Exploring Keith

The bus groaned as we stuttered slowly around the hairpin bend, engine protesting loudly at the strain of its load. My travelling companion grinned as we mimicked the sound. “Gringo”, he teased, suddenly mocking my broken Spanish. “Why you come see my country?” I sank back in the seat of the coach, swathed in the clothes and detritus that marked me out as a backpacking foreigner. I glanced absently out of the window, at the soaring foothills of the Andes that threatened to break into jagged peaks with every twist of the road. From the moment I met the boy, I liked him. He had eyed me cautiously at first, staring through the crack between the row of seats in front. And then, silently, a hand extended in friendship that I met with a mouthed “Hola”. We were in Ecuador, moving slowly south on a winding road that would take us out of the coolness of the Highlands and to a coastline that promised lazy days of sun and sea. We played games to pass the time, the barrier of our lan...

The Estonian island of Saaremaa is without doubt one of the most beautiful parts of this northern Baltic country. Cloaked with sweet-smelling pine forests and studded with grassy meadows and rich farmland, its more than 1,000 square miles is home to less than 40,000 people. For many Estonians and foreigners alike this truly is an enchanted place. It’s probably not surprising then that the island is also the source of a rich variety of myths and legends stretching back into antiquity. Many places are associated with tales of heroic deeds and epic adventures with hills, lakes and other landforms playing a prominent role. None, however, are perhaps more mysterious than the Kaali Meteor Crater. It’s a 4-hour coach journey from Tallinn to the island’s capital Kuressaare, a quick ferry crossing the short distance from the mainland. It’s a pretty place – the town boasts the impressive medieval Bishop’s Castle, a fortress that wouldn’t look out of place in a fairy tale – but I’m n...

For many people Tenerife is a place where pasty-skinned Europeans go to roast themselves in the sunshine and drink themselves silly in the plethora of bars that line the costas. Indeed, some 5 million tourists visit the island every year and the vast majority of these head straight to the barren south-west coast, packing tightly into purpose-built high-rise resorts like Los Cristianos and Playa de las Américas. But beyond the beaches and the sunbeds Tenerife is stunningly beautiful. The largest and most populous of the Canary Islands, it’s essentially one massive volcano and the landscape is appropriately diverse – high ridges and deep valleys plunge dramatically into the sea and lush sweet-smelling pine forests cloak the twisting approaches to Mount Teide, at 3718 metres (12198 ft) the highest mountain in Spain. Teide’s distinctive snowy peak dominates almost every aspect of Tenerife, in the process making it the tenth highest island in the world. Away from Teide and not far from...

I'm very pleased to announce that my first book Baltic Lenin: A journey into Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania's Soviet past is now available on Amazon (click here if you're in the UK and here if you're from further afield). Baltic Lenin is a direct result of the time I spent in the Baltic states researching the legacy and impact of the USSR and it comes at a pertinent time, for not only does this year mark 25 years since the fall of the Soviet Union but in the context of a resurgent and increasingly bullish Russia it's more than possible that the spark of any future Cold War might take place here on Baltic soil. The book is currently available in paperback; a Kindle version will be released shortly. Watch this space.