Member:Carlwelsby
Member since:22 Jun 2007
Lives in:United Kingdom
Status:Online
Introduction
Hi, My name is Carl and i'm one of the team here at addictedtotravel.com. I started travelling back in 1986 when a 10 week stay on a kibbutz turned into a 15 month jaunt around the Middle East.
A long overland journey from Australia back to the UK followed though had to skip Iran as they wouldn't give me a visa; flew to Istanbul from Karachi and took the train back east to Dogubeyazit and continued back home from there.
Several years as a tour leader for one of the UK's largest adventure holiday tour operators followed, then into the office of a brand new adventure holiday operator where I was Product Manager for the Middle East and Asia for several years. I returned to the company where I worked as a leader as Product Manager for the Middle East for a couple of years before joining some old friends here in February.
I live on a smallholding in Wales now having had a dream for a while to downshift. My wife and I have a few sheep, pigs and chooks - and Jasper, a Patterdale terrier.
Travel remains a passion and i'm doing more now than I have for a while; I love the great outdoors (we live in Pembrokeshire Coast National Park so are spoiled) and we walk whenever time allows.
Areas of interest
In my opinion you can't beat Asia - it's got everything the traveller wants from remote, well off the beaten track backroads brimming with tribal interest, great World Heritage sites like the Taj, Petra and Angkor, fabulous wildlife opportunities. Most remarkable trip for me was probably the Mentawi Island of Siberut back in 1988. 12 hrs west of Sumatra it was untouched by the west to any degree at all: think Bruce Parry's 'Tribe'. We trekked for days through calf-deep mud and slept in longhouses - what an experience. I met my wife in Oman and love the Middle East too. The Pyramids (is that Africa?) are just astounding and the Syrian people so warm and friendly.