Author Archives: Tom Lloyd-Smith

This is a bumper update because a: I haven’t posted anything for a little while and b: i’m currently in T’bilisi, Georgia, awaiting the approval of my visa for Azerbaijan, which irritatingly wont materialise until Wednesday.   Fortunately it’s been an eventful couple of weeks, so here goes. After my last post I was on [...]

Three days ago I left Trabzon and headed South over the mighty black mountains and onto the Anatolian Plateau. After the busy, wet and frankly not much fun Black Sea Coastal Highway I was keen to cycle a few roads which were less well travelled. The road I took wound uphill to the tourist hotspot [...]

It’s sunny outside at the moment but the last week has not been good weather wise. I chose this route along the Black Sea because it’s a little flatter and there is the occasional campsite along the way. The Black Sea Coastal highway is a picturesque, but large and busy road and cycling along it [...]

I’ve now cycling in Turkey for just over a week, but it’s very different to the cycle I had into Istanbul at the end of September. None of the random weather fluctuations that we get back in the UK at this time of year – winter is definitely upon me over here. Early last week [...]

Catastrophe. On Tuesday morning my bicycle was stolen, while locked, from within one metre of my sleeping head, just outside the town of Izmit, 80k east of Istanbul. This week has seen a whirlwind of investigating possible replacement bicycles, juggling finances, negotiating with the Turkish police and kicking off an insurance claim. The biggest problem [...]

OK, i’m a bit short of time but after a fantastic relaxing week with Ginny in Istanbul am leaving to head east into Turkey right now. $400 on new parts for the bike (ouch) have decimated my budget so rather a lot of sleeping in the bushes and eating pasta and pesto awaits! During those [...]

After a 6am start and long morning of uphill cycling Jean-Pierre and I made it to the Albanian Town of Librahzad. From here we headed over a brutally steep pass into Macedonia and descended to spend the night on the shore of the truly spectacular lake Ohrid. Jean-Pierre and I were heading in different directions [...]

OK, i’m going to try not to sound too Giles Wemmbely-Hogg about this. Albania was definitely one of the highlights of this trip so far, but to be honest, I wasn’t disappointed to cross the final high pass (933m) into Macedonia. The Albanian people have the reputation of being very friendly and welcoming which I [...]

Greetings from Tirane, the bustling Albanian capital. On leaving Dubrovnik I continued south east along the Adriatic coast into Montenegro for a brief but eventful couple of days. The first incident to relate involves the bane of the long distance cyclists life – the wild dog. Usually these beasts go in for barking which is [...]

A little video Dub and I made in Split… How do I get back to Dalston?