The captivity of Sagunto…Port

The aftermath of a glorious Greenpeace action High-Octane drama in Sagunto Hopefully many of you have seen the drama unfolding this past October 26th, in Sagunto (Spain). The last Greenpeace direct action of the "good ship Esperanza" was largely drummed by Spanish media and was live on Instagram. In case you are one of our affectionate readers and haven't heard about it there are two...

Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia: five borders one sore ass.

Prologue I've already narrated snippets of my Transcontinental race adventure, in "the naked truth about sobriety", which apparently is one of the most read stories of our blog, so, after being begged for a story by Dave and Phil, here is another episode of the series.I hope it sells us a few (hundreds) fridge magnets, so I will be able to finance my next...

Amazon, my heart of darkness

My obsession for the Amazon is all David's fault The Brazilian Amazon has been my favourite destination for more than a decade. A place to fear, respect and care for. If I look back down memory lane, it all began in February 2006. I was having a jolly good time in Australia, going to the local Sunday markets, as it was an awesome summer day. My old Nokia hammer-phone rang and a well-known voice...

One year of Travellingscrittori

Behind the scenes - let’s dig out some dirt This month is the first anniversary of our travel blog and we thought we'd take time to reflect on our endeavours.  It's also start to think about the new normal after Covid and our travel plans. We generally have a weekly editorial meeting with Gionny in Oz and David in Wales - plays hell with our beauty sleep - but this week we thought we'd...

PicturESK

Chronicle of an unexpected holiday in the town of Esk. The town of Esk is located in southern Queensland and, before late-March, I must admit I had no clue of its existence. Oh well, life is full of surprises and I've always loved a bit of a challenge, as it stimulates my "how to get things un-fucked" creativity. A skill worth a career... Just to set the scene. I was on one of my crazy (as many...

The North Pole sucks

Awful moments from a dream trip to hell "The North Pole sucks" is a bit of a strong statement, but I guess I had to sound overly dramatic to get your attention. Stay with me until the end and I guarantee you will be laughing at my expense, in fashionable Travellingscrittori spirit. Greenpeace North Pole 2013 - A picture of the author, taken by Gavin Newman As I've touched upon in my Bio, I...

My top seven from the last twenty years

Time for a break Time has come for a break, after 20 years at Greenpeace. I'm finally having a long service leave, also known as sabbatical, if you live in Europe. As I've got time and the inspiration is flowing, I thought it is time for another "listicle", to help the imagination fly during the infamous COVID-19 era.Expect much more from travellingscrittori.com during the next...

Enhanced travelling companions

A hit parade of travel partners you should avoid at any cost. During our happy sailing days we, Gionny and David, would often pass the time by fantasising about the "Crew from hell" or rather posing the simple question: "Who would you rather NOT have on board with you during a three months ship expedition to Antarctica?" Invariably this was done over a beer or ten. The Arctic Sunrise hits a...

Brisbane, Brissie and Brisvegas

A Euro-perspective of Queensland's capital city. Ever since I came to Australia, Brisbane has been my City of blinding lights. Only 200Km north from where I live, it's the place where stuff happens and the landscape changes by the day...or night. Brissie - Portrait of the artist as a Lime scooter rider. Welcome to Brisbane For me, there's always been two ways of getting there. Via the M1...

Outback bikepacking tales: Lizards and naked Europeans

Constrained by the times we live in, my 2020 has seen no significant travel so far. This has been something unique in my life, as for the past two decades I spent an awful lot of time on the road. FOMO and YOLO While the planet can happily do without my CO2 emissions, I have been struggling at the idea of being confined in Australia, but I must admit COVID-19 has taken most of my “Fear of...