I’m a teacher, he told us…

  • It’s All About the Bike (because it’s all about the people)

    The kid leaned over, gave me a hug and told me he liked me. ‘You should never leave’. Before you suspect a scandal at Next Challenge HQ, my new friend was ten. His ardour was no doubt inspired by the fact that I’d lent him by head torch: if only picking up admirers was always…

  • Perhaps in a Year

    When I wake in two months’ time, it will be in a room, not a tent. It will not take me a minute to work out what country I am in. I know the answer even now. It will be England. I will not be camped in a roadside picnic area, petrol station forecourt or…

  • Why are there no water buffalo in South Korea?

    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…