Last month, I made the plunge and moved to Kadıköy in Istanbul. Quite frankly, this was one of the best decisions of my life – the city is so beautiful and vibrant, has some of the best food I’ve ever tasted (hello, simit and kaymak!), and is filled with the nicest people.

Plus, as it happens, the best chocolate shop I’ve ever visited.

On a small side street in Kadıköy stands a chocolate shop with the words L’ATELIER DU CHOCOLAT plastered across it. You will find a sleepy white cat stretched across one of the chairs outside, students and travellers cradling creamy hot chocolates, and the sweet scent of raw cacao drifting out onto the street. Trust your nose and follow it inside, and you will be greeted by Mari and her husband Murat.

Inside, illustrations of the bean-to-bar processes decorate the wall, a large counter is filled with shiny, perfect chocolates, and Mari weaves sheer magic into her moulds next to a tempering machine.

On one cosy Wednesday afternoon, I sat down and inhaled the familiar scent of chocolate. By this point, I had visited the shop almost every day for a month, and tasted something new and a little special each time. But now, I sat down with a pen and paper, and asked Mari about her chocolate.

THE BEST HANDCRAFTED CHOCOLATE IN ISTANBUL

‘The shop started up in 2020, Pandemic Time,’ she told me. ‘It wasn’t an easy time to start but it did give me the opportunity to invest in good chocolate machines and equipment.

‘Before this, I’d spent a few years working at Cargill, one of the world’s top suppliers of high-quality cocoa and chocolate products. I’d attended an initial chocolatier course in the Netherlands, and then a second in Belgium. But that last one focused on industrial chocolate,’ she grimaced. ‘Now, I refuse to touch industrial chocolate. They have too many sugars and bad preservatives – have you ever noticed how they don’t melt?”

Murat brought over a pot of cacao beans, still in their husks, and I popped one into my mouth. It was as though I were eating the very essence of chocolate.

‘First, we temper the chocolate,’ Mari told me. ‘We do it in three stages: first at 45°C, then 28°C, and then 33°C. This is where the chocolate gets the beautiful shine and that nice cracking sound when you bite into it.’

Murat handed me one of their Malakoff-inspired chocolates, and Mari was right: it cracked when I bit into it. It was no wonder the Malakoff was one of their most popular chocolates: as a praline with almond and hazelnut flakes, coated in dark chocolate, it was nothing short of divine.

‘We use the best bean you can get – the Criollo bean from Ecuador – and source all of the chocolate fillings from local producers. We want to support local growers, and no matter how expensive it can be, it is always worth it.’

She then asked me if I’d ever tasted a cherry-flavoured chocolate before, and I shook my head. My mouth began to water.

‘I just made this one,’ she explained, passing one to me. ‘You’ll be the first person to taste this new flavour.’

The chocolate cracked when I bit into it, and my mouth was flooded with the perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and a little cherry sourness. It was perfect.

Once I’d wiped the chocolate from my mouth, I asked where she got her ideas from.

‘I get inspiration from everywhere – friends, flavours I’ve enjoyed in food, anything. I experiments all the time, and then chocolate like this is created.

‘I’ve had a love for chocolate since forever, and I know that I will continue to love making chocolate forever. Even when I’m old and retired, I will still make chocolate.’

Murat added, ‘she will never stop being creative with the chocolate – for her, it’s an art. And there’s nothing she loves more than people loving what she creates.’

Mari has a few favourite chocolates. Of course, she loves the Malakoff – everyone does – but she also loves the sesame and tahini truffle. With this one, your tastebuds meet with the earthiness of the tahini, the sweetness of the chocolate, and an aftertaste that is reminiscent of halva.

‘But everyday I eat the hazelnut chocolate,’ Mari added. ‘It’s my breakfast. And the hazelnuts are from here, they’re so good!’

THE BEST VEGAN HOT CHOCOLATE IN ISTANBUL

I looked over her shoulder and noticed that there, on their laptop screen, was the landing page of Wandering Everywhere. It made me feel almost shy.

‘We read your blog post about the best hot chocolates in Europe,’ Murat said. ‘So we’re going to make you a vegan hot chocolate, our style.’

When the coco came out with a little chocolate biscuit straw, my eyes almost began to water at the sight of it. I’d been craving a hot chocolate for months, and finally, I could wholeheartedly indulge myself on the thickest, creamiest, and sweetest hot coco in Istanbul, Turkey, and possibly the whole world.

I could have consumed bucketfuls of it.

‘Do you like it?’ Mari asked.

‘It’s the only thing I ever want to drink.’

Murat laughed, and then Mari lowered leant in a little closer.

‘Do you want to know about my dream?’

‘Of course!’

She decided to explain it in Turkish, and Murat translated for her.

‘Five years ago,’ Murat began, ‘Mari put a photo on our fridge of a chocolate shop in Paris. She told me that this was all she could ever imagine herself doing – it was her life. She’d never wanted anything so badly, and it was everything that she was going to aim for.

‘After years of seeing this photograph everyday and wishing that it was real, she finally opened this shop here. So I took a photograph of it and replaced the fridge photo of Paris. Because finally, she’d made it. Her dream had come true.’

Over the next half an hour we shared stories of our travels and Murat pulled out shots of homemade cherry liquor. An old vinyl played soft music in the background, the white cat stretched outside, and I rubbed hot coco residue from my chin.

Finally, taking a small bag of chocolates with me, I thanked them both for their time.

Mari smiled. ‘This feels almost like… fate.’

And with my heart warm from new friends, a new home, and hot coco, I left.

One of my favourite bloggers when I first entered the game was Adventurous Kate – I loved her energy, her travels, and her writing. If it weren’t for her continuously producing inspirational travel content, then I’m certain that Wandering Everywhere wouldn’t be even close to where it is today.

A couple months ago, I was finally able to interview the wonderful Adventurous Kate – and here’s what she said.

Firstly, what was the main motivation behind you quitting your job at the age of 26 and travelling across Southeast Asia? Have you always wanted to stray from the 9-to-5 life?

Women’s empowerment is a big theme on your blog. How did your family and friends react to you breaking the news that you would be travelling solo, and did it turn out to be as unsafe as everyone said?

From the outside, it looks like you live the dream life. What’s it really like to build and sustain a blog, and subsequently travel the world?

