In July 2009 Duncan, Adam and myself spend a week in a great apartment on the shores of Lake Como. We went cycling almost every day, circumnavigating the lake and exploring the nearby cols. It was great! We cycled 480 kilometres in five days, with over six kilometres of climbing. After this, Duncan and I cycled... read more
After cycling in Como for a week Duncan and I cycled back through Europe to London. (Duncan bailed out at Brussels). Along the way we crossed the Alps, the Black Forest, the Rhine, and cycled through Italy, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, France and England. We also found time to drink an... read more
It had to happen sometime. After four hundred and seventy-two days not working, it is time to re-learn the windsor knot because It is back to the grindstone on Monday. When I last wrote I was in Katherine, in the Northern Territory of Australia, having just been turned back by the incessant headwinds. From there I... read more
On my first big trip, through South America in 2004, I learned what most travellers eventually do - that no matter the difference in culture, people everywhere are essentially the same. Most people are good, there are a few bad apples - in short, everybody you meet is human. Two days ago, sitting by the side of the... read more
Darwin, 14,021 cycled kilometres from London. For the last stretch of the trip, back in my own country at last, a test of speed and endurance - Darwin to Melbourne, 3,800 kilometres - in 31 days. Straight through the outback. The bike will soon be ridable again, with a dodgy knockoff rear hub and patched up... read more
It just keeps getting harder in Sumbawa, Flores and Timor... At the last mail I had just arrived in the tourism magnet that is Sumbawa. Crossing the island over the next four days I didn't see a single foreigner until I boarded the ferry to Flores. Where did all these people come from all of a sudden? Ah, there is... read more
Well I am in the last internet cafe until the other side of Flores according to Lonely Planet - that's about 12 days without a connection. How will I survive. I have had an extremely challenging few days which make for an interesting story - unfortunately however there are no photos, as the connection here is very... read more
Ups and downs of mood and altitude in Sumatra, Java and Bali... My plan for the first part of Indonesia was simple - find ferries from Singapore to Jakarta, then from Jakarta to Surabaja, then start cycling east. The plan did not involve 60 hours of chicken bus travel through the depths of Sumatra, but that is what... read more
I'm in a hostel in Singapore, trying to arrange the various pieces of my trip over the last year into some sort of cohesive image. Here goes - Well before I left, the trip was about challenge; about making travel the adventure it was always supposed to be. From there, it morphed into getting back home to Melbourne... read more
Back to some speedy country crossing in Malaysia - fewer rest days and big cycling days, including one of 150km, K.L. to Melaka. Still no speedo, so the altitude readings aren't there, although it was mostly pretty flat, with some rolling hills in parts. I was going to go up to the Cameron Highlands, which is a... read more
Lots of days sitting around on beaches dropped the average distance significantly, but for some reason the on-bike days were big so the average distance for cycled days in the largest so far. My speedo stopped working towards the south so the altitude readings stopped, however the trusty GPS still gave... read more
It's been a while since my last update and since then I have travelled all the way down to the south of Thailand, stopping off at plenty of beaches and islands on the way. A couple of days from the Cambodian border and I was in the smoggy chaos of Bangkok. I toured the various bicycle shops attempting to get the... read more
Big travel days in Cambodia due to good roads and two dutchmen that were fitter than me. I know the stats don't add up - I don't count all days cycled as 'cycling days' if it was just to e.g. go sightseeing around Phnom Penh. Basically I screw with the stats to make myself look good. 1,016 Kilometres cycled 17... read more
This might be useful to people cycling the route... or at least a historical curiosity when they one day put a half decent road here. The Siem Reap to Poipet road is notoriously bad, the most famous theory being that some airline is paying the government not to upgrade it (or to do it slowly) so that more people... read more
My image of what Cambodia would be like was confirmed when the road away from the border turned out to be a dusty track through poor villages with 'Australian Red Cross Water Management Program' signs plastered all over them. (Cambodia has so many NGOs running about that you wonder whether the federal government... read more
Very fast going through Vietnam, helped by a prevailing Northerly wind, which I consider to be the Yin for my Turkish Yang, where I had a prevailing headwind. 2,324 Kilometres cycled 35 days, of which 22 cycling and 13 resting 66.4 km per day 105.6 km per cycled day 6,363m altitude climbed, which is 289m per... read more
Hi everyone, After a long time silent it is time for an update. For those that are not aware (Hanoi journal - http://www.macamat.com/photoserver/journal-entry.do?id=203 ), after backpacking through Asia I had my bicycle sent to me from Istanbul to Hanoi, and on January 1st I started cycling again. 26 days and... read more
