Q: You've explored over 60,000 miles across 90 countries, travelling by bicycle, horse, ski, and more. With such incredible experiences, what destination or adventure stands out as a must-add to anyone's bucket list? Q: How did your decision to travel without a laptop and rely on internet cafes shape your experience? What insights did you gain about yourself during this digital detox? Q: As a storyteller and writer, do you think this has influenced your decision making while travelling? Are you planning an expedition with your next book in mind, or do you find the narrative naturally evolves from the experience? Q: Did you read during your travels? How do books contribute to and change your experience of a destination? Q: Which three books have had the greatest influence on your writing, and why have they had such a lasting impact? Behind the Wall: a Journey through China Mad White Giant: a Journey to the Heart of the Amazon Jungle Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle Why do book collections matter? Book a consultation with a ~personal curator Contact Quick Links Follow us @ultimatelibrary Join our community
Charlie Walker on the Art of Travel Writing
9 Jan 2025
Charlie Walker is a British explorer, writer, and public speaker specialising in long-distance, human-powered expeditions that offer an intimate understanding of the world’s most remote communities. Over the past 12 years, he has traveled 60,000 miles by bicycle, foot, horse, raft, ski, and dugout canoe, earning recognition as the recipient of the Scientific Exploration Society Explorer Award. His journeys have taken him to diverse locations, including the Tibetan Plateau, Mongolian Steppe, Congolese jungle, Arctic tundra, and the highlands of New Guinea. Charlie has documented his adventures in two books,
Through Sand & Snow
and
On Roads That Echo
, as well as in various magazines and newspapers.~
~In our latest interview in this
series
with leading authors on place in prose, we discuss the art of travel writing with Charlie Walker; the impact of digital detoxing while traveling and, the destinations and experiences that have had the greatest influence on him.
I’ve always been drawn to vast, open, and empty spaces. While I’ve spent plenty of time in jungles and big cities, I often find them overwhelming and claustrophobic. As a result, the environments that resonate most with me are deserts, mountains, and steppes. Central Asia, with its incredible beauty, offers everything I love: thriving nomadic cultures, a complex history, low population density, and stunning Islamic architecture. Though it’s hard to call Central Asia a region of "trails less trodden" given the Silk Roads' centuries-long history, anyone seeking less-visited destinations will be captivated by Kyrgyzstan’s soaring Tien Shan mountains, Uzbekistan’s Timurid oases in the Kyzyl Desert, and Mongolia’s endless rolling grasslands.
In 2010, as I set off on my first long journey cycling through Asia and Africa, I deliberately left my bulky, unnecessary laptop behind. At the time, smartphones were not yet ubiquitous, and I didn’t own one. The term “digital detox” hadn’t been coined, but leaving my old Nokia behind felt symbolic—a way of cutting ties with the familiar world. I grew up reading tales of journeys from a bygone era, when travelers would leave home for extended periods, often returning after an indeterminate stretch—or sometimes not at all. When I first set out with a backpack in the mid-2000s it was common practice to send only sporadic emails home, and perhaps the odd postcard that usually wouldn’t arrive until after you’d returned.
~Technology has since transformed travel, yet I’ve sought out remote places like the highlands of New Guinea and the Siberian Arctic tundra, where its impact remains minimal. Recently, I cycled across West Africa with a smartphone and realised how profoundly it changes the experience. Smartphones diminish the sense of distance that, for me, is central to travel. Immersion in place or culture becomes harder when a news alert, banking notification, or WhatsApp message can interrupt you with a beep at any moment. ~
It’s a mix of both. I don’t consciously make decisions during a journey with that in mind, but I do consider it when planning the next adventure. I need to return with interesting stories to tell, both in my writing and my public speaking. That’s why I’m diligent about documenting each day’s events every evening, no matter how tired I am. That said, I don’t expect to always travel in the demanding and often risky ways I have over the past decade. I would definitely like to expand beyond this approach eventually. The best travel writers can make any journey engaging through their take on a place. This is something I’m sure most writers aspire to.
Plenty of undistracted time to read is one of the great luxuries of travel. I’m never happier than when tucked up in my tent in some far-flung land with a good book. At times, I’ve lugged as many as ten paperbacks across a country since finding English-language books can be tricky in certain parts of the world. I’d stock up whenever the opportunity arose. These days, I usually travel with a Kindle, though I avoid it in extremely cold environments—batteries don’t fare well at -50°C.~~Books enhance my experience of a place in two ways: by adding depth when reading something relevant, like travelogues or history, and by offering a delightful sense of dissonance or escapism when reading something entirely unrelated. Devouring an Edwardian novel during a desert snowstorm in Iran comes to mind.~
BY Colin Thubron
I’ve read countless books on China, but Thubron’s elegiac, curious approach cements him as my favourite travel writer. Set during a rare moment when foreigners could explore a still-isolated China, it delves into rural villages and remote desert outposts, capturing a nation recovering from the Cultural Revolution.
by Benedict Allen
This journey is both chaotic and transformative. Allen ventures solo, learning jungle survival from indigenous experts—a method he’s repeated throughout his career. Years ago, I collected his books secondhand and now, to his amusement, I bring a worn copy for him to sign whenever we meet for a pint.
BY Dervla Murphy
Utterly mad yet completely mesmerising, Murphy’s journey was a huge inspiration for my cycling adventures. In 1963, armed with little more than a pistol, she pedalled across the Iron Curtain and through the Middle East and Afghanistan, often disguised as a man. Her no-nonsense prose and unvarnished, fast-paced style are as refreshing as they are gripping.
Thank you to Charlie Walker for discussing his adventures and books with us. For more on Walker's books and travels, visit his
website.
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