How did you originally monetise your site? How do you maintain it now?

Why exactly did you decide to settle down in NYC instead of travelling the globe nonstop forever?

What country would you recommend for female solo travellers?

What would you say to other females who ache to travel but believe they don’t have the confidence/ opportunity to?

Sarah Outen is a British adventurer best known for being the first woman and the youngest person ever to row solo across the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Alaska.

Not only that, but she has realised a number of books (my personal favourite is Dare to Do) about her epic journeys, and is a huge inspiration to many across the globe.

Frankly, I am absolutely chuffed to be sharing this very brief interview with you.

I always used to consider that I was never really lonely but more recently I think I realise that I was at times lonely but just didn’t acknowledge it. I loved the solitude and space of life at sea and my connection to the animals and universe around me. The connections to home and loved ones was strong, just in a different way to being alongside people physically.

I went to boarding school when I was eight for a few years and so I have always been used to being very independent – both useful and also, I recently realised, not so useful.

Interdependence is best. During the last year of my London2London journey I felt the pang and pull of missing lots of weddings of friends and even my brother. I knew it was time to be home.

Could you tell me more about these internal struggles, and what you did to overcome them?

I really struggled after being rescued from the Pacific in 2012 and part of that struggle was due to my inability to be open about my pain and ask for help.

I think I would have found it easier had I seen other examples of people struggling and reaching out, so once I was able to connect to that part of me and connect with others I was really keen to make sure I shared my vulnerabilities and struggles in the hope that it would help others.

I think rather than overcoming the struggles it was more about riding them, flowing with them and supporting and nourishing myself to recover. Learning about what was going on for me physiologically was really useful and still is – I am fascinated by the effect of trauma and stress on our bodies and the healing power of connection and community in that space.

Exercise, sleep, craniosacral therapy, counselling, time outside, time with others – all of it was useful. I have had some further crashes in my mental health following the expedition in recent years, too and the learning continues – I imagine there will be more crashes in my future, too and I trust there will be more learning.

I have come to rest in the knowledge that healing is not linear, it is often messy but it is also open to us all with the right conditions, intention and care.

During your last big trip, you came to realise that you’re actually pansexual. How does it feel to be an adventurer in a primarily heterosexual male industry?

Essentially, I’ve realised that for me it isn’t about gender but about the person, the soul, the energy.

Sharing with the world that I was in love with Lucy and then engaged and then married was largely wonderful – I think I had one not-so-kind email from someone saying they didn’t want to follow a lesbian journey anymore, which I felt was their loss and not mine.

Again, I was keen to share through my journey, writing and our film ‘Home’ my journey with love and life with Lucy and what it was like to be away. Growing up life was very straight and cis and I really feel that younger versions of me missed out in exploring different ways of being through lack of role models, language and encouragement to explore sexuality and gender.

I wonder if what I am saying here is that the world is largely white cis heterosexual able-bodied and not just the adventure industry. What I love is that social media has given everyone a chance to have a platform, voice and share their stories – that’s where the power to change lies and I have a lot of faith that things, in time, can continue to change for the better.

Is there anyone in particular who inspired you to become a part of the exploration community?

Ellen MacArthur was an early hero of mine as a teenager. Already I was very aware of gender biases and the lack of coverage, support and opportunities open to women. So to see her kicking ass in the Vendée Globe was hugely inspiring and I knew then that one day I wanted a big sea journey.

I love, too, how she has changed tack since her racing days to work on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which is all about accelerating a change towards a Circular Economy – one in which products are designed for re-cycling, re-purposing into other products rather than a linear throwaway system. There is so much happening in that field.

As someone with Crohn’s Disease, I was wondering how you have dealt with health challenges on your expeditions?

I have worked closely with a nutritionist these last few years to help me heal my gut lining, rebalance my gut flora and over this last year support my journey through Topical Steroid Withdrawal (TSW). Essentially the medical system had pumped me full of steroids and immune modulating drugs and had the view there was no other way and that it would only get worse.

I came across a fascinating and hard-hitting documentary  called ‘Preventable’ by Briana Banos which showed me a way out, gruelling as it was. This was to go cold-turkey on all the medicated creams and pills to catalyse my body’s own healing process.

My skin cycled through red raw oozing to sloughing off in dry flakes which I would have to hoover up a few times a day, along with the most intense itching of my life, debilitating fatigue and pain which repeated for months, before easing and slowing in it’s flares.

I am still working to heal and support my skin and overall health but the progress has been so reassuring when I look back at it and where I have come from.

Finally, what’s next?

I am very excited that soon I will start work with my herd of donkeys, offering therapeutic coaching in Oxfordshire while also continuing  training to become a psychotherapist.

One day I will write that children’s book I have been talking about forever…

I had been following Martyn’s work for a while, being a bit of a caving weeb myself, and loved being able to learn about his caving career and listen to the many stories that he had gathered from it.

Stepping into his home, I was surrounded by all of these beautiful underwater photographs – it was like being in Wales’ most beautiful gallery. Underwater photography is incredibly difficult, and Martyn was the first to start the techniques of it in the UK.

But that’s just the beginning of this living legend.

Who is Martyn Farr? 

Martyn Farr is, quite frankly, one of Wales’ coolest explorers. He is known around the world for his record-breaking cave dives and exploration of seemingly endless miles of previously undiscovered passages.

Within our interview, he told me all about the beauty of caving, his favourite caves, and lessons learned along the way.

Martyn began caving in 1961 and cave diving at Swansea University in 1971. Within ten years, he had travelled both the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland, had reached a depth record of 60 metres at Wookey Hole, and created a world water for underwater cave penetration in the Bahamas.

Following that, he made the very first cave dive in Borneo, and then the first cave dive using scuba equipment in China. He went through Llangattock Mountain, marking the longest and deepest caving through trip in the British Isles, and has since acted as support diver in the British-led expedition to Pozo Azul for the world’s longest cave diving penetration (5.5 miles).

Frankly, Martyn Farr is a very impressive man.

He’s easily one of the coolest adventurers in the game, and is a real fount of knowledge. I loved talking to him – and here’s what he said.