I wrote a journal for Georgia in my diary - all about what we did there, the monasteries, the Stalin-era towns, the Black Sea beaches. But it wasn't very good, and I think the whole of the Caucasus is more interesting looked at together - the modern day contradictions, and the broad strokes of history. The caucasus... read more
I spent a further two weeks in Turkey after arriving in Istanbul. During that time I made my way east with Jannah through some lovely small Ottoman-era towns (Safronbolu and Amasya), stopping in Ankara to catch the Anatolian Museum of History, which is absolutely comprehensive and totally bewildering. It is really... read more
The summary:
Well, it has been a while hasn't it. Since I last gave an update five months ago I have hopped off the bike, but nevertheless have been busy crossing all of Asia. In one big hit now - Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, China, and Vietnam. I was in Hanoi for the New... read more
Before visiting Gallipoli I was a little disconcerted by this man Ataturk. You can't really avoid the him as there are statues in every town square and every place he stopped once for a pee is now a national museum. Originally Mustafa Kemal, he was renamed 'Father of the Turks' after pretty much single handedly... read more
A little about the travails of cycle touring. When I started this trip I wanted it to be an adventure. My general philosophy was that backpacking in South America had been too easy - look in the guidebook, find a place that looked fun, get the bus, find hostel, go see attraction, etc. Hence the cycling idea, which... read more
I must admit that I didn't try too hard in Greece. On the mainland I lost interest in culture, language and history in order to sprint with all speed to Athens. The biggest adventure on the way was trying to use an underwater tunnel which I flat-out knew was off limits to cyclists. I avoided the guard at the entrance... read more
Start with a normal western city, head down an imaginary line which turns it into a town like Marrakesh or Cairo for about a quarter of the distance, then take a hard right at communism and you end up in Tirana. Bazaars, cool bars and Stalin's-wedding-cake public buildings all mixed in together - it's a weird... read more
By God it was hot in Croatia. It seemed not a day went by when my thermometer did not hit 40 degrees while on the road. That little instrument is not known for its accuracy, but the heat seemed to radiate off the tarmac and I certainly wasn't in rainy northern France any more. It gets quite difficult to regulate... read more
Genoa - Trieste It's getting harder to be the weirdest guy in the hostel. I was getting ready to meet some backpackers for dinner in Genoa when an old man walked into my dorm carrying a full-size, nail-a-dude-to-it cross. 'Hello', I thought, 'we've got a live one here'. I was running late but I couldn't help... read more
Racing across the Po Valley - flat and featureless but with nice towns. Day 37 Genoa - broken down train - Genoa (rest day) Took a train *towards* Cinque Terra, but there was an accident further up the line somewhere and it didn't make it. Went back to Genoa, wrote off the day. This is the day the monk walked... read more
Things to complain about - 1. Germans My speedo is built by a German company with too much regard for safety. Here I was thinking that I had hit exatly 60.00km/h as a maximum speed several times on the trip, when really that is the maximum that it will record! It will show higher speeds as they occur, but I think... read more
In which our intrepid hero chills out in Avignon with Jannah, then speeds through the French and Italian Rivieras to Genoa. Day 26 Marseille - Avignon (rest day) Took bike on the train, was difficult but made easier by nice French train conductors and station masters. Hung out until Jannah arrived, was great to... read more
I was heading down a beautiful part of the west coast of France, threading through forests and occasionally popping out onto a huge beach which reminded me of Ocean Grove back home when I met two cycle tourists coming the other way. Chatting for a while, they asked where I was heading. 'Athens'. Pause. 'But, are you... read more
Through the beautiful Gorge Du Tarn, a spot of Kayaking then struggling through the traffic of France's second biggest city... Day 21 Severance - St.Enimie 70km, 16.6avg, patchy rain Starting off with ever more climbing and headwind (with rain thrown in) almost did for me, but I struggled to the edge of an... read more
In which I finally start heading west, I pass through awesome beaches, wine regions around Bordeaux, and a valley filled with prehistoric remains... Day 11 La Rochelle - Royan 90km, 16.7avg, Rain mostly; headwind Nasty headwind continued and the threatening rain arrived just after lunch. Lesson learnt - do not... read more
654km, London - La Rochelle After two days' cycling I rolled into Portsmouth, and I finally got to go see the Victory. I love to imagine some course of events which would bring the old maiden back into the action. I can see the pulp novel's back cover now, complete with too-vibrant illustration - "After the oil... read more
Day 4 Portsmouth - St.Malo (overnight ferry) No cycling except to the hotel; of course I did go the wrong way around a roundabout at the very first opportunity. Day 5 St.Malo - Ploermel 125km, overcast Huge day. Couldn't find original campsite - do not trust Google maps postcodes in France - but tourist office... read more
Day 1 Islington - Godalming 80km, 17.9km/h avg Kickstand fell off. One mudguard was being annoying. Felt fnie, knee got tired early but recovered. A Pomeranian dog yapped at me. Green Dene is an evil hill. Day 2 Godalming - Portsmouth 75km, 18.8km/h avg Repaired kickstand. Toiletries bag fell, made prayer... read more
