An update for readers wondering why this blog suddenly went silent about 18 months ago.
No, I didn’t receive a life-changing diagnosis. No, I’m not having a mid-life crisis (I had it at 23). No, I didn’t become a parent or divorcee. And no, I didn’t (yet) resume my attempt to cycle round the world.
Instead, I stumbled upon, applied for, was offered, and accepted the first fulltime job of my life: a newly created role at the Royal Geographical Society in London.
Among other things, saying yes to this has involved stepping back from the Transcaucasian Trail; renting out our house in Armenia; handing the hostel keys to a trusted friend; driving an overloaded Land Rover 5,000km the length of Europe, and getting UK numberplates for it.
Yet the logistics have been nothing compared to the strange and lengthy cultural adjustment, during which I’ve felt grateful for all that time spent in foreignerhood.
I did not plan this route, any more than I have at previous major forks in the road. But the direction felt right, mainly because this particular remit within this particular organisation will allow me to manifest some of my core values around travel, adventure and purpose that my long-term readers will be familiar with, to an extent that as a lone operator I simply could not.
It will take time. I may not live to see the fruits of my labours. But by god it’s a privilege, and one I intend to maximise.
The upshot is that I find myself arriving on a small northeast-Atlantic island that I barely know (save for some tiny nooks I occupied in previous lives), setting up anew in a small town equally convenient for jumping on trains to London, visiting my parents, and going for nice long bike rides.
And I’ve arrived armed with an acute conception of what, how and why to explore – one that only decades spent roaming unknown lands could have cultivated – and I damn well intend to put what I’ve learned to purpose.
What shall I find?
Something to add?