Archives: Guide

I was doing well on my bike. I had my tent and other essentials rolled up and balanced carefully on the back - the chain was oiled, the wheels were fat, I was enjoying myself.

“It’s not about what you can see, it’s what is missing that is the true genius” a man with large, black-rimmed glasses and a tweed jacket exclaims.

Having stupidly chosen a window I evaluated my route to the toilet in the underside cabin. It seemed simple… just climb over…

Day 1. - twenty-year old Mazda changes into steam engine 250k south of Calais and expires at petrol pumps, blocking access; re-watered and pushed aside.

We’ve always wanted to go to India. We’re euphoric! The snowy sinews overlaying the iron-grey Himalayas drift beneath our small plane as we fly from New Delhi to Srinagar, Kashmir.

I counted 20 hairpin bends, whooped with excitement and watched the vista change colour at every turn. At the 21st and the last of the Gata Loops, I had a closer look as I was sliding on the gravel.

Tears streamed down my face as I tightly hugged my knees in the stifling, comically narrow hallway of an overnight train from Hanoi to Hoi An.

A ship’s horn resonates through the Aqaba seaport causing a flock of seagulls to dramatically take flight. The crumbs from our measly bread offerings rain down upon us as they pass overhead.

I slapped at a nagging mosquito. Mozzies? In broad daylight? “This is just ridiculous,” I muttered. “Well,” Frank said, consulting the compass, “I think it’s to the south.”

My boyfriend and I planned to leave Rome at 7 a.m. so we could meet my parents for dinner in Annecy – a French mountain town built around Europe’s purest waters.