It's time to do it all again. About 6 years ago I decided that I wanted to take two large trips before I turned 30. I went to South America; now I've just turned 29 and it's high time to hit the road. The last trip was a lot of fun but left me thinking that it wasn't travel as I'd expected it to be - it was too... read more
Uninteresting for most people but possibly useful for anyone else considering a long cycle tour. Right now, of course, I've only gone on a few test runs but I will update this entry as I learn more about how these items stand up over time. Bike - Specialized Crossroads Elite (Hybrid) Not your ideal bike for... read more
I went to Poland for New Years with Krzysztof, a mate of mine from work. It was a fantastic time - a sleigh ride, visit to a salt mine, parties in Krakow, amazing food and more vodka than you can shake a stick at. The sleight ride was great. It consisted of a big crowd of us piling into 3 rickety sleighs and... read more
...and to all a belated Merry Christmas! Sorry that I have not written to most of you in a while, but I like to have interesting stories of travel and adventure in my emails rather than describing what I have for breakfast in the morning, and there hasn't been an awful lot going on in the first department. In the... read more
So says the graffiti as we head away from Sassari, one of the main cities on Sardinia. True enough - Sardinia is poorer. And this is ITALY we're talking about here. Krzystztof, Conor and myself spent a few days cycling around the northeast corner of this fine but sleepy isle. We managed about 200km, not bad going... read more
In Sweden they love to take herring, wait until it gets a bit smelly and then shove it in a tin. The fish slowly putrifies, and the gases it gives off increase the pressure in the tin. The idea is to open the tin and savour the contents at the point just before it explodes - hence the large numbers of beggars with... read more
Arr, me mateys, 'tis summer in London and the time for silliness is upon ye. It has been a while. The working life continues over here, punctuated by fun and occasionally bizarre events. Read on... First up, I've just moved in with Duncan again. That is very cool, mainly because I have a shower now! Oh, blessed... read more
Hi all, Mat back with a different distribution list, a spanky new website and a lack of anything interesting to say, being as I am back in that life of Monday to Friday work drudgery that most of us call an existence. But after five weeks of working I'm a little tired so it's time for a holiday in Australia! See all... read more
Since my last mail I have been taking it easy, heading through the north of Peru and through Ecuador. I now own a suit, plenty of shirts and ties, and a new pair of shoes for job hunting in England. Ecuador has been good to me, despite my not giving it nearly enough time, however I will return to see the Galapagos and... read more
Been a while... seen quite a few things since half dying in Copacabana. Lake Titicaca's floating islands, Cusco capital of the Inca empire, the world famous Macchu Picchu, the huge geoglyphs (a word pretty much made for one area, meaning big-ass drawings on the ground several hundred metres long) at Nazca, and the... read more
At the Copa, Copacabana... With an oxygen tank on one side and a drip on the other... OK, so I did drink too much in Copacabana... (not the good one, the one in Bolivia) and that was before the drinking games started. Something about a hat, and something about sculling your drink. The next morning, trying to... read more
In ancient Easter Island (Rapa Nui, or Isla De Pascua officially) chickens were used as a form of currency for buying women. You want a pretty woman, you pay more chickens. This posed a bit of a banking problem considering that your neighbouring village is about 50 metres away and even your brother, uncle, dad or son... read more
It was one of those days when every idea that someone had, no matter how bizare, was met with a resounding 'sure!' from the rest of the group. When this is applied to four guys on a day trip to a foreign country, the only question remaining is whether they will actually be deported before their boat leaves that... read more
To Mendoza - party all night - trekking & abseiling - party all night - horseback riding - party all night - rafting - party all night - paragliding - to Buenos Aires - visit San Telmo - party all night - visit La Boca - party all night - go to dentist. Then comes the weekend. Huge night, meet argentinian family for... read more
Argentina... land of (from my perspective) huge steaks, pretty women, cheap prices, unintelligible Spanish and lots of kites. First up was Salta, a nice, white bread, rich looking town with a nice plaza and a nice cathedral facing it. (The Spanish colonial town plan gets a bit boring the 5000th time you see it!)... read more
It may surprise some of the more rural members of my family that I actually went horseback riding for two days and didn't get dragged along by my head with my foot hanging in a stirrup. By the end, I wasn't too bad. We went through Butch and Sundance country, three of us galloping through rivers, racing along the... read more
If you spun the Earth from underneath me so that Melbourne was underneath me, I would be four kilometres above most of the populace and wishing I had packed that ultralight backpackers parachute. Potosi, Bolivia is the highest city in the world. To build a city this high you need a damn good reason, because the... read more
