A couple of days after arriving I loaded my bike and gear onto the train and took the 2 hour ride up to Katoomba in the heart of the Blue Mountains. Sydney is fringed by national parks and this mountainous area is composed of sandstone which provides jaw dropping views and steep drops from the escarpment on which Katoomba sits. On arriving I headed out on my bike along the escarpment and rode out onto 'Narrow Neck', a rolling ridge about 15km long which juts out into some of the parks most inaccessible and truly wild country. The temperature must have been around 30 degrees, that combined with some steep drops and climbs made it hard going.  I teamed up with a charming German student (I seem to have met several charming German's since I left home in October - don't mention the war etc) Fortunately he found it equally tough (for those of you who know Rob Llewellyn - it was his twin brother 20 years younger and with the same classy hairstyle). We both rode b...

Greetings blog followers from a hot hot hot Christmas Eve in Sydney The Turkey's stuffed, the wine's cooling in the fridge and Lizy and Zoe are in their last hour at work before heading over to peel potatoes and start their holidays. Most importantly Lucy has arrived safely back in Cumbria where Des tells me she has enjoyed mulled oil and paint pies (I'll have whatever he's drinking). The first week or so here has been fun, relaxing, hot and adventurous.  The news of snow, rain, more snow, Eurostar failure etc makes me feel both home sick and grateful to be where I am. I spent the first few days in the Blue Mountains with my bike (separate post planned) and then headed back into town to spend a lot of Lizy's money on a new tent so we could walk the Coastal Track in the Royal National Park (another post planned - lots of pics and not too many words). Tomorrow (Christmas Day) Lizy and I head up to Clareville to house sit Paul and Lizy's (yes another Liz...

The last two months have been tremendous fun and I have been very fortunate to have stayed with friends, met up with friends and have friends come and join me.  I have also had several people acting as support team from home, particularly in relation to van parts and mechanical problems but also morale.   So in no particular order thank you to ................. Virginia, Russell and Julie and Murdo, Des, Neil, Stephen, Ollie and Lindsey, Karen (and family), Clare, Susan and Lizy.

Greetings from Bracknell in the south of England.  The last few days have been somewhat fraught.  Very sadly Lucy is not with me.  After the coil replacement therapy I headed north from Burgos on Thursday with only 150km between me and Bilbao and the ferry home.  Sadly a malfunctioning fuel pump left us by the roadside waiting for the Spanish RAC.  I continued north in a hire car and Lucy is expected back in Cumbria on 18th December on the back of a lorry. I'm sad Lucy didn't make it back with me. She covered endless trouble free miles.  We got to some remote and far flung places, climbed high into the mountains and put smiles on thousands of faces.  The mechanical post mortem will take place in Penrith.  We suspect poor quality replacement parts as being the fault. I will return to Cockermouth tonight and have chance to see the impact of the flooding.  I won't be there for long.  I fly to Australia on Thursday until 13th January and...

As you will know Cumbria was hit by appalling weather a couple of weeks ago with awful flooding.  The organisation that I normally run for a living (Cumbria Community Foundation) kindly gave me 3 months unpaid leave to go on this jolly and my small staff team undertook to run the shop whilst I was away.  They had a lot to keep them busy before the floods.  But the day after the floods they launched an appeal to help people affected (I did volunteer to come home and help but the offer was declined).  We've done it before, but it's a major undertaking, and one that my colleague Deb (who is acting in my place) has not had experience of. It doesn't surprise me that yesterday the appeal target went over £1m and continues to rise.  Cumbria has been absolutely devastated by the floods and any help that people can give should be channelled through http://www.cumbriafoundation.org/ I am hugely proud of their achievements and hope to drop into the office next week to ...

On Monday morning I waved goodbye to Virginia (who flew home from Marakech) and took my van parts to the garage. After a tense three hour wait Lucy fired up and together we began our journey north (with me still experiencing the effects of African Man Flu (stomach variety). It's now Wednesday evening and I'm in a fancy Hotel in Burgos about 130km south of Bilbao.  We've covered almost 1300 miles and I've been on the road for more than 27 hours.  Monday's drive north was pleasant enough and not too rushed.  Tuesday started at 5.30am and ended around 7.30pm.  It involved 2 hours through Morocco then an awful hour fighting my way through hordes of Moroccans at the border and then the peace of Spain ...............  The mountains in the north of Morocco are stunning and the views across the mediteranean were awe inspiring.  The sun was still rising as I dropped down towards Ceuta (the Spanish enclave). I had planned to stay in Granada, bu...