Our Story

Samgai Journeys was created by travel writer, guidebook author and photographer Stuart Butler. He has been travelling almost incessantly since the age of 18 (which was so long ago that he pretty much remembers the wheel being invented…) and although his travels have taken him across the world, his real passion is East Africa, the Himalaya and South Asia. Stuart is the author of over a hundred travel guidebooks for Lonely Planet, Rough Guides and Bradt as well as hiking guidebooks for Cicerone and Knife Edge. He has written countless travel, environmental and cultural features for some of the worlds most prestigious media outlets including the BBC, Geographical, CondeNast Traveller, New York Times and MongaBay. His photography has been widely published and exhibited. He is based on the gorgeous beaches of southwest France, close to the foot of the Pyrenees (which he considers the most beautiful of all mountain ranges), with his wife and two children. His most memorable travel experiences were paddling a leaky dugout canoe down the Sangha River between the Central African Republic and the Congo (which took longer than the few hours he thought it would take. Quite a lot longer..), hiking for five weeks across wildlife-filled savannahs of southern Kenya, finding himself on an eye opening weekend city break in Baghdad and being swept along in the chaos of the giant Kumbh Mela festival in India.