Three tales for you all, as I sit here in Bonito doing a little river snorkelling but mostly chilling out, savouring the last of luxury for a while before I head off into Bolivia. A slight change in plan, going there before Argentina, requiring a change in flights and getting me in to London a bit later than... read more
Capoeira dancing should not be confused with Caiparinha drinking. One is where you hit the floor to avoid being hit, the other you drink until you hit the floor. Both are fun though. The Capoeira we saw was absolutely spectacular, really really good, incredible. The girls I went with were getting extremely hot under... read more
Rio - now this is what I am talking about! I am currently in Salvador de Bahia after a really fun week in Rio, despite the patchy weather and low tourist season. I went to a favela, the hillside slums, to find a lifestyle much more vibrant than I was expecting - the favelas are poor, but they are not dens of... read more
Tomorrow I head out of DR, off to Miami on my way to Rio De Janeiro. It's pelting down rain outside, and probably will all day, so I thought I'd sit in here and chat about this strange country. Plus I'm sick right now so the rest of the world can sod off. :) It`s beautiful, no doubt. The rolling green hills, way... read more
Sometimes you have an experience which makes you think 'yeah, maybe there is hope for the world, people are OK and it might all just work out'. Of course, you might find out that you were mistaken. It was a very strange day in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. I got there the night of a federal... read more
Costa Rica is different to all the other Central American countries. At the heart of the difference is money, as Costa Ricans are about five times richer than the next best off country around here. They did this by realising after some worthless coup in the 40's that their military was doing nothing for the country... read more
Honduras is the original banana republic - so called because U.S. banana growing companies at one time owned all of the country's ports and railroads, and most of its agricultural land. The U.S. sent marines in every now and then to keep it all running smoothly. So Honduras is just as screwed up as any other Central... read more
'La cuenta por favor'. The waiter stares at you with a bemused look on his face. Oh crap! That's right, this is Belize. Spanish takes a back seat to Kreol and English. I was on a bus in Belize one day, and it hadn't started off yet when a huge ruckus erupted between a few passengers about whose seat was whose.... read more
...is an absolute horror. Terrible beach, terrible hotels, terrible accents. That's my three-hours-in-town summary. OK, so I started my Mexican trip in Merida for a few days, nice colonial town, then I visited Chichen Itza, another Mayan ruin site but full of Americans, and I was going to spend a night in Cancun... read more
Hi all, sorry I've been a bit lax but I've been distracted... here's two journals in quick succession, the end of my time in Guatemala and the start in Mexico... For those that like following lines on maps - from San Pedro I went to Antigua to hook up with some friends and then we all went to a town called Lanquin,... read more
The Guatemalan chapter of the international chocolate cake testing laboratories is pleased to present its report on the many fine cocoa based delights available in San Pedro. The 'Pan de Chocolat' Straight from the street vendor to you, this chockie cake is the cheapest of the bunch and offers great value. While... read more
The dock is made out of uncut tree trunks rammed into the lake, with old slabs of wood lain across haphazardly - everywhere you can look straight down to the lake below. The lake is tranquil in the mornings, there is just a hint of a sound from the small waves lapping at the rocks on the shore. It is a crisp... read more
The last installment from your intrepid explorer over here in Cairo, just before starting a somewhat heroic journey across the face of the planet back to the land of oz. Since the last installment Duncan and I have hung out in Dahab some more, then we headed back to Cairo. Duncan left last night, unfortunately... read more
Hi all, just a quick one today as I'm absolutely wrecked. It's 9:00pm here in Dahab, on the east coast of Sinai, and Duncan and I have just finished our three dives for the day. This is a truly awesome place, the more so because of all the travel weariness that India and Egypt provide. Dahab is a very... read more
Well, Duncan and I have been in Egypt for a fair while now and have come up with a new little hobby, which is to sing stupid western songs whenever we are in positions of stress, a situation which has cropped up more than once... our trip has been an absolute classic for fans of the Duncan&Mat adventure... read more
...being the name of a Bollywood movie that we saw just after our last mail, and the thing that we have been looking at more than anything else for the last week. It's when you travel across the country in India by road that you get some more idea of what 'third world' really means. And it's not so much the poverty -... read more
Hey everyone, Kim & Mat here. Just wanted to let you all know that we have arrived in India safely, and are having a fabulous (interesting to say the least) time. Everything went to plan, meeting the family in Delhi, then starting our Intrepid tour. We are in Japiur now, having already visited Delhi... read more
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