Kirjahaku

We had a trip to Morocco in mind for some years, since Frances, our daughter, went there on buying trips twenty years ago. But this time we visited parts that were new to her. From Fez we crossed the Atlas Mountains and went south into the desert, then west along the mountains to Finnt, across to Marrakesh and back along the northern flank to Fez.I'm glad we went now because Morocco is changing. Everywhere we went there were signs of development - half finished apartments blocks, new suburbs and building plots. But Morocco feels authentic - women in bright Berber costume riding donkeys loaded with fodder, families out for an evening stroll, women washing clothes in the river. Even the stallholders and merchants seemed more polite and agreeable than in other places. Everyone was friendly and helpful and it was a pleasure to speak bad French.

Australia is far-flung and until the airplane overcame the tyranny of distance Australia was terra incognita. Aboriginals of Australia are one of the oldest living peoples of the world having occupied the same territory longer than any other human population, about 50,000 years. They believe their ancestors brought the world into being by naming the landscape and the creatures that inhabit it. They sing to keep the land alive and their songs are stories of ancestor figures and a GPS to help guide them over vast distances. In Sydney and were treated to a spectacular exhibition of Aboriginal art and dance depicting places along the Canning Stock Route in Western Australia but we missed a visit to the Opera House and ferry rides across the harbour because of a mix-up with the flights. In Perth we attended the 60th Perth International Arts Festival with a dawn-dusk opening that aimed to reconcile the Nyungar guardians of Mudurup Rocks at Cottesloe with modern Australia.

Because of its remoteness, New Zealand was one of the last places to be settled by humans who arrived only 7-800 years ago from Polynesia and founded what today is a strong and highly influential Maori culture. We went to study recovery after the 2012 earthquake and stayed with Scharlie's cousin John and his wife Mollie in Christchurch. We interviewed key people involved in planning the reconstruction and also surveyed the damage in the centre and the badly affected suburbs, After we went off trekking, first on the Bealey Spur near Arthur's Pass north west of Christchurch and then along the Abel Tasman trail on the north coast of South Island. It was stunningly beautiful and we had it almost to ourselves. Finally, we crossed the Cook Strait to Wellington to meet people in GNS Science and visit a small piece of original bush preserved in the heart of the city.

I went to Kyrgyzstan to run a scenario planning game in Bishkek with Emergency personnel from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan use remote sensing to map hazards and monitor disaster recovery.Our host takes us to a night club. It's in a vast concert bunker. We toast each other unmercifully with vodka shots until encouraged onto the dance floor where we dance with a group of attractive young girls they call the `jet-set'.We went for a walk in the snow covered Tien Shan and walked up the Ala Acha gorge. We wanted to see snow leopard, but all we saw were the inquisitive marmots and circling eagles. Having forgotten my trainers I had only sandals to keep my feet warm.Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan is a fascinating city, with its tree-lined boulevards, Soviet `brave new world' architecture and a huge statue of Lenin pointing towards a future long gone. Bishkek is a city on the ancient `silk-road' and there is a relaxed human feel to the place.

The overwhelming impact of the colours, sounds and smells of Delhi and climbs through steep green valleys and raging torrents into the soaring snow-white Himalayas. We tell stories about the people we meet; the Sikh pilgrims on their pilgrimage to Hemkund, our young guides from Joshimath, the people we stay with in the small mountain villages.

The Laugavegur is one of the big walks. It is the most famous trek in Iceland and crosses other worldly landscapes formed by recent volcanos. I did it from north to south and it runs over 80km from Landmannalauger via Thorsmork to Skogar on the coast. The trail is normally open from late June to mid-August. I started on the 15 June, the first day the bus ran to Landmannalaugar. I hadn't booked the huts as I didn't know whether I'd make it. So I took camping gear. The scenery is sensational and unlike anywhere I'd been before. At this time of the year there is still a lot of snow. I was alone much of the time, having started early in the year. There were three river crossings in flood and I needed to strip and take care.You pass through vivid rhyolite mountains, climb snow slopes, cross ash deserts, rift canyons and glacial streams. There are wild flowers, sweet birch and the cries of redshank and ptarmigan. I did the trek from Landmannalaugar to Skogar in 4 days including the bus trips at either end

We went to Venezuela in 1981 after an expedition we had been invited to join fell through. So we turned our attention to Ilu Tepuy, an unclimbed sandstone butte in the Gran Sabana north west of Roraima. At first, we didn't think of the mountain in a proprietary way. We were looking for a mountain, any mountain really, that had not been climbed and Ilu Tepuy seemed to offer the best chance since there was a 'path' to its base. This didn't mean there was a path in our sense of the word necessarily, but that someone has been there and, knowing this, people would be prepared to go there again without too much difficulty. It ought not to be necessary to justify why we went to climb in Venezuela but for the fact that so many people asked us. Two reasons spring to mind. The first is to confront a challenge, which explains why one endures hardship and danger. The second is to experience those rare magical days that leave an insatiable thirst and a desire for more.

