Whether by bicycle, on foot or taking that irresistible road trip, Subbu guides his readers through his native country of India. From lakes to mountains to historical places, he describes the journeys and shares his knowledge of the place he calls home.

© Gretchen for TravelBlogs, 2011. | Wandering Soul | 2 comments |
Post categories: Blogs
Post tags: Asia, cycling, hiking, India, Malaysia, photography, road trip

Earlier this year (2010), two guys from New Zealand set out on a hike. Okay, not unusual for “Kiwis”. They seem to like hiking. But, this trek is somewhat unique as it follows the path of the Templar Knights which is not your normal modern-day quest. They’ve had their ups and downs – but, the real question is – will they succeed?

© Gretchen for TravelBlogs, 2010. | Kiwi Knights | No comment |
Post categories: Blogs
Post tags: cultural experiences, Europe, hiking, Hisory, living on the road, New Zealand, Templar Knights

“Eight months ago if you had asked me anything about social networking or Flickr, not to mention Twittering, you would have received a blank stare of ignorance.” writes James Handlon in his first blog entry. Much has changed over those months as James has written about his trip to India and hiking around the United Kingdom. His adventures are just beginning.

© Gretchen for TravelBlogs, 2010. | James’ Travel/Adventure Blog | 2 comments |
Post categories: Blogs
Post tags: camping, England, hiking, India, overland travel, United Kingdom, Wales

Many people dream of going on big adventures; only a few ever do it. For this article, I found 13 individuals, couples and families who had the guts to embark on epic adventures. You may envy them, or you may think they’re crazy. But I guarantee that their stories will inspire you.

Karl Bushby: Walking around the world

Karl Bushby is attempting to break world records by walking around the world. He set off from South America in 1998, walked north to Alaska and walked across the frozen Bering Straits (the first man to do so) into Russia. That alone took 8 years, and Karl has been delayed in Russia with visa problems for the last two years. Ultimately, his aim is to end up in London. By that time, he expects to have been walking for 14 years, with over 36,000 miles covered. Visit his website: Goliath Expedition.

Manon Ossevoort: Traveling by tractor from the Netherlands to South Africa and onto the South Pole

Manon Ossevoort’s tractor in Egypt.

Manon Ossevoort is a theatre maker and actor from the Netherlands who is travelling from the Netherlands to South Africa by tractor. Along the way, she is collecting the dreams of people she meets (on pieces of paper). From South Africa, she will travel by boat to Antarctica, where she will continue on foot or by tractor to the South Pole. Here, she plans to build a snowman and place the pieces of paper containing people’s dreams in the belly of the snowman. She is also raising money for War Child. Visit her website here.

Becky Sampson: Travelling by horse from London to Tokyo.

From London to Tokyo, by horse. Becky Sampson and her piebald pony, Bertie’s Quest, are setting out on a 15,000 kilometre, four-year quest through Western and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, China and Japan. Becky is aiming to raise £15,000 for SOS Children, an organization that works to provide safe places for orphan children to live and grow. Her journey is slated to begin in February 2009. Visit here website: Expedition Equus.

Ted Simon: Motorcycled around the world, twice

Back in 1977, Ted Simon set off on a 4-year motorcycle journey through Africa, the Americas, New Zealand, Australia and across Asia into Europe. He covered 78,000 miles on a 500cc Trumph. 25 years later, at the age of 70, he did it all again. He’s written books about both his journeys, which you can order from his website, Jupitalia.

Fire at Torres de Paine, Chile. Photo by Marlis Seelos.

Kinga Freespirit: Hitchhiked around the world

In 1998, Kinga Choszcz and her husband Chopin set off with $600USD and hitchhiked around the world for five years. Their amazing journey took them through the Americas, New Zealand, Australia, Asia and Russia before culminating in Europe. She wrote a book about the experience called Led By Destiny. In 2005, Kinga again set out, this time to Africa. Sadly, she died from malaria in Ghana in 2006. Read about her earlier adventures on her GeoCities website, or her more recent ones here.

