Climbing China’s sacred mountain and Buddha’s fire 15 minutes I was visiting Taiwan in the spring of 1983, when I first heard rumours that China was open to travellers, but nobody had met anyone who had actually been there. When I got to Hong Kong, I asked around at the hostel, and was shown theContinue reading “Emei Shan”
Category Archives: Travel
A Hard Rain Over (the other) China
2000 words/15 minutes [After a year running a youth project in Canada’s NWT…where I lived in an uninsulated cabin in temperatures of -40c, I was travelling around the world, in 1983. I got a crack at being a journalist again, and this time, I actually sent off some articles.] Slightly smaller than Switzerland, Taiwan liesContinue reading “A Hard Rain Over (the other) China”
Club Ideal Daze
Cameroon’s premiere spot for the savvy traveller 2760 words/15 minutes I went to Cameroon in January 1999 to attend a conference in the capital Yaounde. Or more accurately, I went to a conference in Yaounde to get into Cameroon. Cameroon doesn’t encourage visitors, and so getting a visa to Cameroon requires an invitation from aContinue reading “Club Ideal Daze”
A Short Walk in the High Sierras
The mountain Sequoias are the most massive trees on the planet, with a deeply furrowed scaly bark of a beautiful red. They tower over two hundred feet and an old postcards shows a carriage driving through a hole cut in a tree a hundred years earlier.
Agadez, Heart of the Sahara
Hitch-hiking across the Sahara in 1972, I got a ride with Jacques across the most isolated part of my route, the 1,000 km from the Tamanrasset, Algeria to Agadez, Niger. We had run out of spare tires at the tiny community of Tegguiada In Tessoum, and Jacques had managed to get a ride with four flat tires and an empty jerrycan into Agadez, leaving me to look after the car until he returned.
Sahara Daze-3
At the camp ground in Tamanrasset there was a group of five Italian junkies who had decided to hitch-hike across the Sahara to get off heroin. Tamanrasset is the southernmost town in Algeria, sitting almost in the middle of the great desert.
Yukon Adventure
There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales That would make your blood run cold;
Himalayan Institute of Mountaineering-3
Knots in Manali, and War with Pakistan 15 Minutes [Following our ascent of a 17,000 foot ridge overlooking Tibet, we return for exams at the Himalayan Institute of Mountaineering, Manali.] We packed up our tents at high camp, leaving three foot high pedestals of snow where our tents had stood, showing us how much theContinue reading “Himalayan Institute of Mountaineering-3”
Bear Hunting, Goat Sausage and Views Over Tibet
The Himalayan Institute of Mountaineering Part 2 20 minutes. Part 1: A Princess Or An Ice Axe is the first piece on the blog. If you haven’t read it, now is the time. After ten days at the Himalayan Institute of Mountaineering, we set off to continue our training in the mountains. The day afterContinue reading “Bear Hunting, Goat Sausage and Views Over Tibet”
Of Pulque and Popo:
After enjoying Mexico’s cactus beer, I decided to climb the volcano that towers over Mexico city. Then, dammit, I did it again, But as Hericlitis said, you never climb the same mountain twice.
writesimon 