Footsteps Of A Tree are the travel notes of Marc Ballard who at the age of 33 realised that despite loving travel and experiencing new cultures, he had spent less than 2 weeks of his whole life outside of Europe. It was time to do something about it.

Running his own business in his home city of Nottingham, Marc made the brave / stupid / shortsighted (delete as appropriate) decision to sell up his stake in a commercial property business he had grafted for 3 years to make profitable and instead travel South America.

Why South America? In 1997 Manic Street Preachers released a song which contained the lyrics “I’d go to Patagonia, but it’s harder there”. After playing the album on repeat during (supposedly) revising for his A level exams he became transfixed by that line. Where was Patagonia? Why was it harder there? Over 16 years later it was finally time to find out!

These notes are the footsteps of someone who had his roots firmly dug but decided to try something different, see something of the world and try and learn a new language before he was grey enough to be called a grey nomad. Adventures, feelings and experiences, good and bad are all here as a memories of the times.

About Me – I have the privilege of a family that I love and adore together with great friends who might as well be brothers and sisters. Being away from them is be extremely tough. I was born – indeed spent my whole life – in Nottingham, which has always, and will always be ‘home’.

If I had to create a perfect day it would start with an early morning run, followed by my dads English fry up. The rest of the morning doing something I’m good at, an afternoon doing something new and different – with a great British pub lunch and a real ale thrown in between. I’d have a hike around Snowdonia and then take in a tea time football match at my beloved Nottingham Forest. An evening of live music and watching the sun set on Glastonbury festival and then a finale of seeing it come again up over an Ibizan Club Terrace.

My companion in that day would be Gemma, or “coggles” as I call her. Who apart from loving a lay in too much for the early morning run and having a ‘mild’ dislike for football (it’s good to have some separate hobbies!) would be with me for the rest of the day. I love her to bits and wouldn’t have been brave enough to be doing this without her. You can follow Gemma’s blog by clicking the link at the top of the page.