TRISTAN RIDLEY

Coming in from Ethiopia, Kenya was an immediate and blissful relief. After a month of non stop shouts of “you you you”, “give me money” and “FIRENJI FIRENJI!”, Kenya seemed a more relaxed and sensible place, a place where I could begin to relax and enjoy myself once a...

Many people who have not visited the Sudan (and who have not spoken to anyone who has) have a preconceived notion that it is a dangerous country; one of those ‘bad countries’ like perhaps Afghanistan or Somalia, where terrorism runs rampant and where westerners get the...

For almost a year now I have been using the Sidewinder Ti-Tri from Trail Designs as my primary stove for my round the world bicycle trip. An alcohol stove with a twist, the Ti-Tri has become easily my favourite way to cook on the road. By combining it with a homemade p...

I had stopped to cook lunch on a road that seemed to me particularly idyllic. Shaded by trees and running beside a waterway, the road had almost no traffic as I’d had to heft my bicycle over a broken (and impassible to motor vehicles) bridge to reach it. Privacy had be...

When I started touring a couple of years ago I was planning and executing my routes primarily using paper maps. As my journey took me out of the first world it became harder to find good maps so I turned to Maps.me, a basic but useful smartphone application with which...

In March 2019 I cycled through Ethiopia from the Sudanese border in the northwest (near Himora) down to the Kenyan border at Moyale in the southeast. Ethiopia has been notorious in bicycle touring circles for decades as one of the most emotionally exhausting countries...

From Nuweiba in the northeast to Lake Nasser in the far south, I spent over a month cycling through Egypt. In that time I experienced many different sides to this fascinating country, and at times struggled with mixed feelings. I was robbed three times in Egypt, and th...

I've been using a homemade pot cosy as a core part of my camping cook system for more than a year now. It’s something which I really love but which very few people seem to use or even be aware of, so I thought I'd write a little guide. Simply put, a pot cosy is a cover...

I've been thinking a lot lately about my motivation for continuing my ride, having struggled in recent months with a gradual weariness derived from long term movement. I have spent around four and a half years of my life travelling, always on a shoestring budget, and a...

From December 2018 to January 2019 I cycled through Jordan from Amman to Aqaba, following a long distance cycling route called the Jordan Bike Trail. Following a mix of dirt roads and pavement, the Jordan Bike Trail runs through some of Jordan's most spectacular sights...

Back in May 2018 I spent a little over a month cycling through the mountains and fjords of southern Norway, from the Swedish border south of Oslo up to around Trondheim. Anyone travelling to Norway, no matter what time of year, has to expect more than their fair share...

I am a long way behind in updating my blog and it’s time to bring it up to date. It’s been a busy couple of months with very little time off since leaving Hungary at the end of September. Since then I've pedalled through 7 more countries and ridden some of the toughest...

A small and mountainous country in Central Europe, Slovakia is a place with many beautiful national parks and some spectacular scenery. I spent a little over a week bikepacking through from Poland in the north down to Hungary in the south. My route was mostly off-road,...

I am up early as I have a lot of ground to cover, but nevertheless the sun has already long risen by the time I emerge from my tent; this close to midsummer in Norway the sky is never truly dark but instead glows with a soft twilight through the darkest hours of the ni...

The road is deserted and the mountains ahead loom tall and imposing, silhouetted black against the sky by a brilliant three-quarter moon. The silence is broken only by the rhythmic hum of my pedal strokes as my legs go up and down, bringing me slowly but surely to the...