Stewart Law
Find us on social media
Posts by Stewart
Before I started this trip the one thing I was afraid of was dogs! I even said this to the local paper who laughed down the phone – how can you cycle around the world and be scared mostly of dogs.
The roads in Georgia were nothing short of terrible. Of all the countries we’ve visited we rank Georgia as the second worse, only to Uzbekistan.
Well today marks 4 months on the road with my best friend and boyfriend. 🥰 For the last 4 months we’ve been living on our bicycles, moving to a new place almost every single day.
When we stayed in Batumi, Stew and I stayed with a Georgian family. This family cooked dinner and breakfast for us and welcomed us into their home for 2 nights. During our stay they were celebrating the new arrival of a baby girl into the family.
Yesterday we arrived in Tbilisi! We’ve worked hard on the bike the last few days so today we’ve enjoyed some rest. The day before arriving in Tbilisi we had one of our favourite moments of the trip…
Here are some of the faces of cyclists we met on our way to Goderdzi pass! David, Sam, Joseph, Karel, Julio and Damiene.
Well today we made it, we climbed to Goderdzi pass, 6643ft (2025m) above sea level. This is now the highest climb of the trip. The road continued to be tough this morning and with a very thick mist the views were not what we hoped for.
Today got me thinking about cycle-touring, adventure & challenges and the relationship between the three.
We booked an Airbnb, expecting a place to ourselves, but ended up staying with a Georgian family in their home. The home was listed incorrectly on Airbnb, but the moment we walked through the door we couldn’t have been happier.
Özgür cycled past, pulled out google translate and we told him about our trip. He took us for tea in the cutest cafe/bookshop and we met Merve, Ceren and Can. Merve spoke perfect English. She was studying English Literature for her Masters and reading Shakespeare. I was so impressed.
Mustafa was our warmshowers host in Rize, he was recommended to us by @cycling_east Mustafa has a lovely and very popular cafe in Rize.
The road surface in Turkey was for the most part, exceptional. We had not yet travelled to any country that had some smooth and undamaged roads. It was an absolute treat to ride here.
Please enjoy this blog post about a fantastic warmshowers host and I’ll tell you about the wonderful group we met this evening tomorrow!
In Turkey yoghurt is consumed in quantities unimaginable! The yoghurt drink, Ayran is sipped with lunch and dinner, but never breakfast. In a restaurant you will see more Ayran than water, coke or alcohol (obviously).
From today we are leaving the north coast of Turkey (for now) and heading inland. Over the next few days we’re anticipating a lot of climbing. With this in mind we’ve been considering a rest day. Partly to rest legs, but mainly because we’re very tired and Stew’s got a cold.
A city of 2 halves, a place where West meets East. We stayed in Istanbul for 6 nights. The longest stop to date. We were joined by our mums and my brother who flew out to meet us.
Tea is a bigger part of Turkish custom than I ever imagined. Usually when I think of tea I think of China or England. In Turkey you will see many people enjoying Çay. In fact you can get Çay pretty much anywhere.
Since travelling and seeing some of the world I’ve been torn over comments like : “tourist trap”, the notion that tourists ruin places and the mentality that it would be a shame for countries to gain a place on the map.
Today Lynne Brownhill shared the total money raised in the Leanne Brownhill Memorial fund – we have now smashed £15,000 – this is a collective effort between Leanne’s friends and family since 2013.
For the last few weeks Stew and I have started setting the alarm nice and early. The average wake up call is 05:30am. Occasionally we wake at 04:00am, if we’re wanting to put some serious miles in.
In this album we leave Montenegro and enter Albania.
Montenegro is AMAZING! We will return here no doubt and tour this beautiful country in a van.
Once we left Croatia we ended up visiting a lot of countries in a short space of time, here are some pictures of Bosnia!
When we set off on our 24,000 mile bike ride Turkey felt like it was so far away and yet on 24th June we arrived!