Travel · Adventure · Side Quests
Stories from the road. Unfiltered, unrehearsed, and usually better than planned.
I'm Brandon, 21, based in the UK, and slowly building a life that doesn't stay in one place. Solo trips, unexpected conversations, random side quests, and documenting all of it honestly.
"The plan is rarely the thing that makes it worth telling."
Who I am
I'm not trying to sell you a lifestyle. I'm just a 21-year-old from the UK who started taking solo trips and found that the most unexpected moments were always the most worth writing about.
It started in September 2025, volunteering in Nairobi, Kenya through Taka Taka Zero, a social enterprise I'd worked on for nearly two years during university. Being on the ground in Mathare changed the way I think about purpose entirely. A month later I took my first ever solo trip to Marrakech, watched the sun rise from a hot air balloon over the Agafay Desert, and wondered why it took me so long to start. Then Madeira in November, three nights, a hike up to Pico Ruivo with a tour guide and eleven Germans I'd never met, and a 4x4 tour round the island with a completely different group of strangers.
That's three trips in three months and a pretty clear pattern forming. This site is where the longer stories live, told properly rather than cropped to a square.
I post the visual version on Instagram @branrosss. This is where the writing goes.
Highlights
Every trip has one: a specific, purposeful goal that makes the whole thing worth doing and worth writing about.
Taka Taka Zero
Mathare, Nairobi - September 2025
After 20 months working on a social enterprise project at university, I finally got to Nairobi. On the ground in Mathare informal settlement, building something real alongside the team who run it every day. The kind of trip that changes what you use to measure everything else.
Sunrise from a Hot Air Balloon
Agafay Desert, Marrakech - October 2025
My first solo trip. Watched the sun come up over the Agafay Desert from a hot air balloon, then hit the desert again on a quad bike and camel. Three activities, no plans beyond that, and exactly the right amount of structure for a first trip alone.
Pico Ruivo with 11 Germans
Madeira - November 2025
Booked a guided hike to the top of Pico Ruivo, turned up, and spent the first 40 minutes assuming none of the other hikers spoke English. They all did. Three nights, a 4x4 tour round the island with strangers the next day, and a good reminder that showing up alone doesn't mean you stay that way.
Stories
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Get notified"Showing up is the hard part. Everything after that is just the story."
Brandon Ross · brandonross.co.uk