Days not Homeless: 5 Years, 106 Days ...and loving every second of this alpine adventure!
At Last a Proper Mountain
Since banging out four of the Northeastern Highpoints almost a year ago the desire had returned to knock off a few more. Hip resurfacing surgery and other travel plans stood in the way for ten months bringing us to now. Once again the decision to head out west was an...
Tour Aotearoa – South Island
Jumping onto the earlier ferry at 2.45pm was the way to go as now I docked in daylight and could enjoy the early evening hours as I pedaled towards Havelock. As usual, a couple of nice hills were in between Picton and the recommended Smith Farms campsite where I...
Tour Aotearoa – North Island
Am I up for a 3000km cycle ride, could my ass handle it, is my lightweight carbon hardtail mountain bike too light for the extra load, do I have everything I need - all questions I was asking myself whilst in England sorting out my late dads estate. I was definitely...
Tour Aotearoa Facebook Updates
February 16th - Kerikeri, NZ All set for a 6am Sunday departure from Cape Reinga to Bluff. A little over 3000km from the top of New Zealand to the bottom!TA Pre DepartureFebruary 20th - Cape Reinga Lighthouse, NZ The beginning at Cape Reinga a little over 48 hours...
Rediscovering Great Britain
We find more and more that when speaking with fellow travelers the response when asking about which country they've seen the most of, their home country is never top of the list. I've probably seen more of my adopted country than I have of my home land. Due to...
Essential Items Only
Stuff, junk, clutter and crap accumulated over the years has made us the happiest of people. Did I just say that? Over the past four years we've found that living without mountains of stuff is far less stressful, far cheaper, and allows us to be wherever we want,...
Hong Kong Layover
Flying to the end of the world for the second time this year was always going to be a drawn out affair, made even worse by departing England instead of the US. Flight prices seemed lower than flying from the US which surprised me, so much in fact that I allowed my dad...
One Goes Global to Denmark
Unexpected, traveling alone, and little time for preparation, Denmark wasn't on the agenda. I needed to get to England for personal reasons and only being a week out flights were not looking cheap, especially when traveling with a mountain bike. I had to be creative...
Birmingham Hip Resurfacing or Bust
With a good amount of trepidation we headed north towards Madison, Wisconsin, on this occasion for my second bout of hip surgery. My decision to go ahead with further surgery was prompted by the rapid decline of my right hip - hiking was resulting in more and more...
Lobsters and Potatoes, or Fish and Chips
An island of coastline and roads, Prince Edward Island was our final stop on this leg of our Canadian tour. Neither of us had any real reason for heading over to Canada's smallest Province, other than to see what the capital of Charlottetown has to offer. Due to where...
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is an isolated mountain range separated from the Andes chain that runs through Colombia. It reachs an altitude of over 5.700 meters (18,700 feet), and just 42 kilometers from the Caribbean coast and is the world's highest coastal...
Colombia’s Caribbean Coastline
We finally arrived in a country that was once pretty much off limits, now transformed into a very up and coming place to visit with many world class attractions. Our arrival at the Romancing the Stone city of Cartagena was eagerly awaited, mostly due to the fact that...
Luka and the swell from hell
I had decided some time ago that if Andrea wouldn’t hike through the lawless Darien Gap with me, then we would do one of the backpacker sailing trips taking in the San Blas islands en route. The Darien Gap pretty much begins where the Panamerican highway ends in...
Bocas del Toro Archipelago
I had made a bit of a gamble bringing us here although Calvin, our host of Free Spirit Inn, assured us that the internet is perfectly reliable. Not only did we risk connectivity on the main island of Isla Colon but we spent the entire week out on the far less...
Synchronized Swimming
We almost didn’t bother snorkeling while in the Bocas del Toro archipelago as we'll have plenty of opportunities next week in the San Blas islands, but after seeing these beautiful fish at Hospital Point on Isla Solarte we’re very glad we paid the boat owner $20 for a...
