Again I fly to Jordan, only this time I thrust deep into Syria: after climbing the battlements of Kraq des Chevaliers (“the most beautiful castle in the world,” according to TE Lawrence), I speed down the Mediterranean coast in a thunderstorm, and cross the Lebanese mountains in the mist to enter the Beqaa Valley, where […]
Once more I plunge into Egypt, but this time I make an anabasis into Jordan. Armed with a copy of Seven Pillars of Wisdom I am keen to learn more about the short unhappy life of Lawrence of Arabia. On my way back to the land of the pharaohs, I bump into the Bedouin who are eager
When the snow finally melts in Greece, I continue my odyssey in search of the lost continent of Atlantis; after visiting the ruins of Plato’s Academy, I uncover some tantalizing clues to the sunken island sizzling in a live volcano beneath a glass-bottomed boat in Santorini.
Hungry for more excitement I fix my compass on the Aegean, but a freak storm sweeps down from the Bosporus blanketing the Cyclades in snow. I takeoff for Egypt in a blizzard, and end up wandering along the banks of the Nile in the sunshine, photographing its tombs, temples and pyramids, before heading off to
University behind me, I am drawn back once more to the land of The Thousand and One Nights, and retrace the footsteps of my great-grandfather who fought the Mahdist State at the Battle of Omdurman. Unfortunately, Sudan holds up my paperwork, so instead of following my map to Khartoum I climb Mount Sinai, and then make
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In the middle of my university studies I escape to the Caribbean to explore the legends of Hispaniola, a favourite haunt of pirates in Stevenson’s Treasure Island. It feels good to feel the sand between my toes again, and I research the history of Christopher Columbus, Spanish gold, and Ponce de Leon’s search for the
My first wild geography lesson begins in London when I am eight years old: I sail with my family across the Atlantic in a freighter captained by my father; like Jason and the Argonauts we navigate our way up the St. Lawrence River to Lake Superior, and then battle our way back home in a