The journey described began in May 2005 and ended in June 2007. During it, I recorded what was happening in four battered, weather-beaten and gaffer tape-reinforced notebooks I carried.

Part of that record became a diary concerning what I was up to and what was on my mind. About once a week, I would find an internet connection and email its latest instalment to anyone who’d registered an interest in what I was doing.

At the time I tried to make those diary entries as interesting and funny as possible, and never say a commonplace or familiar thing. It wasn’t until I returned that I understood how many people had been listening, so those original communications constituted an honest and spontaneous two-year stream of consciousness.

And they were raw. Interpret them as you will, I really did cycle across Europe wearing a peace flag bandana and singing Led Zeppelin songs. I really did hitchhike across Australia, work in a Sydney drag club and spend two months on top of a South American mountain arguing with my tent. But, once a week, I would get my head together enough to find a computer and write 500 words.

If you think some of it got pretty weird, wait until you see the stuff I didn’t send.

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