Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship.

If hot food is they key to maintaining an expedition's stamina, then low grade gut-rot alcohol is the key to sustaining its sense of pleasure.

During the days I felt myself slipping into a kind of madness. Solitary confinement has an astonishing effect on the mind. The trip was to stay calm and keep myself occupied. I spent hours working out how to break free. But trying to escape would have been instant suicide.

With an enthusiastic team you can achieve almost anything.

Most journeys have a clear beginning, but on some the ending is less well-defined. The question is, at what point do you bite your lip and head for home?

Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things.

Previous journeys had taught me the danger of taking too much stuff.