Nomadic Backpacker

Long Term Traveller

I've made staying away an art

About the blog

November 7 2019

​This blog now concentrates on the new journey but you can still find the earlier posts on the SITEMAP.
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All posts will be previewed on the HOME page and linked to the said post.

Pages are now standard style pages as opposed to blog style pages.

When I use blog style pages, Weebly limits the maximum number of posts to be previewed on the first page to 25. Older posts then get shunted to page 2 as you produce newer posts.

This plays havoc with the post's SEO (I have no hard evidence on this but it sounds good) as what was once on /blog/ will suddenly be on /blog/page-2/ .

When Jack Kerouac wrote On The Road in the 50's, he typed the first draft on 8 rolls of tracing paper as one long, single spaced paragraph and taped them all together.

This became known as 'the original scroll'.

New posts will be added to the top of the feed. To find earlier posts, all you have to do is scroll down.

Scrolling is what people do on Social Media. You get thousands of posts and tweets and you scroll down to find the posts you are interested in.


​The whole blog has been designed to look it's best on an Android smartphone, so sorry to those who are viewing from other devices and you think that the layout looks shit.
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H​ere are a series of screenshots to tell you how I built the pages:

Just click on the images to enlarge and hold your phone in landscape, so you can read the text more easily.

All fonts have been extensively modified within the html/css coding part of the Weebly Editor. The size, colour, letter-spacing, line-spacing, margins. All edited in someway. The only thing I have to do at page level is to make the Title text Bold.

I learned how to tweak the coding from studying EditorTricks (formerly WeeblyTricks) and then a whole load of trial and error. Thanks to Bernadette and Adam on the Weebly Community for the tips too, 'specially the column lock app!!
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Map of Countries Visited

​Last updated: November 2019
Picture
Create your own map @maploco

​Alphabetical List of Countries and Territories Visited (shows year of first visit):

​Last updated: November 2019
  1. Abkhazia 2015
  2. Albania 2019
  3. Armenia 2010
  4. Australia 1992
  5. Austria 1999
  6. Azerbaijan 2013
  7. Belarus 2018
  8. Belgium 1993
  9. Bosnia & Herzegovina 2011
  10. Brunei 2003
  11. Bulgaria 2010
  12. Cambodia 2011
  13. Canada 1992
  14. China 2011
  15. Croatia 2011
  16. Czech Republic 2008
  17. Denmark 1999
  18. Egypt 2010
  19. Estonia 2018
  20. Ethiopia 2015
  21. Finland 2018
  22. France 1993
  23. The Gambia 2013
  24. Georgia 2010
  25. Germany 1999
  26. Greece 2002
  27. Guinea 2013
  28. Guinea-Bissau 2013
  29. Hong Kong 2011
  30. Hungary 2008
  31. India 2010
  32. Indonesia 2001
  33. Ireland 2013
  34. Israel 2010
  35. Italy 1994
  36. Jordan 2010
  37. Kazakhstan 2015
  38. Kenya 2016
  39. Kyrgyzstan 2015
  40. Laos 2003
  41. Latvia 2018
  42. Lebanon 2010
  43. Lesotho 2016
  44. Liberia 2013
  45. Lithuania 2018
  46. Luxembourg 1999
  47. Malawi 2016
  48. Malaysia 2001
  49. Mauritania 2013
  50. Moldova 2013
  51. Montenegro 2019
  52. Morocco 2008
  53. Mozambique 2016
  54. Myanmar 2004
  55. Nagorno Karabakh
  56. Nepal 2011
  57. The Netherlands 1990
  58. New Zealand 1998
  59. Norway 1999
  60. Pakistan 2011
  61. Philippines 2005
  62. Poland 2010
  63. Portugal 2019
  64. România 2010
  65. Russian Federation 2014
  66. Senegal 2013
  67. Serbia 2011
  68. Sierra Leone 2013
  69. Singapore 2001
  70. Slovakia 2010
  71. Slovenia 2011
  72. South Africa 2016
  73. South Korea 2014
  74. Spain 2007
  75. Sri Lanka 2016
  76. Sudan 2015
  77. Sweden ?
  78. Switzerland 1998
  79. Syria 2010
  80. Taiwan 2013
  81. Tajikistan 2015
  82. Tanzania 2016
  83. Thailand 2001
  84. Transnistria 2019
  85. Turkey ​1999
  86. Ukraine 2013
  87. United Arab Emirates 2016
  88. United States 1992
  89. Uzbekistan 2015
  90. Western Sahara 2013
  91. Vietnam 2000
  92. Zimbabwe​ 2016

Timeline

​Last updated: November 2019

2020 - The year starts with a bang. London to Paris to Marseille and onto Tunis.

2019 - Working as much as I can in the UK. A quiet year on the travel front. Work aside, pretty much a recluse. But squeezed in a trip to Lisbon, Portugal and Moldova/Transnistria + Albania, Montenegro, Croatia but ended the year by quitting my job thus preparing the way to be back on the road.

2018 - Working in the UK as a postman. Travels to Belarus, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Denmark. 

2017 - Malaysia, Philippines, Turkey, Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan - hostel volunteer, Romania. Back to UK ending a 1423 days on a single journey. Working in UK.

2016 - Cairo to Cape Town - Overland: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, ending 7 months Cairo to Cape Town. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan - hostel volunteer, UAE, Malaysia.

2015 - China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia. Began Cairo to Cape Town - Overland: Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia.

2014 - New Years Eve at the revolution in Kiev, Ukraine. Trans-Siberian from Moscow to Vladivostok, South Korea - travelling + hostel volunteer 2 months, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Sumatra, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, China, Hong Kong

2013 - London to Monrovia - West Africa - Overland: Marrakesh, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Paris, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan. Living and working in Switzerland Summer 6 months. Began a trip which lasted 1423 days. Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Moldova

2012 - Down and out in UK. desperate times. Working in County Clare, Ireland as a waiter, 6 weeks. Living and working in Switzerland, 6 months. Began London to Monrovia - West Africa - Overland: France, Spain, Morocco.

2011 - India, Nepal, SE Asia  - Singapore to Islamabad, Pakistan w/o flying. Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Czech, German, to UK after 18 months 549 day on a single trip. 

2010 - Working in Switzerland, Winter. Began a 549 day trip. Holland, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, India.

2009 - Working in Switzerland, Winter + Summer. Travels in Spain, Morocco.

2008 - Working in Switzerland, Winter and Summer. Travels in Spain, Morocco, Germany, Czech, Hungary and India

2007 - Working in Switzerland. Travels in France, Spain, Corsica.

2006 - Working in Switzerland. Travels in Philippines, Borneo and Indonesia

2005 - Working in Switzerland. Travels in Borneo and Philippines

2004 - Working in Switzerland. Travels in Borneo and Burma

2003 - Working in Switzerland. Travels in Borneo, Brunei and Laos

2002 - Working in Switzerland, travels in Greece and Germany. Living in UK.

2001 - Travels in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, East Coast Australia, Working in Switzerland

2000 - Working in UK, Living 2 months in Switzerland. Travels in Vietnam

1999 - Working in UK, Travels  in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Luxembourg, Switzerland. Hiking in the Alps. Germany, Austria, Italy

1998 - Travels in New Zealand and Switzerland. Working in UK.

1997 - Working in UK. Travels in Australia. 2nd trip as a backpacker.

1992/1993 - 1st trip as a backpacker, Australia and Canada.

1990 - Walked Lands End to John O'Groats. 1700 km. Trip to Holland.

​1983 - First trip out of UK. School trip to Boulogne, France.

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