Bikepacking

Pedalling north out of Adelaide after lockdown, Jimmy Ashby reflects that the best way to know you’re on a deep and remote adventure is when you’re 200km+ from the closest town and one of the few cars you see all day pulls over just to tell you you’re crazy.

Sasha Smith recounts an entrancing six days of great food and better company, cycling around the Catlins at the bottom of the South Island. 

During an idle Wednesday night, whisky in hand, a plan was hatched to hold a non-event cycle tour. Invite no one, don’t race but don’t take it easy and above all else, stop for beer.

The South Island's West Coast has rapidly established itself as New Zealand’s premier destination for multi-day mountain biking and bikepacking. The region boasts the Heaphy Track, Old Ghost Road, the new Paparoa Track and the slightly more cruisy West Coast Wilderness Trail.

The South Australian Outback: A true blue, fair dinkum, ripper part of the world – to translate, it's a place like no other. I never thought I could fall in love with such emptiness and vast horizons, roads that go hundreds of kilometres in a straight line and towns that sound so silly they just don't seem real.

The conclusion of Sasha Smith's adventures on the Great Divide Trail - pinning it from Yellowstone National Park, through the Great Divide Basin desert to finish with a flourish and hit of singletrack in Colorado.

Sasha Smith continues the story of her adventures on the Great Divide Trail - making new friends and avoiding bears as she traverses Montana, eventually arriving at the geothermal wonderland of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

After completing the Tour Aotearoa, I then (bravely) informed work that I'd be leaving at the end of the month. I was “heading overseas" for another solo cycle tour, yet still hadn't figured out where. I had a few ideas, but committed to none. Then fate popped the Tour Divide race up on my browser. I dug deeper and tickets were soon booked to Canada. I planned riding 8 weeks south to Durango.