El Autana is a sandstone tepuy or butte about 400 miles south of Caracas in the Amazon Territory of Venezuela. We climbed the left hand ridge in the photograph in three days in 1974. A cathedral sized cave pierces the mountain from side to side, so that light shines through about 400 ft from the top. Like all good jungle mountains, this too has its indian legend. At dusk, when the sun shines through the cave that pierces the mountain from one side to side, the Piaroa indians call the cave the `Eye of the Gods'. Stephen Platt, David Nott, Wilmer Perez la Riva and Carlos Reyes climbed the North Ridge in its entirety and then descended to the caves were we spent three nights, exploring the galleries and traversing around the mountain along the horizontal fault line at the height of the cave. On the third day we completed the ridge to the summit. Night caught us abseiling down the last overhanging 300ft wall and we stumbled back to base camp by the meagre light of our only pocket torch

We went to Ecuador to visit my daughter Frances. In Quito we stayed with Ecuadorian friends who introduced us to culinary delights such as calf's foot soup (good for hangovers), cow's udder (like eating Pirelli tyre rubber) and guinea pig (like roast chicken on a spit). We planned to climb volcanos, acclimatising slowly, starting from Loma Lumbisi at 3039 m and building up to Chimborazo at 6,268 m. Although not technically difficult, they weren't easy. There was rock scrambling on Carihaurazo and one had to take care not to trip on the steep snow. Between climbs we relaxed and recovered in the hot thermal springs and rejuventing calm of the spa town of Ba os and the jungle pools of Papallacta. The account describes our struggles to cope with altitude sickness and to find foothold on the loose ash slopes. It describes our relations with my german friend Hans from Venezuela, whose slow, measured pace Steve found frustrating but whose rhythm suited Scharlie.

The city of Van on the Silk Road in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It was hit by an earthquake on Sunday 23 October 2011. People were killed and many more made homeless. I went there a year later to see how well the city is recovering. Scharlie, my wife, came for the first week in Izmir where we stayed with Bahar, a former PhD student of mine, and her parents. With the help of a guide, Harun, I visited Van and Ergi

We went from the UK, as part of an Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation (EEFIT) mission, to study recovery after the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. This was a major disaster for Japan. For the country most prepared for earthquakes this was a shocking event that will take years and trillions of dollars to repair. Fifteen months after the disaster, when we made our field trip, recovery was already underway. New embankments were being constructed along the coast of the Sendai plain in Miyage Province and debris had been collected into huge sorted piles. But further north, in Iwate Province a debate was raging between the safety conscious who wanted to construct high embankments and those who wanted to maintain their intimate contact with the shore and sea. I went to Kobe and Kyoto to visit engineers in earthquake institutes. I went site seeing and was beguiled by Japanese architecture and landscape.

I visited Iran twice: in 2014 and 2015. On the first visit I went to Manjil and Bam, two cities devastated by earthquakes in 1990 and 2003. I wanted to see how they were recovering. It was difficult to get a visa and I had to go to the Iranian Embassy in Istanbul and then to a police station in Tehran to get them extended. It is a great privilege to see a country through the intimate daily lives of its people In 2013, on a mission to Japan, I met a young Iranian who invited me to meet her family - the Mahdavians. On both trips I stayed in their home and they looked after me and showed me around. Iran has a long history and many important historic sites. Persia is one of the oldest civilisations in the world dating to 7,000 BC. I visited famous sites - Persepolis, Isfahan, Shiraz, Yadz and Kerman. Iran is mountainous with deserts and lush green countryside. I visited both, climbed mountains, went skiing and paddled in the Caspian Sea.

We went to Guatemala to visit David, a friend I hadn't seen for more than twenty-five years since I lived in Venezuela. We stay with his delightful family, a house full of delightful women. We go to Chichicastenango on market day and witness the strangely pagan firework procession from the church; we take a cruise around Lake Atitlan and stop off in the villages around its shores. We fly to Tikal, climb pyramids and hear about the end of the world. And David takes us up the active volcano of Pacaya where we brave poisonous sulphur clouds and risk being bombarded with tephra bombs that David says land with a splat like red-hot cow pats. But the most amazing part of our trip, something we hadn't bargained for, is that David reveals he was for over thirty years 'Our man in Central America'.

