Roger Gilboy -
BIOGRAPHY
Born on 20th May 1967 in Oxford, I am currently living in Bicester. After leaving Peers School, Littlemore, and deciding against becoming a rock superstar, I went into the heady world of printing, followed by a stint in the mobile phone industry and now have my own command centre in vehicle storage in Upper Heyford.
Cambodia / Vietnam border, 2001: One of the joys of travelling is being able to move freely from one country to the another
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My first backpacking trip was to Egypt in 1994 to help get over being dumped by my then girlfriend and to "find myself" again. Unfortunately after eleven years I still haven't found myself; I’ve looked in Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, USA and Morocco – I must be out there somewhere!
Portrait, Annapuna, Nepal, 1998:
sunrise over the Annapuna mountain range
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There have been no major problems so far, but there have been a few incidents: being deported was not a highlight I would like to repeat in a hurry – although in a way I am little proud of it , not many people get deported to Outer Mongolia nowadays, looking for Yeti’s and tigers with nothing more than a big stick and some friends for protection maybe seen as a little daft, but not as bad as ending up in a room with some ex-Khmer Rogue fighters in the wrong part of Phnom Penh. "That’s a good idea" tends to be a weakness of mine.
Chitwan National Park, Nepal, 1998:
Christmas Day in the jungle, no matter where you go there is always someone to make you feel at home
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Why the Silk Road? Because it will encompass everything I love about travel. Not only will it be a bit of an adventure but the opportunity of exploring little known parts
of the world and getting off the beaten track, meeting new peoples and cultures, seeing
changes in countries with recent
Gobi Desert, Mongolia, 2000: Setting out for a days trek after pitching my tent next to a nomadic herdsman's ger for the night
upheavals (such as Afghanistan) but mainly getting away from the modern world for a while.
Other interests including collecting stuff – from old coins and
banknotes, fossils, ancient artefacts and rocks (nice ones though) - scuba
diving, photography, researching local history (currently working on "Oxford
1640 – 1650 and the social and economic impact of Civil War" which I will
finally get round to finishing and publishing when I return). Finally world
peace can be achieved through watching Dr Who and listening to trash metal.