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

And there are new kinds of nomads, not people who are at home everywhere, but who are at home nowhere. I was one of them

There are some moments in life that are like pivots around which your existence turns—small intuitive flashes, when you know you have done something correct for a change, when you think you are on the right track. I watched a pale dawn streak the cliffs with Day-glo and realized this was one of them. It was a moment of pure, uncomplicated confidence—and lasted about ten seconds.

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

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

The good Lord in his ultimate wisdom gave us three things to make life bearable: hope, jokes, and dogs, but the greatest of these was dogs.

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.