Rhythm Guitar

Often people ask me what it’s like to work alone. While true I’m not confined to a cubical, have to label my lunch or fight for parking – to say that I’m a solo artist is a bit of a misnomer. With almost everything I do there is a collaborative element to it. Sometimes it’s obvious, like with the film I’m currently working on (check the preview HERE) and other video projects I’ve done, there is often a music element created by somebody else. Usually these tunes are provided by old friends – in the Cycling the Sandbox trailer you’ll hear a couple of tracks by my friends in dDub (Camel Song and Hesitate No – off of their latest release Medicine Man, check them out HERE). Sometimes old friends really means old friends, for my Abridged - Day 75 video I used a track called Unable to Pick Up written and performed by Jeff Munt who I went to kindergarten with – talented guy.

Sometimes the collaboration takes on a more subtle form – when I’m doing my day-job of researching and writing for Lonely Planet I get all sorts of help from people all the time. When I’m on the road I get heads up on cool things, points in the right direction and other forms of collaboration that make my job not only easier, but possible. Once I get into the office the book becomes a very collaborative effort with co-authors, editors, cartographers and designers all working together to make a great book. With all this in mind, I’m actually pretty keen to share with you a whole bunch of names. These are the names of people who’ve helped out with various projects over the past few years. It’s a big list; I’ve had lots of help. You might see your name; you might see a name you recognize - I wanted to take the time to say thanks. These books wouldn’t have been possible without you!

The list
Canada:
Big thanks to: Kelly Sutherland, Henry Roberts, Don Bender, Ryan Collyer, John Creary, Dave & Anne Frick, Bryan Haggarty, Craig Kitchen, Joanne McPherson, Paul Newmarch, Ned Myopus, my Attorney Gavin Harrison and to all great people I met on the road. To My Grandma K, philanthropist, world traveler and a great Canadian – we miss you. Mom and Dad for all your support over the years, and most of all to my wife Sophie – for everything.

Caribbean Islands:
Thanks to my fellow authors, our fearless leader RVB, the dynamic editing duo of Marina Kosmatos and Lucy Monie and the cartography skills of Alison Lyall. On the islands I was showered with help from too many people to mention, here are some of the all-stars: Porter Williams, Delana Modeste, Zuri Reid, Nigel Fleming, Mark McLean, Melanie Clifton-Harvey, PJ Jones, Smitty, Ned Myopus, Adrian Nankivell and Neal Hitch & Family. And a big thanks to all of the hoteliers, restaurateurs and fellow travelers whom I met along the way, and most of all to my wife Sophie – for everything.

Cycling New Zealand:
It’s my name on the title page, but this book was most definitely a team effort. So a huge thanks to all those contributed, great and small. To my terrific editors: Janine Eberle, Bridget Blair. Kiwi cohorts and fellow LP scribes: Charles Rawlings-Way, Errol Hunt, Brett Atkinson, Peter Dragicevich and Sarah Bennett. To all the great people who opened their homes to me, pedaled trails with me and shared their experiences for the benefit of this project: Tim Miller, Alice Hill, Christian Martin, Adrian Nankivell, Debbie Nelson, Dan Gerard, Dan Bainbridge, Louise Parker, Mark Banham, Ned Myopus, Brett Black & Toby Stanton. To all the cyclists, travelers and random folks I met on the road who offered such great honest advice, thank you! To mom and dad for buying me my first bike all those years ago and to my wonderful wife Sophie – for everything.

Hawaii:
Much mahalo must go to all those that helped with this edition – first to my wonderful Editor Emily Wolman and superstar co-author Sam Benson. Cheers to the many people who helped so graciously while I was on the road: Jeff Bushman, Kyle Bernhardt, Grace Dixon, Ann Shaver, Ned Myopus, Adrian Nankivell, Toby Stanton, Chase Jarvis, Celeste Brash and Kieran O’Leary. Many thanks to Jack Johnson and Eddie Vedder for providing the soundtrack and as always to my wonderful wife Sophie - for everything. Aloha.

Lots of names and lots of help. Thanks. There are some repeat offenders in there including my wife Sophie who deserves to be thanked 4 times in this email, even more if I had the space.