Pura Vida
Hopefully we were going to like La Fortuna more than we did last year where we spent one brief night before heading up to Los Chiles and Nicaragua. It was the same time of year, it was still a major touristy town and it still suffered from torrential downpours, but...
Gordo es Guapo
A very appropriate title for a special La Ruta del los Conquistadores 2013. This year La Ruta introduced a fatbike category and it was going to be all about the additional weight and four inch fat tires on the coast to coast mountain bike race. The fat bike provides...
Costa Rica, Fatbike Edition
After thirty six hours and barely enough time back in Florida to accomplish what was needed I was back to Fort Lauderdale airport for a flight to Costa Rica whilst Andrea remained behind to visit friends and family. The first ten days were spent just outside of San...
Clean panties, toilet paper, and more
Well, we’ve been away for almost a year and I have a few thoughts to share about my life on the road after being in the States a week ago. 1. Clean Panties! I carry seven panties and three bras with me. Wayne and I “officially” do laundry about every three weeks. That...
Cusco, the city of the Incas
Cusco, at 3.400 meters is totally a tourist trap, full of both cheap and expensive restaurants, hotels, spas and everything to get foreigners and locals alike to part with their Peruvian Soles. We loved it! Our accommodation in the touristy San Blas part of town,...
Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
The Inca Trail is probably one of the most famous four day treks in the world. That being said, the Peruvian government has now imposed limits on how many hikers and porters it will allow to start every day - about 200 hikers and 300 porters. Wayne and I had to make...
Peruvian Lake Titicaca
After our fabulous trip to Isla Del Sol on Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca we boarded the bus, once again, for Puno, Peru. This was only a 5 hour bus journey with a quick stop at immigration. The border control agent didn’t even verify our passport names against our...
Bolivian Lake Titicaca
We hoped that leaving La Paz on a Wednesday night for the three hour micro-bus ride to Copacabana was a good idea and that the internet at our fancy accommodation would work for Andrea! We had chosen Hostal Las Olas for its unique suites overlooking Lake Titicaca, and...
2.3 Mile High La Paz
La Paz, sitting in a bowl at an altitude between 3.200 and 4.100 meters, is the highest capital city in the world surrounded by the high mountains of the altiplano, specifically triple-peaked Illimani. Behind Santa Cruz de la Sierra, it is Bolivia’s second largest...
14 Hours from Chulumani
Our final destination in the La Paz region was Chulumani. It was spent with drunks, downpours and delays and it certainly did not go the way we anticipated, but it ended up being much more fun than we ever imagined! We planned to head to Chulumani the weekend of...
Huayna Potosi, Mission Accomplished
From the moment we arrived in La Paz and being able to see Illimani from our apartment window, I wanted to hit the hills again – it's been six years since I summited Huascaran in Peru with some friends and I was hungry to get back into thin air. Illimani, at 6.438...
Coroico and the WMDR
It's already our second weekend in La Paz and time for an adventure! The North Yungas Road, suitably titled “Worlds Most Dangerous Road” or WMDR for short, is a renowned downhill mountain bike ride and formerly the only road through the mountains from La Paz to...
Condor Trekkers
One of the top activities to do while visiting Sucre, Bolivia is the trek to the Maragua crater with a visit to the dinosaur footprints. We decided to use Condor Trekkers, a non-profit organization that distributes its profits back to the community and relies heavily...
The Mountain that Eats Men
Thankfully it didn't eat the ones that toured the Candelaria mine in Cerro Rico recently! Cerro Rico, meaning ‘Rich Mountain’ in Spanish and looming above Potosi in Bolivia, is the primary reason most tourists visit the highest city in the world at 4.067 meters above...
Sniffing Cochabamba
Not sure why we came here, something to do with visiting a friend and it being half way between La Paz and our next stop, Sucre. Rumors abounded of the city being unsafe with very few tourist attractions so what better time to arrive than 11.30pm and your...
