Dakar city guide: where to eat, drink, shop, and stay

Published in The Independent November 14, 2019

The capital of Senegal may be a far cry from tourist resorts down the coast – but this city is also fringed by beaches of its own. Catch some surf – or just some rays – when the pace of this bustling, dusty city gets too much, but do make sure you plug into Dakar’s vibrant cultural life too.

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Forget Patagonia or Nepal, why you should go trekking in Tanzania’s Usambara Mountains

Published in Evening Standard on July 23, 2018

Standing under the raffia porch, I watch an unexpected, unseasonal shower painting two rainbows across the sky. They seem to be growing right out of the clifftop where my guesthouse is perched, then leaping down towards the Maasai plains below. On my other side, the sun is setting, turning the lushly green Usambara Mountains into, well, a pot of gold. Continue reading “Forget Patagonia or Nepal, why you should go trekking in Tanzania’s Usambara Mountains”

Why Sonoma County makes a great introduction to the California wine scene

Published in Evening Standard on June 25, 2018

Arriving in Sonoma County in northern California after an 11-hour flight, I needed a drink — but I wanted a local drop. The first part of my itinerary involved wine surfing but crashing waves were nowhere to be seen — it’s just a cute rebranding of a wine flight, dreamt up by the folks at Gourmet au Bay, a beachside bar in the town of Bodega Bay. A tasting selection of three local, small-production wines are served on a dinky wooden surfboard. Continue reading “Why Sonoma County makes a great introduction to the California wine scene”

Zip-lining: enjoy a birds-eye view and protect the rainforest in Laos

Published in The i on April 10, 2017

To one side, the rainforest stretches away in folds of blue-green to the horizon. On the other, a 120m waterfall crashes down a vertical rock face, so close I can feel the spray on my face. And below? Just empty space and rushing air, between me and a canopy of the lush trees. This feels about the closest a human being can get to flying – and is certainly the closest you can get to the heart of the pristine jungle of Laos. Continue reading “Zip-lining: enjoy a birds-eye view and protect the rainforest in Laos”

New Mexico: painting a picture of O’Keeffe Country

Published in Evening Standard on July 4, 2016

“When I got to New Mexico, that was mine. As soon as I saw it, that was my country.” So said Georgia O’Keeffe, the American modernist artist. She may be best known for painting flowers but a new exhibition at Tate Modern will illustrate just how important her adopted home was; six rooms are dedicated to paintings of New Mexico. Continue reading “New Mexico: painting a picture of O’Keeffe Country”

Cooking lessons in Thailand: Could a dream holiday end in kitchen wars?

Published in The Independent on Sunday on February 7, 2016

When I moved in with my boyfriend, Sam, two years ago, one division of labour was easy to agree on: we would take turns to cook. There would, under no circumstances, be any attempt to make dinner together.

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