Andrew Horsman
I recently fulfilled a life-long dream by travelling overland from England to Australia without taking a single flight.Andy Horsman
Travelling allows me to indulge in my passion of photography and so far I've been lucky enough to win photography competitions in the Daily Telegraph and Guardian newspapers. I have also been short-listed in The Times travel photography competition and I have had an image included on the National Geographic Daily Dozen website. This blog was recently recommended by the Lonely Planet in their column in the Observer newspaper. I have now set up a website to showcase my favourite photos from this trip and others - www.andrewhorsman.com
You can also read about my freighter trip from Singapore to Australia at http://www.gonomad.com/transports/0906/freighter-cruising-experience.html
I like answering other travellers' questions, but a quick note to acknowledge the help is all too rarely received... .
Travel Blog Posts
Out And Back To The Aussie Bush
Published: December 9th 2007Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Birdsville
November 4th 2007
Well, better late than never, here's the last Australian blog - and penultimate blog from the Overland To Oz trip. It seems strange thinking back to how much preparation there was in getting the trip organised and here I am, nicely settled into a new life in Ireland, having already completed a trip that I'd been thinking about for 18 years! I'm planning on carrying on blogging travels in Ireland over the next few months, with pictures of the beautiful County Donegal scenery, but given how long it's taken me to finish writing about Australia, I'm not sure when that'll be... . Anyway, back to Australia! I last left you in Queensland - Danielle had flown back from Sydney to be at her brother's wedding in Northern Ireland in April leaving me to continue travelling for ... read more
August 22nd 2007
Well, 3 months after arriving back home, it's finally time to start writing about our adventures in Oz. I'm not sure where the time has gone - eaten away by catching up with good friends, visiting family and adjusting to life back home, I guess. I'm now in Ireland, having just got a job (the first in 14 months!) to get me back on my feet again - no longer living out of a bag but at the same time, enjoying immensely learning about a new country - it feels like I'm still travelling, whilst earning money and making the most of being in one place - I guess, having the best of both worlds! So then back to our adventures Down Under! Australia marked the destination of our travels - 18 years in the dreaming ... read more
May 29th 2007
Well this is it - almost a year on, I'm finally writing a blog from Blighty! It's been an amazing trip but to be honest, my feet haven't really touched the ground since arriving back home. I've spent the time since, visiting friends and relatives (still more to go!) and have just got back from a cool camping trip in Dorset with friends from Hampshire. So it doesn't really feel like I've returned to any sort of normality yet - we've even fitted in a weekend trip to Ireland visiting Danielle's family, and we're soon to return in a couple of days! So in the time since my last entry, way back when we arrived into Australia by boat, we've helicoptered and dived the Great Barrier Reef, been to a footie game in Sydney, travelled the ... read more
March 29th 2007
We've done it - we've finally arrived in Queensland, Australia after travelling all the way from the UK without taking a single flight! It's taken a sometimes hard but always fantastic nine months and one week to get here and was topped off by a great trip aboard the MV Baltrum Trader, sailing from Singapore to Brisbane in 9 days. I've jumped the gun a bit in writing this as I haven't blogged Malaysia and Singapore, where we had a great time travelling southwards from Thailand, taking in amongst others, the tea plantations of the Cameron Highlands, the capital Kuala Lumpur and finally seeing a friend from home, now living in Singapore. However, I'll cover that in the next blog after this in the next few days. In the meantime, back to the Baltrum Trader! It ... read more
March 1st 2007
Hi there from a hot 'n sweaty Malaysia. We're currently in Kuala Lumpur, spending a few days making the most of the cheaper shopping! It's strange being somewhere so modern and cosmopolitan after a while on the road (AKA basking on deserted beaches in Thailand). It has a much more relaxed air to it than Bangkok. In a couple of days we're heading south to Melaka and then onwards to Singapore where we meet Cherry, a good friend from home before catching the freighter on March 10th, sailing to Brisbane! Where has the time gone - the Norwegian fjords and Mongolian desert seem a long time ago now?! Anyway, back to the here and now, or rather, this blog - which will cover the month or so we spent in Thailand - travelling between historic war ... read more
February 2nd 2007
Hi from Kanchanaburi, Thailand, the site of the infamous bridge over the river Kwai. We've been exploring the area after a week of complete relaxation and catching up with my parents in Hua Hin which I'll cover in the next blog in a few week's time. In the meantime, my last blog left us on the way to Laos, staying in the small border town of Stung Treng. This was a town that I passed through on my way south to meet Danielle in HCMC, so I was looking forward to similar adventures this time as we travelled north. The bus dropped us off late afternoon after a 10 hour trip from Phnomh Penh and we made our way to the only neon-lit place in town (must be as a result of 2 months in China ... read more
January 18th 2007
Hi from Vientiane, Laos, where Danielle and I have spent a few days before heading out on the train tonight to Bangkok. We're meeting up with my parents for a bit of luxury and r&r in a villa for a week - the longest I will have been in one place since I left home! I can't quite believe I've been away for 7 months already - time is flying past. In the past few days I've finally booked the last leg of our journey to Australia - the boat from Singapore to Brisbane! After exchanging emails with a shipping agent in NZ for the past few months I've taken the plunge - we sail in early March and arrive 9 days later in Queensland, meaning I will have travelled all the way from the UK ... read more
December 30th 2006
Happy New Year greetings from Pnomh Penh, where we're hanging out and enjoying copious amounts of chicken amok and banana lassi, washed down with the ubiquitous beerlao! It's been a while since my last update which covered Tiger Leaping Gorge and trekking in northern Laos, but it's been a very busy few weeks since then. Not least as I've met up with Danielle who I met in St Petersburg. Regular readers will know that a group of us travelled from there and through Russia and Mongolia together on the Trans-Siberian railway. Danielle had to fly home from Beijing but she's since flown out to meet me in Ho Chi Minh City - and the plan is to travel through to Australia together over the next few months! So after picking Danielle up in Ho Chi Minh ... read more
Trekking Tiger Leaping Gorge And Northern Laos
Published: December 5th 2006Asia » Laos » North » Muang Sing
November 23rd 2006
Hello from Viet Nam - safely in Nha Trang after sitting out Tropical Storm Durian with enough food and supplies (chocolate and beer) to last a lifetime. The last blog ended with me just about to begin the trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge, so fittingly, that's where this one begins! I caught the bus with Janet - travelling from Zhongdian to the starting point of the gorge where we left our packs at a guesthouse and started the long trek that would last 2.5 days. The one thing that stuck in our minds was the "28 bends" - a series of hairpins that we'd tackle the following day - they wind their way up the mountainside and it takes a gruelling 2 hours to complete. So it took us a bit by surprise when we had ... read more
Backroad to Tibet - Western Sichuan and Northern Yunnan By Bus
Published: November 18th 2006Asia » China » Sichuan » Western Sichuan Northern Yunnan
November 18th 2006
My last update saw me just having arrived back at Chengdu after a very special trip to Tibet. However, I still had 3 weeks or so before I had to be in Saigon (to meet Danielle :-) ) and I'd heard of an adventurous way into Northern Yunnan and was toying with the idea of taking it, when I met up with Janet, a Kiwi who I'd originally met in Hanoi a couple of months ago. We thought we'd probably bump into each other again as our routes would cross over, so it was especially good when she mentioned it and asked if I fancied joining her to do exactly that trip! With a day to get the boring admin jobs out of the way - like buying food and sending a box of Tibetan goodies ... read more
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