Christoph Rehage: Walking from China to Germany

Christoph Rehage is walking from China to Germany, a journey that will take at least two years. After almost a year, he’s still making his way through China. He writes about his trip on his website, The Longest Way.

Frank Muldowney: Pushed an empty wheelchair across Australia

Frank Muldowney with Harvey

Frank Muldowney pushed a wheelchair containing his invisible friend “Harvey” from Perth to Sydney, a 4,000 mile journey undertaken to achieve world peace. Visit his website: Believing in Harvey.

Tim Cope: Travelled by horse from Mongolia to Hungary

Tim Cope followed in the footsteps of Ghengis Khan and travelled 10,000 kilometres by horse from Mongolia to Hungary. The journey took him over three years. Visit his website: Tim Cope Journeys.

Colin and Julie Angus: Completed the first human-powered cirumnavigation of the globe

In 2004, Colin Angus, his fiancée Julie Wafaei and someone else (the website doesn’t say who) took off from Vancouver and began a two-year cycling, skiing, canooing, hiking and rowing trip that became the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe. They’ve done other similar adventures, which you can read about on their website: Angus Adventures.

Rory Stewart: Walked across Afghanistan in 2002

Rory Stewart may not have covered as much distance as some of the other people mentioned here, but consider where he was walking and when. He wrote a book about his adventure called The Places in Between, which you can order from his website: Rory Stewart Books.

The Vogels: Cycling from Alaska to Argentina

The Vogels are a family of four (mom, dad and ten-year old twin boys) cycling the full length of the American continent over 2 and 1/2 years. Read about their adventures on their website: Family on Bikes.

The World by Road: Driving from New Zealand to New York

OK, so they’re not driving all of that, but The World By Road expedition crew are on one very big road trip. So far, they’ve driven through Australia, Asia, Russia, Europe (including far north Scandinavia), Africa and South America. After over 50,000 miles and a year and eight months, they’re on the home stretch. Check out their website: The World By Road.

Amy and Wim: Cycled from Belgium to China for their honeymoon

Now isn’t that romantic? After tying the knot, Amy and Wim rode from Belgium to China, covering almost 11,000 kilometres. Read about their journey on their blog: Amy and Wim.

© Eric Daams for TravelBlogs, 2008. | 13 Epic and Slightly Crazy Travel Adventures | 9 comments |
Post categories: Round-Up
Post tags: adventure travel, Becky Sampson, Christoph Rehage, Colin Angus, cycling, danger travel, epic adventures, Frank Muldowney, hiking, hitchhiking, horse travel, Julie Angus, Karl Bushby, Kinga Freespirit, long-distance walking, Manon Ossevoort, motorcycle travel, overland travel, road trip, Rory Stewart, Round the world, sailing, sea travel, Ted Simon, Tim Cope, Vogels

© Eric Daams for TravelBlogs, 2008. | The Big Walk | No comment |
Post categories: Blogs
Post tags: activism, couples, Europe, hiking, on foot

In 2002, Paul Webster set off with his wife Helen on an epic 4,000 mile walk from Spain to Turkey. Years later, Paul is reliving the journey on his blog, The Big Walk, which also raises funds for an environmental charity.

TravelBlogs exchanged emails with Paul and learned more about the walk and the impact it had on his and Helen’s lives.

What was the hardest thing about doing the trip?

There were quite a lot of days where odd things went wrong, we had a fright or unexpected problems, but it wasn’t really the immediate things that are the toughest to deal with as you don’t get a chance to worry about them in advance. The hardest part was trying to keep motivation going during the worst parts of the winter. It rained non-stop for days in parts of Italy and Greece; there were no hotels or campsites and we took to putting the tent up hidden behind roadside hedges and even beside graveyards. Obviously it also got dark very early so we spent alot of time in the soggy tent; our stove had failed at this point so our evenings were spent munching on cheese and biscuits in a chilly sleeping bag, with the fear of being discovered by passers-by. It’s when you get a few back-to-back days like this that you can lose the ability to imagine things improving, but there was always some surprise occurrence or kindness when least expected to turn things around.

