A Life Of Travel

Updated: April 2025

A Life of Travel - Notable Experiences

A Life of Travel - A timeline of sorts where I detail notable experiences over the years, from going to France on a day trip from school to losing my virginity to backpacking Australia, a baseball game in Toronto, sky diving in New Zealand, getting on the podium of a 10km race in Switzerland, working in Ireland and Switzerland.

But sadly, I have no access to photos pre-2010 but there are plenty of previously unseen photos to see from 2010 onwards.

Nomadic Backpacker near Shangri La, China, July 2011:
Backstory 2015: when I travelled from Osh to Dushanbe on the Pamir Highway:
There are so many notable events that have, until now, not been mentioned on Nomadic Backpacker, so keep on reading:
  • ​First trip out of England. Calais, France on a school day trip, 1983.
  • Member of Milton Keynes Cycle Club, 1985.​
  • Lost my virginity. April 1 1986. Yup, a truly memorable date in more ways than one. This is not an April's Fool joke. The venue was the front seat of an ancient Citroën.

I was an avid cyclist. I wanted to ride the Tour de France alongside Robert Millar:
  • 5th place in the Junior SouthEast Midlands Divisional Road Race Championships (cycle racing) 1986
  • Cycle touring in the UK. 5 days, 600 miles & 7 days 850 miles 1987
  • Learnt to drive. January 1989
  • Crashed my first car. November 1989
  • Walked 1071 miles from Land's End to John O'Groats, in 54 days plus 2 days off, raising 2000 for the charity Cystic Fibrosis. April & May 1990.
  • ​Took a commercial flight for the first time. London to Montreal August 1992. AirCanada
  • Finally learnt to swim. September 1992.

In 1992, I discovered backpacking:
  • Ist backpacking trip to Australia and Canada. November 23 1992
  • Hot Air ballooning in the Australian outback
  • 3 day 2 night outback adventure including climbing Ayres Rock
  • Climbed Cradle Mountain in Tasmania
  • Watched my first ever baseball game at the Hard Rock Cafe in Toronto, Canada April 1993. Seattle Mariners vs Toronto Blue Jays
  • Got my first lap dance at a strip club in Toronto, ending up on stage being stripped. April 9 1993.
  • Worked as a courier in England
  • Member of North Bucks Road Club & Luton Wheelers cycling clubs with solo races:
  • Fastest 10-mile time trial as a cyclist 23.19
  • Fastest 25-mile time trial as a cyclist 1:05.19
  • Fastest 50-mile time trial as a cyclist 2:08
  • 2nd backpacking trip. Australia + New Zealand 1997/98
  • Hiked Mount Kosciusko, the highest mountain in Australia December 25 1997
  • Sky Diving in Wanaka, New Zealand March 1998
  • Tongariro Crossing, New Zealand 4 hrs 5 minutes
  • Paragliding in Queenstown, New Zealand April 1998
  • ShotOver Jet, Queenstown, New Zealand April 1998
  • Spectator at my first (and only) ever football match. St Gallen vs Lausanne at the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern, Switzerland
  • First travels to a non-English speaking country. Vietnam December 2000
  • First time to go up Mt Kinabalu @4095m in Sabah, Borneo. March 2001. I made 2 subsequent climbs as a tourist both in 2003 and 3 as part of the International Climbathon 2004, 2005 & 2006.
  • Worked my first season as a waiter in Grindelwald, Switzerland 2001 Winter season
  • Learnt to ski Grindelwald. Thanks to Blanka 2002
  • My mum died at 60 years old after a stroke

I started running again and discovered I was pretty useful, especially when going uphill. I trained in the mountains and raced on the road, with some crazy mountain races too in Switzerland and Malaysia:
  • Ran my first 10 km on the track in Cebu, Philippines 48.20
  • Hiked Gunung Rinjani, Lombok, Indonesia. What normally is a 5-day hike, I hiked non-stop in 12 hrs 5 minutes 2006
  • First massage (of many) with a happy ending, Bali 2006
  • Leipzig 10 km Lauf, Germany 2007 39.15 Fastest time 'til now.
  • Winterthur 10 km Lauf, Switzerland 2007 39.23 2nd place overall.
  • First (and only) half marathon. Lausanne, Switzerland 2008 1:29.03
  •  20 km de Lausanne, Switzerland 2009 1:30.21
  •  2 x participant Inferno HalbMarathon Mürren, Switzerland finishing at the Schilthorn. 2972m 2008  2:52.39, 2009 3:05
  • During my time in Switzerland, 2001 to 2013, I ran around 20 races between 5 km and 20 km including the Bern GP, AltStadtLauf in Bern, Silvesterlauf in Zurich together with the ones listed above.

​Nomadic Backpacker in Red Square, Moscow, 2014:
Nomadic Backpacker rode the Iron Ore train from Nouadhibou all the way to Zouerat, as I missed the stop at Choum, Mauritania, 2013:
Nomadic Backpacker arriving at the Kievskaya station in Moscow, Russia, 2014:
Nomadic Backpacker nearing the end of 4 days 3 nights on the Trans Siberian from Irkutsk to Vladivostok, Russia, 2014:
  • 549 days of straight travel, June 1 2010 - December 1 2011
  • Hiked the Annapurna Base Camp trek
  • Crossed the Kunjerab Pass between China and Pakistan. This remains the highest point I have been to @ 4693m 15,397ft
  • Started my first blog 'whitemonkeytravels' a complete disaster but a big learning curve
  • Worked in Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, Republic of Ireland as a barman
  • Rode the Iron Ore train out of Nouadibou, Mauritainia 2012
  • 1423 days of straight travel, December 3 2013 - October 23 2017

​Nomadic Backpacker out training in the Atlas Mountains, 2008:
Nomadic Backpacker in Rabat after getting the Mauritania Visa, 2012:
Nomadic Backpacker at Kasprowy Wierch, the border in the mountains between Poland and Slovakia. 3 days later I carried my pack 4 hours up and over the pass and a further 3 hours to Liptovský Hrádok, June 2010
Nomadic Backpacker trekking in Bcharre, Lebanon, 2010:
Nomadic Backpacker on the Qurnat as Sawdā 3088m, highest peak in Lebanon, 2010:
Nomadic Backpacker floating in the Dead Sea, Israel 2010:
Nomadic Backpacker near St Katherine's Egypt 2010:
Nomadic Backpacker Mt Sinai November 2010:
Nomadic Backpacker getting a shave in Hampi, India, 2010:

​Nomadic Backpacker at the Tsomgo Lake View Point near the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim, India 2011:
Nomadic Backpacker visiting the Afghan Mosque in Turpan, China, September 2011:
A rare picture of me and Miss CDMX without masks. We were very much pro masks. Here were are at Taxco:
Nomadic Backpacker: Naked in Zipolite:


​And then I headed to England. My 90 days in Mexico were up and I had lots of admin to do. I made great use of the time though, I backpacked London, Oxford, Birmingham, Lichfield and Aylesbury, Liverpool, Greenock, Glasgow, Dumbarton, Edinburgh, Dundee and then finally visited Northern Ireland.
Then I ended up in Madagascar, backpacked the crazy capital and went to the Lemurs' Park:
​Then I flew to Kenya and an emotional return to Naivasha, where I had spent my lockdown:
Then I backpacked across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and into Zambia.
I have now travelled extensively in 125 countries and territories that I recognise and have detailed them all on my Countries and Territories Visited page.
​
NOMADIC BACKPACKER
​©2025