Days not Homeless: 5 Years, 342 Days ...and loving every second of this alpine adventure!
JMT: Beyond Muir Trail Ranch
With the likes of Forester, Glen and Pinchot passes behind us we assumed that the second half of the John Muir Trail would be plain sailing - wrongly assumed that is! The entire 220 plus miles are continuously up and down. In fact, for us the most difficult and...
JMT: 111 Miles until Resupply
Typically time flew by and before we knew it we were sitting having Chinese, excellent Chinese at that, in Lone Pine, California the evening before our big departure. Going Broke, our SUV, was patiently waiting for us at Mammoth Airport and all we had with us was what...
John Muir Trail Preparation
It wasn't until our short time spent in Yosemite National Park a couple of years ago, then hearing from a friend how amazing a hike the 220 mile John Muir Trail actually is that we started thinking that this sounded right up our alley. The seed was set, the biggest...
West of the Badlands
Continuing on from an out-of-the-way Iowa our route took a very direct west towards the Dakotas. We had driven this same road 3 years earlier and had been close to the places we were now revisiting for our state highpoint goal - just wish this had been on the agenda...
En route to Lake Superior
An early exit from the Tour Divide bike race allowed us to take a non-direct route from Kentucky to our month long housesitting job in Bozeman, Montana. It would also enable Andrea to complete her quest to visit all fifty states, an achievement that took almost 44...
55,000 Feet of Up
Sitting here writing this I'm still kicking myself for not currently being part of the Tour Divide 2017 mountain bike ride! Then I look down at the swelling and feel the tingling in the fingers on my right hand. Then I stand up and feel the grating along the achilles...
Highpoints; the Next Batch
Continuing on from a successful Spring hike to the summit of Colorado's Mt Elbert we went back and forth between either Utah or Arizona as the next highpoint. Utah's Kings Peak, it turned out had a much better approach from the north and would have ended up being a 5...
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...
The Road to Ecuador
We’ve fallen behind with the blog, or at least I have since we left Popayan almost three weeks ago with a hop, skip and jump to Ecuador. In between we stopped at San Agustin for a few days to see the stone statues of its UNESCO World Heritage Site, Mocoa for the...
Cali, the City of Salsa
Personally one of my favorite places in Colombia, being a little rough around the edges but having great people and a relaxing old town. Cali is best known as the home of Salsa, and previously with the ruthless Cali drug cartel – nowadays the police presence is huge...
Zona Cafetera
We were really looking forward to visiting this part of Colombia because we had heard so many wonderful stories from various travellers – we found that the cities were not overwhelming, the weather perfect, and the scenery stunning. And for me, loving coffee, I was...
Bogota in Brief
Not too much to talk about on this blog as neither of us were enthralled with the mass of Bogota, located on a high plateau at 2625m above sea level, making it the third highest capital city in South America after Quito and La Paz. With over eight million people...
Big Ass Ants
San Gil, the adventure capital of Colombia, and Barichara, the home to Hormigas Culonas roughly translated to Big Ass ants, were to be the next destinations on our journey through Colombia. San Gil offers a slew of activities like white water rafting, downhill...
Chiclets and Cocaine
Medellin, the city of eternal spring, and once the world's deadliest city with 381 homicides per 100,000 people, equivalent to 32,000 murders per year in New York City, is so far one of our favorite places to visit in Colombia. Safety has improved vastly since the...
Nabusimake
Valledupar and on to Pueblo Bello and finally Nabusimake was very much an unplanned part of our tour through Colombia. It wasn't until we heard from Barbara, our new travel planner, about not missing out on the indigenous area in the south of Sierra Nevada de Santa...
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...
