September 2026 – Among Some Commentators, Conservation and Re-Wilding Seems to be “A Problem”. It Isn’t.
In response to the horrendous wildfires over the Summer of 2026, both here in the UK and also in continental Europe, I’ve noticed a trend among some media commentators who appear to blame Conservation and Re-Wilding as being the “reasons” why the problems have occurred, or have been worse than they otherwise might have been. I really don’t think that it should be thought about in this way, as it’s a lack of conservation and…Read More >>
August 2026 – Shannon Conway – Diver, Underwater Photographer, Adventurer & All-Round Good Person (February 1963 – August 2026)
A TRIBUTE TO SHANNON CONWAY - Way back in the late 1990’s as new divers, we soon developed the urge to shoot images of what we were seeing in this exciting new world that we were beginning to explore. To cut a long story short for conciseness and relevance, our desire to capture images of our burgeoning dive travels and experiences led us to book on one of Martin Edge’s overseas underwater photographic workshops, and…Read More >>
August 2026 – A Hot And Scary Summer…
As an individual, I actually quite like warm and hot weather, but this Summer in the UK has been unprecedented in terms of both the high temperatures themselves and the duration of those high temperatures; its’ even exceeded the previous Summer, which was quite similar, especially where I live in the South West. The wildfires that we’ve seen in France, Spain, the UK (including the tragic situation at Dunwich Heath and Minsmere in Suffolk, the…Read More >>
April 2026 – A Suggested Antidote to the Negativity of the Times
First, a bit of a rant; the world has been gradually been going mad for some time, but in recent years and months, its’ gone to whole new levels of danger and stupidity, as the relative stability in the world that we’ve been lucky to have known (but of course, not everyone has known) has been shaken to its’ core, characterised by despotic leaders of political extremes engaged in firing both missives and actual missiles…Read More >>
September 2025 – Stolen in Bristol
On the 25th September, outside the Spicer & Cole café on Counterslip in central Bristol, my BMW R1250 GS Adventure Trophy edition (HV24 XYJ) was stolen at 11.24 a.m. from a busy location in broad daylight. At the time of writing on the 27th September, two days after the event, it hasn’t been found and I’m unlikely to see it again. One of the main reasons I won’t see it again is thanks to the uselessness of…Read More >>
September 2025 – The Weather Turns In Scotland
The Basking Shark is turning into a bit of a “bogey” species for me, having looked for it twice in Cornwall, and now Scotland without success. The reason for this in Scotland was the turn of the weather, as Summer very much became Autumn once we arrived over on the island of Coll. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our time in Scotland and hope to return again to search for the “Baskers” during an upcoming season and…Read More >>
June 2025 – The Purple Emperor Season at the Knepp Wildlands
Fuzz and I made another pilgrimage by motorcycle to the centre of the Purple Empire, namely the Knepp Wildlands, the ground-breaking re-wilding project in the South Downs. The reason for our visit, of course, was for the Purple Emperor flight season. We got the first Knepp sighting of the season (two sparring males) at the “Pond Oak Thugs” territory, and the following weekend (21st & 22nd June), a huge amount of specimens were on the…Read More >>
May/June 2025 – Motorcycling In Europe – Spain, France, Andorra & Portugal
A great ride in Northern Spain, across the Pyrenees (France/Spain/Andorra), Barcelona (for the F1 Grand Prix), South/Central Spain, Extremadura, the Spanish/Portuguese borderlands, and back to Northern Spain to finish up in and around the Picos de Europa. I was pleased with my riding throughout the trip, with no big moments despite covering nearly 3500 miles, having navigated about a trillion corners. I chose some “roads that scare you”, such as the Col du Soulor, and…Read More >>
April 2025 – Branscombe, But Not Alderney
Over the Easter weekend, we were supposed to be in Alderney, but thanks to the airline Aurigny, we were cancelled and therefore unable to get there in any reasonable time to make our visit worthwhile – it was very, very disappointing, and incredibly poorly managed by their “management”. There were a lot of pissed off people… To leave things on a “high”, our stay in Branscombe was enjoyable. Time walking sections of the coast path…Read More >>
March 2025 – A Great Week of Diving With The Great Hammerheads in Bimini, Bahamas (“Hammertime”)
Amanda and I had a great week of diving with the Great Hammerheads with the Neal Watson Dive Centre team at Bimini in February ’25. We’d especially like to thank Sean Williams who gave us time to share his extensive knowledge about shark diving in Bimini, and how the Great Hammerhead dives came about. - JCRead More >>
February 2025 – At Last – Our New Website Is Live & The Content is Coming Together!
Its’ taken rather a long time, though there’s still much to do in terms of adding content! I lost interest in “developing” the old website some years ago with the aim of creating a new one shortly thereafter, and last made a single update to it back in late 2018, though most of it had been “untouched” (and unimproved) for much, much longer. So, after far too long, of starting, stopping, restarting, much collation, writing…Read More >>