Beyond the Bike 2015/16 - Bamboo with a View

Two final rides. Two final cities. Three very different bikes. In Hong Kong we cycled past our 10,000km target accompanied by a motley collection of bikes and friends. At the end of June we finally…

As Deng Xiapeng and Mao Ze Dong both said 'One country, two systems'. Although they were talking about Macau/Hong Kong's relationship with the mainland, we saw this to be true in so many different…

We rushed through Laos (covering the entire country from southernmost to northenmost border in three weeks, cycling around 800km and 'cheating' on two buses. Despite our speedy journey, the…

Temples, dogs, rice, more kind drivers (except in Bangkok), finally some cycle tourists, perfect beaches, Tsunami rememberance, cock fighting, funerals and inspiring stories. Our month in Thailand…

Wonderful people, careful drivers, and very few hills: after over a month of ‘holiday’ where we cycled only about 200km we needed to make up some miles and Malaysia was the perfect place to do this.…

The most expensive gateways to Asia and good models of benign dictatorship? A short blog about the start of our Asian adventures where the most shocking things were the amount of building work and…

South Africa is a country of huge contrasts; the richest and the poorest living in very close proximity, terrible stories of violent crime yet very kind and generous people and we did not have any…

Beyond the Bike in Zimbabwe can be summed up with the following: desperation and hope, education, cricket, rocks, sand, gold mines, lions and rhinos. We only spent a week in Zim which is a great…

Africa House, ‘jumpstarting’ planes, Sable darting, meeting chiefs, elephants, waterfalls, beatiful campsites, schools and plenty of cycling. Our six weeks in Zambia have certainly been exciting. As…

Spending time with Beyond Ourselves really brought home to me why we are doing this crazy cyling adventure, it is not just for fun and is something I will think about next time I get fed up when we…

This stage was a bit of a mixture and rather exciting, involving cycling through remote North-Western Tanzania, a voyage on a 100 year old German warship and breaking out a new friend out of a…

There is so much so say about Rwanda despite it being the smallest African country we will visit. I have already talked about the genocide memorial and this atrocity is what many people still…

Kampala (Uganda) to Kigali (Rwanda): 552km; September 13th - 19th. On Sunday 13th September, we left Kampala accompanied by the KGB (Kampala Group of Bikers), Kasoma (bamboo bike maker) and his…

Or "How many bikes can Claire ride in four days..." Beyond the Bike officially started in Canary Wharf, thus Stuart and I made our way over there on Thandie one grey September morning - we just…

People keep asking me this and I really do not know how to answer. Those who have done similar things (Stuart, on his last trip, Tom, the Hungry Cyclist) say that you cannot really train for…

Can a wine-tasting tour of Burgundy count as a warm up ride Stuart? Yes, apparently it can! So, we decided to spend two nights with Tom Kevill Davies aka The Hungry Cyclist at his new lodge near…