From the monthly archives:

September 2009

Silk Road Cemetery – Afghanistan

September 30, 2009

My last post covered some of the sources of misconceptions that travelers inevitably start their journey with. This current post is a nice contrast. Its a  recent blog I read on some Silk Route history brought to light in modern day Afghanistan.
When we think of Afghanistan, we probably think of war. The article on the Silk Route in Kabul is a great way for us to see another side of Afghanistan, and to get a [...]

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The Preconception Tourist and a Top 10 List you will Never See on this Blog

September 21, 2009

Like everyone else, I travel with many skewed images and ideas about a place before I ever travel there and I am often happily surprised by what I find. Preconception is defined as an opinion formed beforehand without adequate evidence. As it relates to travel and tourism, all tourists who travel,  outside of the “western” comfort bubble, leave there with preconceptions. It’s impossible not to.
There are lots of reasons for this, and many of them [...]

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Faggot!

September 13, 2009

So today I got out for a 70 km ride with some friends. I haven’t been cycling much lately, aside from my daily 10 km commute. I have noticed a sharp rise in angry drivers now that the school season is back in and there is simply more volume, and less space on the roads. Since the death of courier Darcy Sheppard a few weeks back, I have been more cautious and more [...]

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Compassion

September 5, 2009

The title… compassion is a word I referred to in my last post. A word I heard a distraught and angry courier say repeatedly on CP24 (Toronto TV channel) a few hours after the death of his friend and fellow cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard.

Compassion is definitely not what I am sensing from Toronto drivers and some newspaper columnists. This article in Friday’s Globe and Mail by columnist Marcus Gee is one example in a string of articles since the much publisized death of Darcy Sheppard that highlights my point. They are using his death as a way of shaking the public finger at all cyclists and laying blanket accusations that all cyclists run red lights, and ride unpredictably.

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De-Escalate

September 2, 2009

Today while cycling to work my thoughts were focused on the death two nights ago of a Toronto bicycle courier Darcy Allan Sheppard. I imagined the final moments of his life as cars sped passed me along Dundas Street West, and thought how frightening it really is and how exposed we cyclists really are to dangers.
After having been a cyclist in Toronto and elsewhere for most of my life, the dangers are not something I [...]

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A travel and news chronicle from the places my bicycle takes me. It’s not a cycling blog per se. It’s a record of things I encounter along the way – in my travels with Tour d’Afrique Ltd., and through my own experiences at home and abroad.
This is a personal blog and has no official affiliation with Tour d’Afrique Ltd. or anyone other than myself. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of anyone else.

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