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Cycle-toured 100,000km+ in 70+ countries. List of places to visit (preferably by 🚲) always growing. Currently working in 🇸🇦. Touring again 2021.languages
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Jan 01 1970 GMT00:33
captions
Making maps again. Covid permitting 🤞, I'm planning various cycle tours for 2021, one of which being an off-road adventure through southern Spain.
🚴♂️
The TransAndalus is a 2000km+ circuit through the autonomous region of Andalucia.
🇪🇸
Details and information about the route can be found at transandulus.org, including gps downloads for each section. I've uploaded all 88 sections to the mapping app , which displays detailed information on elevation and road surfaces. Each section can easily be used to navigate with from the app on a phone.
🌍
I have no specific time plan for completing this - a month perhaps? Anyone else familiar with the trail or been creating their own post covid tours?
•More details about the route can be found at transandulus.org. You can also view the full route on my komoot profile. Link above.
Jan 01 1970 GMT00:33
captions
Making maps. The plan had been to cycle tour this summer, but 2021 looks more likely now. No surprise explanations needed really.
🚴♀️
•Like many who dream and plan of future two-wheeled adventures, I'm often looking at maps - connecting roads and places of interest. During my first big tours I just relied on paper maps - Google maps didn't exist when I started bike touring. This made riding out of places like Beijing and Bangkok a lot more challenging!
🌎
• In more recent years I've used various online apps and platforms to navigate and record my tours. The advantage is that with so much more detail the options for on and off-road riding is far greater. Over the past few months I've gone back to some of these shorter tours and used the @komoot app to upload gps files, linking up individual days into a single tour. It's a great feature, and @komoots user-friendly app allows the addition of pics and highlighting places of interest. Click on the link above to see some more recent collections. The only addition I'd like to see @komoot add is a cumulative elevation profile for an entire tour. Is anyone else using komoot to plan and record their tours? What do you think?
____
Jan 01 1970 GMT00:33
captions
As Somaliland has little official recognition outside its borders (in Africa I think only in Ethiopia and Djibouti), the nation's flag isn't well known. However, inside of Somaliland it is hard not to come across the green white and red tricolour emblem, emblazoned over most shop fronts and public offices, and now sitting in the middle of the top tube on my bicycle. Who can name the other flags?
🗺🌍🇪🇹🚲🇸🇿🇱🇸🇸🇸 _
Jan 01 1970 GMT00:33
captions
Somaliland: Africa's best kept secret. At least the sign outside the Somaliland chancery in Addis Ababa said so. A former British protectorate until 1960, Somaliland declared itself to be unilaterally independent from neighbouring Somalia in 1991.
Reports I'd read suggested a police escort to travel here may be necessary. Fortunately I experienced nothing of the sort, although there were plenty of police check posts. After Ethiopia, cycling here was a breath of fresh air, and the people overwhelmingly welcome. While neighbouring Somalia deals with ongoing insecurity, Somaliland, which has little international recognition for the independence it continues to seek, prides itself on maintaining relative peace during the last several decades.
🌍🚲🗺🏜
Jan 01 1970 GMT00:33
captions
Hyena camp. I hardly camped at all during the three months I spent cycling in Ethiopia. That wasn't through fear of hyenas, but the difficulty and hassle of finding somewhere suitable, away from the curious young eyes and unwanted attention that made some days much more challenging than cycling itself. Fortunately eastern Ethiopia, close to the border with Somalia, felt more relaxed. Less people, less kids chasing me and throwing stones - more hyenas perhaps...
_
🐺My tent is pitched in no man's land here. That is, between the Ethiopian and Somalian border. Somaliland actually, but I'll get to that in another post. A few days previously I'd fed hyenas some butchers scraps in the historic city of Harar, a practice that has gone on for centuries to ensure the wild animals don't enter the city to feed on livestock, and people I guess. I'd also seen a good number of road kill victims, so wasn't entirely sure there wouldn't be hyenas roaming around my tent late at night. Perhaps there were, but fortunately I had little more than pasta and some biscuits in my bags.
