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Paul Bloomfield on Muck Rack

Paul Bloomfield

Verified
United Kingdom
As seen in: History's Greatest Cities (Podcast), MSN, MSN Ireland, MSN UK, The New York Times, Yahoo Life, BBC, BBC Travel, The Guardian, The Independent (UK), The Telegraph and
Covers:  Hiking, cycling, active and adventure travel, green travel, wildlife, conservation, history, heritage
Doesn't Cover: Hotel or restaurant openings, music festivals
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Paul Bloomfield’s Journalist Portfolio

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Is New Zealand's new walking route the best one-day hike in the world?

Is New Zealand's new walking route the best one-day hike in the world?

Wanderlust (magazine) — Somewhere above my head, R2D2 and the Clangers were having a right old ding-dong. At least, that's how it sounded, filtered through a mass of heavily bearded branches. First a shrill volley of robotic whistles flew through the canopy.
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Sailing the West Fjords, Iceland

Sailing the West Fjords, Iceland

Wanderlust (magazine) — I'd given up trying to sleep. A pale but insistent light had been soaking through the wide skylight above my bunk all that sub-Arctic midsummer night - and the three nights before - tickling my retinas through tightly clamped eyelids. I call it night - how is it night if there's no darkness?
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A walking tour through India's villages

A walking tour through India's villages

Wanderlust (magazine) — They say you're either a dog person or a cat person. Me, I'm a cat person. Dogs bark, and drool, and smell, and I'm a bit scared of them, truth be told. I like cats - ideally big ones with orange and black stripes or spots.
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Kenya: Embark on a safari in suburbia

Kenya: Embark on a safari in suburbia

The Independent — I nearly didn't spot that first ostrich at all. You'd think that a 9ft-high feather duster might stand out a bit on a drab-coloured, scrubby plain, but no; I scanned the foreground, the middle distance and, in desperation, the horizon - still that oversized bird eluded me.
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Trail Of The Unexpected: Mount Kenya

Trail Of The Unexpected: Mount Kenya

The Independent — God, they say, moves in mysterious ways. Even so, I wasn't expecting His wrath to be meted out by means of textile perforation. Plague, possibly, or even pestilence. But no. Ruefully holding my spanking new merino thermals aloft in the sub-zero hut, I surveyed the gaping holes.
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Explore Fès, Morocco: Morocco's spiritual capital

Explore Fès, Morocco: Morocco's spiritual capital

BBC History Magazine (UK) — It's a story that's all too familiar: Muslims, suffering the brutal aftermath of rebellion, flee around and across the Mediterranean to seek a new life. Such is the tale of Fès's early years, and here these refugees provided the bedrock of Islamic learning, architecture, commerce and community.
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Explore Cusco, Peru: Navel of the Incan world

Explore Cusco, Peru: Navel of the Incan world

BBC History Magazine (UK) — Stand in Cusco's central square and the city's contradictory nature quickly becomes clear. In the Plaza de Armas, graced by huge Spanish churches and colonial arcades, you'll encounter colourfully clad indigenous women leading baby alpacas around a bronze statue of the empire-building Inca Pachacutec (reigned 1438-c1471).
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Walking New Zealand's otherwordly Pouakai Crossing

Walking New Zealand's otherwordly Pouakai Crossing

Evening Standard — ou learn something new every day. Such as: New Zealand 's second-highest volcano, 2,518m Mount Taranaki on the North Island, is an active but quiescent andesitic stratovolcano.
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The enchanting corner of Europe few Britons ever reach

The enchanting corner of Europe few Britons ever reach

The Telegraph — The name Ohrid is usually greeted by blank looks - but a new air route, which launched last week, could change all that Before finding fame with owls and pussy-cats and pea-green boats, Edward Lear cut quite the dash in tourism marketing.
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The 20 best things to do in the Brecon Beacons

The 20 best things to do in the Brecon Beacons

The Telegraph — From medieval castles to Michelin stars, Paul Bloomfield reveals the best things to experience in the Welsh national park 1. Roam Wales' most romantic ruin 2. Discover hidden depths 3. Take the reins 4.
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20 last-minute bank holiday ideas that you can get to in under five hours

20 last-minute bank holiday ideas that you can get to in under five hours

The Telegraph — Friends, charge your glasses and raise a toast to St Lubbock. A century and a half ago, Sir John Lubbock authored the Bank Holidays Bill 1871 that gifted to the nation the three-day weekend, with the holidays nicknamed "St Lubbock's Days" in his honour.
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The overlooked beauties that deserve to be Britain's next national park

The overlooked beauties that deserve to be Britain's next national park

The Telegraph — There are plenty of places that merit an upgrade, and which should certainly be added to your travel wishlist Among the few sparks of joy to glimmer during this annus horribilis has been a nationwide rekindling of love for our great outdoors.
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Wildlife, sustainability, and cruise ship tourism in the Arctic