I’m Mark Beaumont and I’m 37, and I’ve spent the last 15 years taking on the first and fastest expeditions around the planet which have taken me to around 30 countries. I started when I was about 12 years old when I had the ambition to cycle from Lands’ End to John O’Groats, but my mam pointed out that I should probably try something smaller first.

So I was encouraged and supported to do a wee ride across Scotland which was 145 miles over three days, and that kind of peaked my interest in not just the journey but also the planning of it and the logistics and just the escape on a bike – I’ve always loved bike riding not really to be a racer but just because of where the bike could take you. By the time I was 15 I was going from Lands’ End to John O’Groats, by the time I was leaving school I was peddling across Europe, and by the time I was graduating at the age of 22 I was ready to cycle around the world.

how did your parents allow you to do this, to cycle from the very top of england to the very bottom of scotland when you were a child?

Yeah, my mum in particular has always been very supportive, she was always one of my core team. And then as a kid, you know, she was usually supportive. I’ve got two daughters now, a six year old and a three year old, and I can’t imagine the day when I work for them on their business. You know, I was homeschooled and my mum homeschooled myself and my two sisters until we were 12, and growing up on the foothills of the highlands of Scotland in Perthshire I just had extraordinary freedom.

I probably spent an hour or two around the table doing subjects and the rest of the time was working on the farm. We had 60 goats to milk, 200 laying hens to collect the eggs from, we had horses to ride and muck out and sort, we had a farm to run, you know. So I spent the first 10, 12 years of my life outside, being adventurous. I wasn’t doing it in a planned manner, I was just being a kid on a farm.

and then, you circumnavigated the world in 78 days, 14 hours, how did that come about? how did you have the motivation to do something that big?

Well for the circumnavigation record, when I was a teenager I watched Ellen MacArthur sail around the world, and I thought, why is the cycling record for exactly the same thing – you know, how fast can you get around the planet – why is it not the most coveted professional record in the book? So in 2006, 2007 when I first spotted that opportunity, the record stood at 276 days, it’s not that I was the world’s best bike rider, I just thought it hadn’t been done properly. I thought it was crazy, it was the world, and yet no one’s really had a crack at it. So the first time I cycled around the world I took a couple of months off that record, and did it unsupported in the time of I think 184 days. That was a big BBC documentary and it kind of launched my career.

I watched with awe and with interest as people over the decades took it to another level, went faster and faster, took different degrees of support and it became an ultra-light, super competitive thing, like when I first went for it it was a trekking record, it was more about where am I going to sleep each night, where am i going to find my next meal? As opposed to actually being a racer.

In regards to motivation, you know, I’ve always loved that concept. How fast can you get around the planet, you know the romantic side of it, Around the World in Eighty Days was a 1873 fiction book by Jules Verne, and whether it is Michael Palin or Disney, around the world in 80 days means something.

how would you overcome naysayers and family members saying that it’s impossible, saying that you can’t do it?

I’ve spent my entire career trying to do stuff that’s not been done before, so by definition I’m doing things that are impossible, just because it’s never been done before. It is often people who are closest to you, as in family and friends, who doubt you because they care too much, they don’t want to see you failing. I always think that when it comes to parents and friends you need to be very careful about what attitudes and feedback you surround yourself to, because those people who are really invested in your success and don’t want to see you fail – their worries and insecurities on your behalf can be a really drag and break on progress, and all they mean is support and care but actually it manifests itself in doubt and that’s got to be really carefully managed. I need people who whether I succeed or fail, their own journeys are completely different to mine, they can be objective.

so, what are you doing now during quarantine?

I normally spend a lot of my life out there filming projects, but I’m taking this time to write a book about endurance and starting a podcast series. The podcast series will take care of itself because I will be interviewing so many people on the subject of endurance, but I never would have had time to write that book or have those conversations if I’d been doing my normal work, so there’s a big silver lining. That will be out by the end of the year.

I’m enjoying spending time with the kids, I live in Edinburgh and my six year old is enjoying her bicycle. So everyday I go for a run and she cycles with me, and we have this little project that by the time she goes back to school in August to have run and cycled together every single street in Edinburgh.

final question, what’s your next big project, whats next for mark beaumont?

Well there’s nothing bigger than cycling across the world, that was very much my Everest. But I’ve never entered a traditional race where I’m on the start line with a few people around me. So I would like to spend the next two, three years taking on the most iconic endurance adventure events on the planet, running, cycling, mountain biking, all sorts of stuff. I’ve always had that bucket list but I’ve just never privatised it as I’ve been doing my own thing in the expedition world.

——

If there’s any other questions you’d like to ask Mark, let me know in the comments below!

BUT BEFORE YOU DO – WHY NOT SHARE THE LOVE AND PIN THIS POST?

On her infamous journey across the world, Vedangi faced a truly impressive amount of hurdles, such as being chased by a bear, hit by a minibus, robbed at knifepoint, stalked, and catching a couple stomach bugs and lung infections along the way. And yet she made it through, returned safely home, and is here with me today.

First of all, could you tell me a little about how your story began?

Sure! So in 2018 I wanted to circumnavigate the world by bike, and initially I wanted to complete this for fastest unsupported female solo ride in 100 days. Because I was quite young, however, I found it quite hard to get sponsors onboard because they didn’t believe that I could do that!

I read that you were robbed at knifepoint and chased by a bear? Could you tell me more about these experiences?

In Australia I was chased by some people who I later found out were armed, and then in Canada I got chased by a bear! I was actually fascinated to see a real grizzly bear and wasn’t really expecting to be chased because they were far enough for me to think that they wouldn’t notice me. One of them decided I was a danger to their kind so they started chasing me – but luckily a lorry went past and beeped and made a lot of sound and chased him back off.

And then in Spain I was chased on a bike by two guys who were yelling at me in Spanish, and after a while of them following me they came up behind me and pushed me off my bike. Initially I was going to throw my helmet at one of the guys, I was so angry! But then one of them pulled out a knife and put it to my throat whilst another started riffling through my bag, and I was there thinking if I get super scared and try to run away then I will get killed. So I was trying to distract myself from the fear and anxiety by going over their numberplate again and again in my head until I memorised it.

I also tried to think about whether they resembled anyone I could recall, and soon after they decided to push me into the side of the road and leave me and my stuff behind. I hit my head quite bad, but after 40 hours I was back on the road!

