Outside Context travel writing has been featured on some of the world’s top websites. Articles have been purchased by Airlines, featured in iPhone Apps, published as questions in degree level English examinations and comments have been posted by everyone from Lonely Planet writers to US Special Forces Lieutenant Colonels!
Critical Praise for “Trials & Tea Ceremonies”
A hilarious and heartfelt journey for anyone who has ever wondered: "Is this it?" What happens when the life you've built no longer feels like your own? That's exactly what Basho and his wife [...]
Announcing my new book: Trials & Tea Ceremonies: Misadventures in Far Away Places.
A love story disguised as a travel memoir. Or perhaps, the other way around. Selected as one of LoveReading’s "Indie Books We Love" If you love books that transport you to another world, Trials [...]
Things Will Change – a Basho travel film
Things Will Change A travel film exploring humanity's journey through history, touching on themes of faith, nature, technological advancement, and the essence of human connection. The film is divided into [...]
Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir 2018 – wine review
I wanted today to take you on a journey to the Marlborough region of New Zealand and elicit a taste of the feelings I have for this area. My love for New Zealand started [...]
Losing Control, Releasing Nature – The Directors Cut!
In the last of my series of films re-examining my output over the last 10 years, I present the definitive edition of my film celebrating my wife’s silver gilt award at the RHS show. The [...]
50 Shades of Uluru
Come see the ever changing colours of Uluru in all its unbelievably rich and mesmerising splendor at sunset. Followed by the next morning as the sun rises and the colours grow as the sun bathes the rock faces in light.
The Magnificent Temples of Angkor (Special Edition)
The magic of the temples of Angkor are almost beyond imagination. I met many people on my travels who have claimed to be “templed out” – tired of seeing one similar looking temple after [...]
Wudang Mountain – Climbing the Dao in China
A journey to Wudang Mountain; the small mountain range in the northwestern part of Hubei, China, just south of Shiyan. This film details the 20,000 steps up this magical mountain and the strange Daoist [...]
New Zealand – Country of Contrasts (Special Edition)
After watching LOTR for the first time I started a long journey of the heart. The first steps were the reading of the book itself, now and forever with the New Zealand landscape in my [...]
Endings and Beginnings – Basho and Cesca return home from their adventures
Endings are actually beginnings too. This is what I told myself as I sat in the tiny, oh so tiny, room in Osaka. It's one of those glass half empty or half full sort of [...]
Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, green tea and finding inner peace
I have written before about travellers wanting a point to it all, to travelling. In part this is perhaps seen as them wanting to justify the vast cost of travel; to have a point [...]
Mount Fuji, Tokyo and the 200 mph Bullet Train
I wallowed comfortably in the exceedingly warm waters, the balmy mountain air was cool and smelled of the rich wood my surroundings were constructed from. I was butt-naked and in my first real Japanese onsen, [...]
Tsukiji Fish Market, Adventures in Sushi and the Edo-Tokyo Museum
4am in Tokyo, Japan trickled around and we were ready to go. We skipped breakfast and headed down to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market. It opened at 5:30am and back then you could wander in [...]
Tokyo: Akihabara, Asakusa and Shibuya
Tokyo, like Beijing and especially like Delhi, is a city that one could spend a lifetime in and never feel a sense of completion. The Japanese way of doing things enhances this feeling with wards [...]
Arriving in Japan
I have always looked at maps of the world and wondered if they skew perspective. America appears massive while Australia and India are diminished and Japan… well, miniscule. Even when I was young, I knew [...]
Beijing and the Great Wall – Our final days in China
"So," said Cesca loudly and clearly, just as I was drinking from a water bottle, "What's all this about China and Tiananmen Square?" I almost did a spit take. "Quiet!" I said and I [...]
China’s National Treasures – Pandas and the Terracotta Warriors
Everyone loves Pandas and at the Panda Conservation Centre near Chengdu, China is probably the best place to see them in the world. Watching them reminded me of the Douglas Adams quote: "...On the [...]
Tiger Leaping Gorge & Lijiang
Flanked by several enormous mountains, Tiger Leaping Gorge is top contender for the deepest gorge in the world. The upper road of the gorge makes for some breath-taking hiking and winds slowly up the edge [...]
Yaks for tea and Tibetan Temples. Living the high life in Shangri-la
"You have to imagine," said the man in broken English, "that this..." he gestured his hands at the view in front of us, "big lake... flood wide and deep... great water!" He broke into a wide toothy smile.
China: Li River to Shangri-La
At one point in our journey I actually advocated to Cesca that we skip China. That she didn’t listen, and talked me round, proves clearly that I don’t know everything and Cesca has some great ideas [...]