The genesis of this post has a lot to do with my love of collaborative efforts on art projects. I’ve loved working with guys like Jeff Munt and the whole dDub crew, its great fun. Are you a fellow artist? Do you make music, shoot pictures, video or write words? Drop me a line, I’m always looking for the next partner in crime!
Cheers
Scott

Mountains of Color

This past weekend I went on a very cool trip into the New Zealand mountains. Here in the Southern Alps we are lucky enough to have some of the most stunning scenery around – and this trip into the Park Pass area was no exception. I’ve decided to post a selection of images from the trip under the theme of color. It seemed at every turn was a fresh scene best exemplified by the stunning color palate.

Many thanks to those who’ve checked out my trailer for Cycling the Sandbox. If you haven’t seen it yet, scroll down and have a look. Or click here to go to my Youtube page where you can watch it.

I’ll leave you today with a comment that was left on my previous post, “The Importance of Suffering”. Mark’s comment has a great turn of phrase and adds a bit more perspective to the mix, “Perhaps pain and suffering are the puffer fish sashimi of the spiritual world – served correctly they’re a delicacy, but force-fed or scoffed down without thought they’re poison.” Keep the comments coming, I love to read them and love the discussion they help to foster.

Cheers,
Scott

Cycling the Sandbox

Here live, hot off the press is the trailer for my new film about riding from Cairo to Khartoum. The film is called Cycling the Sandbox: Cairo to Khartoum by Bike.

Enjoy the trailer and keep checking back for release dates and information about the finished film!

Cheers,
~Scott

Soundtrack

When I write I listen. I can’t imagine writing in silence. The other day I was chatting to another writer friend of mine and he was telling me that he can’t have any sound in the room when he is writing. If there is so much as a tree rustling outside he is pulled out of the zone. I couldn’t be more different. As I write this there is a stereo blasting away. So what do I listen to? Is it haunting atmospheric lyric-less epic soaring pieces that conjure up the final moments of Lord of the Rings? Err, no. it’s all about loud rock and roll. It’s my firm belief that what we write as a reflection of what we hear – I want to write with impact, melody and strive to get your mental toe tapping. If I listen to Enya – you get baby food. These same tunes often shape my adventures – I make play lists for my ipod and they form the soundtrack to the trip. So as I was riding in Africa I had a power-playlist, when I needed a pick-me-up, a mental shot of espresso I hit play. When I got home and wanted to retell the tale, I hit play again and I was back there once again. So if you really want to feel what my ride was like, have a read or go for a ride with these tunes playing in the background. Hit the title for a youtube link to the song.

Bodysnatchers - Radiohead (song of the moment for me right now)
Sure Shot - The Beastie Boys (hey I'm a child of the 90's)
Good Life - dDub (this is a link to a video I made using this awesome track)
Let It Die - Foo Fighters
Midnight Voyage - Ghostland Observatory (this video was made by my good friend Chase Jarvis - check out his great blog here)
Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet (crap video, but the best audio i could find)
Elementary - Lucy's Fur Coat
Comatose - Pearl Jam (such a fun song to play on the guitar!)
Corduroy - Pearl Jam (another fun one to play)
Beautiful Machine - Shihad (great looking video from a classic Kiwi band)
Little Bones - The Tragically Hip (some classic Canadian rock from back in the days when Rob still had really long 80's metal hair - hold on a sec...)
Baba O'Riley - The Who (classic song from one of the best)

Thanks for listening.

~Scott

The Importance of Suffering

Scott post offroad marathon

When I was in Africa on the TDA I had the opportunity to meet lots of interesting folks from all over the place. There were students having a crack at the fun life before knuckling down to grad school or starting out in the real world. There were bean counters who, in the face of global recession, got out of the game and are laying low in Africa while the financial world deep throat’s a shotgun. There were hardcore riders who’d put Lance to shame in terms of riding while under the spell of explosive diarrhea. There were riders who’d normally not even be called riders – nice folks, but they more identified with the idea that they’d like to have ridden across Africa – vs. actually wanting to ride across Africa. A ride like this is a ramshackle group of people from all over; there is no paradigm for participants.

Even with the diversity amongst, I was a little shocked to read something in one of the rider blogs a few days ago. One of the riders, who isn’t much of a cyclist remarked in their blog, “I’m prepared to challenge myself, but I’m not willing to suffer.” My jaw dropped when I read that line – I guess there really are the whole gamete of ideologies represented, not only in this bike tour, but within the outdoor community. What really got me thinking though was the diametric opposition that my philosophy for adventure sits in regard to the concept of suffering.