Wildlife, sustainability, and cruise ship tourism in the Arctic

BBC Wildlife Magazine — Almost exactly 175 years ago, in 1845, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror sailed west from Disko Bay, Greenland on a planned three-year expedition led by Captain Sir John Franklin, aiming to navigate the ice-choked waters between Baffin Bay and the Pacific coast.
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Cycling for cider in Herefordshire, the original Big Apple

Cycling for cider in Herefordshire, the original Big Apple

The Telegraph — Propping my bike against a handy fence, I loll in blessed shade beneath clusters of ripe red and green fruit. Striped hills swell and ebb to the horizon. From beyond a nearby cellar door seeps a lip-smack-sigh of a bottle opening, the effervescent whisper of fizz foaming in glass.
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Cornwall's most beautiful autumn walks

Cornwall's most beautiful autumn walks

The Telegraph — The Cornish coast path almost broke me. It was a hazy June morning nearly two decades ago when I first sauntered out of Bude and on to the shore-hugging trail.
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Why Visit Sao Tome and Principe in August

Why Visit Sao Tome and Principe in August

Wanderlust (magazine) — You see, bad is cool. Fearsome warriors enveloped in hellfire yellow and Hades red stomp and swagger to pounding drums and ear-piercing whistles. They sport Stygian shades and swarthy beards, and shake lances and rattle sabres with chin-jutting brio. There's Feiticeiro, the Sorcerer.
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Why winter is the perfect time to see Turkey's greatest natural wonder

Why winter is the perfect time to see Turkey's greatest natural wonder

The Telegraph — Winter brings emptier hot air balloon baskets, as well as hotels and attractions - but that's not the only advantage How many balloons is too many balloons? Naturally, the answer may depend largely on circumstances. Organising a children's party? The more, very much the merrier.
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'It's Iceland meets New Zealand' - exploring Europe's most epic archipelago

'It's Iceland meets New Zealand' - exploring Europe's most epic archipelago

The Telegraph — The Faroe Islands are becoming particularly popular with intrepid cyclists I can't help thinking that the Vikings missed a trick with their tourism marketing. Don't get me wrong, the intrepid Norse folk who settled on the Faroe Islands mostly did a fine job, imbuing this North Atlantic archipelago with mythology to inspire the most legend-hungry visitor.
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In Norway, a journey through the land of the midnight sun

In Norway, a journey through the land of the midnight sun

The Times — I was alone on the summit of Ornfloya, and all was silent save for the swoosh of waves below. To my left stretched a snaggle-toothed ridge of peaks. Colourful clapboard houses ringed the coves of nearby isles, rust-red and amber shingles, here and there a grass roof.
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A fascinating journey through the strange European country that doesn't exist

A fascinating journey through the strange European country that doesn't exist

The Telegraph — Amid the silence of Noul Neamt Monastery, a whisper ruffled the silence; a murmur, a hum. Then - bearded chin a-jut, eyes clamped shut - the black-robed monk let his song soar. "Smat hadou, smat hadou, smat hadou... Ja zadaju vam smat hadou," he crooned: "Many years, many years, many years - I wish you many years."
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Wild wonders on South Africa's little-known (and affordable) Elephant Coast

Wild wonders on South Africa's little-known (and affordable) Elephant Coast

The Telegraph — Strange things happen after dark in St Lucia. Each night, after the swollen crimson sun melts into the lake, a special kind of horticultural magic begins. And each morning, the townsfolk of this tidy South African settlement wake to neatly trimmed parks and front lawns.
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The high road: How you can explore Peru off the beaten (Inca) trail

The high road: How you can explore Peru off the beaten (Inca) trail

Wanderlust (magazine) — Ancasmarca is not your average service station. Downy cacti pimple a rocky ridge. A lonely caracara falcon soars high overhead, hungry eyes keenly scanning the scrub for prey. Hundreds of round chambers barnacle the slopes like the cells of a monstrous beehive.
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How to explore this unsung, Jurassic Park-like region of New Zealand

How to explore this unsung, Jurassic Park-like region of New Zealand

The Telegraph — A stag roared in the hills across the Whanganui river. All else was silence. Mist quilted the treetops, muffling the ceaseless murmur of the water below. In the ceremonial centre of the Maori marae I stood statuesque under the commanding gaze of its wooden-faced pou guardian.
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The Arctic for beginners: how to get yourself into pole position

The Arctic for beginners: how to get yourself into pole position

The Telegraph — Preparing a sled for the journey The epicness kicked in even before our plane landed at Longyearbyen. The Svalbard archipelago, of which Spitsbergen is the largest island, lies 500 miles north of the Norwegian mainland, halfway to the north pole; it's a three-hour flight from Oslo to Spitsbergen - and one on which you really need to snag a window seat.
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