Next year I will be doing a documentary on the First Nations in British Columbia, and as you cycled through the area I was wondering if you learnt much about the indigenous people of Canada?

Unfortunately I did not! But I met the nicest people.

I read that you undertook this expedition ‘mostly’ unsupported? Which support did you/ didn’t you get?

I had my parents following behind me for a short while when I was in India, because India isn’t the safest place for a young girl to be riding alone. At the time I was pretty mad at my parents, saying you’re ruining my unsupported thing, but now I realise that was selfish. That’s the only thing that caused me to write that it was ‘mostly’ supported!

Can I ask how you obtained the funding for the expedition, and do you have any advice for others securing funding for their expeditions?

Advice-wise, I can just say to put yourself out there! And you don’t need permission to do something big if you’ve only done small things before, I don’t know if you’ve kind of felt that too? Reaching out to these companies – even if you don’t have the social media reach – is so important. I remember reaching out to Mark Beaumont and he gave me loads of advice and then posted about me on his social media and then there were quite a lot of people who followed me.

You don’t fit the typical explorer typecast of an older white male with a military background, and I was wondering if you have ever felt hindered by a discrimination, such as race, sexuality, or gender?

I have been told a few times that as a young girl I shouldn’t be travelling alone but on a much larger scale, I do feel that being someone with my background it took longer for me to be recognised in media. I wouldn’t say that’s discrimination right away though because there’s no way to point it out like that, but quite a few people have said that I’m too young to do what I do.

I also run a business where I help people plan their own expeditions, and people have told me a lot that I’m too young to start something like that.

So the business, is that The Adventure Shed? Could you tell me more about that came about, and how successful would you say it has been?

So I dropped out of university and was working with this guy who was aiming for the record of the youngest person to walk to the South Pole and I figured that there are some things that I would actually be really good for. I was thinking, hang on, I can create sponsorship proposals and get sponsors on board and then worked with another expedition where I worked with a substantial amount of money – and realised if I wanted to, I could do this.

And then I had to apply for the correct visa to be able to run a business in the UK, so I went back to India and came back with a provisional visa – but then lockdown happened so this visa ran out. I had to come up with something that could bring in money to pay for the longterm visa, and then I spoke to some people within the industry who have done some amazing things, and had interviews with them all.

I made audio recordings and short videos explaining each element of planning of adventure and got some sponsors on board and made a massive workbook then I went on Teachable and set up the course!

I have one last question for you and that is, what’s next?

A lot! I’m planning an Arctic expedition for a couple years and I want to go around the world again. Immediately upcoming, I’m creating a route in the southwest of England crossing the best of the southwest. I have sponsors onboard for it and want to create a film out of it, and hopefully can then get other people involved in more adventures by introducing them to this route.

And then the biggest project that I’m working on right now is I’m writing a book about the need for adventure. I’m talking about the purpose and the need for adventure. I will be talking to hundreds of people in the industry and can then fit this into those approaches and in fact, I’d love to send you some questions about it if you were down for it!

——

And there you go! Vedangi was a lot of fun to talk to, and I hope you’ve gained something from her adventures! If you have any further questions for Vedangi, please let me know in the comments below!

BUT BEFORE YOU DO – WHY NOT SHARE THE LOVE AND PIN THIS POST?

A true adventurer at heart, I was super excited to finally talk to him and learn more about his experiences.

First of all, could you tell me a little about how your story began?

I grew up in Windsor in a very middling town, where we had really good access to the outdoors. I wasn’t really outdoorsy in any way, I just really enjoyed being outside.

When I was in sixth form I worked at the local stables in exchange for being taught how to ride horses, and that was a very enjoyable experience that I wanted to do more of. After university, I did three things that I loved – I worked as a ‘jackaroo’ in Australia, I did a season as a ski instructor, and I played rugby in rural communities in New Zealand, which taught me about their cultures and was incredible.

You don’t fit the typical explorer typecast of white skinned ex-army man – would you say that your race or gender hindered or helped you?

I actually recently joined the RAF! But growing up I was told things like ‘I don’t like Asians but you’re alright,’ so I’d always had conflicting feelings about what it meant to be British. There’s a lot of English nationalism, which I think is different to Welsh and Scottish nationalism. 

I didn’t join the army earlier because of the war in Iraq which I thought was an unjust war, but I did decide to be in the reserves as it’s a really great place to learn loads of practical and outdoor skills which are useful. I’m not of that British colonial mindset – I’m Indian, after all – and until recently, it was accepted that the British empire was a benign empire. But then you go to India and you get the real, unpleasant, story.

So, travel to me was not about going to places for physical ardour or for proving how tough I was, to me it was a way of engaging with a local culture with empathy. I went to New Zealand to get an insight into the indigenous Maori, but travel and exploration is all about cultural exploration. I actually don’t like the word ‘explorer’ as really, it’s just a pre-cursor to coloniser, conquest, disposition, conquest, and used to describe people like Burton and Speke, whose explorations led to the dis-placement of the local people.

What would you say is one of the hardest things you’ve faced across all of your journeys across the world?

They are all hard in their own way, but some of the hardest things were from me putting too much pressure on myself and not seeing that the travel is valuable regardless. You get tired, you have to walk long distances, you have to carry heavy things, but no one cares about that stuff and it’s not that interesting. 

You mentioned that you studied philosophy – has this helped you in many situations, such as meeting with the Dalai Lama?

Philosophy teaches you a skill, critical thinking. What I do now is write articles and columns, so this was really useful. Like obligations to war, justice, these are very important things, and the way that different nations approach these ideas distinguish one nation from another, when they believe in one value system to another.

But when it comes to meeting the Dalai Lama, you don’t really ask him a question, he just tells you stuff. He was great, a very charismatic person. He has a remarkable ability to make you feel important, and I’m sure he’s probably met more people of different levels of society than anyone else on earth. I also learnt compassion from him.  He was talking about having to sneak out of Tibet, and he said that he had learnt that from the Chinese communists, who tried their best to culturally cleanse Tibet. For someone to be able to know that a nation and a group had done that to his people and still have the wisdom and compassion was very inspiring.

You’ve written for big publications such as the Telegraph, so I was wondering how you broke into the industry?

