‘It is this that defines an epic trip; surrounding yourself with awesome, like-mined people that make the most of every moment that comes their way, in a country intent on making you smile at every turn”.

Welcome to Trigtales. A travel blog that was born out of my sheer inability to keep in touch with family while away travelling. An idea my sister had many years ago as basically a way to monitor my movements and, to this day my Mum and two sisters remain the bulk of the viewership. Why Trigtales? My nickname is Trig even though I more closely resemble Rodney from Only fools and horses, one of the best British comedies of all time. Replace Duck with Trig in the popular 1980’s animated show ‘Ducktales’ and hey presto.

This blog is factually useless if you want to know where to stay, what to visit and how to get there. Although well travelled I am the worlds laziest traveller and a huge advocate of the group tour. My writings simply aim to convey my experience of travelling and why I travel. Ultimately if I can encourage just a few people to give it a go then this blog has done its job. For me travelling isn’t six months sat in Thailand. All it has to be is a week somewhere which is different to your usual surroundings. Somewhere that pushes you out of your comfort zone if only a little. Somewhere that opens your eyes to something that you were not familiar with before.

In 2008 I made my maiden visit to the continent I love more than any other, Africa. My ten-week overland tour there set the standard for many reasons including friendships, love, adventure, culture and of course wildlife. However, this was before the creation of the blog and so to mark the ten-year anniversary I will be adding a blog for each of the countries I visited on that tour under the tag ‘Rewind to Africa 2008’. I believe this mini series of Trigtales will provide ample inspiration to anyone wishing to visit this incredible and misunderstood continent and for that matter, any one of the other incredible continents.

‘To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your ideas, your dreams,
before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To believe is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the
greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The people who risk nothing, do nothing,
have nothing, are nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but they cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes they are slaves;
they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free’

Anonymous

All flights taken since January 2020 have been offset by 100-150% through Clear, and although offsetting is contentious I believe it’s slightly better than doing nothing.