travel
North Africa: 3. Libya
At Tunis airport it was obvious we were the only non-Arabs on the flight to Tripoli. As we boarded, people were asking if we were journalists; of course we weren’t, but we stuck to the job description on our visa forms of ‘engineers’. Once landed in Tripoli airport we joined the mass of people at [...]
Read moreNorth Africa: 2. Tunisia
Tunisia was an unexpected destination after our time in Egypt, but our travel options had been limited by this point after the Libyan consul in Alexandria refused us entry visas. We submitted another visa application before leaving Cairo, hoping that we could pick up entry stamps at Tripoli airport three weeks later instead. Arriving in [...]
Read moreNorth Africa: 1. Egypt
Deciding that you want to go travelling somewhere is the easy part. Organising and making the dream happen is the much harder next step. To make an east-west traverse across North Africa was the idea of my friend Oli, as a sort of procrastination for returning to the UK from her home in Syria. I [...]
Read moreFire and Ice in Kamchatka
The guys over at letsbewild.com have made one the photos from our expedition to the Kamchatka Peninsula as their ‘travel photo of the day‘! Fantastic news, and well worth checking out the rest of their website for bucketfuls of inspiration to get out there and explore, or even to submit your own photos. Photo description:
Read moreGlacial karst: Descent into the Gornergletscher
The Gornergletscher is the second largest glacier system in the Alps, found on the western side of the Monte Rosa Massif flowing down towards the town of Zermatt. The glacier was the centre of interest for the Italian La Venta team during the 80′s and 90′s, during which time they found, explored and described a [...]
Read moreFire and Ice in Kamchatka
Bordering the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ lies Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula – a territory twice the size of Great Britain yet containing a population no more than that of Cardiff. Apart from being a vast wilderness, the region is renowned for its high volcanic activity and is what attracted Colin and myself to organise a 3-week expedition [...]
Read moreJersey to Scilly
I joined Gambo for another short voyage, this time from the Channel Islands to the Isles of Scilly. The plan was to carry out some swath bathymetry off the islands looking for any potential glacial features (see figure) before she returned to Aber once more. After waiting around Jersey for favourable winds to help us make [...]
Read moreOban to Aber
After being used to help carry out scientific research on Greenland’s west coast last summer, Alun’s boat Gambo was sailed across the North Atlantic and spent the winter in Oban, Scotland. The task was now to bring it down to Aberystwyth so it could go on to carry out bathymetric surveying in the Celtic Sea [...]
Read moreA Syrian Venture
Syria may not appear to be the ideal holiday destination at present, but this did not stop Megan, Rich, Rufus and myself heading out to visit our friend Oli in Damascus two weeks ago. A few days before we were due to leave, the Foreign Office advised against all non-essential travel to the country, but [...]
Read moreTwo weeks in Edinburgh
For the last couple of weeks I have been up in Edinburgh visiting my supervisor at the British Geological Survey. Although I was pretty busy working, my friend who had lived there before recommended some pubs and places to visit around town, so was never out of things to do. The following pictures are a [...]
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