I think there are two approaches – nepotism or by writing blogs, with the latter being how I did it. And then I started to do free pieces for magazines and newspapers, and eventually this became paid. I got my first by-line in a paper from CityAM, and I was attending loads of travel shows and watching people I admired.

Nicholas Crane was doing a talk at the Adventure Travel Show and I told him I loved his work and he asked what I wanted to do, and when I told him I was going to take my dad’s ashes to India he said that he loved India and then introduced me to Michael Kerr, the deputy editor of the Telegraph Travel section, so that was being in the right place and asking questions.

Can I ask with all of your filming experience what you would consider to be one of the best documentary cameras?

It depends on what you’re shooting for. For example, I used the Sony Ax53, it’s not flash, it’s the updated version of the one we used on Walking the Nile, and its robust. You don’t want to have to think about your camera in the middle of doing something, you just want your camera to work. You can hear people, you can film stuff, and it is fairly indestructible. If you’re going to have another camera on top, probably go for the Sony Alpha 7S3.

For the Walking Wales Expedition we will be using the Canon Eos 700D, and I don’t know if you’ve used it or recommend it or..?

The main thing is that your kit should not hinder you. The big things that mess people up in filmmaking is ability to use a camera, ability to plan and write a story, and audio. Whether or not you have good film will not depend on your camera.

Who was your inspiration when you grew up? Was there someone you looked up to?

I just watched the new Michael Palin documentary, Travels of a Lifetime, which is currently on BBC iPlayer. Palin’s documentaries were the first time that an audience followed someone through their journey, and when he started, he was the first one to do it. I like him because he’s so curious about everyone that he meets and is just such a nice, authentic, and funny guy. His humour comes from warmth and that ability to connect to people.

The other stuff that really inspired me was Star Trek, I loved the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and I think this tolerance and interest of other cultures and the fact it was all built and framed in a very warm approach again, drew me to it.

Can I ask what your dream project is?

I’m currently working on a couple of ideas in India, but I don’t like the idea of a dream project per-say, as I’ve been lucky enough to go to all of the places I wanted to go to. But I really want to go for a journey in India following the path of my dad’s side of the family and some history that intersects with British history. I’ve walked 3,000 miles with Lev and I’ve done all sorts of things. I think that with the dream project, you’ve got to ask yourself, ‘are you doing it for you or for success?’ Lev said he wanted to walk the Nile to write a book to finally break through into the travel writing world, but I don’t think that he had always dreamed of walking the Nile for nine months.

So I have one last question, and that is, what’s next?

Who knows? With Coronavirus right now it is really hard to plan anything. But I definitely want to spend some time in India, and it is such an interesting, diverse place. You have more diversity in India than you do in Europe, but you tend to think of them as more homogenous. The more likely next one is I want to do some journeys in Britain, I will probably wait till spring and do the east side of Britain, go through the Fens and Yorkshire rather than through Cumbria.

But mainly, I’m doing a podcast called The First Mile with my friend Pip Stewart. What underpinned it was the saying that ‘the hardest part of any journey is the first mile’, so we wanted to really delve into what is the first mile of everybody’s journey. Podcasts don’t really do travel narratives and telling the story in a creative way, so we wanted to do that, framed around the first mile of getting through a journey.

And so, that pretty much sums up the Wandering Everywhere interview with one of the coolest adventurers in the game. Do any of y’all follow Ash on his adventures, or plan on doing so now that you know who exactly he is? Let me know in the comments below!

BUT BEFORE YOU DO – WHY NOT SHARE THE LOVE AND PIN THIS POST?

Last week, I was lucky enough to be able to talk to the legend herself – and here’s how it went.

Firstly, could you tell me more about your initial big expedition where you led the first unsupported women’s crossing of the Greenland ice cap?

It was in 1992, I had always had this dream to ski to the South Pole, and I then realised being a high school teacher that I could not afford it. And then in 1988 it was the 100th anniversary of Fridtjof Nansen crossing the Greenland ice cap and there were several expeditions planned by just men who didn’t want women on their team. So I realised I should get a woman with me, and we had a truly great time.

What sort of attraction does the open ice have for you?

A good question because as I grew up in Norway, I loved skiing ever since I got my first skis at three years old. Living in the outskirts of Oslo, with its beautiful ski routes and treks, where we would go on winter and easter holidays, I always had this daydream for going out into wide open spaces. I really like the wet and wind, I really feel alive when its stormy sometimes.

Following the 1992 expedition, you became the first woman to ski unsupported to the South Pole. How did that come about?

Well, after doing the Greenland crossing there was a Norwegian guy who skied solo and unsupported to the North Pole. So after getting a crew together I came back and I said to my husband I think I should do this and he said I think you can do it. So I got support from friends and family. The hardest part is always getting that funding.

I was wondering how you’re able to secure these sponsorships?

They’re hard, like you know with this solo trip, I felt as though I moved into the men’s arena in Norway so I really had to get Norwegian sponsors. There was another Norwegian explorer who got an Italian sponsor so I got in contact with them and they said okay, if you can make it! They said that they would pay me when I came back, so I took out a bank loan and then I made it and they paid me.

Are you still living in Oslo?

I’m actually in a little place by the forest and a little pond with my Siberian husky.

What was it like living there as a child, and when did you realise that you didn’t want to follow the typical female expectations?

I remember one story, I was around 12 with my friends on a school trip to Germany. There were about six or eight girls, exchanging dreams. All my friends were dreaming about big houses, fancy cars, handsome husbands, and I was very naive and was thinking, ‘how boring! To think about something that will come automatically when you grow up!’ And then I told them my dream was to ski to the South Pole and they laughed and said it was stupid, was impossible, was a boy’s dream. And that was the first time I had the sense that I didn’t have the same dreams as my friends. As I grew up, my friends got married and I began wondering if I even wanted that life, wanted kids.

How hard would you say it’s been to be a female in a male dominated industry?

I think it was harder but it’s changing now, you know that. Now it’s many women who have skied to the South Pole but in my time it was definitely harder.

I think you’re very modest and very successful, and was wondering how you define success?

Well I think that if I myself am content with what I’ve been doing and have achieved, I think that’s a success. No one else can tell you you’re a success because you should know within yourself that this was good.

What is the worst thing that’s ever happened on an expedition?

