Camel trips, as I suspected all along, and as I was about to have confirmed, do not being or end: they mere change form.

The 70s were a wonderful time to be young. I think most young people at that time were pushing the boundaries, asking all sorts of questions of society, of life and of themselves. They were very politicised. It was part of the air that we breathed.

I just don't see myself as a travel writer. I can't. I don't.

I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back.

The most difficult part of any endeavour is taking the first step, making the first decision.

Real travel would be to see the world, for even an instant, with another's eyes

To be free one needs constant and unrelenting vigilance over one's weaknesses. A vigilance which requires a moral energy most of us are incapable of manufacturing. We relax back into the moulds of habit. They are secure, they bind us and keep us contained at the expense of freedom. To break the moulds, to be heedless of the seductions of security is an impossible struggle, but one of the few that count. To be free is to learn, to test yourself constantly, to gamble.