From the UK to north Africa without flying

I gave up flying a few years ago, as a small contribution to the struggle against climate change. But when I did so, I promised myself that a life without aviation would not mean a life without travelling.

I'm one of those people who are fascinated by the way people live in different parts of the world and, in particular, the languages they use, and so many of my dreams are based around travelling.

This interest in languages has led me to a studying Middle Eastern languages at university, and as part of the course, students are sent to study the local dialect in Alexandria, Egypt's second city and a legendary place since ancient times. This is where the first big challenge to my new feet-forever-on-the-ground lifestyle arose.

So I set off overland. The experiment took me on a route through Europe and across the Mediterranean, knitting together any form of transport other than aviation: train, coach, vespa, cable-car and even cargo ship.

Throughout the journey I kept two or three notes per day on my surroundings as well as reflections on the sometimes eye-opening, sometimes testing nature of overland travel itself. Navigate the links on the left to see if anything catches your interest.