The Ancient Highway

– Journeys from the edge

Menu
  • Home
  • Site Excerpts
  • SITE THEMES
    • 01.About Our Website
    • 02.Old Blighty
    • 03.Western Europe
    • 04.Eastern Europe
    • 05.Africa
    • 06.India
    • 07.Thailand
    • 08.China
    • 09. North America travel writing
    • 10.World Wide
    • 11.Trains, Boats and Planes
    • 12.Natural Scenery
    • 13.Pre-20th Century History
    • 14.Modern History
    • 15.Adult Humour Or Content
    • 16.Travel writing quotes & book reviews
    • 17.Travel writing websites
    • 18.Travel writing photos
  • ANCIENT HIGHWAY STORIES
    • About the tales below
    • THE STORY BEHIND THE WEBSITE:
      • From Parchment to Digital – Creating Our Travel Website
      • THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH …..
    • ANCIENT HIGHWAY STORIES (1-3) – UK
      • 1. Orkney – A Pagan Place
      • 2. Lessons in contraband
      • 3. An Addictive Foe
    • ANCIENT HIGHWAY STORIES (4-13) – INDIA
      • Our India Travel Tales – Interactive Map
      • (4-5) Mumbai
        • 5. Mumbai: A Deathly Deception
      • 6. An Innings Amongst the Dead
      • 7. Lucknow – Educating Braj
      • (8-9) Himalaya
        • 8. Himalayan foothills – Nainital
        • 9. Himalayan foothills – Dharamsala and Simla
      • 10. India Rail – Tales From The Tracks
      • (11-12) Fatehpur
        • 11. Fatehpur Sikri – City of Dreams
        • 12. Fatehpur Sikri – Mohan, Mohan who?
      • 13. The Silence of Mandu
    • ANCIENT HIGHWAY STORIES (14-15) – ECUADOR ⛔️ ✋
      • 14. The Virgin of Quito
      • 15. A Night at Sutra’s ⛔️ ✋
    • ANCIENT HIGHWAY STORIES (16- 18) – THAILAND ⛔️ ✋
      • 16. Tales of the Unexpected in Chiang Mai
      • 17. A Lift in Chiang Mai
      • 18. Bullets or Tranquility
    • ANCIENT HIGHWAY STORIES (19-22) – EVEN BETTER
      • Mexico : A nonfiction novella
      • 23. MY Pretty Peggy Sue – USA & UK
      • 24. Living With Clive
    • 25. IN DEFENCE OF TRAVEL WRITING
    • WHEN TRAVEL WRITING STAYED HOME
      • Royal Air Force Museum – Cosford
      • Bob Dylan – Phoenix Festival, England, 1995
      • The word on the street – Adolescent wartime memories
  • BOOK REVIEWS & QUOTATIONS
    • Travel Book Reviews
    • Travel Literature Quotations
  • EXTERNAL TRAVEL SITES
    • EXTERNAL TRAVEL SITES INTRO.
    • Ode to Travel Blogging (New)
  • SUPPORTING PHOTOS
    • About the Photos on this Website
    • India travel writing photos slideshow 1992-96
    • Mumbai travel writing photos
    • Lucknow travel writing photos
    • Delhi travel writing photos/videos
    • Simla travel writing photos
    • Dharamsala travel writing photos
    • Simla travel writing photos
    • Fatehpur Sikri travel writing photos
    • Thailand travel tale pictures
    • Baltics States travel writing photos; Saint Petersburg travel writing photos
    • Orkney travel writing photos
  • LIVING WITH CLIVE (new)
  • JUST ACROSS THE BORDER LINE (PASS PROTECTED)
    • INTRODUCTION
    • TWILIGHT ON THE ADRIATIC
    • TOUCHING THE WALL
      • TOUCHING THE WALL – IN THE SHADOWS OF WARS (1)
      • TOUCHING THE WALL – IN THE SHADOWS OF WARS (2)
      • TOUCHING THE WALL – IN THE SHADOWS OF WARS (3)
    • A REVOLUTION FROM THE SOFA
    • MIND GAMES IN BARCELONA
    • CAIRO AND COURIERING
    • BETWEEN MINARETS AND MISSILES
    • Into the Lonely Heart of Darkness – A Moroccan Odyssey
    • GERMANY – THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE – AUSTRIA 
    • Travel Notes from the Baltics & Saint Petersburg
    • A Manitoba journey: In the shadows of bears
    • Arriving in Mumbai – First encounters
    • PAINTING THE WALL – ECHOES FROM A FAULT LINE 
    • A REFLECTION
Menu

Author: damian

negative filmstrips through an ocular lens

From School Dark Room to International Courier – Lessons in Contraband

Posted on January 20, 2022July 7, 2024 by damian

Extract: During the 1970s I attended a Lancashire secondary school. Perhaps, one of the more unusual ‘O’ Level options I chose was Art. I say, unusual, because I lacked dexterity, and couldn’t tell the difference between a Picasso and a Beano. However, several months into my Art studies, an off-shoot of the discipline presented itself, which certainly opened up an interesting divergence – photography.

