An occasional blog on topics related to my work. For a behind-the-scenes look, subscribe to my Patreon page.
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I very much enjoyed chatting with Dave Cornthwaite a couple of weeks ago while recording a new episode for his Self Propelled Podcast. We travelled a meandering path of conversation on the theme of living life on one’s own terms, from my early bicycle-mounted adventures, to finding creative expression through books and films, to sharing lessons in life and travel with others looking to expand their horizons, and finally the Transcaucasian Trail project that has consumed my existence for the last half-decade. You can listen via the embedded player below, or visit the podcast’s page on Anchor.fm for links to…
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How To Fundraise For Your Expedition (Or Other Adventurous Project)
This article is based on a lecture I gave for the Royal Geographical Society at the 2019 Explore expedition planning conference. If you’ve arrived here expecting an ‘ultimate guide’ or ‘blueprint’ with three easy steps to finding funding for your expedition, then I am afraid I must disappoint you. Not only is your expedition unique, but you will have developed this unique idea through having unique ambitions, skills, talents, and resources. Given all of that uniqueness, there’s limitless ways you might raise funds. So if I started this post by promising to tell you exactly what to do, I’d be…
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Trail Notes From The Stunning Zagros Mountains Of Iraqi Kurdistan
In December last year, just before my #FlightFree2020 began, I took a hike across northern Iraq, where my long-time collaborator in adventure Leon McCarron has been working with the Abraham Path Initiative on a nascent trail project in the region. We’re talking about landscapes that were once part of ancient Mesopotamia, so the route traverses a very long cultural timeline on its way across the southwest flanks of the Zagros range. Despite years of experience of working and travelling in Iraqi Kurdistan, Leon really has his work cut out for him – for reasons I’ll come to shortly – but…
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The story of the volunteers hacking a 3,000km path across the Caucasus Mountains
I recently penned this 1,500-word piece for Horizon Guides, whose founder Matt I’ve known for many years. Their mission is to expand our understanding of the world through guides, journals and curated travel experience – a mission that has much in common with my own. There is no particular blueprint for creating a long-distance hiking route across a region fragmented by closed borders and frozen conflicts. This is perhaps the biggest challenge faced by the tribe of people who are gripped by the seemingly impossible task of building the Transcaucasian Trail. If there’s a characteristic that unites us, it’s that…
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#FlightFree2020: Travel Blogging And The Multiplier Effect
There’s an elephant in the room with my #FlightFree2020 pledge. My work is tied inextricably to the international travel industry, which in turn relies heavily on flying. In other words, if I continue to do my job well, I will increase overall aviation emissions – whether or not I myself take any flights – as a result of what might be called the multiplier effect. Through my blog TomsBikeTrip.com, for example, I dish out advice and inspiration for bicycle travel to 50,000 visitors a month, encouraging them to explore the world on two wheels. But what if, in acting upon…
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Guest Post for Home Of Millican: Building The Transcaucasian Trail
Originally published at homeofmillican.com. In an obscure corner of Armenia, in the town of Dilijan, just shy of the central square, a rickety wooden staircase leads up from the street, through the trees, and into the unknown. If you climb these stairs and follow the red-and-white symbols, you’ll rise far above town along pathways etched between pine trees, leaving outlying farmsteads behind you, foraying deeper into the woods on narrow trails among oak and ash and hornbeam – until finally you’ll burst out upon the alpine meadows, and the full glory of Dilijan National Park will be draped across the…
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#FlightFree2020: About The Time I Travelled The World Flight-Free For 4 Years (And Nobody Cared)
My Flight Free 2020 pledge hasn’t come out of nowhere. Call it a rekindling of a long-forgotten conviction that the example I set might actually matter. Because we are all participants, now, in this huge and never-ending conversation we call global society. Our impact is measured in terms of the number of people paying attention when we open our mouths – or our laptops – to say something. As my audience has grown over 13 years as a blogger and traveller, my influence has increased proportionally. I can no longer ignore the consequences of my words and actions. This wasn’t…
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#FlightFree2020: Can Flight-Free Living & Adventure Travel Really Coexist? Let’s Find Out
Today, on this day of New Year’s Resolutions, I pledge to join the Flight Free UK campaign. Between now and the 1st of January 2021, I will not take a single flight. I’ve joined the campaign because, as a long-time advocate of adventurous travel and exploration, I can no longer ignore my own hypocrisy. I have always considered myself an environmentally conscious person, and I generally promote lifestyle choices which are low on consumption and high on experience. Most I know in the adventure world would describe themselves in similar terms. But the truth is that, on an average year,…
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Five Of Armenia’s Most Spectacular Monastery Hikes
Many of Armenia’s most famous Christian monasteries are dramatically situated amid towering cliffs or on precipitous mountainsides with panoramic views across the rugged landscapes of the Lesser Caucasus. In ancient times, accessing these centres of study and worship required the laborious construction of steep footpaths and rock-hewn steps from neighbouring communities, and many such routes survive today as hiking trails. Rather than drive or take a taxi all the way to these destinations, then, consider incorporating the following excellent hikes into your travel itinerary around Armenia: Satan’s Bridge to Tatev Monastery (via the Great Hermitage of Tatev) Instead of driving…
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The Gegham Mountains: Exploring Armenia’s Volcanic Backcountry
The Gegham Mountains are an imposing chain of volcanic domes that bisects Armenia from north to south. For most of the year they are impenetrable due to a thick layer of snow. But come June, as snow starts to melt, the country’s tent-dwelling Yezidi nomads drive their cattle from lowland plains to graze beneath the azure skies of high summer. These are among the most remote and uninhabited parts of the Lesser Caucasus mountains, which stretch from the Black Sea coast of Georgia to the River Arax on the border of Armenia and Iran. And it is the perfect place…