Category Archives: Travel

The Mountains of Persia

Posted on March 26, 2020 by

There is a bar in Belgrade called the World Traveller’s Club. It is in the basement of an apartment block in the city centre and to gain entrance you are required to ring the door bell at street level and … Continue reading →

Posted in Balkans, film, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Winter Light

Posted on January 31, 2020 by

Even in winter, the northeast Norfolk coast has its attractions, especially over the Christmas and New Year period when many flock here to see the grey seals that come to the beaches of Winterton and Horsey to give birth. For … Continue reading →

Posted in Norfolk, Travel, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Over the Ofer

Posted on September 18, 2019 by

Ofer: Old English word for border or edge As I have mentioned here before, I have been working on a book project for some time. A book about a walk – a sort of pagan pilgrimage – made across England … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Travel, Walking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Black Sea, Blue Sky – Balkan Rain

Posted on June 12, 2019 by

This rain that has been falling almost incessantly here for the past 48 72 hours seems to have followed me back home from the Balkans. Travelling coast to coast, from Adriatic to Black Sea, over a three week period I … Continue reading →

Posted in Balkans, Eastern Europe, Travel, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Ghosts of Mattancherry

Posted on April 15, 2019 by

The best of India is often seen in the slow hours before breakfast, the time of day when the subcontinent’s multitude of people and gods stir themselves in the cool mercury light that follows dawn. On my last day in … Continue reading →

Posted in Asia, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Palani – a temple town

Posted on February 19, 2019 by

  Palani, a temple town in western Tamil Nadu, barely gets a mention in the guidebooks. Too close to the hill resort of Kodaikanal to be of much interest other than as a transport hub, the town was a necessary … Continue reading →

Posted in Asia, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

A Berlin Interlude

Posted on January 13, 2019 by

What do you do on a drizzly grey day in Berlin? A midwinter day when the sun is enfeebled and hidden, cowering somewhere beneath a thick duvet of cloud. What do you do in a city that you do not … Continue reading →

Posted in Cities, History, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The Rule of Home

Posted on September 26, 2018 by

As a few of you may know, I have been working on a much longer project, a book in fact, for quite some time. This work is centred on a walk made coast to coast across England and Wales, from … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Travel, Walking | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Beside Song-Köl Lake

Posted on August 4, 2018 by

There are places that stay in the mind long after visiting. Places that haunt the mind’s memory cache to prevail even years after having set foot there. Such places might be mountains, or rivers, or stretches of coastline; or even … Continue reading →

Posted in Central Asia, Travel, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

Kyrgyzstan railway wagons

Posted on February 13, 2018 by

Kyrgyzstan does not have much of a railway system. A branch line from Moscow extends down from Kazakhstan to Bishkek, the Kyrgyzstan capital; another offers an excruciatingly slow service to Balykchy on Lake Issyk-Kul. Another line extends from Jalal-Abad in … Continue reading →

Posted in Central Asia, Human Geography, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments