My cousin is a good guy. At his wedding he said that he knew his wife was the one for him because she made him feel ‘heart full and soul free’, and this is a stirring description of a feeling that I think we are all pursuing.  I believe it can be evoked by all manner of circumstances,  I haven’t found the one yet, but I sure have experienced the feeling.

Maybe the most vivid recollection of this ease of being in recent times, was our visit to a friends estate in the highlands of Scotland.  We went on a loch, we went in the trees, we went up a hill (munro).   We fell asleep to the sound of owls, and awoke to the sound of woodpeckers. We certainly did not worry much, and were immersed into our surroundings in a way that you forget is possible on our small island.

So I left Coulin ‘heart full and soul free’, aware that traffic jams, computer screens and hangovers would quench this feeling before long, but happy that these ups and downs create the contrast of emotion that keep life interesting. 

The more time I spend in Iceland, the more time I want to spend in Iceland.  This trip was a full mixed bag, the first week in Reykjavik working with JÖR by GUÐMUNDUR JÖRUNDSSON and the second back in the West fjords.   The eerie stillness of an almost arctic high pressure system was most calming after an inspiring week in the capital. 

The ochre, broken landscapes and dry, midday heat of Morocco were far from the frigid northern climes with which I have recently been more familiar, however my trusty down sleeping bag did not seem out of place in the pre-dawn frost of the desert chill.

Morocco is known to some for its leg burner right hand point breaks, its coastline ushering and refining atlantic rollers into bays under the sound of the call to prayer offer an iconic surfing experience.  Although,  regarding a place for an aspect of itself its own culture holds little esteem seems to be a little ignorant and self involved. 

I believe it far better to approach a place with an open mind, less expectations of what you hope to witness or procure.  For me, Morocco was far more vividly itself in the rapid, colour strewn markets where the odours of smoke and spices relay against your senses, than in any coast town hurriedly built to accommodate an influx of western surfers. 

In many countries a fourteen hour drive is considered quite normal, but on our small isle you couldn’t go much further.  Therefore it’s important to remember that Caithness is only up the road.  The charts looked promising so we loaded up with cameras, surfers and technical apparell and went in search of frosty waves.  

In iceland they have a saying ‘there is no such thing as bad weather, just a poorly dressed person,’ and Iceland is a land with much to offer the correctly dressed wanderer.  Ghosts of a thousand vikings, wild, rugged coasts and fjords brimming with long kept traditions.