Now by suffering I’m not talking about weird self mutilation or other rubbish, such as. What I am referring to is the willingness to push yourself beyond what you thought you could do. The willingness to suffer, to dig deep and see what you find is in my mind an essential element of outdoor adventure. It’s in that shady area of the mind, when you’re hammering on those pedals harder then you thought you could or your muscles are fried and you’re just about to melt out of the crack or you have to double-time it if you expect to get off the mountain before dark. Those are the moment that we all hope to find – not for the joy that is found within them, but what you discover about yourself because of them. Lets be honest, being tired and pushing yourself further then you thought possible isn’t that fun at the time. But as the saying goes, it doesn’t have to be fun, to be fun. That push into the unknown is where the real growth occurs – that’s how we discover new shores in the ocean of internal possibility.

I feel bad for my former ride mate who isn’t willing to push through the pain and transcend the moment into the greater world of self discovery. Maybe by accident they’ll get there and be glad they did. Or maybe they won’t even get close and will always wonder why everyone else was having such a good time. If you’re not willing to dig deep, to try, to push, to give everything – then what’s the point?

~Scott

Three quick ones

“The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.”
-Banksy

Images from Sudan, Doha, New Zealand – enjoy.
~Scott

Ox pulled plows and sat phones

Paul

Since I’ve been home from my ride on the Tour d’Afrique I’ve been eagerly following along my comrades as they continue the adventure to Cape Town. There are a number of great blogs that I’ve been reading and watching. I’m going to be highlighting some of my favorites as the team gets closer to the ultimate goal. To start off today I wanted to draw your attention to Paul Porter’s Audio Blog – Paul is a really interesting guy, he’s professor at the University of Minnesota where he teaches in the agriculture faculty. While he’s riding in Africa he is actually teaching a course on the farming methods of Africa – by satellite phone! It’s a great project and a class I’d love to be in. luckily for us, you can listen in on his daily audio blogs via his website – the 3minute blogs are a great insight into what is going on in the ride and also what the surrounding land, agriculture and people are all about. I’d highly recommend checking it out – it’s well worth a listen!

~Scott

Sudan - in Photos

Egypt - in Photos

Touching the Void

The Team
Safety Kayaker Simon having some fun

The River
(all photos by Sophie Kennedy-Brown)

So I’ve been home for a week, and how does it feel? I’ve joked that my office chair is a lot more comfortable then a bike seat and the need to ride for 150km of a day isn’t there, but that really isn’t the whole truth. I knew this ride, my African adventure, would be life changing – what I never expected was the post ride void that would come to greet me once I got home. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been great to be home – to see my lovely wife Sophie and to share the stories of the adventure with my friends, but there isn’t a day that goes by that I can’t help wanting to be back out there, giving it my all in the heat and the dust.

The lack, the void in my life, has been an ocean to navigate. This past week I’ve filled my days with writing work to occupy my mind, but as this week begins and the reality of, ‘having some time’ beckons the tangible sense of loss, simply not being on my bike is like a figure in the room. What to do? Well I’ve never been one for sitting around and my mind (and body) is primed for the next adventure. So what’s the point of sitting on my ass waiting for the next opportunity to come my way? Time to go out and find it!

This past weekend with that mentality in mind Sophie and I went on a bit of a Valentines trip – our sort of Valentines trip. We went heli-rafting! For those not in the know this involves flying by helicopter into a wickedly remote river here in the South Island of New Zealand (The Landsborough River) and white-water rafting out! It was great fun, for three days we battled rapids, sandflies and some surprisingly warm temperatures for this country at least. In many ways it was the antithesis to my Egypt & Sudan experience – there was water – everywhere! Good fun was had by all – there is an article in the works for this trip – so more to come on this front and for that reason I won’t spoil the good stories before you get to see them in print some time soon.

As for what’s next – well there are a few ideas in the works and I don’t want to spoil the surprise, I’ll only leave with the self-coined expedition name – Solo-Velo-Aoteroa…

Keep checking back for updates, photos from Africa and more stories, adventures and other bits of fun!
~Scott

***Update - these great photos are courtesy of Sophie Kennedy-Brown, my co-adventurer in the mountains and in life***