I think it was when Ann Bancroft and I had an attempt to ski to the North Pole from Siberia and the ice was breaking in the middle of a night during a heavy storm. It was cold and I heard something so I went out to see it and woke Ann up. I heard this sound and looked out and there was this big wall of ice coming closer and closer, so Ann took the sleds and I got the tent and when I took the last screw out of the tent the first shock of ice came over me. Had I been laying in that sleeping bag for 15 more minutes we would have been crushed down to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. And I still get this feeling during springtime when you hear the breaking of ice.

We also got attacked by a polar bear. He followed us for a bit but I relaxed a little so I put the revolver on Ann’s sled in front of me and when I turned, he was coming right at us. I couldn’t reach the revolver so I aimed this signal pen at him and hit him in the breast, he was just a few metres away and began to move away immediately.

How do you deal with fear in these situations?

I was swallowing my heart, I think he was heading to my sled because it looked like a seal and then we crossed over an open river in dry suits and he stopped following us.

Who is a female role model that you look up to?

That’s not an explorer? I remember reading biographies and was reading about Marie Curie when I was a kid, and my friend said that I couldn’t do something like that. And also my mother, she’s a really good skier, she was not a very stereotypical mother, she wanted to go cross country skiing as a whole family on weekends whereas my friends mother stayed home and made Sunday dinner.

Are those all your books behind you? I read you’re an insatiable reader – could recommend some books?

I read all the classics in my 20’s, so now am reading a new translation of the Plague by Camus and I have several books on the go right now. I got another one today in the post and it’s actually the Bird Histories, about a professor focusing on the importance of water. With Covid, I actually have a lot of time to read.

I have one last question regarding what’s next?

We want to do one waterway for BAE on each continent, so if we can find a solution for this pandemic, we will go to New Zealand in 2022.

——

And so, there it is! This interview was a lot of fun, and I hope that you guys enjoyed it just as much as I did. If you have any more questions for Liv Arnesen, let me know in the comments below!

BUT BEFORE YOU DO – WHY NOT SHARE THE LOVE AND PIN THIS POST?

Some of Karl’s best work follows him on journeys to the furthest corners of the globe. He explores the concept of arranged marriages in India, he tries plastic surgery in Los Angeles, he saves a turtle from a restaurant in Japan and keeps it in his bathtub, he tries to feed a biscuit to a boa constrictor in the Amazon Basin – he truly does it all. In my favourite show of his, The Moaning of Life, he traverses the globe to try to undercover, well, the meaning of life. He seeks the answers for life’s big questions – and at the end of the day, aren’t we all a little curious about how other cultures view identity, time, death, and the best ways to live our lives?

I’ll be frank with you and say that he’s probably my favourite traveller. He’s incredibly unpretentious and down-to-earth, but most importantly, he is one of the most honest men on TV. He’s an absolute legend, and nothing short of a household name in the UK.

Karl’s a sick writer and all of his books make for great reads – and I can promise you that you’ve never read travel journals quite like them. They’re so full of personality and written with that classic Karl Pilkington voice that you just can’t help but be drawn in, and I think that we could all benefit from trying to understand the world around us and our place within it.

And so, without further ado, here is my interview with my friend Karl. Or at least, Mancunian guy that replies to me during his morning sh*t.

Firstly, what’s your favourite biscuit?

I’m forever changing. At the minute I’m enjoying Foxes Jam and cream.

You’ve tried to retire a couple of times now, but got bored and went back to creating content. How are you finding this quarantine, and what are you doing to stay busy?

I’m quite happy being at home. I saw a sign last week telling people to ‘stay at home unless you really need to go out’ due to the virus, but that’s the way I’ve always lived. I’m most happy in my own space. I’ve been busy gardening, done some little jobs about the house, I’ve done some short audio animation podcast type things that I’ve been bunging on Facebook and done quite a bit of doodling.

I think people have probably learn’t a lot about themselves during this lockdown. In a quiet moment last week, I counted how many teeth I had in my head. There’s always something to do.

In Sick of It, you highlight issues such as depression and isolation. What do you think of this show as a platform to raise awareness for these issues?

That was never my plan. The stories are based on some of my own little worries and insecurities that I think most people have at some point in their life.  Issues like feeling out of place and not being good enough. I got a few letters and messages from viewers saying they could relate to it so that was good.

You say you’re not that confident, and yet you’ve done all of these amazing things and done them well. How do you overcome this, and get on with producing entertaining content?

It’s normally at the point when I still have time to walk away that I’m not that confident. Once I’ve signed a contract that says I’ll have to deliver something, I’m that focused on getting it done that the worry goes away until I’ve finished.

They try and teach kids to be mega confident but too much of it isn’t a good thing. It’s healthy to keep doubting what you are doing and questioning yourself.

I’ve seen a lot of interviews where the audience laughs at every single comment you make, regardless of whether or not it’s actually funny. In one interview with Alan Carr, there’s this point where you talk about the first dead person you ever saw. It’s quite obviously a serious subject, and yet the audience and Jimmy are still absolutely killing themselves over it. Is it incredibly annoying to say what you’re honestly thinking just for people to laugh at you?

I just think the audience has just been primed to laugh. The idea is, if the live audience is laughing, the viewers at home will laugh. It’s a bit lazy. They do it the other way as well, they put sad music on stuff so people will cry. I hate all that. If something is sad and written well, you could put a track from the Crazy Frog over the scene and it should still work.   

Do you think the branding of your older shows, such as An Idiot Abroad, has labelled you as a ‘funnyman’ and stopped you from doing other things you might have wanted to do?

It’s quite hard to control how people see you, and you can’t control what people find funny so I try not to worry about it. I remember it being tough when I had to promote Sick of It though. It’s a totally different tone to the travel stuff which is difficult to get through to people. I’m not that arsed if people don’t like what I do but it would annoy me if someone didn’t enjoy it cos they were expecting it to be something else. A lot of critics were surprised by the look and tone of the series as it’s not what they were used to doing. I have never set out for anything I’ve filmed to be funny, I just hoped people would find something interesting in it.

I think I got labelled ‘funnyman’ because I did stuff with Ricky and Steve who are comedians, so it was easier for people to bundle me in with what they do. I don’t watch that much funny stuff, I prefer stories like Kes. Vic and Bob make me laugh but laughter isn’t something I need loads of in my life.

