Blog 4 17 May We waited all morning at the Purros Community Lodge but he permit wasn’t signed. Jimmy managed to negotiate with the wardens at the southern end of the Skeleton Coast Park, whom he knew well. They agreed to allow us to enter the park as long as the pending permit was delivered […]
Twyfelfontein – Purros
Blog 3 Just south of Twyfelfontein is Brandberg mountain, an enormous extinct volcano that was once the same scale as Kilimanjaro, and roughly the same age. It erupted about 200 million years ago and blew off it’s top, sending volcanic material all over the world and reducing its height to 2500 metres. Heading north from […]
Windhoek – Twyfelfontein
Blog 2 12th – 15th May Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, seemed pretty relaxed and low key compared to most capital cities I’ve been to. It has a population of about 350,000 and on Sunday when Kas and I explored the city on foot, it was very sleepy indeed. Windhoek means ‘windy corner’ but for us it […]
Back to Africa
Blog 1 Welcome to the first blog for this next expedition in my Breaking the Cycle series, The Skeleton Coast. As I write I am about two hours away from touching down in Johannesburg, en route to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. Travelling with me is adventure filmmaker Kasimir Zierl. We are both excited; it […]
Hunder – Khardung – Leh
Blog 12 28th – 30th September Days 26 – 28 Distance cycled – 154km Total distance cycled – 1154km Day 26 Distance – 59km One of the main reasons for diverting to Hunder in the Nubra Valley was to see the sand dunes, which would seem so out of place here. Located just east of […]
Karu – Lake Pangong (Spangmik village) – Hunder
Blog 11 26th – 27th September Days 24 – 25 Distance cycled – 176km Total distance cycled – 1000km Day 24 Distance – 84km At Karu, Dorjay (driver) and Jigmet asked around to find out the condition of Chang La pass. Like nearby Taglang La that was still closed, Chang La, being a few metres […]
Leh – Hemya – Chumathang – Tso Moriri (Korzok)
Blog 10 22nd – 25th September Days 20 – 23 Distance cycled – 197km Total distance cycled – 824km After returning from the GHE expedition, I had just a day to turn around and set off for the final stanza of my Ladakh expedition. On the logistics side, this meant getting permits to travel through […]
Global Himalayan Expedition – Electrification of Ralakung village
Blog 9 Global Himalayan Expedition – Electrification of Ralakung village 14th – 20th September Days 12 – 19 Trekking – 60km (approximate total) Back in January, in the depth of the severe Ladakhi winter, GHE performed an electrification expedition in the Zanskar region by trekking along the frozen Zanskar River (known as the Chadar […]
Padum to Phe
12th – 13th September 2018 Day 10 Padum to Phe – 33km Total distance – 627km From Phe, after struggling with the internet, I set off in the late morning for Phe. There was no rush as it was meant to be just a simple ride back to Phe, via a couple of monasteries, […]
Phe to Padum
11th September 2018 Day 9 Phe to Padum – 43km Total distance – 594km Having reached Phe in good time, I am now spending the 11th and 12th exploring the Zanskar Valley a little. The region is so cut off from the world, with one very rugged road in to the region, and that […]
