The ultimate motivational speech

Again, I took this from my old friend Al Humphrey’s blog, which I really recommend. It is brilliant, I’m sure you’ll agree.

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Why cycling through Siberia in winter might not have been as stupid as it sounds

I saw this photo on Al’s twitter. On balance, I think winter in Siberia is still the crazier option, but the swampiness as seen here, and apparently also bird sized mosquitoes, show that summer is no easy task either!

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Meeting ‘The Man Who Cycled The World’ again (Mark Beaumont)

Last week I heard via twitter that Mark Beaumont was in Hong Kong, so we arranged to meet up. If you don’t know him, Mark is a Scottish guy a few years younger than me who, in 2008, roared into the record books (and into an amazing BBC documentary, and a cool Orange advert) when [...]

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Another writing quote

Another good quote: “We live in a day of cheap sentences where words are prostituted for the purpose of propaganda. Text-messaging dominates the verbal landscape. ‘Any old word will do,’ we think, as we keep up a steady stream of monosyllabic prattle. No, any old word will not do. Mark Twain once observed that the [...]

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“Writing your first travel book” workshop in Melbourne

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed -          Ernest Hemingway Two weeks ago I was in Melbourne, speaking at the Australian Festival of Travel Writing. It was a fun event, and as well as giving my Cycling Home From Siberia talk, I also ran a workshop [...]

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Mixed motives for adventure (O, to be a pilgrim)

I recently read an excellent book by Charles Foster. Foster is a former barrister, a tutor in medical ethics at Oxford University, and an increasingly prolific author, who seems to just write on whatever topic interests (or troubles) him at any particular time. This ranges from his own compelling take on God and evolution (The [...]

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The men who won’t fit in and Ulysees

This is stirring stuff by my friends Al and Chris during their recent epic expedition across Iceland.

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Love and War: guest posting by my wife on our one year wedding anniversary

Last week was my one year wedding anniversary with Christine. She wrote a really good blog about our experiences so far in this great adventure together. The first part of what she wrote is below, and you can read the full piece on her site here Love and War by Christine Liu Lilwall A year [...]

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Wild Swimming in Hong Kong

God will hold us accountable for every legitimate pleasure which we willingly forfeit – The Talmud I went for my first run in ages last Saturday, and it felt so good that I went for another one this morning. And today, for the first time in far, far too long, it also involved jumping into [...]

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Juggling

“the slower day will never come” – Rob Parsons (but how often I persuade myself that it will) It is a Saturday afternoon and I am sitting on a serene, leafy balcony in Phnom Penn in Cambodia. And yet I still do not feel like I can relax. I guess I feel like I am [...]

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