There is no easy way to explain how I’ve ended up living in the small former Soviet republic of Armenia. Thankfully, I now have the luxury of running a personal blog with an unlimited word count. So let me give you the backstory. (Not the full backstory, mind you. If you want to hear that, […]
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 […]
On my first night back in Yerevan after several years living in England, I noticed a book on the bedside table – a book I hadn’t seen for a very long time. It was a copy of my first travel memoir, Janapar. This one belonged to my wife, Tenny. It had a bookmark in it. English is her third […]
It was, without doubt, the most miserable night of my life. Flimsy nylon flapped in the wind. I stumbled through the snow in the fading purple of dusk, trying to anchor one corner of the tent to a pannier, another to a bicycle wheel, another to a tree branch; all the while wearing mittens designed for […]
So last weekend I went back to Armenia, the place around which so much of my early life as a traveller revolved. Ostensibly, my visit was to be present for the commemoration on the 24th of April of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Among countless others did I descend upon Yerevan to be […]
tramp noun 1. a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job. Last night I slept rough in London for the first time. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. In fact, as urban stealth-camping goes, it was one of the more pleasant nights I can remember. The most difficult thing was committing […]
The other day I went to a birthday party here in London. I knew the host through a mutual friend in the adventure world, upon whose fringes I seem to drift. The guest-list read like a who’s who of young Brits who’d devoted themselves to exploring and asking questions of the world. It was just […]
I dream of another big adventure. Constantly. This is probably not something that will ever change. I believe that I am forever destined to fantasise about the far side of the bend; the life of pure simplicity engendered by being on the road with the wind at my back and no particular reason to do anything […]
Yeah, I know it’s a little late to be posting articles on New Year plans and resolutions. What can I say, I’ve been busy! (And that itself is something I want to change… on which more later.) This is my third and final Annual Review post for this New Year. If you’re just arriving, first […]
This time last year I published a similar ‘Annual Review’ style series of blog posts, the third and last of which was a forward-looking piece, aimed at setting a few resolutions to overcome the previous year’s ills. It’s been interesting reading back over these words, because I didn’t pin those resolutions to my wall, nor […]