This Transcaucasian Trail thing has really snowballed. It’s got to the point where my life as a “self-unemployed creative nomad fuelled by travel and adventure” seems like a distant memory. Weekly blogs? Monthly newsletters? Hah! – you’re kidding, right? During a much-needed bikepacking escape over the winter, and on the advice of a good friend, […]
When I decided last summer to build the Transcaucasian Trail, I had no idea just what kind of a political mess I was getting myself into. I don’t mean the regional geopolitics of the Caucasus, either. That’s actually pretty clear-cut. Some areas are off-limits, some borders are closed. Thankfully, none of this actually affects a […]
Agendas – hidden or otherwise – seem to play a big part in trail development. Sometimes there is a peace-building motive, knitting together fragmented nations by means of a common travel corridor. More often an effort is framed in terms of the future financial benefits, which usually boils down to a simple equation between more […]
Characterised by wild moorlands, terrible roads, and an unintelligible local dialect, the province of Syunik is a large but sparsely populated region at the far end of Armenia, sufficiently far from the capital to have retained its own unique cultural identity. Much like Yorkshire, in fact. Continue reading at transcaucasian.com »
I’ve been trying desperately to think of a compelling angle for a blog post about the 12 days of driving from London to Yerevan. But the truth of the matter is that a really long drive on good highways does not make for particularly interesting storytelling. This is subjective, of course… Continue reading at transcaucasian.com […]
It’s with nervous trepidation that I write to you this morning. This feeling is usually a sign that something daunting is coming. That’s very true right now: today marks the ‘official’ launch of my big project for 2016, which I’ve named the Transcaucasian Expedition. (You may see it mentioned in the UK press today, but better […]
I write to you today from the bottom of a very large hole. I have spent the last few months digging this hole. Sometimes I pause digging and ask myself: “Tom, if no expedition you’ve ever organised has gone to plan, nor ended in the way you intended, why are you spending so much time […]
More than once in recent weeks I’ve found myself lying awake at night, my mind refusing to take a break from thinking, planning, worrying. How on Earth do you create a brand new long distance hiking trail? Because I’ve committed to doing this thing. I really have. I’ve cleared my entire schedule for 2016 to […]
I don’t often use the word ‘crazy’ or any of its synonyms, for fear of offending the genuinely insane. But the last few days have been very much a psychological minefield, simultaneously launching Karun: Misadventures On Iran’s Longest River, doing podcast interviews, switching continents (again) from Armenia to the UK, presenting at the Royal Geographical Society, […]
Tomorrow is, in many ways, the culmination of years of work and preparation. The project began as a desire to explore Iran (my wife’s homeland) in more depth, brewed steadily while I learned to speak Farsi, and came to fruition in a journey along the Iran’s longest river, the Karun, last year. Now that journey is about to […]