Priest in the Church of England. Father, husband, son. Keen biker.
General thoughts on bikes… and stuff.
I knew it wouldn’t take long to seriously get into planning my first extended trip here in Australia after I bought the XT660X – so here’s my first stab with some helpful advice from Mr Nigel Dalton (author of the Dalton Diversion) and Mr John Shippick.
Comments on this route greatly appreciated, thoughts on the towns I should visit, when I should ride – I need all the help I can get.
I miss the cats. In fact I think the hardest thing about being all the way out here is the fact I had to leave the cats behind :-/
The thing is I find myself wondering if I should get another cat out here as a stand-in before my two come out in August… and then we’d have three cats… but would the stand-in cat always be the stand-in cat.
I can’t decide.
Well very nearly six months – but near enough that I’ve started too look back at my short time here in Australia and take stock.
The biggest thing that’s hit me, is the things I thought would be important to me haven’t. When faced with a 25kg weight limited I tried to estimate what I HAD to have and what could be left behind – then when I had to work out what could go in my very small first shipment I tried to work out what I simply couldn’t be without. That boiled down to a bunch of electronics, my books, and my kitchen stuff. The only things that have come out of the packaging is the kitchen stuff – I’ve really enjoyed having decent pans, plates and tongs!
However, the electronics and books have, for the most part staid in the boxes since they arrived at the beginning of December, but as time has passed the things I’ve really missed I wouldn’t have expected at all. I regret not grabbing my camping gear, or my riding gear the first time around. Since I’ve bought the XT600 this month I’ve suddenly remembered what it was that enthralled me about discovering new places on two wheels. Not only the freedom that a motorcycle can give you but the complete ease at which you can throw your gear over the back wheel and stop where you please.
It’s fair to say that after the trip to Russia I felt slightly jaded about travelling. Actually that’s not fair, Russia, and the journey there are back was amazing. What didn’t sit well was the number of arguments that erupted between Patrick, Stace and I. It wasn’t my proudest moment, and seven months after the trip I’m only now starting to realise what it was that made it so amazing. It was Patrick and Stace, it was the arguments, it was the laughing, it was the tears and tantrums, it was the whole experience. I’d been concentrating on the negatives – but actually the positives far out-weight those – you only have to go back through the video updates, or look at the photos to see what I mean.
Last week I bought the entire Michael Palin travel collection on DVD. I’ve just finished re-watching Around the World in 80 days – I’ve not watched it since I was nine years old and sat, cuddled in blankets on my grandmothers leather sofa with tonsillitis. I think it was this programme more than anything else that gave me my taste for seeing the world as it really is – or rather seeing the world from the ground rather than a 747.
So back to the topic at hand, six months in Australia. I’ve got the house sorted. I’ve got the bike sorted, and I’ve got the panniers and other bits on order. When I get back from the states I’ll be bringing my camping gear with me from the UK. Autumn in Australia promises to be a season of exploration.
I do love a good Wispa, I was very pleased when they were brought back. But on another note Cadbury have been at the drugs again with this advert. Filmed of course in the Great Hall at Alexandra Palace.
Those of you that know me well, know I love a bit of an adventure. If I’m not actually riding my bike to Russia or Morocco I’m probably planning what the next trip will be (at the moment that’s probably going to be a short run up to Uluru on the possibly new XT660x.)
Anyway, one of the places that most conjures up dreams of adventure has to be Timbuktu – and I’d not really clicked it was quite as close to the UK as it is – well applying Australian values to distance rather than British. But it appears that it’s so close in fact, that you can fly there. And drive. And glide. Or to be more specific, you can drive, then fly over the water, glide back to earth, drive a little more then take-off again to avoid a natty little mountain range.
The gentleman responsible for this trip is an ex-SAS chap called Neil Laughton. He’s the classic British gent off on an adventure. He says, “Sadly the political situation in some areas on our route is not good and there are some unsavoury people about so we must be careful.” – I just love it.
The BBC have a good video complete with more details over on the News site, or you can read more about the trip on the expeditions own website.
I love working in R&D, I love the fact that when you tell people what you do they get excited and all of a sudden they’re full of ideas that you just have to try out. I love the energy and the simple creative buzz you get off just playing with new things and new ideas. But every now and again, R&D goes bad, or rather the videos created by R&D departments go bad.
I give you, Songsmith from Microsoft Research.
It’s that time again when we look back over the last 12 months and take stock of what we’ve done, and importantly, take a moment to think about what’s to come.
For my part, it’s been a massive year of change. Leaving the BBC, joining Lonely Planet, and moving half way around the globe to live in Melbourne. Last year’s New Years Eve saw Catherine and I on the Thames watching the fireworks in Central London. This year we’ll be at home in South Wales surrounded by family as we prepare to move our whole lives to Australia permanently.
It’s been a stunning 2008 – highlights include Mashed08 at Alexandra Palace, getting to St Petersburg on my motorbike with Patrick and Stace, and running the BBC Innovation Labs to great success.
2009 will be a brilliant year I have no doubt. Catherine will join me in Oz, I get to run a new event (Lonely Travel Bloggers Awards) in San Francisco, and with any luck I’ll get out to Alice Springs on a new motorbike.
Finally and most importantly. Happy New Year to you all. Thank you for your support, however offered, over 2008 and I look forward to spending more time with you all in 2009. Keep in touch 🙂
Yes okay so I’ve only been out of the organising events thing for a matter of months – but I couldn’t resist – how cool to run an LP Travel Bloggers Awards?!
I’ve finally got permission and kinda worked out a few things… so here’s the announcement via the lplabs.com blog:
With all this work going on for blogsherpa, it occurred to us that as well as paying people for their travel related blog posts, we should also do some awards for Travel Bloggers.
We thought that, being LP, we could probably come up with some pretty cool prizes, in a pretty cool place, and perhaps – if we push the boat out – some kind of trophy type thing. Maybe.
So, rather quietly (because I’ve not sorted the details yet) I’m announcing The Lonely Planet 2009 Travel Bloggers Awards – or the TLPTBAs – may have to work on that.
The idea, is to open nominations first thing in Jan in a few categories (suggestions? comment below), close them at the end of Feb – then set up a panel of rather cool people made up of brilliant bloggers, some of our authors and commissioning editors and let them vote BUT… their vote would only make up 50% of the overall socre – the other 50% would come from the public via online voting.
The winners would then be announced with rather grand fanfare in San Francisco in March 2009, at a party of some sort.
That’s it really – I’ll create a new tag (lpawards) here for the awards and as they develop I’ll update more here. Ideas, suggestions and thoughts most welcome.
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