A great number of expeditions and adventures are filmed, especially now the equipment to do so is cheap and accessible. But few projects ever reach the screen. This begs the simple question: Why are so many expedition film projects unsuccessful? The art of filmmaking is broadly misunderstood. It’s not just ‘photography with movement’. That’s cinematography, not […]
Today I’m very pleased to be able to share with you the first of a couple of teaser videos of Karun, the film I’ve recently been working on. For those who missed it, Leon and I travelled to Iran in the spring of 2014 in order to follow the longest river in Iran. This film, […]
Let me tell you a little story. A couple of years ago I was invited to give a talk in London. The details were vague, but the gist was this: a small, select group of people would really like to spend a couple of hours hearing about my adventures. In return for my talk, they […]
A final dash on the bikes would bring us to the beginning of the fourth and final leg of our journey along the Karun. (Start with Part 1 if you’re new to this series.) With visas ticking (ever the bane of the Westerner in a restrictive country with endless potential for travel), we returned the bicycles to their owner […]
We’d heard that a series of dams were being constructed along the Karun. We hadn’t quite realised the extent of what this meant. No fewer than 3 major dams were already in existence on Iran’s longest river, including what the locals had told us was the biggest dam in the Middle East, and we heard […]
We unshouldered our packs by the riverside after a week of gruelling winter trekking along roads that appeared on no maps or GPS. A couple of hours later we floated away from the riverbank and began to travel downstream by packraft. No trace of our presence was left on dry land, save for a couple […]
At £26.99 they were the most expensive pair I’d ever bought. But I couldn’t have been more glad of my knee-length, wool-lined waterproof socks as I slogged through waist-deep snow in a cheap pair of trainers. My shoes were soaked through; I couldn’t feel my hands or nose; the 30-kilo pack dug into my shoulders […]
There’s a good reason for this blog having been quiet for a few weeks: I’ve been on a deliberately low-tech adventure in the Middle East since early February. While Leon and I still have another couple of weeks on the road to look forward to, I wanted to share a few moments of this journey […]
As all adventurers know, it’s crucial to get a long day’s travelling off to the best possible start. Which is why, whenever circumstances allow, I begin my day with a ubiquitous Full English: Now, while I’d prefer to cycle to every film screening I attend, I all-too-often find myself on the train… …once I’ve waded […]
In late 2012 I took a gamble on crowdfunding my first book project. After three weeks of planning and preparation, I clicked the ‘launch’ button early one morning from the comfort of my bed, and nodded off for a little doze. What happened next was this: £300 in pledges had come in before I got […]