In 1856 the Great Trigonometric Survey calculated the height of Everest to be 29,000 feet. An irritatingly round figure for all concerned. Fearing that their hard work to ascertain its dimensions precisely would be received as a mere estimate, Andrew Waugh resolved to add a little bit on to the measurement, all in bringing it… Read more To and Through The Gulf of Aden: Between Farts and Cockroaches
Time in Sri Lanka commenced with James and I confronting a navy boat in our pants at three o’clock in the morning. You can be relatively sure you’re in for an interesting time of it when things get going in this manner, and Sri Lanka was nothing if not interesting. What follows is an observation… Read more Sri Lanka: Whale Tales and Elephant Eggs
You would be forgiven for thinking that the most challenging aspects of sailing around the world pertain to raging storms, rascally pirates and the sheer vastness of the oceans to be traversed. I am both apologetic and grateful to tell you that this is not the case. Apologetic because these are generally the more exciting… Read more Checking Out The World
The problem with the view from an Indonesian street corner, more often than not, is the distinct lack of a corner to view things from. This is true of almost all Indonesian street corners I have attempted to occupy, and it was true of the one that I found myself on in a town called… Read more A View From An Indonesian Street Corner
It is quite an unnatural phenomenon on a boat, which should always be found creaking or sighing in some way, to find silence. Whilst I had fallen asleep to the pleasantly monotonous drone of the engine, I was roused from my slumber not by that, nor by the usual whirr of the wind generator, nor… Read more Miscellaneous and Mechanical Misfortunes in Malaysia
Today we kill 25 orangutans. No, I don’t care if it’s Christmas Day. Think of it as poetic if you like: it’s the 25th day of the month, and we’ve got 25 orangutans to dispatch. For years and years our methodical annihilation of Borneo’s rainforests has seen us terminate this many daily, and – Christmas or… Read more A Christmas Guide To Killing Orangutans
Walk like warriors, we were never told to run Explored the world to return to where my soul had begun, Never looking back, or too far in front of me The present is a gift, and I just want to Be. – Be (Intro), Common Bali bound. The brochure-beckoning paradise beloved by everybody from… Read more Being In Bali
12th July 2018 Stole to bed on a rainy night black as black and rocked to sleep by the ocean’s rhythm; awoke to a bright morning gushing into the cabin of a mysteriously still boat. Popping bleary eyes out the forehatch I find before me land basking in sun-soaked beauty as Blue Eye slices through… Read more Dim-Dim Diaries
It was a beautiful day to throw oneself from a thirty-metre tower with nothing but vines tied to ones legs. It was made all the more beautiful by the fact that I would not be the one doing it. But for the Vanuatan men and boys who loitered precariously above, it was a real corker… Read more Vanuatu Part Two: Falling Culture
“It’s time to meet the piece,” announced Josh, as we alleviated ourselves of the power tools and the fine dust they had brought upon us, and admired our freshly shaped oyster shell pendants glinting in the Pacific sunshine. The fading whirr of machines gave way to the incumbent rustle of palm leaves and crashing waves… Read more Meet The Marsters