You made the walk with your wife. Do you think this is the kind of trip you really need to do with someone?

I think it’s actually more usual to do this sort of walk on your own. The inspiration for our trip was Nick Crane’s book Clear Waters Rising, though we took a much easier route than Nick’s. He had done his walk on his own although he had only recently got married. Possibly you need a certain streak of insanity in your nature to want to do a trip like this at all and few people have a partner who’d be mad enough to want to do it too. Certainly you need to be sure of the strength of your relationship – you’d never spend so much time continually with one person in ordinary life. When things go wrong it can be very difficult not to take some of it out on your partner.

How much did you carry with you?

Although we did have a tent, stove, sleeping bag and one change of clothes each, we’d spent alot of time beforehand researching the lightest gear; without water or food we were carrying only about 16 kilos between us which is less than I carried on day-walks when I was younger! This was pretty essential as I sometimes carried upto five litres of water in the summer heat. Before doing the walk I thought carrying the backpacks would become a real chore but it never did – it just came to seem natural.

I’m interested that you started this blog now, years after you actually did the walk. Why now?

Like many people going travelling, on my return I wanted to write a book. Motivation for this began to wane as I realised that chances of finding a publisher are slim, but blogging gives us all a chance to write about our experiences without the fear of being rejected by publishers!

Did you write extensive notes when you were doing the walk?

The walk made us realise that material things mean much less to our happiness than we realised

I kept a journal which I wrote up every night. During the walk we actually found we had amazing recall of everything that happened. At one point we were pinned down in the tent during a fierce storm, and to pass the time we discussed the walk to that point day-by-day in our heads, and were amazed to find that we could both remember the details of every single meal we had eaten for the previous 300 days. During everyday life I can’t remember what I was up to a couple of days ago or sometimes what I had for a meal last night; I suppose a continuous journey gives your mind a structure by which to remember things. However total recall didn’t last and I’m now glad of the journal to trigger my memory.

You also have another website called Walk Highlands, which is dedicated to hiking in Scotland. What is it about travelling on foot that you love so much?

Although we both went back to our conventional careers on our return, we found that our outlook on life really had changed and began looking around to do something different – our feet were still on the go under our office desks! The walk made us realise that material things mean much less to our happiness than we realised, so we began looking around for a different type of life where our earnings might be minimal but we could concentrate on doing things we enjoy. We’ve always been keen hikers and have had a real passion for the Scottish Highlands, so we moved to the region and set up www.walkhighlands.co.uk, a hikers guide to the region. It takes small adverts from bed and breakfasts and other accommodation businesses and is now how we make our living.

So your walk really initiated quite a change in your life. Did you expect it would have such a big impact on your life?

It’s almost a cliche that undertaking a journey like this will be a life-changing experience. To be honest, when we were planning the walk, I think we were so excited about the whole thing that we weren’t really thinking beyond it. It was such a long way to try to walk, and I had no idea whether we would make it, but at that time, doing the walk itself was as far as the future went. A few months into the trip we met a guy who had been travelling on foot for seven years and had made it his way of life – it was at that point that we began to really think about what our future could be.

Do you have any other big walks planned?

Completing Walk Highlands is going to take us at least another year; then we are going to begin exploring the other Scottish islands, so no definite plans and it’s lots and lots of short trips for us now rather than one epic. I can’t rule it out though – it really was the time of my life!

Relive Paul’s journey on his blog, The Big Walk.

© Eric Daams for TravelBlogs, 2008. | 4,000 Miles Across Europe – on Foot: Interview with Paul Webster | No comment |
Post categories: Interviews
Post tags: couples, Europe, hiking, life-changing experiences, travel writing, walking