Travel Weekly Blog

It's a little flowery for modern tastes, I expect, but on the train this morning I came across this passage in Freya Stark's 1936 travelogue The Southern Gates of Arabia:

How few of us in Europe know silence in the night: even if we sleep alone in Alpine pastures we are comforted by the sound of running streams. But here, between one village and the next, there is nothing except the wind when it blows.

('Here' is just inland of Al Mukalla on the south coast of Yemen.)

It made me think of meeting a radio journalist on a recent trip to Norway. I was fascinated to watch him work with background noise - either recording it to edit in later, or making sure just the right amount (and the right kind) was audible during interviews.

Ambient sound is a huge part of the actual travel experience - wandering around with headphones on was one of my Seven Deadly Sins of Tourism - but, for obvious reasons, it's underworked at inspiration stage.

The exception is radio, where focus on sound is part of the medium's contract with its audience.

Resolution #2,691: With this in mind, I've resolved to check out some travel podcasts. If you know of some good ones, comment me; if not, stay tuned and I'll post some recommendations.