I was born in Africa, in what was then Salisbury Rhodesia, today Harare Zimbabwe. I took my first African journey at ten months old to Beira in Mozambique to set sail for my father's land, England where I grew up. But ever since I can remember Africa has called me back.

I grew up returning to Mum's family in Zimbabwe: family, swimming pools, lush gardens, wildlife safaris, Victoria Falls drew me in. After school and throughout my student days I went backpacking around Southern, Central and Eastern Africa, Serengeti, The Okavango Delta, Mombassa, hitching with long distance trucks, the Congo river and forest. Africa had me hooked. I could feel it in my blood.

I had a break from Africa with a career in acting and getting married, but divorce found me yearning again and back on the road to West Africa this timer, and now I really did fall in love. West was so vibrant and colourful culturally, the Africa I knew and then some. Now it was the culture that grabbed me.

It was travelling west Africa that I got the idea of taking people on trips to places and communities I had come across on my travels. A trip to Mali, with a journey up the River Niger to Timbuktu, The Festival In The Desert and the Dogon country gave my company a name: From Here 2 Timbuktu.

I set up From Here 2 Timbuktu in 2008. I led small groups and expeditions overland from Europe across the Sahara and West Africa. My clients and I had five years of wonderful adventures. I forged routes from Timbuktu into the northern desert, made connections with guides and the Tuareg community of Aguelhoc and together we organised cars, vans and camels of travellers to parties and festivals.

The greatest joy for me at this time was observing clients' reactions to the Africa I was showing them, how the meeting of different perspectives changes lives, both in the traveller and the local. As nomads on a caravan across the desert we are one co-dependent humanity.

This life came to an abrupt end from late 2011 when Gaddafi fell. Three travellers were kidnapped from Timbuktu, Tuareg rebels incorporated into the Libyan army fled Libya and went back home across the Sahara to Mali. A rebellion against the state began, followed by a coup d'etat and the geo-politics of the world occupied Timbuktu and the north of Mali. Travelling from here to Timbuktu was no longer possible.

With no travellers to guide, I switched focus from tourism to refugees. Our Tuareg guides and drivers, their families and communities had fled to refugee camps in Burkina Faso. I joined them, initially blogging their story and representing their situation to the UK government and the UN in Bamako, campaigning for their return to Timbuktu once it was safe to return.

I created the Return 2 Timbuktu: A Caravan of Courage and Hope which was the first large group return of the chief Radwan Ag Ayouba and the Kel Hadjatassafan clan back to his land of Ewet on the banks of the Niger outside Timbuktu.

Between 2014 and 2019 I took a break from all things Africa and lived a quieter nomad life on a houseboat in London.

But, as has been the story of my life, Africa eventually called me home. I returned to Mali in 2019 and got married to my long term friend Djeneba, whose cooking had long ago won me over back in the good old days.Today we are living in Bamako, Mali. We have a guest house/restaurant business and together we run bespoke trips across west Africa, I do the driving Djeneba does the catering.