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I, Terence Baker, have enjoyed wandering across the planet, or just around the corner, ever since I can remember. A wonder of the world started at a young age by watching U.K. TV program Holiday, which came on Sunday evening a little before The World About Us and Ski Sunday. I travelled with my parents around the U.K., before—as my father insisted I study classics—then visiting Greece with my school, Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar, at the age of 13. There, in the small seaside town of Matala, Crete, I was handed a pomegranate by an old woman dressed in black, who smiled an almost toothless smile and then walked off. This delighted me, and the travel bug grew wings; back in my native Kent, England, I once disappeared en route to my brother's Saturday activity club and was discovered swaying happily to music with a group of local Sikhs finishing up its religious service. It is the glorious differences, isn't it? ...
I am curious, surely the greatest condition humankind has mustered.
No where walked to is wasted.
I have written and still write for travel websites and magazines and have at last count racked up 107 countries on six continents. Greenland was no. 50; Sri Lanka, no. 100; after 20 years in New York City (so far 37 states and Washington, D.C.), I moved back to London in 2012.
A 2013 adventure was getting to the remote Ethiopian village of Sheikh Hussein, where a beautiful whitewashed tomb with black Arabic inscription is the joy of qat-chewing locals, the children of whom are so excited to see visitors they forget to put down their cut-throat razors.
I need to get to the Silk Road of the ‘Stans, Oceania and East Africa, three areas of the world that so far I have not been to; Iran, Armenia and Montenegro, too, and I do realise the more I see, how much there is to go ... a good state of affairs ... plus, I really want to go back to all those places I love, such as Spain, Portugal, Greece, Peru and New York City.
I run marathons (best time, 2:44:56), I ran a double-crossing of the Grand Canyon, a 100-kilometre run between London and Brighton and, in June 2021, 100 miles, the length of the South Downs Way, in 24 hours, 41 minutes, and in May 2022, 100 miles along the Thames Path from London to Oxford in 23 hours, 12 minutes.
I love birdwatching, a hobby allowing me to wander to delightful places and see the world as a breathing, living, three-dimensional, glorious thing. I have a modest collection of 20th Century literature from Spain translated into English (Camilo José Cela, Miguel Delibes, Juan Marsé, Ana Maria Matute, &c.) and suffer in my love for West Ham United F.C. ...
If you would like to contact me, you may do so at terence2393@yahoo.com
Click anywhere on this landscape of Iceland, near Kleifar, not too far from the body of water known as Héðinsfjörður, to access my COVID 19-era column for the company I work for, STR, in which every day from the start of lockdown I started to write on a bird, butterfly, orchid or other creature or plant I had previou
I'd love to hear from you. Have a question about some of the destinations to which I have travelled; some of the books I have read, or some of the birds I have misidentified? Want to share some travel tips, or have a recommnedation for me as to where to travel or what to read? Please do drop me a line at terence2393@yahoo.com
