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Brief Travel Journal Update – El Calafate, Patagonia Windswept and hungry, Rachel and I dragged ourself into the tiny bus terminal at El Calafate, a lonely desert town in Patagonia, southern Argentina. While flying, I spotted the airport we were due to land at as we began to descend – It was a single airstrip. Just as the plane was coming into land, a momentous gust of wind side-swiped it, throwing us back and forth and sending a sharp thrust of adrenaline through our tired bodies. The wind persisted as we left the airport. Dust and twisted bramble circulated the car park, riding on the tidal wind. We struggled to fight against it as we made our way towards the bus to town. I asked the driver if the wind was normally this strong. He shrugged and said...

In my photography travel journal today I spoke about our probable return to Korea. In truth, we both miss the place. We are craving normalcy, or stability in some sense. While our time on the road has been nothing short of brilliant, we want to experience, for however long, a healthy routine. We want to socialise regularly with friends and have access to a gym. We want to be able to cook healthy meals and sleep in our own bed more often than not. Travelling can be intensely fulfilling, but at the same time it can be demanding. While you experience so many great things, you also find yourself exhausted. You pull yourself from pillar to post in search of adventure and at some points you realise you just want to go to sleep for a couple of days in your own bed to...

This is just a quick post listing the contents of my bag for the next 3 months. We’ve decided to challenge ourselves this time around. With the exception of a carry-on bag containing my camera gear and laptop, I’m only taking a 45 litre backpack for everything else, as is Rachel. Previously we both took 65 L packs and they were far too cumbersome. The question we want to ask ourselves is: how much can we live without? What I’m taking: 45 Litre Berghaus Arete backpack Tenba camera bag 4 pairs of pants 5 pairs of tee-shirts 1 jacket 1 thermal top 8 days supply of underwear and socks Basic bathroom kit (small bottle shampoo, soad etc) Hiking trainers Converse Scarf Hat silk sleeping bag lining fold-able water bottle Tripod Camera,  3 lenses &...

Just weeks after talking about our new plans to travel around Europe for 2 months, we are back in the UK preparing for a 3 month trip across the Americas. It’s funny how quickly these things can change. The weather simple worked against us, and instead of flogging a dead horse we decided to be as flexible as possible and go where the weather and landscapes were most accepting right now. It seems like each trip we go on requires a completely different set up. For our six month sojourn in South East Asia we were prepared as backpackers. For France we had the car and a boat load more things with us, most of which was Rachel’s. Now, we’ll be taking more in terms of hiking gear. We are planning for noticeably different terrain in Argentina and...

After only a week into our European adventure, we have come up against our first big challenge – the weather. We knew the weather had been a bit inconsistent across Europe but it seems like our trip has coincided with a serious turn in climatic fortunes. We originally planned to slowly make our way west across northern Spain until we finally got to Porto in Portugal. We’ve had inconsistent weather since leaving Paris but our arrival in Bilbao was met with a constant downpour. Checking the weather against our route it quickly became apparent that the entire Spanish and Portugal legs of our journal would be marred by constant rainfall. We quickly located the least effected area, Valencia, and decided to head there tomorrow. Ultimately, much of Spain and...

One of the loveliest things about our 6 month adventure in France is the sheer number of beautiful little medieval towns that we’ve had the pleasure of visiting and taking pictures of. We’ve also had the bonus of seeing these places during the autumn and winter – there were very few tourists in each place. Galan, Pyrenees The first thing we usually notice when we pull up to places like this is the relaxed atmosphere. No one seems to be in a hurry, not even the tourists. Small cafes, as in the rest of France, can be found in every nook and cranny. We so often see crooked buildings that lean so far over the street they almost convince you that they’re about to topple over. Noyers, Burgundy Often, just when you think you’ve fully...