War

Today Georgia declared a state of war with Russia. Luckily I'd left on the 26th of July to come home to England to surprise my family. I travelled by bus and train. I'm planning to start to travel back towards Georgia on Monday. I hope that by the time I intend to get back to Tbilisi (around the beginning of September) - the situation will have quietened down.

Need Encouragement?

Before Tom and I left on this expedition we spent a lot of time preparing. We created a research website which we named the 'Biki' (based on Wikipedia software).  It contains way more information than you would ever need to leave on a bicycle expedition from choosing a bike down to the last detail, to navigating using the stars.

 We opened it up to public use in November 2007. I thought I would bring it to light again.  The link is: biki.ride-earth.org.uk .  We hope that fellow expeditioners can use the resource and also contribute.

We added a list of inspiring quotes and links to the homepage and here they are again, I think still as poinient as ever:

Climate Survivor

Tom and I construed the idea to satisfy a desire to see the world. We minimalised our possessions, with most sold on ebay  to fund our trip or given away.

We researched the ideal items of equipment we would need for a life on the road. When we left we realised soon we still had way more than we needed. Since then we've been gradually getting rid of things that are not essential. The result is that by now we are getting near to carrying an optimal selection of equipment.

It’s Now Approaching Midnight

Peep through the door
It seems as though the grass was much greener before
The dead life has been washed upon the sea shore
Money and greed deluded what is truly pure
And yet our flesh keeps screeching out for more

Recommended viewing

It's a BBC documentary by Adam Curtis called The Trap.

Journeying on

At the moment, I'm working with Tom, on a website for a real estate company here in Georgia. This is because I have ran out of budget for the trip. I'm living with a Dutch architect and an English real estate company director. It's a nice novelty to live with an English, but we're just so bloody English...  The architect's dream is to cycle round the world, so it's nice to have something in common.

Environmentally Sustainable Building Technology in Tbilisi

I have recently designed a website for a new building in Tbilisi. It is the first Class A+ building, designed by a German architects Wandel Hoefer Lorch. It is an impressive looking structure with a glass fascade which stands out amongst traditional Tbilisi buildings.

The special thing about the building is that it is one of the first in the city featuring environmentally sustainable technology. The facade is made of windows called cavements which protrude out from the building's surface at different distances. They help to reduce the glasshouse effect by preventing direct sunlight and trapping pockets of air.

The result is that the building doesn't need the same level of climate control that a normal building would. The design also reduces noise pollution.

Considering that most energy consumption goes into buildings and domestic use it is good to see this new technology in a building in Tbilisi.

My friend who I'm living with in Tbilisi told me that most new high class architects around the world are evolving to implement energy saving technology as standard.