Hi everyone - I just thought I'd take the chance to reply to comments we have had about On Hannibal's trail on twitter, facebook and on various blogs! Firstly thanks to everyone for comments - lots of very nice ones which are very encouraging to read! To answer a few of the questions which have arisen about scenes in …

Read More

In Episode 2 of On Hannibal's Trail we ride through Barcelona which just happens to be where I am right now. The city is famed for it's architecture (among other things) and one of the most unusual, and perhaps my favourite architectural feat here are the ruins of the Roman temple of Augustus that are inside a 19th …

Read More

The morning of our second day of riding in Tunisia was spent at a spectacular ancient Roman ruin: Dougga. There seemed to be no-one there except us and an army of caretakers restoring old walls. Dougga is on top of a hill and as you enter the site you hit the very well preserved Roman theatre. But there are a lot of …

Read More

On a long trip like this interpersonal relationships become very important and are often the cause of the most interesting bits of the journey. I imagine it might make a pretty good documentary following a crew making a documentary? A bit like the new show we are thinking of pitching to the BBC: "Entertainment …

Read More

When you cycle day after day the rhythm naturally brings music to your mind. At the beginning of the trip I tended to hum fairly epic stuff as the wheels turned - tunes from the film The Dark Knight for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfO3szikvnI&feature=related or some of those ponderous but very catchy …

Read More

Our journey with the film crew continued to Lake Trasimene, where as described in a previous blog, Hannibal won a major battle against the Romans..... For us it was much less dramatic - a dodgy highway hotel in Touro where we hung out our wet shoes and clothes soaked from our journey into the swamps and then a revisit …

Read More

Some stats for the end of filming for episodes 3 and 4...670km to where we split at the base of the Col de Galibier. By the time we got across to Italy we had done between 800 and 900km.

Read More

The Col de Clapier is one of the routes scholars suspect Hannibal and his army may have taken over the Alps. I investigated this one and Danny and Sam were off to check out others. After crossing the Col de Galibier I stayed in the Ambin valley nearby with the crew and I cycled off at first light as I wanted to check …

Read More

We are in Italy having survived the Alps... just. It was physically some of the hardest days I ever have ever known especially crossing the Col de la Travasette with my elephant-like bike (heavily loaded with its four panniers!) - I will defintely tell that story in a blog or two when I have mentally recovered. But for …

Read More

Sam is sleeping next to me, hands still clasped next to the book he was reading, as we relax in a hotel in Briancon on our rest day. We are in the Alps for real now and as I write brother Ben is making his way across the Col du Clapier with our film crew. It will be interesting to see how he goes! Tomorrow it will be …

Read More