adventures & treks

Parallel to his expeditions, Paul has spent nearly two decades travelling the world in search of adventure. Paul has been fortunate to have visited iconic destinations such as the Galapagos, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.

He has sailed to Antarctica in the company of Glenn Shaw, travelled along the Trans-Mongolian railway from Moscow to Beijing, hiked Mount Fuji with photographer Damon Coulter, and been dragged along by huskies in the Arctic.

An avid trekker, Paul has hiked along dozens of famous – and also many of the more esoteric – routes in the world. Favourites include the walk-in to Cerro Torre in Patagonia, through Nepal’s lush Arun Valley, and across Portugal‘s Peneda de Gerês (the last with photographer Andy Miles).

One of Paul’s most poignant adventures was to the Andaman & Nicobar islands in 2003. Paul was invited to join an international team led by Mandip Singh Soin, who managed to obtain a unique set of permits from the Indian government to visit islands hitherto off-limits to non-Indian nationals. These permissions included the island of Car Nicobar which, according to the indigenous population, had only been visited by one other non-Indian civilian since Independence in 1947. The team were treated to displays of traditional circular dancing and pig wrestling by the Nicobarese.

A year later the island was devastated by the Boxing Day Tsunami. Paul and photographer Martin Hartley donated the proceeds of their Andaman & Nicobar article in the December 2005 issue of Geographical magazine to a project to help the islanders re-establish their way of life.

Between 2005 and 2007, Paul visited Yunnan in China and Lhasa in Tibet. He returned to Zanskar to film ‘Special Delivery’. And he trekked into Nepal’s Everest region for the first time since summitting to visit the Sherpas who helped him on his three Everest expeditions. In addition, Paul has been spending an increasing amount of time in the National Parks and mountain regions of North America.