WhirledAway
Overland adventures and off-the-beaten-path travel
New stories, straight to your inbox!
Hi, I'm Sarah.
I’m a long-time traveler and part-time wanderer, with a love of remote places and empty spaces. I’ve got a borderline obsession with borders and will go to great lengths and a lot of personal discomfort to travel overland as much as possible. By myself or with my husband Oyv (and sometimes my sister), I go for off-the-beaten-path destinations every time I get the chance.
For me the journey itself is not just a means to an end. It’s the actual traveling part of travel, that really counts. And that’s what this blog is all about: real, overland travel in unusual places.
Hi, I'm Sarah.
I’m a long-time traveler and part-time wanderer, with a love of remote places and empty spaces. For me the journey itself is not just a means to an end. It’s the actual traveling part of travel, that really counts. And that’s what this blog is all about: real, overland travel in unusual places.
Latest Stories
Travel in Turkmenistan: from a city of marble to the Gates of Hell
Everyone knows it’s not easy to get into Turkmenistan. Ok, a lot of people probably haven’t heard of Turkmenistan. But once you do, you mainly hear how hard it is to visit. Starting our pre-travel research, I read: ‘The country is known for its autocratic government and large gas reserves’. Sounds fascinating, right? Well, having got the visa, we can say that yes, it definitely is.
Angola to Namibia: around the fence with a child-fixer
Determined to salvage the day, it seemed Milton had hired a fixer. ‘This is Maputo. He knows another way’ he said, and pointed at the ten year old boy now standing next to him. We didn’t know what to say. What we did know was that we definitely had to see what this was all about. So we piled back into Milton’s sedan, this time with a child-fixer up front muttering in Portuguese.
Roadtripping in Mongolia: an off-road adventure
Maybe it’s just me, but the first word that comes to mind when I think of Mongolia is ‘hordes’. But for a place once famously home to all sorts of hordes, it’s pretty empty now. Actually, it’s the least densely populated country on earth. The Gobi desert, the endless steppe, the taiga – all that vast emptiness – waiting to be explored.
Latest Resources
Taking the ferry from Egypt (Safaga) to Saudi Arabia (Duba)
A couple of locals we talked to in Cairo and Alexandria hinted at there being ferries to Saudi Arabia from Hurghada or other places in Egypt, but no one knew much about it. Any sort of ticketing or travel agent we asked said no such thing existed and tried to sell us flights to Riyadh. That only strengthened our resolve and we were determined, Insh’Allah, to arrive in Saudi Arabia by ferry.
Self-driving the Pamir Highway: eight days on the ‘Roof of the World’
Self-driving the Pamir Highway is one of the world’s ultimate roadtrips. This guide is our eight day itinerary, and the information you need to plan your trip.
How to cross the Shir Khan border from Tajikistan to Afghanistan
Here’s what you need to know to travel by road from Tajikistan (Panji Poyon) to Afghanistan (Shir Khan Bandar).
Destinations
Countries visited
Countries visited and written about
Countries Visited