FAQs

How do you decide where to go and what to feature in this so-called blog?

Most of my adventures are either fairly local, involving minimal expense, or a business trip I’m doing anyway. I don’t have the freedom to just wander around unfortunately, I am a slave to my circumstances at the moment. I’m just trying to spice that up a bit by blogging about it, making it feel a bit more adventurous.

That’s a fairly generous interpretation of the words “travel” and “adventure”

Well yes, but it’s all I can do at this moment in my busy life. I’ll likely never get to ape some of my favourite travel writers and adventurers, but hopefully in the future I’ll be able to immerse myself more in longer solo journeys that better meet the description.

Hold on a minute fella, what about your carbon footprint?

I am conscious that my travel has an impact on the environment, and so usually offset my carbon footprint using Atmosfair.

You do know that carbon offsetting is not all it’s cracked up to be, don’t you?

Yes, and we are kidding ourselves if we imagine carbon offsetting to be a complete solution that makes our travel guilt free and carbon neutral. However, I need to travel (and yes, I also want to travel) so I did some research, including reading Carbon Offsetting: How to reduce the impact of flying from Which magazine, and there’s no getting away from the fact that prevention is better than cure, that offsetting after the fact is not as good as not emitting CO₂ in the first place, but to quote Sarah Leugers of the Gold Standard:

Offsetting isn’t the solution or the only thing we should be considering, but most of us can’t reduce our footprint to zero. Taking accountability for the remaining pollution is absolutely the right thing to do.

The article recommends several actions to reduce our carbon footprint, including using German non-profit Atmosfair for offsetting as “a necessary second-best solution” (second-best to not going at all).

90% of Atmosfair’s projects adhere to CDM Gold Standard, so I reckoned it’s my best option when I do travel.

When did you start this blog?

It all started in Autumn 2024, the walk across Madrid being my first proper post. I had been kicking around a few ideas that weren’t really coming together, knowing I wanted to do something creative that complemented my interests, but didn’t complicate my life too much, and then whoosh, the idea of this blog came to me in a dream.

Was it really in a dream?

No, not really.

If you started it in late 2024, why are there some posts from before then?

I have written travel posts for other blogs in the past, but never been that happy with them, like I didn’t have the knack for travel writing … but, as I was really enjoying the new posts I was writing for this blog, I decided to revisit the old ones to see if any could be salvaged. Unfortunately most didn’t make the grade and so only one or two are included for your reading pleasure.

Why don’t you turn all posts into podcast episodes?

Some of the earlier ones don’t work that well as podcasts, they’re too bereft of content to generate an interesting enough conversation, so I’ve skipped over a couple – most of the more recent ones will become podcasts eventually.

What do you use to take such great photos?

I use my phone, and don’t edit them in any way.

Do you have a social media presence?

Yes, I have a Bluesky account, although that platform seems a little quiet unfortunately.

I have another website and podcast (with my brother) in which we talk through the careers of bands and rank their albums, called Jeffrey Music.

Why don’t you do YouTube like all the other travel bloggers?

I’m trying to do something different, aiming for the tiny niche of people who still have the attention span to read a blog post. At the moment, most of my travel is fairly routine and not great visual content, and anyway my enthusiasm is more for writing and audio – but I am open to it in principle, so might change my mind if I can think how to do it.

Your posts are brilliant, why does no-one read them?

Fantastic question, I guess it’s a combination of content overload and attention deficit, and I’m as guilty as anyone else for being rubbish at reading from screens. This is why I hope to make a PDF or e-book available after ever dozen posts, so they can be read more comfortably on a tablet or e-reader – if you’d like a copy, please contact me.

I hope to eventually make these downloadable from this site or available via Smashwords, but I haven’t done that yet.

How many countries have you visited?

Such things seem like meaningless box-ticking to me. For example, I spent four days in Shanghai two decades ago but don’t think I know the first thing about China, so would feel a fraud ticking off the whole of that vast country as if it were job done. I’ve been to 13 US states, but feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface … but anyway, it’s 37, or 38 if you include Vatican City.

Can I give you some money?

Nah, don’t worry about it, I’m not monetizing this at the moment, it’s just a bit of fun. If you want to support what I do, then thank you, that’s awfully kind, but please just read and share the posts, download the podcast and follow me on Bluesky.

If you really want to splash the cash, then invest in Atmosfair however much you think appropriate.

No, you daft apeth, I meant can I sponsor an episode? of the podcast?

Not at the moment, although it might be something I revisit if it looks feasible one day in the future.

Why do you spell realise, monetise etc. with a z like you think you’re American or something?

Because it’s better.

Can I contact you?

Yes you can, please use the Contact page.

What is the podcast feed?

Here it is: https://mrjohn.blog/category/podcasts/feed/

Below is the podcast player, and they should be available on all the usual podcast platforms.