I get up for sunrise and a breakfast of biscuits and Sprite overlooking the gorge, which is all unspoilt beauty and general loveliness. It drizzles monotonously for most of the day today, and is noticeably tougher going - I'm cimbing steadily all morning, the cloudy peaks getting truly within striking distance. It's also bloody cold - as soon as I stop, i'm shivering, even with a platter of hot Xinjiang noodles inside me. The laoban'r and his sons go through t...

Conditions start to get seriously rough today, and I start to feel the cold and the altitude - at times I feel I can't get enough air into my lungs - but none of it can detract from the beauty of the scenery, which is becoming markedly more Tibetan the further I venture into the mountains. I pass women in elabourate headdresses, prayer beads swinging from their belts, and a monk chanting the Namo Amituofo through a village of tamped-earth houses in the Tibetan...

I set out at first light. In the course of the journey, this becomes one of my favourite things: heading on a solo trek into the misty mountains, even the phrase itself takes on a vaguely Tolkein-esque feel. I've become used to working disorienting days that begin in the early afternoon and end late in the evening. Suddenly, wanting to take in as much of the scenery as possible and definitely not wanting to risk the mountain roads with their hair-raising truc...

The first thing to hit me in Chengdu was the noise. I use 'hit' almost literally - in my first weeks the overwhelming cacophony of this monolithic megacity struck me like a wall, leaving me exhausted and disoriented. I'm intrigued to see, now that said cacophony has faded and merged into the background of my aural landscape, how I will react to the comparative calm of London. I have a creeping feeling that I'll miss it: there are certain sounds that are so ill...

I've just booked a plane ticket. On 15th October, after an expedition by bike and horse through the Tibetan plateau, and a slow meander through the lush landscapes of Yunnan province to Hong Kong, I'll be flying home for the first time in over a year. It's the longest I've ever been away from home, and though it's not really that long and I'm pleased beyond measure that I came, it has undoubtedly been one of the most challenging years of my life to date. In ...