http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/pushonnorth/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from pushonnorth en-us Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:14:28 BST Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:14:28 BST With near perfect timing as soon as I had finished my travelblog crashed. I have now finally got round to fixing it and reposted it. Sorry for the delay. By way of an added bonus here are some photos covering my travels across Alaska and Canada in August and September.Alain and I rode south from Fairbanks down to a very damp Blue Grass music festival in Talkeetna. Weather and music quite disap http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Quebec/Montreal/Old-Montreal/blog-201676.html Finished a couple of days ago. Feels good. Got into Deadhorse Alaska on 26 July just before lunchtime. You can't ride or drive any further north than Deadhorse. Access to the Arctic Ocean is restricted to private commercial tours which cost 38USD to go and look at an unappealing bit of water with oilfield debris floating around in it. After over 18 months on the road I have nowhere left to push. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Alaska/Prudhoe-Bay/blog-190671.html My Greta Garbo phase is over. No longer cycling solo. Met up again with Alain and Tom Swiss guys that I met last year in South America in Vancouver. The last time I saw Alain was in Bolivia when I watched him cycle off into the rain forest with Felix the map cutter an organic farmer from Dresden. At the time I vowed that I wouldn't let myself get hurt again and rush straight into another cycli http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Yukon/Whitehorse/blog-176583.html It has been a long day. I finally pull off highway onto a small gravel road. After a calorific supper consisting of corn beef bagel sandwiches Did you know that there can be as many as 300 calories in a single bagel I perch my tent on a hill behind some bushes. Have been riding across Northern California on Highway 36 a twisty little fellow whose snakey curves are too much for the logging tru http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver/blog-164644.html Apologies it has been some time since I last dropped a blog. Have been busy cycling across Mexico trying to keep on schedule. Not much hanging around after Tantoyuca. Have pedalled furiously. Hirsute and hunched over my bars with my bright yellow Bob trailer swishing behind me I swept through small villages like a gorilla selling bananas on a bicycle. Stopping only occassionally to refuel and dev http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Arizona/Phoenix/blog-145434.html Just a quick blog really to let you know where I am and show you the photos I have taken to date. Think I am suffering from writers block as no mysterious Austrian fisherwomen or poetry have manged to penetrate my blog this time. However the good news is that in Xalapa I managed to get hold of a Mexican wrestling mask. Thus evenings in hotel rooms have been spent shadow grappling in front of the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Papantla/blog-132090.html Huehuetenango sounds like an Abba song. It is a town in western Guatemala. I arrive after three days of crawling up and down a rugged mountain range known as the Sierra de Los Cuchumaines. In those three days I have only travelled 160 km but it has been hard work. Although most of the road has just been paved the gradients are the steepest I have ridden so far on my trip. Guatemalan civil enginee http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chiapas/San-Cristobal-de-las-Casas/blog-124353.html A knock on my door. I stir in my bed. As I rise to greet my mysterious caller I speculate on who it could possibly be. Scarlett Johansson perhaps clutching a 38mm spanner a couple of onion bhajees and a copy of the latest edition of Private Eye My imagination continues to outpace all logical probablities as I visualise her handing over these precious treasures whilst whispering in a breathless http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/San-Carlos/blog-114277.html Pig Apparently some scientists sayThat as much as 98 of our DNAIs shared with the common swine.So its hard to know what is the pigs and what is mine. Gutted and mounted on a spitIn the best of circumstances an unfortunate fatePublicly displayed by the highway like an installation in the Tate.Small black eyes stare inevitably into Deaths middistance.Parallel lines are scored down his diminishi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-105701.html Detour in Ecuador After crossing the border from PeruI took a detour in EcudaorChanged some moneySaw the road sign and thoughtWhy not I will not be here again.Then slipped off the highway. Prior to my diversion I sought the usual useless assurancesAnd asked a man pushing an icecream cart whether the quieter road was also paved.Todo es aspahalto he cheerfully confirmed.And unusually it was http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Otavalo/blog-97443.html Aye in the catelogue ye go for men Going up a long yellowgreen curve of Altiplano I see himChase instinct triggeredA wellused toilet brush torpedoes towards me.Bandits at three oclockChest steady legs thump through dustChaotic fronds of mangy brown hairFocussed on pursuit.Still a hundred yards away yet closing in earnest.Flanked by two others he is the emperor of this humble patch of dirt http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/La-Libertad/Trujillo/blog-91072.html Frequently Asked QuestionsPeople often ask me Where are you fromInglaterra England David BeckhamAaah your prime minister Mister Tony Blair...Perhaps somewhat prematurelyThe political conversation usually ends there.People often ask me Isnt your journey really toughBut the slow sweaty squeezeWith my fellow commuter antsWas harder than cycling the AmericasWith just two pairs of pan http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Nazca/Nazca-Lines/blog-84406.html Fifty years ago in Sucre Bolivia there lived a very beautiful young lady called Lydia. She had wonderfully large eyes with curly dangerous eyelashes rather like octopus tentacles. Her legs were also very lovely almost two metres long whilst her lips were as soft sensual and moist as raw sausages. In addition to her great beauty she was also very intelligent she spoke five languages and was http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Cochabamba-Department/Cochabamba/blog-79299.html His cheeks were red roughned by the wind which for ten long hours had massaged his cheeks. Drops of water trickled from his hair. He had emerged from the night like a sewerworker coming up out of his manhole with his heavy boots his leather jacket and his foreheadplastered hair blinking like an owl.Southern Mail by Antone de SaintExuperyFelt a bit like this yesterday when Alain and I http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Uyuni/blog-72428.html Thus there was nobody however sad cross sour or melancholy he might beno not even if he were another Heraclitus the Weeperwho was not filled with fresh joy and whose spleen did not yield to laughter when he saw this noble fleet of ships with their devices. There was no one who did not exclaim that the travellers were all worthy boozers and who did not feel prophetically certain that the j http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Salta/blog-65677.html Do you understand any of that Pantagruel asked the company and Epistemon replied I think that it is the language of the Antipodes. The devil himself couldnt get his teeth into it.Then said Pantagruel My friend I dont know whether the walls can understand you. But not one of us can make out a syllable.Book 2 Chapter 9 Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais The above quote is i http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Salta/Cafayate/blog-59379.html He had now time to give himself up to the full romance of his situation. Here he sate on the banks of an unknown lake under the guidance of a wild native whose language was unknown to him on a visit to the den of some renowned outlaw a second Robin Hood perhaps or Adam o'Gordon and that at deep midnight through scenes of difficulty and toil separated from his attendant left by his guideW http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Mendoza/blog-50996.html Im going over to that brook with this meat pie where I plan to eat enough for three days because Ive heard my master Don Quixote say that the squire of a knight errant has to eat whenever he can and as much as he can because they might go into the woods so deep they cant find their way out again for six days and if the man isnt full or his saddlebags arent wellprovisioned he migh http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Chubut/Esquel/blog-45820.html After leaving El Calafate I spent three very enjoyable days cycling around Lago Argentino and Lago Viedma whilst listening to the White Stripes to get ot El Chalten. A pleasing combination of beautiful lakes jagged ice capped mountains and funky rock. At the end of the first day I turned off the road and asked to camp in Estancia Irene. I was greeted by the extremely hospitable Juan Carlos. He http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-42641.html Then they climbed back on their mounts and hurried to reach a village before dark but the sun set long with the hope of acheiving their desire when they were near the huts of some goatherds and so they decided to spend the night there as much as it grieved Sancho not to be in a town it pleased his master to sleep outdoors for it seemed to him that each time this occured it was another act http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Calafate/blog-39507.html