Travel, done consciously.
It starts with a question.
Sometimes about a place. Sometimes about people. Sometimes about how travel really works.
I tell slow stories from wild routes and extraordinary settings, in words and photographs, following conservation projects and the systems behind the experiences we enjoy.
Curiosity, clarity, and transparency guide everything I publish.
Engage
Stories that look beneath the surface. These explore how travel happens, who it benefits, and what sits behind the experience.
Stories rooted in human connection. Food, tradition, creativity, and the moments that bring people together.
Encounter
Explore
Stories shaped by landscape, movement, and being somewhere—from remote safaris and wild journeys to stays where the environment sets the pace.
“It’s about people, planet, and purpose. That’s what gives resilience.”
— Jérôme Pernot, Managing Director, Léoube
FEATURED ARTICLE | PUBLISHED IN COUNTRY & TOWNHOUSE, JAN/FEB 2026
The mountain woke before we did.
At 3.30am, the air was thin and edged with a kind of brightness that caught in the lungs. Horses stood motionless, their breath rising in pale clouds against the dark silhouette of Sutai Khairkhan. We waited just below the ridge line, binoculars pressed to numb fingers, the silence so complete it felt like the mountain itself was holding its breath.
Then, a quiet tremor beside me - Temka, our snow leopard expert, lowering his binoculars, hands shaking. “I am in shock,” he whispered.
Through the glass: a snow leopard taking down an ibex—a flash of muscle and stone, life and death intertwined. It lasted seconds. But in that instant—brief as it was—the mountain seemed to reveal everything: its beauty, its brutality, its balance.
We hadn’t come here to find one—a sighting like this is almost mythical—rather to understand how life around them endures, and what it reveals about us.
Guardians of the High Peaks: Coexisting with Snow Leopards in Mongolia’s Untamed West
Despite the hardships, there is deep pride. When asked about the leopards, most herders smiled softly. Even those who had lost livestock refused to speak of revenge. To kill one, they said, would offend the mountain.
Wolves, however, are viewed differently. They hunt in packs and often kill multiple livestock in one night - driven by instinct and competition rather than need. The snow leopard, by contrast, hunts alone, taking only what it requires. One herder explained that the wolf kills for chaos, while the leopard kills for necessity—a hunter of precision, not excess.
That philosophy - one of acceptance rather than dominance—threads through every aspect of life here. Yet it exists under strain. The grasslands are thinning. Winters are longer, harsher. And global demand for one of Mongolia’s most prized exports—cashmere—is pulling the land taut.
But beyond the cameras and data, the story was never just about the leopard. It was about the people who protect and live alongside it—and the pressures quietly reshaping their world.
At the base of the mountain, families live much as their ancestors did. In the warmth of a single ger wrapped tight against the wind, milk tea bubbling over a stove; the air thick with woodsmoke and laughter. Toothbrushes are tucked neatly into the roof beams—practical, unassuming, a small endearing detail of a wild life shaped by necessity and grace.
Nomadism here isn’t nostalgia—it’s survival. Families migrate seasonally with their livestock, moving with the weather and the grass rather than against them. In the West, we build walls to resist the elements; here, they move with them—a living partnership between land, people, and wildlife. Few ways of life remain so closely attuned to the planet’s pulse.
Full article available online and in print.
PARTNERED WITH
Bonamy Private Travel
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Ahnasa Luxury Travel
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Bad Pony Club
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Country & Town House
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Luxuria Lifestyle International
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Luxury Safari Magazine
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Bonamy Private Travel • Ahnasa Luxury Travel • Bad Pony Club • Country & Town House • Luxuria Lifestyle International • Luxury Safari Magazine •
Emma Blunt
Hello, I’m Emma!
As a global travel and sustainability journalist, I’ve always been interested in what happens when people, landscapes, and ideas meet—especially in places where the story is more complicated than the brochure.
My work blends long-form reporting and photography, moving through remote environments, carefully run properties, conservation programmes, and communities navigating change. I’m as curious about how a place works as what it looks like.
Alongside my journalism, I work in global climate and equity, which gives me a technical grounding in how these questions play out in practice—and shapes the way I approach stories on the ground, whether I’m walking vineyards, crossing desert landscapes, or sitting down to listen.
I don’t believe in perfect destinations. I believe in honest ones—in progress, transparency, and showing the work behind the scenes rather than smoothing it away.
I gravitate towards the long way round: staying longer, asking better questions, noticing the small details that reveal bigger truths.
That curiosity shapes everything I publish—in print, online, and through the images I capture along the way.
