Here are some scans of articles about Braking Boundaries that have featured in the local press here in Northern Ireland over the last few days. From the Mid Ulster Mail: From Saturday’s News Letter:

The final stats are still being compiled and there are a mountain range of stories and video to be published, but the legwork is now over for the team. Jared and Katie seem to have had the lion’s share of adventure. Since leaving Turkey they have, amongst other things, survived being swept out to sea [...]

Hey everyone, The journey (for me) is almost over me. I’m currently killing time on the ferry to Dover and will be on English soil in about 20 minutes. The end, the real end is Belfast, and that’s not so far away. In response to (semi)popular demand, here’s a tenative itinerary for the week: Mon: [...]

After almost 5 months and nearly 11,000km we’ve finally arrived in Istanbul, the crossroads between Europe and Asia. As you might imagine, we’re rather chuffed at the thought knocking off an entire continent, though perhaps equally thankful that the next one is just that little bit smaller. This point in our journey will see us [...]

The team is currently deadlocked over whether to visit Istanbul or Constantinople next. If only there was some middle ground…

If there were any doubts about our choice not to ride from Bukhara, Uzbekistan to Aktau, Kazakhstan they have now been quelled after I just read Leon’s blog. Leon rode with us from Osh, Kyrgyzstan to Bukhara Kazakhstan and decided there to continue through the seering heat. Here is his latest entry which is well [...]

We passed this on the way into Tbilisi the other day: It’s only a straight line distance, but it means we’re getting there.

It was all well and good deciding to skip the Uzbek and Kazakh deserts and the accompanying 45-degree furnace. We still had the problem of getting three cyclists, bikes and bags all the way from Bukara to the port of Aktau in Kazakhstan. In this part of the world at least, the machinations of getting [...]

Flying in the post-9/11 era has become a rather stressful experience. Security is so strict these days that it would be easier to get into prison than most airports. Retina scans and biometric passport ID are fast becoming the norm for proving that you are indeed you, and not a pale imitation. Rules are made [...]

Hailing from a small island nation has its ups and downs. You lack the bad press that comes with being an American (unfortunate, yet true), but despite the best efforts of U2 and a legion of Irish pubs stretching from Boston to the Baltic, anonymity is often the best you can hope for. Having said [...]

Sakura Guesthouse was a lovely little family-owned establishment in Bishkek, run by a very pleasant Japanese couple. A popular destination, it had evidently been doing good business in recent times. There was a band-new accommodation block, the upper floors still being painted and decorated at the time of our visits. The reality was far-removed from [...]

The stop-start-stop cycle of visa extensions and applications has been a wearying and frustrating necessity for the BB team in the first half of our journey to Ireland. We’re sick and tired of waiting instead of riding. However, there is nothing much we can do about it. The only alternative would be to jump on [...]

Braking Boundaries: We do more riding by 9AM than most folks do all day. …especially when it’s 35 degrees by 9:30 and over 40 in the afternoons. We love the people of Uzbekistan, but not its summer climate. Thank God for Chai-kanas (teahouses).

We’ve seen a lot of horses grazing by the roadsides on our way from Almaty to the Kyrgyz border. Sadly, a lot of these fine steeds are not destined for the Grand National at Aintree or a lifetime of lazy equestrianism, but rather the dinner table for Sunday lunch. Horsemeat is quite a delicacy in [...]

Arriving into a new city after a long day on the bike is not a good way to see us at our most alert. In our haste to to get settled into an actual guest house with a roof and working shower, rather than kipping in a tent in a thunderstorm, we often neglect to [...]