A mountain bike race was held at Mtatsminda park in Tbilisi.

The location was ideal for the race because above it is a mountain with trails and then the race ended at the park where people were watching.

All ages and levels could be seen participating. The only downside was the weather. It was wet and made conditions a little bit slippy.

I am in the wonderful city of Tbilisi, Georgia. The first week I took an Irish guy on a challenging but fantastic one day bike tour, then two Australian tourists from Melbourne came for a week.

We explored many incredible places and did some brilliant riding. The mountain biking in Georgia is superb and I’m working on mountain bike tour company Georiders out here.

I have been catching up with old friends; one of which is making Champagne using artisanal methods. I was helping him to work on his vineyard and to refill the bottles after releasing the sediment which is part of the process.

I went to visit an art retreat in Southern Spain.

Stunning farmhouse conversion in traditional Andalusian style.

Agile planning for the organisation.

They also do food retreats.

Sierra Los Velez National Park, beautiful light and peaceful.

I’m going back next year.

Benefits

• Cheaper than public transport
• Getting fit whilst travelling
• Hugely diverse area, geographically and politically. The geography in Europe is variable from the flat lands of the Netherlands to the mountains of the Alps. You can put in good distance in the former and get really fit and go slow for the latter.
• Camping is widely available
• If you speak English then often many people in Europe will speak the language. Otherwise, you can get some good iPhone apps with phrase books on them, and you can get by on the basics or just with gestures if necessary.

Better if

• You have a lot of time to explore
• You don’t mind rain in some areas (otherwise head south)
• You have a decent budget if you want to eat out and stay indoors

What do you need

• Minimal bicycle repair knowledge
• Buy a bike and minimal gear, clothes and panniers
• Practice a little riding a bike loaded with luggage
• Decide a route and an itinerary of places to visit. Think about what your likely daily distance will be
• Book accommodation if required

Tom and Tenny moved to the Lake District so I got on the train to go and see them.

migrated from the WeQuest research blog August 3rd, 2012 5:41am:

Another research opportunity presented itself when I attended the music festival ‘Sonar 2012’ in Barcelona. http://www.sonar.es/en/2012/. This festival runs every year and sees the likes of the top musicians in the electronic genre attending. There was also a ‘Music Hack Day’ where a developers, engineers, and musicians came together to participate in a 24 hour ‘hack’ session to come up with a new app or musical instrument. The intensive focus created by the time limit within this shared space I think creates amazing potential. Personally I would rather focus intensively in a situation like this than spread learning out across time, although, there are limits with this set up; not least that it is rather tiring to stay up for that long. However, an amazing mixture between this intensive workspace and the stage performance space meant that you could walk between them and refresh yourself by listening to some music.

The Stromatolite crew took a long drive down to the Port Elliot festival in Cornwall. We camped in the grounds of a stately home.

We roamed about the festival listening to talks (like about foraging, see below), enjoying live music and recitals. The most memorable was the poetry of John Cooper-Clarke.

Foraging workshop ran by Robin Harford at Port Eliot Festival 2012 as part of the Idler Academy http://www.eatweeds.co.uk/

The Dunwich Dynamo is an annual semi-organised, through-the-night bicycle ride from London Fields park in Hackney, London, England to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast. The distance is approximately 112 miles (180 km).

It is free to enter and quite popular. The last time I participated there were over 1000 riders.

People gather at London fields and then set off when they are ready. Some people are treating it like a race and trying to get the distance done in the fastest time. Most are just going at their own pace.

In April I went to Armenia to spend three weeks with a friend I met through the online service: Couchsurfing in order to learn about filmmaking and photography, conduct some interviews, and share his way of life. It was a prototype of how Couchsurfing extends beyond the remit of simply using an online service as a means of somewhere to stay into a space where a learning process can emerge.

I flew with S to the Ring of Kerry. I took my Soviet Zenit camera with me. I shot footage for a “remaking” project I was doing at Goldsmiths. In this case the footage was all about natural processes, erosion, abandoned objects, a passage from human built landscapes to natural landscapes. I created a short film and played around with the sound effects. For example, I cut the sound of the burning moorland and overlaid it with the sound of traffic and rain in Newcross.