Bruno Cooke's Blog, page 3

Update [23/01/2024]

Hi team. It’s been some time since I wrote anything here, and naturally that means there’s too much to contain within one blogpost. But know that I – and we – are still here, and still trucking on. Laura is giving her legs (and everything else!) a rest in Cambodia, and I am in a small […]

Borders and loggerheads (Postcard from Tajikistan pt. 4)

This is the fourth (and final!) part in a series I’ve called Postcards from Tajikistan. Feel free to read the other three parts before you read this one (not essential). The first is about cycling in Tajikistan, while the second and third are actually more about Afghanistan’s Taliban government and China’s BRI than they are about […]

Seeing China’s Belt and Road Initiative up close between Qal’ai Khumb and Rŭshan (Postcard from Tajikistan pt. 3)

This article is the third in a series I’m calling ‘Postcard from Tajikistan’, a lot of which isn’t actually about Tajikistan but is instead about what I was thinking about while we were cycling through it. (Find parts 1 and 2 here and here.) Afghanistan, China, the US, Sri Lanka, etc. This one’s (mostly) about […]

When bad things happen, bad things happen (Postcard from Tajikistan pt. 2)

This article follows on from last week’s, titled Postcard from… Tajikistan (to be read first, ideally). There will probably be one or two more in the following days/weeks, about our cycling in Tajikistan and its GBAO region! …So in order to learn a bit more about the Taliban, I read Jon Lee Anderson’s New Yorker […]

Postcard from… Tajikistan

In total, we were in Tajikistan for just under four weeks, and spent most of those days on two wheels: we cycled in from Uzbekistan, in the west; through Panjakent, Ayni and the infamous Istiklol Tunnel (aka ‘Tunnel of Death’); to the capital, Dushanbe, and onwards via the town of Kulob in the south to […]

Unique routing challenges facing round-the-world touring cyclists in 2023

This article is for anyone planning a round-the-world cycle trip, anyone with a friend currently cycling around the world whose routing decisions they don’t fully understand, or anyone interested in long-distance overland slow-travel, geopolitics and the environment. It’s also a summary of our research and decision-making to date. Since it is written from the point […]

One of the other applicants contacted me in a dream

Said there’d been an error, that my name had been missed off a listIf I hurried, and conducted myself properly, I could enterthe appropriate Google Meet at the appointed time. Surprisethose who were expecting only a specific number of attendees – one fewerthan my presence would make. Splash in with a funky background,I thought, in my […]

The Irish have it

They took you in – Murphys, Egans –to delight in Earthly pleasures: years turned,too good to go. And a surprise proposalforgone, alas, by the man answering Nature’s call. One person reminded you of another, cut from similar cloth, grown in like soil, both a Portuguese wine.After three nights of it, your voice went.Broken seismometer, worse than bad […]

2023-2026 World Trip

We are currently in: Georgia. Next stop: Russia (hopefully!). Route so far: See below. Latest posts: Welcome to ONURBICYCLE! If you subscribe (three dots), you’ll get an email when I post something new. This will not be daily. If you’d like to know more about my writing about poetry, click on The Frip, above. For […]

Mayhem

As soon as they engaged the motor, relentless torrents of froth burst from its deep black nozzle. Suds flew forth and multiplied in the warm midnight air, showering the pink-faced revellers with its feather-light ooze. We entered the fray.