Wednesday 25 March 2015

A Virtual Drive Through Bhutan

This is a great set of pictures, reminds me of a home I once had. 


Such a great country to travel through and be in. My home is just off camera to the right on Number 10 - The Phuentsholing-Thimphu Highway. 



The first time I drove this road I was being dropped off at the school I had been assigned to for the year - Pakshikha MSS. It was winter time and the landscape was all brown and scrubby, like I imagine California to be. As the year rolled by I went up and down the road many times, sometimes in a packed out bus, sometimes in hitched rides or taxis, sometimes in the cars I borrowed from the Principal and the Vice-Principal (such generosity). Each new journey was different from the last as the landscapes changed with the seasons. 

I was amazed when I first saw this waterfall barrelling out of the forest. They came from everywhere  of course - the landscape dripped from all directions where once it had all been dry. The water brought leeches, clever ones that knew where to sit in wait - door handles, banisters etc. The banked up muddy-loose rocks ran with rivulets that burst from the undergrowth and scuttled across the road. Of course they brought landslides with them. The Himalaya is a shifting landscape. The roads of Bhutan are always falling apart and being put back together.

I'd love to travel them again.

Sunday 8 March 2015

New Website!!!

After years of being in the webbie wilderness, I've finally thrown together a website. It can be found here:


It's got writing. And music. And pictures. And stuff.

Why now? Well, I'm sitting on 3 novels, some travel literature and a few non-fiction titles, and I've got over 40 songs recorded, so it's time to stop navel-gazing and get out there.

The first travel piece is available now through Amazon kindle or via Createspace as a paperback.


They say that most doomed romantic relationships end too late, that all the messy stuff happens in those clingy months of denial when you know it’s over but you won’t let go and face the uncertainty of whatever comes next.
The same can sometimes be said of travel; there’s a time to go and a time to return.
After nine months in Asia, the author lands in Australia to find that all the air has escaped from his adventure balloons. Desperate to avoid going home he embarks on the rudderless trajectory of a lovelorn idiot. Luck and happenstance guide him into (and out of) love-at-first-sight romances, near-death experiences and a spell as a crime-fighting superhero.
Anything to avoid the plane home.