Inspiring Travel Writing from Richard Newton
Richard Newton was born in Sunderland, UK, in 1967, and grew up in Africa (Lesotho, Kenya and Botswana). He began his working life as an education officer at Marwell Zoological Park, followed by a spell as a wildlife officer with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife in Malawi, before becoming a freelance writer and broadcaster in 1989.
He is a six-time winner in the BBC Wildlife Awards for Nature Writing, and won the Daily Telegraph/Cathay Pacific Young Travel Writer of the Year Award in 1992. Over the past decade he has travelled to more than 60 countries on assignment for national newspapers and BBC Radio, specialising in wildlife tourism. Between travels he lives in Hampshire, though his heart remains in Africa.
He is a six-time winner in the BBC Wildlife Awards for Nature Writing, and won the Daily Telegraph/Cathay Pacific Young Travel Writer of the Year Award in 1992. Over the past decade he has travelled to more than 60 countries on assignment for national newspapers and BBC Radio, specialising in wildlife tourism. Between travels he lives in Hampshire, though his heart remains in Africa.
Articles by Richard Newton
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Solo Safari
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Richard Newton
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Namibia
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Etosha National Park Region
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Etosha National Park
Consider the red hartebeest. Few people do. In Etosha National Park, this unassuming, sloping-backed antelope usually plays a supporting role, only taking centre stage when it is being gnawed on by lions. It wasn't until I had one pinned against the...
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Tasmanian Wildlife
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Richard Newton
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Australia
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Tasmania
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Tasmania City
"My uncle...now there's a story," says Bernard Atkins, tramping across a sloping field in twilight. "He picked up a platypus and whammo: dose of venom in the hand. He was crook for months. Nearly died twice." With that, we reach the edge of a mirror...
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Call of the Gooneys
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Richard Newton
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Hawaii
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Hawaii
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Hawaii
On an atoll in the Pacific, a five-hour flight from civilisation, I was conversing with the doctor to whom I would entrust my life should misfortune strike. He was stocky and middle-aged, wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt and a ponytail. His...
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Before You Die: Dogon Country
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Richard Newton
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Mali
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Niger River
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Bandiagara Escarpment
Even if you don't believe the theory put forward in a best selling book that the Dogon are linked to aliens from Sirius, the people living in the villages at the foot of the arid Bandiagara Escarpment are unique. Their architecture, their dances,...
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Before You Die: Attend a Tschechu
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Richard Newton
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Bhutan
Time travel is possible. The focus of life in a Bhutanese town is the dzong, a cross between a temple and a fortress. Every dzong holds its own tschechu once a year, a festival dedicated to Guru Rinpoche. It's an incredible spectacle: dance, music,...
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Madagascar: Lost Palace of the Tana
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Richard Newton
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Madagascar
Antananarivo (call it Tana if you prefer) is used to restless nights. Freshly arrived, I struggled to sleep in a hotel room overlooking Avenue de l’Indépendence. Time and again I was roused by muggings on the pavement outside. Come dawn...
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Curaçao: Nether-Netherlands
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Richard Newton
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Netherlands Antilles
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Curacao
The ‘swinging old lady’ lets the Venezuelans in each morning. They arrive in wooden boats from the South American mainland, 35 miles away, and cast Curaçao a daily lifeline. Later in the day, the Queen Emma Bridge will swing open...
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Yukon and Alaska: The Yukon Quest
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Richard Newton
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Canada
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Yukon Territory
Whitehorse is quiet. Traffic lights wink at near-deserted streets. Snowy sidewalks show only yesterday’s footprints, made indistinct by the icy stirrings of the wind. I trudge for three blocks before a passer-by passes me by. Wild beard. Dew-...
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Alaska: Los Anchorage
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Richard Newton
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United States
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Alaska
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Anchorage
A statue of Captain James Cook stands at the end of Third Avenue in Anchorage. Facing the railroad and the frigid waters of the Knik Arm, its back is coldly turned on the downtown skyscrapers. That this monument to one of the most prominent...
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Chatham Islands - The End of the World
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Richard Newton
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New Zealand
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Other
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Chatham Islands
After three days on the Chatham Islands, a South Pacific cluster nudging the International Date Line, I did something that I will regret for the rest of my days: I cooked an endangered species and ate it for supper. I had flown here from Wellington...