Featured | Ramblings

Iran in pictures

April 18, 2020April 25, 2020 pdg 0 Comments Chakchak, Esfahan, Iran, Kandovan, Kerman, Persepolis, Qazvin, Qom, Shiraz, Yazd, Zoroastrianism

Former US President George W Bush called it part of “the Axis of Evil”. I call it one of the most fascinating and welcoming places I’ve been.

Europe Featured Weird Travel

Transnistria: How to visit a country that doesn’t exist

July 19, 2019January 3, 2020 pdg 2 Comments Bendery, Kvint, Moldova, Pridnestrovie, Sheriff Corporation, Tiraspol, Transdniestria, Transnistria

A Soviet time warp and unrecognised breakaway state, Transnistria is one of the strangest places in Europe.

Africa Featured Weird Travel

A beastly back rub: Hanging out with the hyenas of Harar

March 29, 2019April 20, 2019 pdg 0 Comments Ethiopia, Harar, hyena

There are times in your life when you ask yourself: How did I get here? For me, one of those times was in a rubbish dump at night in Ethiopia with a 60kg hyena on my back.

Europe Featured New Zealand

The far-reaching wake of the waka

May 27, 2018February 13, 2019 pdg 0 Comments Leiden, Museum Volkenkunde, Netherlands, Te Hono ki Aotearoa, Te Papa, waka

What makes a group of Dutch students so passionate about Māori culture that they travel halfway around the world each year to take part in Waitangi Day festivities?

Europe Featured Weird Travel

The strange case of the giant underpants

May 26, 2018October 14, 2019 pdg 2 Comments Czech Republic, Czechia, Miloš Zeman, Prague castle, underpants, Ztohoven

How I ended up with a piece of the Czech president’s flag.

Featured Pacific

One foot in paradise

May 17, 2018May 19, 2018 pdg 0 Comments Aitutaki, Cook Islands, One Foot Island, paradise

I’d only been on Aitutaki, a series of atolls sprinkled around a picture-postcard lagoon in the Cook Islands, for a few minutes when Captain Terrible ruined my plans for this story.