African jazz from a Land Rover
In 1964, not long before his 19th birthday, my father set off for Bechuanaland – or Botswana as it would shortly become. At the time, the country was about to…
A return to travel writing
When the plague hit, I was in Øvre Dividal National Park in northern Norway, tramping between mountain huts in the powdery snow and learning the hard way that there is…
Fisherfield
Last week I escaped back out into the wide world with a trip to Fisherfield Forest in north-west Scotland. Not actually a forest at all, it’s a wide open area…
The Cambrian Way
‘If you make it to Conwy,’ promised a kindly publican with a tattoo of an Uzi submachine gun on her upper arm, ‘come back here and there’ll be a pint…
Snowshoeing in Tromsø
The last time I went winter walking in the mountains above Tromsø, I lost both my map and myself in the snow. It was 2009, and I’d left my editorial…
A trip to Japan
Last Friday, as most of the world was going about its more important business, I was sat in a restaurant on the outskirts of Kyoto eating candied crickets, bee larvae…
Field guns in the Kremlin
The other week, I took a little jaunt over to see my old mate P and his family in Moscow. I’ve been promising to visit him since he first moved…
The Zillertal Alps with Peter Habeler
The Ramblers always give me the best jobs. First there was Bavaria, then the Dolomites, then Matt, the editor, got in touch asking if I might fancy going to the…
The Pennine Way
The reason we had trouble finding the entrance to our campsite was because you had to go through a working scrapyard. As you emerged from the piles of crumpled Mondeos…
Destination: Dolomites
A few months back I was lucky enough to be thrown a last-minute gig by Matt at walk magazine, writing about a week-long walking holiday in the Italian Dolomites. It…