Did it get annoying to have no control of any of the travel plans in An Idiot Abroad?

I just found it very tiring being on edge all the time not knowing when or even what time someone was going to knock on my hotel room door and shove a camera in my face.  The filming was always easier than the anticipation of the the filming if that makes sense. If someone said they are going to kick you in the bollocks, it’s always worse than someone just kicking you in the bollocks without warning.

What’s the best thing that you’ve experienced whilst shooting one of your shows abroad?

The best bit wasn’t abroad. It was when we filmed a murmuration in Somerset for The Moaning of Life. It’s when thousands of starlings fly in mass. It was really good. Everyone should try and witness it if they can. I first saw one on telly when Bill Oddie did a show about it. Normally telly makes things look better than reality but it was even more amazing in real life. In fact, this goes back to what I was saying earlier about adding laughter or sad music to stuff. They’d put music over it on the Bill Oddie programme and it really wasn’t needed as the sound of the starlings as they whizz about through the air added to the chaos of it.

In what ways do you think travel has changed you?

I think it changed me but I don’t know if that would have happened anyway with age. We’re all changing all the time. Like I said at the start, Jam n cream biscuits are my current favs but last week it was ginger stem biscuits.

You once said that it’s good to do stuff you’re proud of, so that you can sit back and be like ‘wow I did that.’ What would you say is your proudest achievement?

Paying the mortgage off probably. I can remember feeling quite happy that we had managed to do that. Completing the books and Sick of it are up there as good moments. Both things that I never thought I’d never be able to do.

Why is Wales your favourite British travel spot?

I haven’t been for years but when I was a kid me mam and dad had a caravan there on a campsite that had a really good arcade. All school holidays were spent there, and time when I should have been at school as well. I didn’t go abroad until I was about 22 I think.

What would you say are your personal seven wonders of the world?

Mainly nature things. The murmuration I’ve mentioned. Octopus amaze me. Most stuff in the sea is mind blowing. I found out the other day that sharks have been around longer than trees. How mad is that.

Finally, you’ve said that you’re not a planner, and that you’re not the sort of person to knock about with a five-year plan. What sort of advice would you give to people that had it all planned out, and now because of the coronavirus have had to re-plan their entire lives?

I’m not a planner but that doesn’t mean you can’t have dreams. I just don’t understand why you’d put a time limit on something. Why five years? When I was a kid and wanted to work in radio I didn’t put a time on it. I just kept working towards achieving it. If you want something enough just keep going for it. I think I enjoyed the journey more than reaching the goal.

I think that moral of the story is to be open, honest, and curious with everything you do… and when times get a little tough, don’t be afraid to give it a good old moan.

A massive thanks to Karl for the in-depth answers! He once said in another (less cool) interview that he wouldn’t want to continue doing travel docs because he wouldn’t want to exhaust the genre, but no one goes ‘oh that Michael Palin’s off again, he’s starting to take the mick with all this travelling,’ do they? So Karl, if you get bored of trying to retire once again, we’ll be here waiting.

And so, why not go off and watch Sick of It, or re-watch his travel docs? Or whilst you’re at it, read one of his books?

BUT BEFORE YOU DO – WHY NOT SHARE THIS POST?

ALL IMAGES © SKY PLC

Darius is an archaeologist, professor, and documentary host, whose work has been seen on CBS, BBC Travel, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, Huffington Post, and National Geographic, along with many others. He is the Executive Director of the American Institute for Roman Culture, a non-profit organisation that aims to promote and conserve Rome’s cultural heritage through educational programs, projects, public outreach, and social media.

He has been the face of many TV projects, such as Ancient Invisible Cities, Under Italy, and Ancient Rome Live, and is always creating new content for his social media channels. In summary, he’s a pretty cool guy, and I am very glad to be interviewing him for Wandering Everywhere.

You can follow Darius on his journeys via his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook under his handle @dariusaryadigs, and you can check out his Youtube channel here. To keep up to date with his ventures across the Eternal City, you should follow the Live, from Rome! Youtube channel over at We Dig Rome.

SO FIRST OF ALL, COULD YOU TELL ME A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT HOW YOU INITIALLY GOT INTO ARCHAEOLOGY?

For me, it was several factors. I think a lot of people fall in love with Classical Languages and ancient civilisations through language, but for a lot of people that I know growing up in States it was through stories. It was through art. It was down to the Greek mythology that I was fascinated with back in sixth grade, and museum trips and local bookstores. It was layer upon layer, such as going to the Smithsonian Museums in Washington DC as a child, learning about ancient history which then accelerated into taking Latin in junior high and Latin-Greek in high school.

I continued these studies in college, where I had the opportunity to study abroad and that really opened up a lot of doors. I went on one trip to Europe with the school where we travelled with a Rail Pass, and when we’d made it to Rome it was incredible. Just wow. I mean, it just blew me away particularly see things like the Roman Forum the Colosseum and so things came together like that kind of organically. I didn’t want to be an academic, though, and wasn’t in love with with what I saw in University. It just felt for me kind of restrictive. So I just went off on my own direction, but you know, everyone has to find that happy medium.

FROM THERE, HOW DID YOU MAKE THE LEAP FROM BEING A LECTURER TO BEING THE FACE OF POPULAR SHOWS ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, AND PBS? 

So all of this work became about location, location, location. You know, I studied, I did that one trip back in Junior High, I studied a semester in Rome which was fantastic and inspiring, and then I just kept on coming back every summer since ’92. Then the transition of ‘how can I do this, how can it be there amidst all of this’ came about. I didn’t want to go down the route of being so distant from it all and only coming back occasionally, so I was trying to figure it out.

I created and co-founded a non-profit which has been around since 2002. We’re getting our own programs and excavations and so forth, and just as it got started people began reaching out to me, too. Saying ‘hey, we see that you’re there, your organisation seems interesting. Can you talk?’ I kind of got a sense of where this was heading, and it became successful just because people liked my vibe or my attitude or my delivery. And to be honest with you there really aren’t that many people from the US doing this sort of thing.

SO YOU NEVER REALLY EXPECTED THAT THIS IS WHERE YOU WOULD END UP?

Everyone wants to have a crack at it and to try it. There are different degrees of success, and every audience is different, you know, with very channels, different countries, different expectations. I had done some theatre and drama and things when I was a kid, but no I’d never really thought about doing it at all. 

