Visit Cape Town and history is never far from your grasp. It lingers in the air, a scent on the breezy, an explanation of circumstance that shaped the Rainbow People. Stroll around the old downtown and it's impossible not to be affected by the trials and tribulations of the struggle. But, in many ways, it is the sense of triumph in the face of such adversity that makes the experience all the more poignant.

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.

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

For me, a journey to Damascus is an amazing hunt from beginning to end, a slice through layers of history in search of treasure.

The desert was bad, but nothing could compare with the horrors of a tropical rain forest.

It is almost impossible to overemphasize the importance with which ancestry is held in the Middle East and North Africa.

On a harsh expedition, there's no space for anyone who does not intend to finish.