If you are anything like me, a peculiar emptiness settles in once the suitcase is finally unpacked, the last load of laundry is tumbling in the dryer, and the whirlwind of airports and new languages gives way to a quiet kitchen in familiar surroundings. The jolt from high-octane discovery back to routine can feel disorienting,
When I first started writing for the Wheel & Anchor newsletter in July 2018, I was 7 years into working as a travel writer. In so many ways it’s a strange profession: there are no official rules for doing it, there are a million ways to approach it, and you can simultaneously be having the
If you’ve been reading Wheel & Anchor’s newsletter for a while, you’ll know we’re a big fan of coffee houses – not just for their ability to serve you a cup full of energy to revitalise your day of exploring, not just for the incredible smells that everyone loves (even people who hate drinking coffee!)
In 2008 on the south coast of England, Weymouth resident Jane Barrett opened a letter. The address on the front was that of the guesthouse she ran – Basil Towers – which was presumably why it had been shoved through her letterbox. But, confusingly, the addressee was a stranger’s name, a Mr Percy Bateman: “When
Can paper maps make us better human beings? Thanks to the astounding boom in GPS-assisted mapping gadgets, we can instantly know exactly where we are in the world to within a few metres, told by a machine that does all the work for us. A sign of progress if ever there was one, right? Smart
It’s a funny thing, travelling the world as a human being. It’s easy to trick yourself into thinking you’re seeing all there is to see, as a creature of the land making your ways across the sea and through the sky – and yet by volume, you’re missing almost all of the planet we live
It’s 2007, and I’ve just arrived at my accommodation on the Greek island of Naxos. I’m exhausted to the point of delirium (this may explain what happens next) and I’m suffering the early stages of the worst sunburn of my life – which will end with 24 feverish, heat-exhausted hours in a darkened hotel room
One of my favourite methods of relaxing my brain when it’s overheating from too much writing is to pull up Google Maps and go hunting for islands I never knew existed. This isn’t hard, here in the UK (and particularly not so up here in Scotland). Quoting Steve Yeates of the Ordnance Survey National Mapping
It’s the first day of the Scottish winter, with a bone-chilling cold that’s sweeping down from the Arctic – and here I am, getting emotional over a potato. It’s not like the winter has this effect on me. I’m from the north of England, so I’m used to a bit of bad weather – welcome
“Um – shouldn’t this be in the fridge?” My partner looks at what I’m pointing at: a roughly 2kg hunk of ham, still on the bone and propped up by some kind of wooden frame, resting on her kitchen sideboard. “No, it’s fine.” It certainly doesn’t look fine. There’s visible mold on the outside of
Welcome to another year of travel! Depending on where you are in the world it might be bitterly cold outside right now – here in Scotland we’re having an extremely unwelcome influx of Arctic air that’s turning everything outside aglitter with ice – so right now you may be hungrily flicking through travel deals and
The fastest I’ve ever broken a New Year’s Resolution was in 2018. Determined to turn my late nights into early mornings, I vowed to give up coffee at exactly 00:00 on January 1st. Unfortunately I was in Costa Rica at the time, and the nature of festive celebrations in Latin America is that you celebrate
“Wait – why are you packing those?” My other half is preparing for our upcoming trip to Costa Rica – and with two suitcases between us and much of the room already taken up by Christmas gifts for her family, space is tight. So – why is she bothering with this big box of Christmas
If you find yourself flying over the Arctic Circle during your travels this winter and beyond, and the sky is clear, you’ll probably see a lot of featureless whiteness along the northern horizon, where the sea ice replaces the blue of the open ocean. If you think it’s like that all the way to the
The first time I realised how utterly colossal the Andes were was when I saw them drawn onto the side of the world. It was one of those geology-facts infographics that always do well on social media, and it showed how much of the Earth’s circumference the entire mountain range covers, which is quite a
In a few weeks, I’ll be leaving Scotland to avoid the bitterest part of its winter, and taking the train down to London where I’ll be leaping on a plane that’s bound for Costa Rica. Of course, that’s not exactly true. I’m not going to throw myself through the door of a plane as it
[GD checked – ok] It’s early December, and you’re getting into the festive mood. Christmas decorations have sprouted everywhere, you’ve been enjoying seeing families of strangers milling around the shops in a wholesome sort of way – and you’re at a Christmas market (as we’ll be doing this year and the next), browsing the stalls
It’s 2012, and I’m on my way to Austria to see a friend. Almost the entire journey is ahead of me, because I’ve only just staggered out of my door with my over-full rucksack (I haven’t yet learned the skill of packing a bag effectively) and I’m a ten-minute walk away from the bus stop
If you’re not used to seeing them, kangaroos are challenging beasts to get your head round. I mean, what on earth is that creature with the rodent-like head, wet snout, sultry eyelashes and cute whiskers aplenty, but also with the bodybuilder’s shoulders and the legs that look as powerful as the prongs of a forklift
Today I’m telling you one of my most embarrassing travel stories, in the hope that it helps you avoid doing something that, eight years later, still makes me cringe hard enough to make my face hurt. Let’s be clear here. I’m not doing this as an attempt at that kind of entertaining self-humiliation in service
On a 3-hour train journey I took here in Scotland a few weeks ago, a young guy was going up and down the carriages, desperately asking for help. “Does anyone have an Apple cable? My phone is dead and I need to ring my parents to get them to pick me up at the station.
As any great lover of the country will claim, Greece has the very best of everything. The seas are the bluest you’ll ever see. The walls are the most blazingly white, as if just specially painted for a detergent commercial. The priests have the bristliest beards of any priests anywhere (even Russia). The men are
I was once on a panel of travel writers at an event in London, and one of the questions we were asked was, “What experience best sums up travel for you?” I replied “that’s easy! DELAYS!” – and got a big laugh. It’s true. You can’t avoid them. No trip will ever go 100% according
It’s an appealing idea – and an intimidating one. You’re in Morocco for the very first time with a few days to kill, and just once in this life you want to experience the famous Moorish bath or hammam (also called a Turkish bath, except that’s really a misnomer if you’re not in Turkey). Can
