holly and ben go adventuring.

Tag: travel

  • Farawayistan

    21st – 27th June 2026

    As I watched the Caucasus mountains become the Caspian Sea and then the desert from up above it felt very odd not to be travelling slowly, and suddenly transported to Farawayistan (although naturally given that I’m a Lang I prefer the Swedish translation of Långbortistan). Despite very little sleep, one slightly dodgy stomach and just shy of 100kg luggage, the day somehow went rather smoothly, and our bikes were soon almost correctly put back together. With the stress of flying behind us we could finally relax, which of course meant exhaustion soon hit. However something about being faraway relieved our mental weariness and we started to feel excited to explore somewhere that felt completely different.

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  • Georgian interlude

    13th – 21st June 2026

    It felt like we’d stepped back in time rather than crossed the border into Georgia. Sometimes you barely know you have crossed from one country to another but the change in the buildings and driving was stark. After several kilometres we decided to stop and double check what side of the road they drive on, as it wasn’t immediately clear. The roads themselves started off in reasonable quality, before becoming mottled with potholes which lorries had to navigate painfully slowly. At one point the road disappeared completely. If this was what the roads were like to Tbilisi, we’d be in for a bumpy ride.

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  • How to approach Istanbul?

    15th – 20th May 2026

    We would soon be approaching Istanbul and we still weren’t completely sure which of the myriad ways we’d enter into this sprawling metropolis. What we’d read online and heard from others was that cycling into the city was a sure fire way to raise your heart rate and is something that would stay with you forever. Possibly not in a good way. Whilst this sounded tempting, we weren’t entirely convinced so we looked it what options were open to us… Ah yes, but first that border crossing and a few days riding to get done.

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  • Crème de la crème

    1st – 7th May 2026

    The final ascent out of Dubrovnik was again awful – coaches, cars and lorries honked their horns and came hurtling past us with mere inches to spare. They didn’t care and at times it felt like they wanted to teach us a lesson. I was done with it and close to breaking. Fortunately, things were about to get a lot better (and then temporarily worse again for a bit).

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  • The many errors of our way through Croatia

    If I have learnt anything in Croatia it’s that I have a rather vivid and overactive imagination that seems to hinder rather than help in all sorts of situations:

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