Lord of the sandflies. The Wild West Coast to Wanaka and celebrating half way.

Think about your partner, the person you love, the person you enjoy spending time with. Now think about how it would be to spend 7 months alone with them, sleeping in a space which measures roughly 4 x 6ft square…..?

The Roads to Almost Nowhere; Cycling across Croatia.

In all fairness we both saw the big, red X sign at the start of the military road but it’s amazing what you can convince yourself to ignore when doggedly following a line on the sat nav.

The route we had picked seemed to have unwittingly taken us through a restricted military area, for about 10 miles.
Now my lack of language skills meant that the warning signs could have said “Road closed at night for firing practice”. Or this is what I sheepishly tried to explain to the stern looking gentleman in the military jeep who pulled us over then unequivocally escorted us back to the main road and a 15 mile detour.
Bugger.

Croissants and the City: Bournemouth to Nantes

Eleven days ago I was nervously staring at a small pile of panniers in the hallway wondering what on earth the next 15 months had in store? Now, just over a week later and I’m sat on a river bank eating a banana and watching a woman in overalls climb out of an elephant’s bottom.