Post-Covid, my lust for travel seemed to have deserted me and going back to the US was the last thing I wanted to do. After two years away I felt deeply estranged from my work in America.
But I'd made a commitment to five books and so, in March 2022, I returned. I'd chosen a trip to the rural midwest - Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming - to get myself back on track. It proved challenging, but also deeply rewarding.
One major change to the American political landscape was the election of the 46th president, Joe Biden, in 2021. No longer was I hooked on a regular dose of CNN each evening; seismic international news aside, but US Homeland politics seemed a little less eventful that it had under the governance of former President Trump. Yet beneath this flimsy facade, the country remained as divided as ever.
In October I went to Alaska, which promised much and didn't disappoint. For the first few days I was accompanied by a film crew, but after they left I headed away from the vicinity of Anchorage and struck out into the wilderness. In Valdez (infamous because of the 1989 oil spill) I found the city I'd been searching for, and spent several days exploring its extraordinary landscape. I left just before the first heavy snowfall of winter.
The pictures are shown in (almost) chronological order.
