Damien Teney
ADVENTURES
I've run, pedaled, hiked over and across many countries. Here's a selection of some big adventures I'm particularly proud of. These trips are the reward that comes after thousands of hours of training that came before. I hope you'll enjoy the scenery (through these pictures) as much as I did!
Feel free to follow me on Facebook to see my more-recent adventures.
Cycling across the US (again): Virginia to Seattle
June 2019
Longest ride so far. About 5100km in 25 days. Started in Virginia (right outside of the Washington Dulles airport), ended on the west coast in Seattle. Feel free to follow me on Facebook to access the pictures that I was posting daily during the trip.
December 2017
Another cycling trip from Adelaide, in search for breath-taking vistas. I wasn't disappointed with Tasmania and the Alpine National Park in Victoria. Unfortunately I broke my phone in Tasmania and couldn't bring back any pictures from there, and the trip ended prematurely with a visit to the hospital and a broken wrist...
August 2017
This time from Adelaide to Cairns. 3600 km in 16 days across a great variety of landscapes. From the red dirt of South Australia, across golden fields of canola flowers in Victoria, cotton plantations of rural New South Wales, to the fields of sugar cane and to the tropical forest in the hills of North Queensland.
April 2017
Express trip from Adelaide to Uluru (Ayer's rock), which is in the very center of Australia, near Alice Springs. 1650 km in 5.5 days, i.e. an average of 300 km/day. Even though locals kept telling me there's nothing to see up there, I still love the slowly-changing scenery of the desert. Distances and resupply was challenging (sometimes up to 250 km of nothigness between roadhouses). I wasn't sure what to expect of Uluru, but it's a truly breathtaking sight (especially when you've seen about 1500 km of flat, empty lands).
December 2016
Cycling from Adelaide to Perth. 2800 km (1750mi) in 11 days, over the vast expanses of the Nullarbor desert. A mental as much as a physical challenge !
December 2015
Hiking from Mexico to the Grand Canyon. 800 km (500mi) in 3 weeks, walking an average of 50 km/day (31mi) in magnificient landscapes: mountains, desert, pine forests... Winter conditions made the logistics challenging but the scenery more than made up for it !
Pittsburgh to Washington DC: 500 km non-stop
August 2015
My new personal record for a non-stop bike ride, Pittsburgh to Washington DC, 500 km (315mi) in 29 hours. Mostly on rail trails (Great Allegheny Passage) and on a folding bike (hence the slow average speed). A fantastic experience, as the bike trails allowed traffic-free riding through 2 consecutive nights.
May 2015
Cycling east to west across North America, from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles. 4700 km (3000mi) in 21 days (of which 2 rest days), solo and self-supported, including a notable 340km (212mi) day for crossing the Mojave desert (California) with temperatures above 40deg.
September 2014
Leisurely-paced crossing of Wales, parts on- and off-road. The road was pretty much a straight diagonal from Abergavenny in the south-east, across the Brecon Beacons, mid Wales, and Snowdonia, to Bangor in the north-west..
August 2014
Road cycling across the Pyrennees, the mountain range on the southern border of France with Spain. I started from Santander in Spain, followed the Spanish/French border, over a dozen mountain passes, and finished in Perpignan on the eastern side, near the French mediterranean. A bit more than 1000 km and 12,000m+ n a week.
July 2013
Road cycling over most of the whole Alpine arc. I started from Innsbruck in Austria, through Switzerland, Italy and to the French riviera. A bit more than 1000 km and 18,400m+ of Alpine roads and mountain passes in just 5 days.
May 2013
My personal record (update: now largely surpassed :)) for a fast long ride. Cycling from Innsbruck, Austria to Belgium: 670 km in just 2 (long !) days (self-supported, i.e. carrying food and luggage).
January 2012
About 900km with my friend Claude Waterval. It included a ride along the Death Valley and a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway, between San Franciso and San Luis Obispo.
September 2010
West-east traverse of Scotland on foot and by packraft. 250 km in less than 6 days. I started from the west coast near the town of Mallaig, and hiked over the highlands to the source of the river Spey. I carried a packraft (small inflatable raft), and then paddled down the river as it flows eastwards, up to its mouth on the east coast. The story of the trip was featured in the French magazine Carnets d'Aventure of June 2011.
August 2009
South-north crossing of Turkey on foot and by bicycle. From Adana on the south (Meditteraean) coast, to Samsum on the Northern coast of the Black Sea.