THE LUXURY TRAVEL
MAGAZINE FOR INDEPENDENT
TRAVELLERS

Phew! I thought I’d never see a real bed again! I’ve just finished leading a four-week camping tour around Southern Africa together with a small band of tourists from the UK, USA and New Zealand. We clocked over 8500 kilometres overland in an old German ex-army vehicle taking in the width and breadth of South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Namibia. There’s definitely a story there!

I think it’s about time to throw in the toilet shovel – I may at last be tired! I have worked as a tour leader for Explore Worldwide (a British Adventure Tour Operator) for over three years. Before that, I was hired by VISA (the credit card company) to shop my way around Europe (spending more time than was necessary ogling George Clooney’s abode in Lake Como). I have also found myself in some ‘odd’ short-term employment – a brief stint photographing NASCAR racing in the USA and succumbing to steamy South Korean summers, slaving for a dot.com. Then who can forget the time I worked for the London Underground replete in orange jumpsuit, hard-hat with head-lamp and steel-capped boots. Not to mention walking celebrity pooches and creating Terence Conran-style lunches for the harridan who owned the gallery around the corner from Harrods.

Each one of these diverse jobs has afforded me the opportunity to work closely with the locals and make wonderful friends in countries as far and wide as Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, the Azores, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Bolivia et al.

There must be gypsy in my blood. But even a gypsy needs to start writing it all down. I think Just The Planet is just the place to do it.


Stories Published:
Amok in the Azores by Robyn Hodson
Amsterdam Luxury Hotels
Birkenhead House, Hermanus
Luxury Hotels London
Maputo fish market, Mozambique
Spitalfields Fine Food Market, London
The White Company to Jo Malone
Travel diary of a Guatemalan hysteric
Vietnam: a tale of Christopher, Robyn and Phu