Ancient beings in the Bristlecone Pine Forest, California In early April, when Death Valley had finally, finally started to lose some of its gleam, we jumped back on the road. And an hour’s scoot to the east of Bishop, up the road from Big Pine, arrived at the Bristlecone Pine Forest nestled in the White […]
6 Oct 2017 – 14 February 2018 – Yahoo! Desert demons and “Gas gas!”
With our fill of summertime southeast Alaska, we kicked the side stands up in the lush temperate beauty that had surrounded us for the best part of the whale season, the wonder of things both small and huge: the colour of a wildflower that brushed against me on the trail, or the grand sweep of […]
6-19 Apr 2016 – Gigantic lumps of granite, Ewok forests and how to lose ‘friends’ and alienate officialdom
With a fraction over four million visitors present year in, year out—what on Earth did we expect when we entered the theme-park hub that for us, was Yosemite National Park? An exquisitely stocked and of course exorbitantly priced supermarket, conjoined with a labyrinth-inspired gift shop alongside heaving restaurants and other amenities of convenience, comprised the initial […]
28 Jan-12 Feb 2016 – The eureka of going down before you can go up
An overnight pit stop in Joshua Tree National Park—a tent utopia as it goes—saw us once again ensconced in its ecological melting pot, lined by a jumble of stacked boulders and walls of imposing granite. The convergence of two great deserts: the Mojave and Colorado, blended together in a barbed landscape adorned in Sonoran flora and […]
7 Nov 2015-27 Jan 2016 – A holiday from the holiday and our sunny stateside return
The prospect of coming home after 33,000 miles through 21 countries on my motorcycle, was a welcomed and warranted one. Taking temporary leave from living out of panniers and a roll bag for two years short of a quarter—to being lavished in comfort at my mum’s house was beyond appealing—hand washing will only get you so […]