Tuk to the Road: Bankgok to Brighton by tuk tuk

 

“A brave and marvellous venture” Stephen Fry

Sometime back in 2005 my best friend Jo murmured something about wanting to drive a tuk tuk from Thailand to the UK. Not very many months later the pair of us were thundering across China’s Gobi desert in Ting Tong, our shockingly pink three-wheeled steed, heading in the general direction of England.

In 98 days of tukking we covered 12,783 miles, two continents and 12 countries and survived an earthquake, several landslides and the odd lascivious Russian. We also set the Guinness World Record for the Longest Ever Journey by Auto-Rickshaw and raised £50,000 for Mind, the mental health charity. Rather amusingly, we were awarded Cosmopolitan magazine’s 2006 ‘Fun, Fearless, Female’ Award on our return, and even made an appearance on Richard & Judy.

A book about our venture, Tuk Tuk to the Road, was published by The Friday Project and is still available to buy on-line and as an i-book.

To read more about the trip please see the website www.tuktotheroad.co.uk

Black C90: Around the Black Sea by moped

 

In the autumn of 2010 my boyfriend Marley and I set off on a hazardous journey around the Black Sea on a pair of 20-year old Honda C90 mopeds more suited to delivering pizzas than undertaking pan-continental marathons. My bike, K-k-ken, was the zebroid zephyr, whilst Zulu, Marley’s mount, was latitent in leopard livery.

Setting off from Bulgaria, we rode south through Turkey, then on across the windswept steppe of Russia, the storm-battered mountains of Ukraine, a tiny corner of Moldova and finally Romania, before ending once more in Bulgaria.

In three weeks we travelled almost 3000 miles through six countries, encountering extreme weather, vicious packs of wild dogs and numerous insane drivers along the way. While it was an incredible experience, it was also extremely hard; never have I been tested so much either mentally or physically.

To read more about the trip please see www.blackc90.com.