Category: Philosophy Of Travel
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Breaking: Self-Unemployed Explorer Finally Gets Real Job
I recently got the opportunity to do something more risky and terrifying than any of the journeys, expeditions or adventure projects I’ve ever undertaken. That’s right: aged 41, and after nearly two decades as a “self-unemployed creative explorer”, I was offered my first ever real job. And – gasp – I took it! Because in…
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Breaking: Former Traveller Recreates Feeling Of Adventure At Home (Again)
The moment I decided to stop travelling, put down roots, and buy a house (on the pretext that I needed somewhere to store my bikes and camping gear), some deeply buried part of my brain started looking for ways to make it feel like I was actually still travelling. I’m certainly not the first. And…
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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…
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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…
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Why I’ve Founded A Travel Grant To Get Young People Exploring The World On Two Wheels
My first long bicycle adventure – 3½ years crossing 32 countries – taught me many things. Among them: that the world was far bigger than I thought. That my body was capable of amazing feats of adaptation. That the more I learned, the less I knew. In short, that all the tropes of the motivational…
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Behind The Scenes On 15 Years Of Location-Independent Digital Nomading
I first published this piece in 2016 as an evergreen article which I’ll update as, well, life goes on. The latest updates were made in March 2022. My location-independent journey as a digital nomad began before it had a name. It was 2007, I was 23, and I’d set off on a bicycle to explore the world. I sold everything I…
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Turns Out Iran As The Next Big Travel Destination Is Already Old News
“Wow – Iran looks amazing!” It’s really, really lovely to hear this reaction from viewers of Karun. It is exactly the reaction I’d hoped for, ever since my idea to make a travel documentary in Iran was born. Best of all, it is a natural reaction. We designed the adventure loosely to let Iran and the…
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Debunking The Myth Of The Modern-Day ‘Adventurer’
I’ve noticed something recently, which is that I often get referred to as an ‘adventurer’. Something about this doesn’t ring true. I’ve never used the word to describe myself – not in real life, nor in my blog’s ‘about’ page, my social media profiles, my email signature, nor anywhere else. The first time I actually…