Morocco 2025: Analogue - Misadventures

December 2012

When travelling, there are places you visit not for beauty or culture, but to educate and remind yourself of our capacity for intolerable cruelty to one another - and to reaffirm why it must never be allowed to happen again. Robben Island, home to many political prisoners under the Apartheid government, is one such place.

A walk around Kew Gardens at night, guided by Christmas Illuminations.

Two friends held their wedding at a lovely hotel near Brockenhurst in the New Forest. In the morning I had around 2 hours before my train back to Southampton Airport so I decided to walk the long way around to the station. Lovely place. Would like to take my bike up there sometime.

Another of those places where it felt surreal to walk the pathways of a place I'd seen in everything from Asterix graphic novels as a kid, to movies via many history books. Every footstep, a connection to the past. I visited on a bright but changeable February morning and the queues were still deep. I cannot imagine how busy it must be at the height of summer.

The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall is a world wonder that truly lives up to its reputation. A set of memories rather than a great set of photos. I'd not slept in around 72 hours, was struggling a bit physically and once I set foot on the wall was suddenly hit by the realisation that I no longer had a job, was actually at a place I'd dreamt of since I was a kid and at the start of a grand adventure. What a place to start it.

The description of Aït Benhaddou and in particular it's ksar features many words that are magic to my ears; "UNESCO World Heritage Site", "Indiana Jones shooting location"

A late afternoon walk around the Estonian city of Tartu.

This spectacular complex is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia and 2nd largest in South East Asia after Angkor Wat although it predates it by nearly 3 centuries. It was one of so many incredible locations throughout Java that I had no idea existed prior to arriving in Indonesia and why that part of my backpacking days are so fondly remembered, with every day including a new discovery.