In conversation with...
DAVID MOORE
David Moore has been on a ten-month round-the-world trip with Audley, from Peru to Japan, and now he’s writing about his epic adventure in his first book… What kickstarted the idea for your adventure? Neither my wife Helene nor I had backpacked when we were younger, but two years ago we decided that, while we’ve still got our health, we should do it. Helene bought the biggest map she could find, and each of us marked it up with pink and blue pins of where we’d like to go. After four weeks, we’d worked out a route, but when we thought about how to make it work, we quickly realised that the task was incredibly daunting. That’s when we found Audley. You visited so many destinations on your trip – where stood out? The obvious one is Easter Island. Everybody knows what the Moai statues look like, but to actually spend three or four days with a local was extraordinary. Tito, our guide, was absolutely
brilliant and told us how his family and ancestors had been there for hundreds of years. He talked us through the story of the Moai and why there are 900 of them dotted around the island, why they were made and how they were moved. It was those sorts of stories that were underneath the surface of what we knew about Easter Island. You spent a lot of time in South America. What else caught your eye there? We loved Peru and, again, our guide was fantastic. Over the course of four days, the guide told us the story of the Inca and the emperor Pachacutec, and the story of Machu Picchu. Nothing prepares you for that first sight of the citadel, when you walk up and the plateau opens in front of you. It was quite an emotional moment, actually. It was incredibly calm and serene, and
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