Travel Journal

14 Nov 2024

Japan · Kyoto

I arrived late and the city was already asleep

The shinkansen dropped me at Kyoto Station past ten. I'd read about the lantern glow along Pontocho but it was just closed izakayas and a drunk salaryman napping against a vending machine. Sometimes a city makes you wait for it. I walked for an hour anyway, and at the end of a narrow alley found a ramen counter with two seats left. That broth rewrote my understanding of patience.

03 Sep 2024

Iceland · Westfjords

The road to Dynjandi washed out at kilometre 42

We had a 4WD and overconfidence in equal measure. The road turned to a riverbed somewhere past Þingeyri, and the rental car's wheels spun on wet shale until we admitted defeat. We reversed a kilometre and parked, then walked the rest. The waterfall, when we finally reached it, was so loud we had to shout. Worth every muddy step.

21 Jul 2024

Morocco · Chefchaouen

On the impossibility of not taking photos

I'd sworn off the camera for the first morning — just walk, just look. By 8am I'd broken the rule fourteen times. The light in the blue medina does something to shadow that I have not seen anywhere else. It bounces, doubles, deepens. Every corner is a new theory about colour. I gave up fighting it and just kept shooting.

05 May 2024

Colombia · Cartagena

A cumbia lesson I did not sign up for

We stopped at what looked like a neighbourhood bar in Getsemaní. By 9pm it had become an impromptu dance floor and an older woman named Esperanza was pulling us onto it, laughing at our footwork. By 10pm I had learned enough cumbia to embarrass myself slightly less. This is the education that travel is actually for.

18 Jan 2024

New Zealand · Fiordland

Milford Sound at 5:30am, before the boats

We camped at the car park overnight — technically not allowed, practically ignored. Alarm at 5:15. The fiord at dawn was absolutely flat, a perfect inversion of cliff and sky. No boats. No commentary. Just the sound of waterfalls hitting water. By 7:30 the first tour vessel appeared and the spell lifted. We felt very smug about our timing.