As I lumbered my way along the dusty road towards the towering Mountains north of Karakol, Kyrgyzstan I queried what on earth was doing. I’d chosen an isolating and unfrequented track to climb up and over a 4000m mountain pass, the Archa Tor. This track from Kyzyl Suu to Jeti Oguz is an unpopular route:…
Held hostage (kinda) in Nomadic country in Kazakhstan
Held hostage by Kazakh locals….. From the low lands of Almaty in Kazakhstan I headed to Esik and rode up to the top of a 2600m high Mountain range. Admittedly was mostly pushing my bike up steep gravel tracks, sometimes so steep I would slide back down and my loaded bike would fall to the…
Why did I come here?
It was 9:30pm at night and I found myself in a town with no where to sleep. I had been driven to come here but I could not work out why. An hour earlier I had found a camping spot, admittedly it was next to a cemetery, but I’ve always thought ‘you’re not a real…
Vegan cooking in Kazakhstan
OMG I did it! I created a freaken Vegan Masterpiece from scratch in Kazakhstan (home of meat based Nomadic tribes of meat, potatoes, meat, rice, meat, bread, and did I say meat?) It took me a night of preparing and then the whole morning until we ate at 1:30pm. My god! It was really lovely…
Walk turns into ‘Extreme Kazakh Adventure!’
3 days ago I invited my Kazakh host, Svetlana, to accompany me on a walk up the Almaty Mountains. Now Svetlana is originally from Russia, and is a stay at home Mum to 2 kids, currently learning English and has a Husband. She is beautifully sweet, kind and has manicured toe and fingernails. We clambered…
Driven by death
Just on 10 years ago my Father’s soul left his body. He’d only just turned 51 although 3 years earlier was diagnosed with (what the medical profession like to call) a severe form of prostate cancer. It was a hideous 4 or so months for me in the lead up to his death. Last year…
Be careful who you surround yourself with
Be careful – choose carefully – who you surround yourself with. What other people think and believe will also come true for you, for better or for worse. Story time: I arrived at a Hostel in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and was happy to be greeted by another fellow cyclist. He groaned about the horrible ride in…
Callous China Calls Me
I’m about to embark on an incredible journey yet I’m struggling and hating my experience…
Biking Bali: Andrea sets off to cycle around Bali
So start how you mean to continue…… oh gawd…. So yesterday I had 2 car rides, a train and a bus to get to Perth Airport to make my flight to Bali. The train left without me having grabbed my bike box, so it was sweet talking, finger crossing, challenging waiting game which had me…
New Year review and goals
Slam you Andrea! This is what you MUST learn this year! So 2019 so far has been a wonderous fucker. The lessons have come in thick and laid it on me. I have danced to the beat of other people’s drums, and given far too freely; sacrificing and devaluing myself in the process. With the…
Crawling out from the Shadow
So I’m slowly coming out of my ‘can’t be fucked’ ness – apologies to those who I’ve offended – it is just a word – and really the only word I can find that adequately describes how I’ve been feeling. I could go on here about my word finding difficulties and severe memory issues that…
Now is the only time you have
I don’t know about you, but I sure needed this reminder today of something that happened to me nearly 6 years ago and the huge learning that I received…… As the ‘Silly Season’ can take hold of us, suck us into that vortex of consumerism and throw our values of good health and vitality to…