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE THING THAT YOU’VE EXPERIENCED WITH ANCIENT INVISIBLE CITIES?

The great things about Ancient Invisible Cities was that we were able to work closely with this fantastic team, Scan Labs, and to work alongside these people was incredible. They were under a lot of pressure whilst we were working on our own narratives, and it was fun, it was intense, and it was another layer of documenting the past. There would be around 15 or 16 people working in different locations simultaneously working with the drones and the helicopters – and I always wanted to ride in one of the helicopters but never did. It was a lot of hard work but it was a lot of fun.

SO HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN ROME FOR NOW?

About 20 years. I’ve spent this time as an opportunity to do more research and practise my Italian, and it’s been good to engage people in stuff like this. The people have been very accommodating and with the language they just thought you know, here’s another person giving their take on the history, which is unlike that which I grew up with. You know, my kids are going to school in Italian schools. One of them is finishing up. They have so much exposure to all of this, and in some ways are a little spoiled because of it. But I needed to do this to truly be able to talk to the audience.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO LEARN ITALIAN? BECAUSE I WATCHED AN INTERVIEW WHERE YOU WERE SPEAKING IT FLUENTLY AND I HONESTLY HADN’T EXPECTED THAT

I’ve been trying to speak the language for as long as I could have, you know, I’m not just here in an English-speaking bubble. It’s not something that I’ve been able to grow up with, and everyone knows after the first two words that I say that I’m not a native, but it just happens.

SO I WAS GOING TO ASK WHY YOU’D CHOSEN TO LIVE IN ROME RATHER THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD, BUT YOUR PASSION AND YOUR LOVE FOR ROME IS PRETTY OBVIOUS

Yeah, I mean when we spoke about this before you were like why Rome and not Athens, but really, it’s just a place that struck me. Ostensibly, you know, when I looking at study abroad programs and my Classics Department asked if I’d rather go to Rome or Athens, I was like, is this a trick question? 

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO PEOPLE THAT VISIT ROME BUT ONLY SEE THE TREVI FOUNTAIN OR THE COLISEUM – WHAT GEMS DO THEY MISS? 

It’s tough. I mean everyone have varying amounts of time here, with limited budgets. I think that there are a lot of variables, especially now with Covid-19, it’s going to be more difficult to even visit places like the Vatican or the Colosseum because they’re going to have to reduce their numbers. It’s going to be very difficult, but they’re re-opening all the museums tomorrow and I have a timed reservation for the Capitoline museums.

Now everything’s going to be with timed entrances, spacing everybody out, and so forth. But I think that the best thing you can do in the city is just to wander about, and you know, just take a look at 10, 20, 30 sites, and just see them because they’re there, all so close to one another. Just go and take them in and experience it. The light changes and the hours go past so you need to experience everything that you can, as slowly as you can.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE BEST PIZZA IN ROME?

Oh God. Classics you know? But ultimately, the best pizza in Rome is in Naples. But in Rome,  I’d say pizzas like Baffetto and the Monte Carlo.

WHAT’S A FUN FACT YOU KNOW ABOUT ANY ASPECT OF LESSER-KNOWN HISTORY? 

There’s actually a massive comprehensive plan around the entire area of what we call the Valley of the Coliseum. It’s currently undergoing a lot of cleaning and in five years time will be radically different. Let’s all hope it’s for the best. You’re going to have a third entrance line that’s going to be have a huge underground space and you’re going to have this new kind of Centre which culminates all of the information about the Coliseum, and there’s even a rotating exhibit space. That’s happening. But yeah, there’s just going to be a lot more going on with Coliseum. I think it’ll enhance people’s experience of the Coliseum for the future. It’s pretty cool.

WHAT’S YOUR DREAM PROJECT?

You know, we are currently working on our publications for previous excavations and that’s a dream to get done. It’s a huge responsibility and we are making a lot of progress right now. And then, with this kind of work that we are doing, I would like it to all make a greater reach and impact. I want it to be much more present as a resource, on a more sustainable level. It would be great if a lot of the institutions and academic associations would lend us more support, but we’re getting some great partnerships with Museum Week and so forth, which is fantastic. The end game is for a lot of people to discover and use our resources, because no one else is giving this stuff, you know, for free.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO PEOPLE THAT WANT TO PRODUCE THEIR OWN SHOWS, AND BE ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL AND NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC? 

Good luck. It’s all very fickle business, and it’s hard to get acknowledged. It usually comes from a lucky break or by being a scientist or a biologist. You should be creative and voice what you believe in, and try to ignore the hate. Don’t be political, don’t insult anyone, be very careful. Stand up for what you believe in. So if you’re going out there to make a brand, decide what your values are and what you want to convey.

Also, make sure that you’re working on several platforms, not just Twitter or Instagram but also YouTube and anything else you can use. Try to be flexible and use this time to be experimental – but remember that once this stuff is out there, it’s out there forever. Be consistent and be honest.

SO, LAST THING, DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION, SUCH AS A PARTICULAR YOUTUBE CHANNEL..?

For sure! So I direct the American Institute for Roman Culture, a non-profit organisation. We’ve been in Rome working away teaching University programs and we really focus on that online stuff. This is the main webpage with our weekly blog and so forth, and  the website where we now have a learning program is now ancientromelive.org.

You can also follow my weekly seminars from Rome, sometimes on location; Wednesday is geared for kids, Sundays for everyone, always 7pm Rome time. The YouTube channel is We Dig Rome.

Across all media channels, we are @saverome, because we are into saving and preserving this ongoing legacy of Rome. And then for me, I’m all @dariusaryadigs, Facebook, Twitter, and on the website. And then there’s my own YouTube at Darius Arya, it’s a lot of fun Rome content. So check it out. It’s a lot of fun and we are always up for collaboration and, you know, just getting the message out about history.

——

And so, there it is! This interview was a lot of fun, and I hope that you guys enjoyed it just as much as I did.

Hopefully, you’ve learnt a little more about the Eternal City, Italian pizza, and the ups and downs of being an archaeologist and documentary host! If you have any more questions for Darius Arya, let me know in the comments below!

BUT BEFORE YOU DO – WHY NOT SHARE THE LOVE AND PIN THIS POST?