So, whilst most of the other students diligently applied themselves in the Art classroom, a two-minute walk away, around the back of the school stage, over a period of months, I set to work with two long standing friends in the dark room to see how we could best exploit those unsupervised alternative curriculum hours.  

Read more
overwhelmed black man discussing problem with female psychologist

The truth, the whole truth ….

Posted on December 21, 2021June 23, 2023 by damian

And so, with quite a degree of persistence, I have managed to bring a stack of those travel stories together and upload them to this website. But did everything really happen as described? Didn’t I invent parts of it? After all isn’t that a short coming of travel writing, that particularly with solo travel it just can’t be corroborated with accomplices ……

Read more
https://theancienthighway.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/China-30091-3.mp4
Featured Video Play Icon

In Defence of Travel Writing.

Posted on November 10, 2021July 7, 2024 by damian

…

Read more
vintage equipment on the black fabric

Travel Tales – Planned Updates

Posted on August 2, 2021June 17, 2023 by damian

From time to time, I may update aspects of the travel tales on theancienthighway.com. This is likely to occur, when, in a flash of inspiration, I recall an anecdote that seems worth telling, but which for some reason was never included in the original article. This happened recently when, for example, l retrieved the hard copy of ‘Arriving in Mumbai from out of the archives and uploaded it to the website. As I was doing so, my near brush with Mumbai’s notorious red light district sprang to mind. I don’t know why it never found its way into the original, but it’s there now. 

One role of The Ancient Highway Blog will be to act as a mechanism for highlighting such updated material, and of course for drawing attention to new stories as well.

Read more
  • Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • HOME
  • THE ANCIENT HIGHWAY BLOG.
  • WEBSITE BASICS
  • From Parchment to Digital – Creating Our Travel Website
  • The truth, the whole truth …..
  • ANCIENT HIGHWAY STORIES – ABOUT THE TALES BELOW
  • 1. Orkney – A Pagan Place
  • 2. Lessons in contraband
  • 3. An Addictive Foe
  • Our India Travel Tales – Interactive Map
  • 4. (India) Mumbai: A Deathly Deception
  • 5. (India) An Innings Amongst the Dead
  • 6. (India) Lucknow: Educating Braj
  • 7. (India) Nainital – A Himalayan Winter’s Journey
  • 8. (India) Dharamsala and Simla
  • 9. (India) Tales From The Tracks
  • 10. (India) Fatehpur Sikri – City of Dreams
  • 11. (India) Mohan, Mohan who?
  • 12. (India) The Silence of Mandu
  • 13 . (Ecuador) The Virgin of Quito and Proof of Life
  • 14. (Ecuador) A Night at Sutra’s
  • 15. (Thailand) A Lift in Chiang Mai
  • 16. (Thailand) Tales of the Unexpected in Chiang Mai
  • 17. (Thailand) Bullets or Tranquility
  • 18. Mexico : A nonfiction novella
  • 19. My Pretty Peggy Sue – USA & UK (New)
  • 20. Living With Clive (New)
  • 21. In Defence of Travel Writing
  • 22. Ode to Travel Blogging
  • OUR TRAVEL BOOK REVIEWS
  • Just Across the Border Line – Book in progress (Pass protected)
    • I. INTRODUCTION
    • ii. YUGOSLAVIA – TWILIGHT ON THE ADRIATIC
    • iii. TOUCHING THE WALL – IN THE SHADOWS OF WARS (1)
    • iii. TOUCHING THE WALL – IN THE SHADOWS OF WARS (2)
    • iii. TOUCHING THE WALL – IN THE SHADOWS OF WARS (3)
    • iv. A REVOLUTION FROM THE SOFA
    • v. MIND GAMES IN BARCELONA
    • vi. CAIRO AND COURIERING
    • vii. BETWEEN MINARETS AND MISSILES
    • viii. THE LONELY HEART OF DARKNESS – A MOROCCAN ODYSSEY
    • ix. GERMANY – THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE – AUSTRIA 
    • x. BALTIC STATES & SAINT PETERSBURG
    • xi. MANITOBA: THE BEARS OF CHURCHILL
    • xii. ARRIVING IN MUMBAI
    • xiii. PAINTING THE WALL – ECHOES FROM A FAULT LINE 
    • xiv. A REFLECTION
  • Lesser known Shrewsbury
  • Travel Writing Quotes (New).
Copyright theancienthighway.com 2024