Recent Articles

Into the Yukon's Kluane National Park (in: Journalism)
Feb 2, 2009

www.GreatOutdoors.com, February 2009. The three of us stood stripped to our underwear and contemplated the rushing glacial stream. The water came to hip height—if we wanted to stay dry we’d have to undress still further—but wordlessly we agreed to cling to this one last vestige of propriety. And then, backpack waist straps unclipped in case of calamity and using each other’s bodies for support, we inched our way through the numbing torrents...

Mad Dogs and an Englishwoman (in: Journalism)
Feb 2, 2009

GreatOutdoors.com, February 2009. I’ve never been good with the cold, so it was with some nervousness that I set off for three months in Canada’s Yukon Territory, where winter temperatures drop to forty below and the sun rises for just a few hours each day. My mission was to learn to drive sled dogs...

Northern Exposure (in: Journalism)
Jan 6, 2009

Traveller, winter 2008/09. It wasn't my idea to go to the Arctic. I've never been good with the cold....

January 2009 (in: Books of the Month)
Jan 6, 2009

I asked for three books for Christmas. The first two, Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, I read over the Christmas break in front of the blazing fire in my parents’ house. The third, A Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife by Richard Sale, is more suited to years of browsing than a read through, though I have already found out the difference between a mountain hare and an Arctic hare...

Having fun in Langtang (in: Competition)
Jan 6, 2009

Like a good bottle of wine the Nepalese hills are a lot of fun and usually half-empty. Hit the foothills at the right time and the paths and the views are all yours. We were on the Langtang circuit running up to the Ganja-La and then back down to pizzas and a comfy bed...

January 2009 (in: Newsletter Archive)
Jan 5, 2009

Well, Happy New Year. The first couple of working days in January are always a bit of a horror especially when outside temperatures are subzero and when the alarm clock goes off you find you set the central heating timer wrongly and the flat is freezing cold. Some people rather nobly give up alcohol in January, which I find truly remarkable. I think such a New Year's resolution would stop me getting out of bed at all. (Feasibly, of course, one could stay in bed and drink there, but I haven't sunk that low yet. Still, there's always next year.)

Plains, reins and snowmobiles (in: Journalism)
Jan 1, 2009

BBC Wildlife, December 2008. Being sent to Siberia was once the ultimate punishment but now the region offers some exhilarating wildlife encounters. Polly Evans braved snowstorms and biting cold to join Chukotka's traditional reindeer races.

I Must Be Barking Mad!
Jan 1, 2009

My Weekly, 13 December 2008. Travel writer Polly Evans fell in love with the beautiful landscape and spartan life of the remote Yukon territory – and with the huskies who provide a lifeline for the people who live there.

November 2008 (in: Newsletter Archive)
Dec 31, 2008

Having sat down to write the November installment of this newsletter, I thought, hmm, so what exactly have I done in the last month? What can I report? Where have I been? I turned to my diary to help me and discovered that the furthest I have travelled from my front door was 7.45 miles...

Herd reindeer in Chukotka, Siberia (in: Journalism)
Nov 26, 2008

Wanderlust, December 2008. History has been hard on Chukotka. The most north-easterly region of Siberia, it's considered so desperately remote and backward that when Russians tell 'idiot' jokes, it's the Chukchi who take the flak...