Cycling
New Zealand’s Darkest, Bloodiest Secret: The Sandfly
Kiwi recommendations for stopping the biting beasts: DEET, geranium leaves, garlic, rancid bacon, Marmite, Vegemite. Does anything really work?
February 07, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
Questing for Calories in New Zealand’s High Country
There is something liberating in running out of food. Concerns about rationing are out the window and the world is simplified into a playground for foraging
February 02, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
New Zealand: Too Orderly, Tidy and Tame?
After leaving her job and home to bike around the world, a cyclist finds New Zealand a little too comfortable
January 24, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
Catch and Release: A Wicked Game?
Without doubt, fishing is an effective means of bringing people to the water's edge, their eyes open and hearts thumping, to admire the ecosystem and consider the value in preserving it
January 19, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
New Zealand and Other Travel Locales That Will Break the Bank
New Zealand is worth visiting, but I'm not sure how long I can keep traveling here while claiming to be "on the cheap"
January 12, 2012 |
By Alastair Bland
Seven Islands to Visit in 2012
Pitcairn Island is populated by 50 people, has a handful of hostels, a general store and a café and, frankly, could really use a few visitors
December 22, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Holiday Gift Ideas for the Adventure Traveler
A chess set, soccer ball, bear spray and other items, even dog food, make the list of gifts to give your favorite hardened traveler
December 16, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Have Kids, Will Travel
"It just felt like what we would do. We were travelers. It was in our blood, and the idea that we would ever stop traveling just because we had kids never sat well with us"
December 14, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Books on Bike Perfection and Women’s Bike-Won Freedom
Women's clothing was a problem, and to efficiently ride a bike there was only one thing to do: Take it off
December 01, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Women and the Way of the Pedal-empowered
Susan B. Anthony said bicycling "has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel"
November 29, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Into a Desert Place: A Talk With Graham Mackintosh
In remote fishing camps along the shoreline, a few older fishermen remember a red-haired Englishman who tramped through 30 years ago, disappearing around the next point.
November 17, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Crying Wolf Among Motor Vehicles and Landmines
Five drunk young men—the first visibly intoxicated men I think I've seen in Turkey—spilled out and began dancing in the highway to Turkish music from the car’s radio
November 15, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Zen and the Art of Sleeping Anywhere
By camping wild, we bypass unloading the luggage, taking off our shoes at the doorstep, and all the other finicky logistics of dwelling in a well-groomed society
November 10, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Beam Me Home, Please
Putting one’s very means of transportation into a box while miles of travel still remain is about as clever as stepping into a canvas shopping bag and attempting to carry oneself to the market
November 08, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
The Final Sprint to Istanbul
The townspeople ogled the tourist he’d captured. “From America,” the cop boasted, like he’d shot me at 400 yards with a rifle
November 03, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
The Figs and Mountains of Izmir
Travel horizontally in any direction and you see no change in landscape; Siberia remains Siberia from Finland to Kamchatka. But travel just 4,000 feet vertically, and the world transforms
November 01, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Rose Hips and Hard Times
Sultan packs me a goody bag with tomatoes, cheese and peppers so hot I can’t even touch them. I timidly suggest paying and she tilts her head back sharply with a quick tsk—"not a chance.”
October 26, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Gandhi’s Wisdom Falls Short
Then, from behind me, came a staccato war cry—“Aaaack!”—as my host sent a boot into the dog’s rib cage
October 25, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
Cappadocia’s Fairy Chimneys and Cave Dwellings
Doorways still lead into cool, cozy chambers where people grilled kebabs, served tea and worshiped until 1952
October 18, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
The Long and Bumpy Road to Cappadocia
Of all the bizarre landscapes created by water, wind and time, Cappadocia is among the strangest
October 13, 2011 |
By Alastair Bland