●🌍🇪🇹🚲🐺
Jan 01 1970 GMT00:33
captions
A peaceful roadside cafe/restaurant, easily visible from the road, and one where you can sit in view of your bicycle to rest for a while, is a relatively rare find in Ethiopia. At least this was my experience. I often rode right through crowded towns failing to find such a place, so just carried on going until I found somewhere suitable, such as the one pictured here.
• 🇪🇹🌍🚲
Jan 01 1970 GMT00:33
captions
Bed for the night. I like to sleep close to my bicycle when cycle touring. Usually it stays on the floor of a room, but sometimes the floor is a more comfortable option than a bed bug-ridden bed, and the bike must be moved from the floor in order to create enough space to pitch a tent. I'd been in Ethiopia long enough to know that squalid cell-sized rooms such as this, which were often the only ones available in rural locations, were places I would sleep better within my tent. So why not pitch the tent outside in the fresh air? That was often the idea, but when I couldn't find anywhere suitable or secure, and I found myself cycling on into the dark feeling tired and hungry, I often just settled for what was available. All part of the fun and adventure...in hindsight. 😎
•🇪🇹🌍🚲🛏
Jan 01 1970 GMT00:33
captions
Back on the road - or just reminiscing about life on the road. I'm still in Ethiopia, retrospectively, dealing with the brutal climbs, but sublime views that the country offers. Like this one, overlooking the green and fertile terraces of teff, Ethiopia's staple crop. The altitude at this point was about 3300m, which is pretty high for a road in Africa. I'll continue this journey to Somalia and the boat that transported me out of Africa to the Arabian peninsula. Stay tuned.
_🇪🇹🏞🚲🌍
Jan 01 1970 GMT00:33
captions
Rolling through rural Ethiopia and enjoying some rare peace, until the group of children - who can be seen right in the middle of this picture beside the road, decided to accompany me for the next hour or so. As none threw stones or attempted to pull something from my bike, which I'd experienced a number of other times in Ethiopia, this was a relatively successful day on the road. The patchwork of green fields here are mostly planted with teff, a cereal used to make Ethiopia's staple food - injera.
🇪🇹🚲🌍📷🗺
Jan 01 1970 GMT00:33
captions
Finding accommodation in rural Ethiopia isn't particularly difficult. Finding clean and comfortable accommodation on the other hand can be a challenge. Simple rooms, such as those shown in the first few pictures, may be all that is available. And rather than finding a clean towel and soap upon arrival, it's more likely a complimentary candle and packet of condoms will be provided for guests.....
After the first few nights staying in such tin-roof cells my back was covered in bed bug bites. From that point onwards I often found rooms large enough to pitch my tent within, although this sometimes meant lifting the bed up against the wall. On a few occasions I slept in schools, such as the one pictured, rather than camp out, which I might have done in places more peaceful. Much of the Ethiopian countryside never seemed far from the prying eyes of curious children, who successfully sapped most of my energy out during the day. 🇪🇹🚲🌍🗺🐜
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609
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Dec 22 2019 GMT15:12
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Finding accommodation in rural Ethiopia isn't particularly difficult. Finding clean and comfortable accommodation on the other hand can be a challenge. Simple rooms, such as those shown in the first few pictures, may be all that is available. And rather than finding a clean towel and soap upon arrival, it's more likely a complimentary candle and packet of condoms will be provided for guests.....
After the first few nights staying in such tin-roof cells my back was covered in bed bug bites. From that point onwards I often found rooms large enough to pitch my tent within, although this sometimes meant lifting the bed up against the wall. On a few occasions I slept in schools, such as the one pictured, rather than camp out, which I might have done in places more peaceful. Much of the Ethiopian countryside never seemed far from the prying eyes of curious children, who successfully sapped most of my energy out during the day. 🇪🇹🚲🌍🗺🐜
analysis
This post got 47% more likes
compared to @petegost's average. It uses 11% less hashtags
and its caption is 26% longer
510
8
Apr 04 2020 GMT19:04
captions
Somaliland: Africa's best kept secret. At least the sign outside the Somaliland chancery in Addis Ababa said so. A former British protectorate until 1960, Somaliland declared itself to be unilaterally independent from neighbouring Somalia in 1991.
