The Cave The fierceness of the midday sun wanes into a balmy afternoon haze as I lock my bike at the foot of the escarpment. Picking my way among the gritstone boulders as I near the top of the ridge, my pannier straps gently cutting into each side of my neck, I steady myself against the easterly wind, and look out over the Derbyshire Dales below. Perfection. Half-remembered shards of childhood days: sheltering under rocks among the heather; the snare-roll of waterproofs flap

Coming to a halt. Lipcani, Moldova I met Joke and Björn resting in the shade of some large umbrellas as I pulled into the forecourt of the petrol station in Sighetu Martei, Romania. For the fourth day in a row since starting from Chișinău, Moldova, I had clocked over 90 miles since my usual early start, and was nearly a full day ahead of my planned schedule, having decided to make the most of passing my intended rest day location – Yasinya, Ukraine – and letting gravity carry

I rode from Madaba, the City of Mosaics, and home to a large Christian population, down to the Jordan River, dropping hundreds of feet in a glorious ride only momentarily rendered more perilous by being chased by a pack of ten to fifteen dogs at a checkpoint halfway down the descent. Seeing me screaming “FUCK” at the top of my lungs and pedalling like the clappers seemed to rather amuse the soldiers manning the checkpoint, but they were content to let me pass without question

Note to self: the term ‘fall’ here refers to both a waterfall and a potential fall to the death if attempting to traverse carrying a large, unwieldy bicycle. Hindsight, they say, is a beautiful thing, but I can’t concur. Two things I find endlessly fascinating and beautiful are deserts and maps. So to look at a map of the Negev, a desert or semidesert covering 4,700 square miles and 55% of the country’s land area, was, to be my dramatic self, rather exciting. I spent weeks po

It’s been a while. Working a 9:00-5:30 job means there’s not always as much opportunity as I’d like to escape what feels like the hurly-burly of stress and computer screens that constitute much of working life. But when that chance comes, I’d like to think I try with the best of them to make that escape interesting, for my own amusement if not for anyone else’s. I’ve noticed that many of the writers whose works I’ve read recently (Alastair Humphreys, Tim Cole, Leon McCarron,

Everyone has their own philosophy regarding travel, and I see myself as quite a purist, refusing to accept the ‘validity’ of other forms of transport when I’m on a bicycle tour. Setting mental parameters like these can be useful when it comes to self-fulfilment of easily identifiable goals. Yet the flip-side of this is that any failure to adhere to such a rigid plan instantly counts as complete failure, detracting from enjoyment in situ according to stipulations decided upon

Sitting here at my computer, safely within the comforting bubble of middle-class existence, it’s easy to start getting all preachy and idealistic about where I’ve been. I’ll try not to. I tried to keep a daily log of my 450-mile (or thereabouts), two-week journey through Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania, but began to find that style of writing so thoroughly exasperating that I’ve decided on a new approach. Instead of a day-by-day log, I’ll try to summarise some

Why hello! I am typing to you from Warner, Oklahoma, with just over 1250 miles on the clock and fast approaching my halfway point. I am becoming, I must admit, a little saddle-sore, but otherwise am in pretty good health and spirits. Sadly, however, one of my micro SD cards is playing up, and I am currently unable to access any of my photos from both North Carolina and Tennessee, which is more than a little frustrating, but I shall endeavour to recover them as best I can whe

Greetings from Nashville! I'm sorry it's been a while since I've uploaded, but I've not got particularly regular access to the internet and so I'll only be updating rather infrequently, but at least I'll have a lot of material to cover in each post (I hope). Right: formalities and apologies aside - *draws in breath and begins in a pirate accent* - listen and I will tell you a tale. Monday 11th August - London to Wilmington NC After a morning of frantic paranoia and worry that

Right. Time to get back in the saddle. I'm finally home in not-so-sunny Saffron Walden, and have been trying to rack up the miles in training before I fly out to the USA in just under a month. Although I considered the Dawes Galaxy AL for my trip, after having considered the amount of touring I hope to be doing on this bike, I opted instead for the steel-framed (and sadly mor expensive) standard Dawes Galaxy. Getting used to a new bike in such a short space of time has been r

The last few days have been rather up and down, so I reckoned it was about time for an update. DISASTER! I had always known that the bike I was planning to ride - a 1994 Dawes Synthesis - was pretty old and needed many parts replacing. I did not know, however, quite how worn its parts were getting. What started with a cheap tyre that exploded during a ride made me realise just how tired this old bike really was: so old, it turns out, that the mechanic described it as 70% worn

Hello one and all! It's excatly 3 months today when I will be flying out to the USA to begin my trip, so I've put together a little something to celebrate. I've spent the past week getting used to and messing around with some new video editing software that I'm going to make my film with, and here are some of the results. Donations welcome, and again, thanks for all those who have donated so far! http://www.justgiving.com/Tom-Blower-2014 #trailer #plan #pie

Welcome! Thanks for taking the time to read this, and thank you to all those who have already been generous enough to donate to my cause. If you have any questions/messages, feel free to use the contact page, or email me at thomasblower1994@gmail.com. I think I've got some jolly good explaining to do, so I'll give you some basic stats about my route. Start - Wilmington NC, 11th August Finish - Seal Beach CA, 22nd September Over 2800 miles across 8 states 98,421 feet of ascent