WAITOMO, NEW ZEALAND – my life in their hands

Guide Jimmy promised me I wouldn't die.

It seemed so ridiculously life-threatening, I wasn’t even scared. There I was, a man who gets vertigo if his bike saddle is too high, dangling from a single rope a hundred metres above the rocky bottom of a limestone cave.

The publicity for the Lost World Adventure told me Tom Cruise had done this three times. Well, we’ve seen him do all kinds of weird stuff, and we know he has special effects people to make it look death-defying.

I was doing all my own stunts here, with only guide Anna above me giving instructions and guide Jimmy attached to me by a bit of blue ribbon which he promised would break my fall if necessary.

Saturday Photo #5 – Pain in the hills

Some may claim they did it easily, but most of us suffered between Busselton and Balingup on the Great WA Bike Ride.

GREAT WA BIKE RIDE, AUSTRALIA – re cycling tall timber

Some of Australia's greatest forest is in Western Australia's South West. And how better to see it than from a bike saddle?

SATURDAY PHOTO #4A(oops!)- a slice of life

I’m testing out my theory is that you can cut a slice through any crowd shot and find that the world is full of fascinating people. If only we had time to meet them all!

Aachen, Germany

Kathmandu, Nepal

London, England

GREAT WA BIKE RIDE – the next adventure

Is there no end to my appetite for physical punishment? Tomorrow I fly to Western Australia to prepare for the Great WA Bike Ride, starting this Saturday.

Up to 2000 riders will tackle the 540km course, which looks to be a beauty – a loop through the southwest of the state, from Manjimup down to the big karri forests of Pemberton, out to the beach at Busselton and up the coast, then back inland to Manjimup again.

I enjoy these big rides, though there are certainly less enjoyable aspects to them. The 2010 Great Vic Bike Ride had about 4000 riders and volunteers. While it’s great that the event is so popular, there are disadvantages to having such a huge crowd.

CYCLING NEW ZEALAND – Fox Glacier to Jackson in pictures

Louise donned her Kiwi shirt for the occasion, and bravely faced the hills.

The final days of our cycling tour took us up the lovely West Coast, sometimes by the beach, sometimes by lakes, often up into the hills and the forests.