Expert Insights

September 12, 2013 A Baracoa Adventure

Read time – 3 minutes Plastic scrapes along the coarse river bed, ripples lapping at the shore. The chipped wooden oars come to rest in the shallow water beneath us. On a grassy mound in the distance, I am distracted by two men standing knee-deep in the River Toa which flows through Cuba, casting and...

September 12, 2013 In the Footsteps of Edmund Hilary

Read time – 3 minutes Nepal, Kathmandu and Everest – a few names I became aware of early in life having spent my formative years on a certain little Southern Hemisphere island. Down there you learn about the mystical kingdom of Nepal even if you fail to pay attention at school! All thanks to one man –...

September 12, 2013 Joyce’s Story

Read time – 1 minute Joyce is a little eight-year-old girl who lives 100 yards away from our school in Kasalu, Zambia. I met her last December and discovered she was not attending school. She was a very quiet, softly spoken kid with a downtrodden demeanour and a sad face. Her life had been pretty...

September 12, 2013 A First Taste of India

Read time – 3 minutes “Did you get ill then?” seems to be the first question that comes to mind when you tell people you’ve just come back from India. It may not be an actual medical condition but it seems as if everyone knows about the dreaded Delhi Belly. It was with that in my...

September 12, 2013 Mirror, Signal, “Mush – Arctic Dogsledding

Read time – 3 minutes Mirror, signal, manoeuvre. Basics we learn, but perhaps soon forget (or choose to ignore) on the road to becoming qualified drivers. In the dogsledding world if you get anchor, handbrake and “mush” in the wrong order you will end up on your own, watching as your team of dogs speed...

September 12, 2013 Exploring the Antarctic

Read time – 2 minutes Antarctica is so much more than the sum of its parts. It took a second visit to really appreciate this. As with all travel experiences, memories are dictated by the pictures taken, the diaries kept and the anecdotes relayed upon return. As months turn to years, what is left are fragments...

September 12, 2013 A Feast of Wild Places: A Tour of Patagonia

Read time – 2 minutes Charred and smoking, piles of red hot coal formed a line of fire, dividing the town’s main square. Plumes of ash flew into the air as a local parrillero braved the searing heat to tend to the burning coals; an iron rod clenched in one hand, he wiped the soot...

September 12, 2013 Culinary Odyssey (part 4): La Paella, Spain

Read time – 2 minutes Like this recipe? Check out loads more from all over the world in our new Exodus cookbook! The paella I like to make at home is an all-singing, all-dancing affair laden with seafood and meat, although regional Spanish variations abound. Let’s just say this is the champion’s version, and in...

September 12, 2013 Culinary Odyssey (Part 6): Lohikeitto, Finland

Read time – 2 minutes For the final instalment of Dan Jackson’s worldwide culinary odyssey, he’s “Finnishing” in Finland with the ultimate Scandinavian comfort food. A colleague once informed me that the reason London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games was down to the Finns voting for us. Nothing unusual there you might think, but the...

September 12, 2013 Culinary Odyssey (Part 3): Larb Recipe

Read time – 3 minutes Join Exodus’ Dan Jackson for a worldwide culinary odyssey. This time, we’re voyaging to Thailand. One of the first letters (yes, some people do still write them!) I plucked from my sack this week was from my dear old Mum of Brockenhurst in the heart of the beautiful New Forest. OK,...