Preview Price: 6.92 (excl. VAT) Prints in 3-5 business days Aconcagua at nearly 7,000 metres is the highest mountain outside Asia From the south it is a hard, dangerous climb. From the north, given good weather, it is relatively easy. In my twenties I read a book about three Polish climbers who in 1934 made their own equipment and climbed it by a new elegant route up the east ridge. It captured my imagination. Over thirty years later I asked a friend to come with me. He pulled out and I found a trekking company on the Internet and booked. Our approach was from the east and north by the Valle de las Vacas which was much more pleasant than via Plaza de Mulas in the south. The climb took just over two weeks and, apart from the last day when you go for the summit, you have to climb to each camp twice to acclimatise, taking gear up the first day and moving the tents and sleeping kit the second. Although it was an organised trip I felt I climbed it in good style.

The GR20 is one of the great walks of Europe, comparable in length to the Tour of Mont Blanc and similar in quality to the Cuillen Ridge on Skye. It runs across Corsica northwest to southeast. It crosses jagged peaks, that are snow covered for much of the year. It is over a hundred and thirty miles long, involves over 25,000 metres of ascent and descent and takes nearly two weeks. It is divided into two sections by a small gauge railway that crosses the GR20 at Vizzavona. We walked the northern part from Calenza in 2001 and the southern part from Conca in 2004, when we had just turned sixty. Like so many who do this walk, we found our own way, carrying all our food and the minimum of gear and clothing. This is an account of the walk, plus excursions to the Aiguilles de Bavella and Monte Renosu, two high level variants. It will introduce you to the joys of multi-day high level walking and maybe encourage you to try for yourselves.

his was a culturally sensational trip, yet we only scratched the surface of this ancient empire and ultra modern people's republic, visiting Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing. China is vast and complex - the world's most populous country, the second largest in land area, with nearly 300 living languages and 7 mega cities with over 10 million inhabitants. In Shanghai we had a glimpse of Britain's imperial past in the Art Deco architecture along the Bund and Nanjing Street. in Hangzhou we spent a day in the rain on West Lake and had our photo taken on 'the most romantic bridge in China', the Duan Bridge. The high points of the trip were the Great Wall, Summer Palace, Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven in Beijing, trying new tastes and learning about life in modern China.

This is an account of a trip with Emily So of Cambridge University in 2006 to the areas affected by the Pakistan earthquake of 8 October 2005. The aim of for Emily was to conduct a survey of survivors of the earthquake about their injuries as part of her PhD. My aim was to shed light on the factors affecting long-term recovery after major disasters. We interviewed people in Islamabad responsible for coordinating relief and reconstruction and visited the areas affected by the earthquake. We also drove up the beautiful Kaghan Valley as far as we were able. Understanding some of the issues faced by survivors of the earthquake was a powerful experience for us both and we were treated with the warmest hospitality and generosity by everyone we met in Pakistan

We went to St Petersburg in 2009 for a meeting on an EU project called ISAAC about heritage tourism. The May weather was marvellous and we stayed in a nice hotel next to the Fontanka River in walking distance of Nevsky Prospect. The high spot of our trip was a private tour of the Impressionist paintings in the Hermitage and Russian art in the Russian Museum. The Hermitage Museum, founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great is spectacular - lavish, ornate with the most impressive collection of art. The collections occupy a complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, home of Tsars, centre of imperial power, scene of the Bloody Sunday massacre of protesters in 1905 and subject to storming by Red Army troops in the October 1917 Revolution. We also had a boat trip to Peterhof, , the Russian Versailles, begun in 1714 by Peter the Great as his Monplaisir'.

An account of a trip to Thailand to test using satellite imagery to monitor long-term disaster recovery. We had two or three days in the hot and steamy concrete jungle of Bangkok and then spent a week in Ban Nam Khem, a fishing village on the west coast, that had been badly damaged by the tsunami. We had a day off and visited the fabulous `James Bond' island in Phnag Nga Bay Phuket where Roger Moore fought Scaramanga played by Christopher Lee in `Man with the Golden Gun'.

I first met Maria Ximena when she talked about Cazuca, a barrio to the south west of Bogota and I visited Colombia three times. Working with young architects from the Universidad Piloto and a Women's Foundation we devised plans to improve the neighbourhood. I also describe visits to Cartagena, Santa Marta, Valledupar and the Tayrona National Park where I met and talked to Kogi Indians.