Reports I'd read suggested a police escort to travel here may be necessary. Fortunately I experienced nothing of the sort, although there were plenty of police check posts. After Ethiopia, cycling here was a breath of fresh air, and the people overwhelmingly welcome. While neighbouring Somalia deals with ongoing insecurity, Somaliland, which has little international recognition for the independence it continues to seek, prides itself on maintaining relative peace during the last several decades.
🌍🚲🗺🏜
analysis
This post got 23% more likes
compared to @petegost's average. It uses 16% more hashtags
and its caption is 2% longer
473
10
Feb 24 2020 GMT14:31
captions
Back on the road - or just reminiscing about life on the road. I'm still in Ethiopia, retrospectively, dealing with the brutal climbs, but sublime views that the country offers. Like this one, overlooking the green and fertile terraces of teff, Ethiopia's staple crop. The altitude at this point was about 3300m, which is pretty high for a road in Africa. I'll continue this journey to Somalia and the boat that transported me out of Africa to the Arabian peninsula. Stay tuned.
_🇪🇹🏞🚲🌍
analysis
This post got 14% more likes
compared to @petegost's average. It uses 5% less hashtags
and its caption is 33% shorter
comments
215
18
Sep 20 2020 GMT14:57
captions
Making maps again. Covid permitting 🤞, I'm planning various cycle tours for 2021, one of which being an off-road adventure through southern Spain.
🚴♂️
The TransAndalus is a 2000km+ circuit through the autonomous region of Andalucia.
🇪🇸
Details and information about the route can be found at transandulus.org, including gps downloads for each section. I've uploaded all 88 sections to the mapping app , which displays detailed information on elevation and road surfaces. Each section can easily be used to navigate with from the app on a phone.
🌍
I have no specific time plan for completing this - a month perhaps? Anyone else familiar with the trail or been creating their own post covid tours?
•More details about the route can be found at transandulus.org. You can also view the full route on my komoot profile. Link above.
analysis
This post got 50% more likes
compared to @petegost's average. It uses 11% less hashtags
and its caption is 13% longer
609
18
Dec 22 2019 GMT15:12
captions
Finding accommodation in rural Ethiopia isn't particularly difficult. Finding clean and comfortable accommodation on the other hand can be a challenge. Simple rooms, such as those shown in the first few pictures, may be all that is available. And rather than finding a clean towel and soap upon arrival, it's more likely a complimentary candle and packet of condoms will be provided for guests.....
After the first few nights staying in such tin-roof cells my back was covered in bed bug bites. From that point onwards I often found rooms large enough to pitch my tent within, although this sometimes meant lifting the bed up against the wall. On a few occasions I slept in schools, such as the one pictured, rather than camp out, which I might have done in places more peaceful. Much of the Ethiopian countryside never seemed far from the prying eyes of curious children, who successfully sapped most of my energy out during the day. 🇪🇹🚲🌍🗺🐜
analysis
This post got 50% more likes
compared to @petegost's average. It uses 11% less hashtags
and its caption is 26% longer
107
17
Aug 01 2020 GMT12:58
captions
Making maps. The plan had been to cycle tour this summer, but 2021 looks more likely now. No surprise explanations needed really.
🚴♀️
•Like many who dream and plan of future two-wheeled adventures, I'm often looking at maps - connecting roads and places of interest. During my first big tours I just relied on paper maps - Google maps didn't exist when I started bike touring. This made riding out of places like Beijing and Bangkok a lot more challenging!
🌎
• In more recent years I've used various online apps and platforms to navigate and record my tours. The advantage is that with so much more detail the options for on and off-road riding is far greater. Over the past few months I've gone back to some of these shorter tours and used the @komoot app to upload gps files, linking up individual days into a single tour. It's a great feature, and @komoots user-friendly app allows the addition of pics and highlighting places of interest. Click on the link above to see some more recent collections. The only addition I'd like to see @komoot add is a cumulative elevation profile for an entire tour. Is anyone else using komoot to plan and record their tours? What do you think?
____
analysis
This post got 42% more likes
compared to @petegost's average. It uses 53% less hashtags
and its caption is 57% longer