“Brilliant. Laugh out louds and a really nice feel to the article. A rare thing an influencer who can actually write!”
DESTINATIONS
The AZORES
In August 2020 I travelled to one of two autonomous regions of Portugal, the Azores chain of islands in the mid Atlantic. Along with filmmaker and photographer Dan Wildey, who I’ve worked with several times on behalf of Active Traveller Magazine, we set out to explore the islands of São Miguel and Pico.
Article & Podcast
To compliment the film above I wrote this article for Active Traveller Magazine and am polishing off a podcast about the visit, too…
One year later I couldn’t join Dan for a set of new islands, but he seemed to have a good time and I still provided the voiceover for his film.
Instagram Story Thread
We flew in mid August, my first trip abroad since the COVID-19 pandemic had begun, and through out the week I created on ongoing thread of Instagram stories, sharing the ins and outs of post-pandemic travel, and then the highs, lows and funny bits of our time in the Azores. This thread offers a good visual insight into the Azores and is also visible in my Instagram’s Highlights section.
Valais in Switzerland
At the invite of Active Traveller Magazine and Valais Tourism Dan Wildey and I also visited Switzerland’s Valais in August 2020, creating a film, podcast, article and photos from four regions in four days.
We visited Morgins, Nendaz, Aletsch and Saas Fee and somehow managed to hike, eat, paraglide, visit a glacier, complete a via ferrata and ride the Dents du Midi on ebikes.
I wrote this article and created this podcast about the week, and you can get a feel for the trip on this Instagram Story Thread.
Kitzbühel Tourism, 2019
Another trip with Active Traveller Magazine and filmmaker/photographer Dan Wildey. In July 2019 we spent a long summer weekend in the Tirol Alps partnered with Kitzbühel Tourism, exploring the resort of Kitzbühel by electric mountain bike, paraglider and on foot.
I wrote an article for Active Traveller Magazine and Dan put together a great film, which was only slightly spoiled by the fact that I was looking relatively unfit. Gladly, it gave me a kick up the bum and I bought a rowing machine - four miles a day keeps me in decent shape now!
The Arctic Hideaway
A chance meeting during a Norwegian coastline journey by waterbike took me to Fordypningsrommet, a creative retreat built into a stunning island setting by musician Havard Lund. I returned to Norway to write a book at the retreat and it was there that Havard asked me to help him rebrand the place. By January 2018 Fordypningsrommet had become the Arctic Hideaway, and a campaign to find a caretaker had gone viral, reaching an audience of over one million people.
JERSEY
Visit Jersey invited me to swoop over to the island, open a conference in the morning and then zoom around the island trying out all of its delights, before joining the conference’s after party and showing a film about the day.
The main challenge was that I was rolling solo on this one, so self filmed and edited alongside riding a bike twenty five miles, surfing, eating fish and chips and basically wishing there were more hours in a day!
Ontario Travel, 2017-2018
In 2017 I spent a week canoeing and kayaking in the glorious waters of Ontario, Canada, alongside photographer Dan Wildey and the team at Killarney Outfitters. We were representing a partnership between Ontario Travel and Active Traveller Magazine.
Afterwards, I contributed words combined with Dan’s photography for Active Traveller Magazine and a special magazine focused on Ontario Canoe Culture.
I also created the following film from my own slapdash footage of the trip.
The competition (as promoted in the film above) was won by a British couple, and a year later, in August 2018, I joined the winners for another week in Ontario. As you can see from the footage below, it’s a pretty special place, one of my favourite to paddle and camp.
Japan
During a 1000 mile journey by kick scooter I was approached by Inside Japan who offered to pay for the occasional extra in return for video blogs about destinations.
I visited Miyajima and Naoshima Islands, and also enjoyed the Shinkansen fast train between Nagoya and Tokyo (once my scooting was complete!).
Indian Pacific
Long train journeys are amongst my favourite experiences, so there was no way that I'd ever turn down the chance to cross Australia on Great Southern Rail’s Indian Pacific. Compared to nine years earlier, when I skateboarded across the country, this was a comfortable ride!
ROTTNEST ISLAND
A stranger on the internet once dared me to get a selfie with a Quokka. Seeing as they only live on a tiny island off the coast of Western Australia, I had no choice but to head Down Under.
BAMBU INDAH, BALI
A bamboo cathedral, Bambu Indah is one of my favourite places to stay. In 2015 they asked me to make a little film about the place, welcome to the jungle!
SMALL LUXURY HOTELS OF THE WORLD
In 2015 I travelled around the world for a few months making films about SLH properties, which are among the nicest hotels you can imagine! Yep, it was a pretty sweet job, although often I just stayed one night in each place and self shooting and editing on the move is fairly time-consuming. In six months I didn’t once find time to jump in a pool!
This 3 minute interview-based showcase isn’t my favourite for a number of reasons. Let’s just say, I’ve improved my use of sound since then!
Uganda Marathon
The annual Uganda Marathon has raised over £1 million for local causes in the region of Masaka, and when the team asked me to head out and make a film about the 2016 event I didn't think twice. It's one of the best weeks I've had. Find out more on https://ugandamarathon.com/
Hurtigruten, SCHILLER BIKES & Visit Norway
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